University of Virginia catalogue

The Collegiate Course, containing the work required for the degree of
Bachelor of Arts, begins with lectures, recitals, and readings on the part
of the class, calculated to teach practically the pronunciation of the idiom.
This is followed by a series of lectures, abundantly illustrated on the blackboard,
and by frequent exercises on the subjects explained, which are expected
to familiarize the student gradually with the elements of Grammar
and Syntax. As soon as this is accomplished, he is set to work translating
first an easy Reader, and soon a simple, native writer. He is expected, at
the same time, to read privately a number of prescribed authors, and thus to
make himself familiar with the language, to increase, easily and steadily, his
stock of words, and to enable him, after some practice, to take up any not
exceptionally difficult writer, and to translate his works without assistance.

The University Course for the Master of Arts degree begins at
once with advanced work in the language chosen with a view to securing the
degree of M. A. In the University Course sufficient preliminary knowledge
of the language (Spanish or Italian) is expected to enable the student at
once to begin translating into idiomatic English any one of the classic writers
in those languages. This is continued till the off-hand translation meets no
longer with practical or purely etymological difficulties. Such readings, like
Dante's Inferno or Petrarch's Sonnets, or the Romances of the Cid and Calderon's
Autos, are accompanied by exercises, specially and carefully prepared
to teach the idioms of either language, and to facilitate the oral use as
much as natural gifts may justify the Professor in expecting from the student.
The treatment of either language now becomes purely historical, calculated
to enable the student to read in its changes the mental and moral
development of the race from its infancy to its highest success in speech and
in literature. This part of the course naturally includes a series of lectures
on the fundamental laws of the science of Comparative Philology, and these
are accompanied by others on the lives and the works of the leading authors,
which are carefully examined and criticised.

The Post-Graduate Course in Spanish and Italian is mainly a continuation
of the studies pursued in the Master of Arts course, and is designed
specifically to meet the needs of candidates for the Ph. D. degree. A
general knowledge of the subject being vouched for, certain subjects of interest

are selected, which are to be thoroughly investigated, sustained by an
abundance of examples taken from classic writers in the language chosen,
and either proven or disproven, as the candidate for the degree may select.
As a tangible evidence of the work actually done by the student, he is expected
to hand in a Monthly Essay, giving the results of his studies, and
proving independent and original research. His special attention may thus
be directed to the mutual influence which literature—powerful and effective
writings—may exercise on the fate of a people, and which the history of the
nation, on the other hand, exerts over its great authors and their works. In
this course the study of the great masters in the Science of Language, Diez,
Grimm, Max Müller, Sayce, Hovelacque, Thierry, and others, becomes imperative,
and the great principles of this young and fascinating Science furnish
the most desirable objects of study. Language now becomes to the student
a living being, having a history of its own, and suggesting entirely new
and interesting questions, such as how far language may or may not be subject
to the laws of evolution. It will be the aim of this Post-Graduate Course
to arouse in the student a lively and productive interest in Language as a
living organism rather than a mere mechanism, and at the same time to equip
him with all the arms he will need when he enters the great arena of the
world as a valiant champion of one or the other great doctrine that still
awaits decision.

In the Class of Anglo-Saxon the study of the language is mainly
pursued in its aspect as the mother of English, furnishing the student the
means of tracing the history of his native tongue from its earliest beginning.
Much attention is given to the illustration of the history of words, their birth,
their fate under the rule of the Norman, and their subsequent modification.
Extracts from Anglo-Saxon writers are read, and the bearing of their works
on the history of our race is explained.

The following text-books are used:

Spanish.—The Professor's Grammar; Seoane's Dictionary; Velasquez's Reader; Calderon's
El Principe Constante; Lope's Estrella de Sevilla; Cervantes' Don Quijote;
Galdos' Trafalgar; Caballero's La Familia de Alvareda; Cervantes' Novelas Ejemplares;
Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature.

Italian.—Cuore's or Grandgent's Grammar; Foresti's Reader; Manzoni's I Promessi
Sposi; Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata; Pellico's Le Mie Prigioni; Petrarca; Dante's
La Divina Commedia; del Testa's L'Oro et L'Orpello.

Anglo-Saxon.—Shute's Manual of Anglo-Saxon, or Sweet's Primer; The Professor's
Studies in English; March's Anglo-Saxon Grammar (for reference); the Anglo-Saxon
Gospels; Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.

University of Virginia Library

Spanish, Italian, and Anglo-Saxon.

Professor Schele De Vere.