Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin

Rating:
Summary: GREAT RESOURCE! One of my Favorites!
Review: After spending dollar after dollar, trying to find easy-to-use and comprehensible Resources for learning Latin (Especially Ecclesiastical Latin), I was fortunate enough to come across this little Treasure!

"Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin", by John F. Collins is rich with information as well as vocabulary, Biblical Text and a sample of Writings from Doctors of the Church: St. Ambrose, St. Thomas Aquinas and others.

I take it to Holy Mass with me every time I go; it has the text of the Liturgy in an easy to follow format.

The reader will find this book extremely useful and beneficial. I love it and highly recommend it to all; whether you're a beginner or an old pro! :)

Rating:
Summary: I am writing a review
Review: After spending some months with this book I feel free to say that it is a great start to learning Ecclesiastical Latin. The book has plenty of passages to read with a whole cabbage load of vocabulary. The 35 lessons included in the book slowly introduce the reader to Latin and eventually one feels comfortable reading on their own. THe book won't exactly prepare you to read Aquinas, but at the New Testament won't give you a hassle. Pax et caritas Domini sit semper vobiscum!

Rating:
Summary: A Standard Text for Ecclesiastical Latin
Review: Collins has prepared a wonderful text for students of Church history, medieval theology, the Vulgate Bible, liturgical texts, etc. all of which require an understanding of Ecclesiastical Latin.

This text is formatted in such a way that the reader learns the language is a systematic fashion. In other words, each unit builds on the previous unit. The thorough student will master each unit before moving on to the next.

Moreover, everything anyone could ever want to know about the language is present in this text. For instance, kinds of sentences, nouns, verbs, adjectives and all their declensions, pronunciations, irregular and deponent verbs, etc., all are clearly and carefully covered in this text. As the student of this text reads and learns, Collins periodically places drills and sections called "notes" to quiz the reader on what was just covered. The text demonstrates an emphasis on vocabulary as well, has an English-Latin and Latin-English vocabulary section as well as a nice index on words and subjects.

This is probably the best overall text on Ecclesiastical Latin available, I highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: I am currently teaching my daughter Latin from this book. It is well-organized, easy-to-follow and for those acquainted with church liturgy, makes this book a good introduction to Latin. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful for self-study
Review: I bought this book for the purpose of teaching myself Latin. I have no teacher, nor anyone around me who knows Latin (or even has much interest). This book has been wonderful for providing me with the information, grammer, syntax and vocabulary I needed in a clear enough format that the need to find someone to ask questions of was very minimal. Usages are well explained, the exercises are well gauged for difficulty, and in general the book is very helpful and usable and I would recommend it highly. My only gripe, and the reason for the loss of one star is that there is no answer key, nor any separate teacher's manual where I could check my work on the exercises. This is only intermittently a problem, but occassionally causes difficulties.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific for self-study or classroom use.
Review: I first learned Latin with this book in a graduate classroom, I have reviewed various points on my own numerous times with the help of this wonderfully organized work, and over the last few years I have even successfully taught Latin to adults and children using Collins' work. There is, I feel, no better text for ecclesiastical Latin on the market, and it deserves to be ranked on par with such academic standards as Wheelock or Henle (both of which stress classical, not ecclesiastical, Latin).

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Collegiate Ecclesiastical Latin Text
Review: I was first introduced to Collins' text when I was taking an Ecclesiastical Latin class at the Seminary that is part of my College's complex. I had 3 years of Latin in high school so most of what we did was a review. However, I noticed how quickly the text proceeds through the topics we covered in High School. It was quite different from the text series we used in high school, Ecce Romani, which gives many exercises and chances to strengthen vocabulary in each chapter. Collins' text teaches Latin concepts very briefly and then presents the reader with some exercises. In the end, I have found that this approach can be in many ways just as good as the approach that was used in my high school Latin course. I feel that for advanced, devoted study, this primer is, by far, an excellent choice for learning Latin. My only suggestion is not to use it if you can not devote a lot of time to just memorizing inflections and vocabulary. (If you feel that you would better benefit from having a book with more focus given to using the language to learn it, I suggest the Ecce Romani series.)

