Ars grammatica

An "Ars grammatica" is a generic or proper title for surveys of Latin Grammar.

Extant works known as "Ars grammatica" have been written by
*Aelius Donatus
*Maurus Servius Honoratus
*Diomedes Grammaticus
*Charisius
*Pseudo-Remmius Palaemon

The most famous "Ars Grammatica" since Late Antiquity into the modern day has been that composed by Donatus.

Donatus's "Ars Grammatica"

Two "Ars Grammatica" circulate under the name Donatus. The first, the "Ars Minor", is a brief overview of the eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, participle, conjunction, preposition, and interjection. ( Nomen, pronomen, verbum, adverbium, participium, coniunctio, praepositio, interiectio). The text is done entirely in a question and answer format. "How many numbers does a noun have?" "Two: singular and plural."

Donatus's "Ars Major" is only a little longer, but on a much more elevated plane. It is a list of stylistic faults and graces, including tropes such as metaphor, synecdoche, allegory, and sarcasm. Donatus also includes schemes such as zeugma and anaphora.

Diomedes's "Ars Grammatica"

The "Ars grammatica" or "De Oratione et Partibus Orationis et Vario Genere Metrorum libri III" by Diomedes is a Latin grammatical trea­tise. Diomedes wrote probably in the late 300s CE. The treatise is dedicated to a certain Athanasius.

*Book I the eight parts of speech;
*Book II the elementary ideas of grammar and of style;
*Book III poetry, quantity, and meters.

The third book on poetry is particularly valuable, containing extracts from Suetonius's "De poetica". This book contains one of the most complete lists of types of dactylic hexameters in antiquity, including the "teres versus", which may (or may not) be the so-called "golden line."

The "Ars" of Diomedes still exists in a complete form (although probably abridged). It was first published in a collection of Latin Grammarians printed at Venice by Nic. Jenson, about 1476. The best edition of Diomedes's "Ars Grammatica" is in H. Keil's "Grammatici Latini", vol I.

External links

* [http://kaali.linguist.jussieu.fr/CGL/text.jsp?list=yes On-line Latin texts of major Latin grammarians at the "Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum"]
* [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:7EA3gCy4mLYJ:www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/1032.html+%27%27De+Oratione+et+Partibus+Orationis+et+Vario+Genere+Metrorum&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us scanned page] of William Smith (lexicographer)
* [http://www.intratext.com/Catalogo/Autori/AUT138.HTM Latin texts of all of Aelius Donatus] , including the "Ars Minor" and all the parts of the "Ars Major"