Minimus

Last updated

The Minimus books are a series of school textbooks, written by Barbara Bell, illustrated by Helen Forte, and published by the Cambridge University Press, designed to help children of primary school age to learn Latin. The books espouse some of the principles of the direct method of language teaching, and feature a mouse of the same name; minimus is (Latin for "smallest", and also a pun on mus — Latin for "mouse". Minimus is known by the publisher as "the mouse that made Latin cool". [1] There are two books in the series: Minimus: Starting out in Latin and Minimus Secundus. The first book is aimed at 7- to 10-year-olds, and the second continues the education for children up to 13 years old.

Contents

The stories presented in each chapter revolve around a family. The family is based on a real family who lived at the Roman fort of Vindolanda near Hadrian’s Wall in northern Britain. The books feature many artifacts from Vindolanda, integrating real objects into fictional plot lines.

In 2011, it was reported that 125,000 copies had been sold. [2]

Regular characters

Italian version

In 2007, the Minimus books were adapted for Italian pupils. As a single volume, the material is aimed at an older audience. [3] The setting of the stories is altered to several European locations [4] and there is considerably more formal grammar and exercises, in line with Italian teaching methods. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Classics</span> Study of the culture of (mainly) Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome

Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics also includes Greco-Roman philosophy, history, archaeology, anthropology, art, mythology and society as secondary subjects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greyhound</span> Dog breed

The EnglishGreyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurgence in popularity as a family pet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latin</span> Indo-European language of the Italic branch

Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Considered a dead language, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, the lower Tiber area around Rome. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when regional vernaculars supplanted it in common academic and political usage. For most of the time it was used, it would be considered a dead language in the modern linguistic definition; that is, it lacked native speakers, despite being used extensively and actively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Empire</span> Roman state following the Republic (27 BC–AD 1453)

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican state of ancient Rome and is generally understood to mean the period and territory ruled by the Romans following Octavian's assumption of sole rule under the Principate in 31 BC. It included territory in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was ruled by emperors. The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 conventionally marks the end of classical antiquity and the beginning of the Middle Ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vindolanda</span> Roman fort in Northern England

Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (castrum) just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it pre-dated. Archaeological excavations of the site show it was under Roman occupation from roughly 85 AD to 370 AD. Located near the modern village of Bardon Mill in Northumberland, it guarded the Stanegate, the Roman road from the River Tyne to the Solway Firth. It is noted for the Vindolanda tablets, a set of wooden leaf-tablets that were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Butrint</span> World Heritage Site in Albania

Butrint was an ancient Greek polis and later Roman city and the seat of an early Christian bishopric in Epirus.

Language education – the process and practice of teaching a second or foreign language – is primarily a branch of applied linguistics, but can be an interdisciplinary field. There are four main learning categories for language education: communicative competencies, proficiencies, cross-cultural experiences, and multiple literacies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of ancient Rome</span>

The culture of ancient Rome existed throughout the almost 1,200-year history of the civilization of Ancient Rome. The term refers to the culture of the Roman Republic, later the Roman Empire, which at its peak covered an area from present-day Lowland Scotland and Morocco to the Euphrates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aesop's Fables</span> Collection of fables credited to Aesop

Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 BCE. Of diverse origins, the stories associated with his name have descended to modern times through a number of sources and continue to be reinterpreted in different verbal registers and in popular as well as artistic media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latin school</span> School type in Europe from the 14th to 19th centuries

The Latin school was the grammar school of 14th- to 19th-century Europe, though the latter term was much more common in England. Other terms used include Lateinschule in Germany, or later Gymnasium. Latin schools were also established in Colonial America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claudia Severa</span>

Claudia Severa was a literate Roman woman, the wife of Aelius Brocchus, commander of an unidentified fort near Vindolanda fort in northern England. She is known for a birthday invitation she sent around 100 AD to Sulpicia Lepidina, wife of Flavius Cerialis, commander at Vindolanda. This invitation, written in ink on a thin wooden tablet, was discovered in the 1970s and is probably the best-known item of the Vindolanda Tablets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pedant</span> Person obsessed with detail or process, often negatively perceived

A pedant is a person who is excessively concerned with formalism, accuracy and precision, or one who makes an ostentatious and arrogant show of learning.

