Quasi Labor Intus

2018. (co-ed.) Quasi Labor Intus: Ambiguity in the Latin Language (Essays in Honor of Fr. Reginald Foster, OCD) (co-ed. with Charles McNamara and William Short). Paideia Institute Press. (See here.)

For forty years, American priest and friar Reginald Foster, O.C.D., worked in the Latin Letters office of the Roman Curia’s Secretary of State in Vatican City. As Latinist of four popes, he soon emerged as an internationally recognized authority on the Latin language – some have said, the internationally recognized authority, consulted by scholars, priests, and laymen worldwide. In 1986, he began teaching an annual summer Latin course that attracted advanced students and professors from around the globe. This volume gathers contributions from some of his many students in honor of his enduring influence and achievements. Its chapters explore a wide range of linguistic and literary evidence from antiquity to the present day in a variety of theoretical perspectives. If the motivation for putting together this collection has been to reflect (and reflect upon) Foster’s influences on Latin scholarship and pedagogy, its title alludes – via the medieval folk etymology of the word “labyrinthus” (“quasi labor intus”) – to its theme: ambiguity in Latin literature.

Lumine decipiens noctem φωστῆρα vocabant
      Christicolae signum, nomen et omen erat.
Namque ut nocte regit tenebrisque per aequora cursum
      sideribus fixis nauta vagante rate,
fidum dum regimen balbi per opaca rogamus,
      haud aliter φωστὴρ hic Reginaldus erat.