Learning Latin

A few other projects:

On to the original aim of this page:

Catholic’s Latin Instructor

Catholic's Latin Instructor in paperback

Fr Edward Caswall was a quiet hero of the Oxford Movement who translated hymns and authored a few of his own too. He also wrote The Catholic’s Latin Instructor which you can buy as a paperback. It is also available at the internet archive.

The book is a series of exercises consisting of putting together the Latin from the Mass and other popular devotions with their English translations. It does include a short Latin Grammar, but much is just a straight patching of Latin onto English. Sections are designed to cater for different groups of the faithful – one for servers, another for choirs, though there’s nothing to stop you going through all the sections.

Because of this correspondence between the Latin and the English it lends itself to flash card programs like Hot Potatoes, Quizlet.com and Anki. So the plan here is to collect supporting online materials to make this book more useful.

Table of Contents:

Part I

Part II

  • A Short Latin Grammar
  • First Course [Exercises, Text, and Word-for-word Translation.]
    • Chapter 1 – Sunday Vespers
    • Chapter 2 – Additional Vesper Psalms
    • Chapter 3 – Compline
  • Second Course [Text and Word-for-word Translation.]
    • Chapter 1 – Additional Portions of the Mass
    • Chapter 2 – Requiem Mass
    • Chapter 3 – Various Short Devotions
    • Chapter 4 – Select Vesper Antiphons
    • Chapter 5 – Select Hymns and Sequences
  • Third Course [Text only.]
    • Chapter 1 – Litany of the Saints
    • Chapter 2 – Select Portions of the Burial Office
    • Chapter 3 – Select Introits
    • Chapter 4 – Words of various Motets
    • Chapter 5 – Select Collects, etc.
    • Chapter 6 – Select Gospels, etc.
    • Chapter 7 – Creed of St Athanasius
    • Chapter 8 – Recordemini

Little Dictionary

Index to both parts

Bible handwriting

Some random pages of handwriting practice using the free fonts Jarman and Briem