The Bellum Grammaticale and the Rise of European Literature

The now-forgotten genre of the bellum grammaticale flourished in the sixteenth- and seventeenth centuries as a means of satirizing outmoded cultural institutions and promoting new methods of instruction. Butler examines representations of language as war in texts written in Latin, French, and German; the study, by exploring the relationship between tradition and innovation, also illuminates the shift from a Latin-based understanding of learning to the acceptance of vernacular erudition and the emergence of national literatures.