he front-man of the translating team also cuts a surprising figure. He is an American Carmelite priest, Reginald Foster, Latin's loudest advocate in the modern world. Bumptious, bespectacled, in overalls and from Milwaukee, he is so devoted to Latin that he greets visitors with “Ave!” and is renowned for speaking not just the classical version, but the Carolingian and the medieval, if asked. For more than 30 years—chalk in one hand, wineglass in the other—he has conducted a Latin summer school in Rome, holding many classes sub arboribus11 in the conversational style of the ancient world. His students have been seen in Pompeii, reading Pliny's letters aloud as they stroll the streets, and at the Fons Bandusia near Rome, pouring wine into the water while reciting Horace. Year by year his classes grow more popular, though you need to be well past amo12 and fundus13 to apply.

http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=2281926

-- J. Fernandes (goananda@hotmail.com), January 24, 2004

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