Colloquia Latina
a free library of short, neo-Latin dialogues
What are colloquia?
A “colloquium” is a dialogue, with or without a parallel translation,
that has been a common feature in language classrooms since the
Babylonians. They are usually written with a self-contained story and aim
to provide an enjoyable exercise in grammar and vocab
and a model for daily speech. In the Latin classroom, these
have been a regular feature since the late empire, when Greek-speakers
used them to practice their Latin--and vice versa.
Some of the finest and most interesting colloquia were written by
Humanists on both sides of the Reformation: men like Erasmus,
Corderius, and Castalio. They modeled high-level Latin speech while
still conciously writing for students. Today, these can be used for
solo reading, group reading, memorization, writing prompts, and even
short skits. They are a particularly valuable resource for those using
Latin actively, as they provide a model for applying classical models
to new occasions.
Where do these Colloquia come from?
The colloquia on this site are all collected from works in the public
domain. We owe a debt of gratitude to Ross Scaife, Terence Tunberg,
and Milena Minkova at the University of Kentucky, who with other
professors and students arranged for the digitization and online
hosting of a number of neo-Latin colloquia. Unfortunately, after Ross
Scaife’s death and subsequent migration updates to the Perseus
website, those colloquia were only available through Internet Archive.
Thanks to Christopher Francese at Dickinson College, the text for
those particular colloquia has been made again available. They are presented
here with improved formatting, macrons, and additional notes on
a more stable and accessible hosting platform.
Eventually we hope to host our source text files in our
Archive right here.
Where do I start?
The list of colloquia can be a bit overwhelming. The most famous Colloquia are those written by Erasmus, but these are hardly the only ones. To help you, we've tagged colloquia by author, topic, and difficulty level to help you better find what you're looking for.
Want to Help?
This website and its contents are published by Jackson Perry and Jacob
Terneus. This is a labor of love for the Latin language and especially
active Latin.
Many colloquia still need to be transcribed before they can be
published on this site.
To assist with transcription, proof-reading, or formatting, email us
at [email protected].