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Collegiate Ecclesiastical Latin Text
Review: I was first introduced to Collins' text when I was taking an Ecclesiastical Latin class at the Seminary that is part of my College's complex. I had 3 years of Latin in high school so most of what we did was a review. However, I noticed how quickly the text proceeds through the topics we covered in High School. It was quite different from the text series we used in high school, Ecce Romani, which gives many exercises and chances to strengthen vocabulary in each chapter. Collins' text teaches Latin concepts very briefly and then presents the reader with some exercises. In the end, I have found that this approach can be in many ways just as good as the approach that was used in my high school Latin course. I feel that for advanced, devoted study, this primer is, by far, an excellent choice for learning Latin. My only suggestion is not to use it if you can not devote a lot of time to just memorizing inflections and vocabulary. (If you feel that you would better benefit from having a book with more focus given to using the language to learn it, I suggest the Ecce Romani series.)

Rating:
Summary: not for self-teaching
Review: If, like me, you want to teach yourself Latin so that you can read the Vulgate and the Breviary, then you have only two choices of introductory texts here at Amazon: Scanlon & Scanlon's "Latin Grammar" and John F. Collins "A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin". Both texts are intended for classroom use.

Collins slowly introduces you to Latin grammar while building up your Latin vocabulary. Scanlon & Scanlon tend to push you through the grammar more quickly, relying on cognates early on to help you cope with the vocabulary. Scanlon & Scanlon supply accent marks in all their texts and vocabularies to show you which syllable to accent; this is very helpful if you are teaching yourself. Collins provides macrons to mark long vowels in his texts and vocabularies; these suffice to let you figure out for yourself where the accent is, and they help you appreciate the meters used in classical poetry. For those who care about such things, physically Collins is clearly superior, with larger pages and larger type and plentiful margins. Scanlon & Scanlon comes with a splendid vocabulary in the appendix, small but complete, for reading the Breviary, the Missal, and the Gospels.

My approach to teaching myself Latin is "Teach me the grammar, give me a dictionary, and let me at the text". So I much prefer Scanlon & Scanlon to Collins. If you want to take the grammar more slowly though, you'll probably prefer Collins.

Honorable mention goes to Gavin Betts who wrote an excellent textbook, "Latin: A Complete Course (Teach Yourself)", that is intended for self-teaching. Unfortunately, its emphasis is almost entirely classical. Still, Classical and Ecclesiastical Latin are similar enough that it makes a good supplement to either Scanlon & Scanlon or Collins.

If you choose Collins, once you start reading the Vulgate, you'll probably want Leo F. Stelten's "Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin". Neither the Cassel's nor Chambers-Murray nor even the Oxford Latin Dictionary is adequate, although Lewis and Short's is, if you can afford it.

Rating:
Summary: not for self-teaching
Review: If, like me, you want to teach yourself Latin so that you
can read the Vulgate and the Breviary, then you have only
two choices of introductory texts that I know of: Scanlon &
Scanlon's "Latin Grammar" and John F. Collins "A Primer of
Ecclesiastical Latin". Both texts are intended for
classroom use.

Collins slowly introduces you to Latin grammar while
building up your Latin vocabulary. Scanlon & Scanlon tend to
push you through the grammar more quickly, relying on
cognates early on to help you cope with the vocabulary.
Scanlon & Scanlon supply accent marks in all their texts and
vocabularies to show you which syllable to accent; this is
very helpful if you are teaching yourself. Collins provides
macrons to mark long vowels in his texts and vocabularies;
these suffice to let you figure out for yourself where the
accent is, and they help you appreciate the meters used in
classical poetry. For those who care about such things,
physically Collins is clearly superior, with larger pages
and larger type and plentiful margins.

My approach to teaching myself Latin is "Teach me the
grammar, give me a dictionary, and let me at the text". So
I much prefer Scanlon & Scanlon to Collins. If you want to
take the grammar more slowly though, you'll probably
prefer Collins.

Honorable mention goes to Gavin Betts who wrote an excellent
textbook, "Latin: A Complete Course (Teach Yourself)", that
is intended for self-teaching. Unfortunately, its emphasis
is almost entirely classical. Still, Classical and
Ecclesiastical Latin are similar enough that it makes a good
supplement to either Scanlon & Scanlon or Collins.

Whichever choice you make, once you start reading the
Vulgate, you'll certainly want Leo F. Stelten's "Dictionary
of Ecclesiastical Latin". Neither the Cassel's nor
Chambers-Murray dictionary is adequate.