Difference between revisions of "Rudiments of the Latin Tongue"

Revision as of 14:29, 8 May 2025

by Thomas Ruddiman

Rudiments of the Latin Tongue
Title page from Rudiments of the Latin Tongue, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.
Author	Thomas Ruddiman
Editor	{{{editor}}}
Translator	{{{trans}}}
Published	Edinburgh: Printed by Wal. Ruddiman, J. Richardson, and Company and sold by the widow of the author and the booksellers there
Date	1769
Edition	{{{edition}}}
Language	Latin
Volumes	{{{set}}} volume set
Pages	viii, 104, 31, [1]
Desc.	Octavo (17 cm.)
Location	Shelf H-1
	[[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]

Thomas Ruddiman (1674-1757) was born on the farm of Raggel in the county of Banff, in the parish of Boyndie in October 1674.^[1] His parents were from the same parish.^[2] His father was a farmer and a dedicated monarchist, which is believed to have influenced Ruddiman’s work.^[3] He was enrolled in grammar at a parish school in Boyndie and was taught by George Morison.^[4] When he was sixteen, without informing his father, he went to Aberdeen, won a bursary by competition at King’s College and matriculated in November 1690, with William Black as his regent.^[5] He received the degree of Artium Magister in June 1694, and worked as a “servitor” to George Ogilvy of Inverquharity. Then he worked as a tutor, until he was appointed schoolmaster at Laurencekirk in 1695.^[6] There he met Dr. Archibald Pitcairne and received an invitation to Edinburgh under his patronage.^[7] In 1700 he was unofficially employed at the library of the Faculty of Advocates.^[8] He married his first wife in 1704 and two years later he was employed by Robert Freebairn, a printer and bookseller.^[9] Freebairn and Ruddiman were both Jacobites and devoted episcopalians.^[10]

At Freebairn’s suggestion, Ruddiman enlisted his brother and opened his own printing business in 1712.^[11] Their main purpose was to cater to the schoolbooks market. Ruddiman married three more times and none of his children except for Alison survived him.^[12] He retired from the library in 1752 and was succeeded by David Hume.^[13] He died on January 19th, 1757, in Edinburgh and was laid to rest in Greyfriars church.^[14]

His greatest contribution to educational books was The Rudiments of the Latin Tongue. Although the book was first published by Freebairn in 1713, it went through several revisions and established itself as the preeminent Latin grammar book taught in schools across Britain.^[15]

Ruddiman saw The Rudiments as the “plain and easy instructions, teaching beginners the first principles, or the most common and necessary rules, of Latin.”^[16] As Ruddiman compiled his text on Latin grammar, he struggled to choose between different pedagogies and ideas about the best possible method to communicate the Latin tongue.^[17] In the end, he decided to reduce it into a “short text,” and included an English version alongside the Latin, so readers could choose whichever version suited them better.^[18] He engaged in thorough research to collect the opinions of the greatest grammatical authorities of the time to inform his work.^[19] He believed that the Latin tongue was “designed to be the common Language of learned Men in all the civiliz’d Parts of the World.”

This book is a wholesale revision of earlier versions of this particular Latin instruction manual. Intended for the education of youth, this particular method focuses on the ongoing improvement of Latin grammar not merely the replication of old fashioned forms of the grammar. ^[20]

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as "Ruddiman's larger Latin grammar" Thomas Jefferson gave Wythe's copy to his grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph. The precise edition owned by Wythe is unknown. George Wythe's Library^[21] on LibraryThing indicates the 1784 edition published in Lyon. The Brown Bibliography^[22] lists the 1795 Paris edition based on the copy Jefferson sold to the Library of Congress.^[23] The Wolf Law Library purchased an available copy of the 1769 edition of Rudiments of the Latin Tongue.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in contemporary biscuit calf, boards bordered with double gilt rules. Spine features raised bands with gilt rules and blind compartments. Purchased with the George Wythe Boswell-Caracci Room Acquisition Fund.

Images of the library's copy of this book are available on Flickr. View the record for this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

See also

• Jefferson Inventory
• Wythe's Library

References

1. ↑ George Chalmers, The Life of Thomas Ruddiman, A. M.: The Keeper, for Almost Fifty Years, of the Library Belonging to the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh (London: J. Stockdale, 1794), 2.
2. ↑ Chalmers, Life of Thomas Ruddiman. 3.
3. ↑ Chalmers, Life of Thomas Ruddiman. 3.
4. ↑ Woolrich, A. P. "Ruddiman, Thomas (1674–1757)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, accessed February 5, 2025.
5. ↑ Douglas Duncan, Thomas Ruddiman: A Study in Scottish Scholarship of the Early Eighteenth Century (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1965), 2.
6. ↑ Duncan, Thomas Ruddiman, 2.
7. ↑ Duncan, Thomas Ruddiman, 2.
8. ↑ Duncan, Thomas Ruddiman, 3.
9. ↑ Duncan, Thomas Ruddiman, 3.
10. ↑ Woolrich, "Ruddiman, Thomas (1674–1757)."
11. ↑ Woolrich, "Ruddiman, Thomas (1674–1757)."
12. ↑ Duncan, Thomas Ruddiman, 4.
13. ↑ Woolrich, "Ruddiman, Thomas (1674–1757)."
14. ↑ Woolrich, "Ruddiman, Thomas (1674–1757)."
15. ↑ Woolrich, "Ruddiman, Thomas (1674–1757)."
16. ↑ Thomas Ruddiman, The Rudiments of the Latin Tongue (Edinburgh: Murray and Cochran, 1779), 2.
17. ↑ George Chalmers, The Life of Thomas Ruddiman, 64.
18. ↑ Chalmers, The Life of Thomas Ruddiman, 64.
19. ↑ Duncan, Thomas Ruddiman, 87.
20. ↑ The Rudiments of the Latin Tongue, Or, A Plain and Easy Introduction to Latin Grammar (Google Books) [1]
21. ↑ LibraryThing, s.v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on June 22, 2015.
22. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012, rev. May, 2014) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433.
23. ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 2:9-10 [no.1249].