<i>Cambridge Latin Course</i> Series of textbooks published by Cambridge University Press

The Cambridge Latin Course (CLC) is a series of textbooks published by Cambridge University Press, used to teach Latin to secondary school pupils. It provides a grounding in vocabulary, grammar and sense which allows progression through Common Entrance exams into a Secondary, or, Public School. First published in 1970, the series is in its fifth edition as of April 2019. It has reached high status in the United Kingdom, being the most-used Latin course in the country for secondary school pupils, and being used by 85% of Latin-teaching schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vindolanda tablets</span> Roman writing tablets found in England

The Vindolanda tablets were, at the time of their discovery, the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain. They are a rich source of information about life on the northern frontier of Roman Britain. Written on fragments of thin, postcard-sized wooden leaf-tablets with carbon-based ink, the tablets date to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Although similar records on papyrus were known from elsewhere in the Roman Empire, wooden tablets with ink text had not been recovered until 1973, when archaeologist Robin Birley, his attention being drawn by student excavator Keith Liddell, discovered some at the site of Vindolanda, a Roman fort in northern England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Contemporary Latin</span> Form of the Latin language used since the 19th century

Contemporary Latin is the form of the Literary Latin used since the end of the 19th century. Various kinds of contemporary Latin can be distinguished, including the use of Neo-Latin words in taxonomy and in science generally, and the fuller ecclesiastical use in the Catholic Church – but Living or Spoken Latin is the primary subject of this article.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education in ancient Rome</span> Overview of education in ancient Rome

Education in ancient Rome progressed from an informal, familial system of education in the early Republic to a tuition-based system during the late Republic and the Empire. The Roman education system was based on the Greek system – and many of the private tutors in the Roman system were enslaved Greeks or freedmen. The educational methodology and curriculum used in Rome was copied in its provinces and provided a basis for education systems throughout later Western civilization. Organized education remained relatively rare, and there are few primary sources or accounts of the Roman educational process until the 2nd century AD. Due to the extensive power wielded by the pater familias over Roman families, the level and quality of education provided to Roman children varied drastically from family to family; nevertheless, Roman popular morality came eventually to expect fathers to have their children educated to some extent, and a complete advanced education was expected of any Roman who wished to enter politics.

Myth-o-Mania is a series of books for children by Kate McMullan.

The history of accounting or accountancy can be traced to ancient civilizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen May</span> New Zealand education academic

Helen May is a New Zealand education pioneer. She has been an eloquent activist and academic in education, with a strong feminist focus on early childhood education. Her advocacy has been characterised by its focus on the rights and needs of children and teachers, expressed by an active and collaborative engagement with educational institutions, trade unions, the Ministry of Education and other government agencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Illyrian education</span> Overview of ancient Illyrian education

Illyrian education is a term in the field of the history of education and pedagogical thought that denotes the totality of forms, organizations and educational institutions in the Illyria and among Illyrians. In the early periods, the education in Illyria and among the Illyrians was under the influence of Greek education, while later it was under the influence of Roman culture. Based on the latest scientific research and discoveries in various aspects of Illyrology: historical, archeological, epigraphic, linguistic, paleographic, etc., it has become possible to better summarize the Illyrian educational system. Illyrian education stretches over a period of time between the 8th century BCE, when the Illyrian culture began to flourish, and the 7th century CE, when the Illyrians are last mentioned in historical sources. In general, it can be said that education among the Illyrians was developed starting from a level of family and informal education towards an organized, institutional, and formal educational system.

References

  1. "Minimus Website". Dr Helen Forte. 10 October 2006. Retrieved 2021-01-04.
  2. Johnson, Boris (2011-07-08). "Now is the time to dust off your Latin and Ancient Greek and help keep classics from becoming history". TES. Retrieved 2011-07-09.
  3. 1 2 "Minimus Avviamento al Latino" . Retrieved 2007-05-14.
  4. "Squeakus!". TES. 2007-04-06. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-05-14.