Lecture by Prof. Wilfried Stroh

On November 9 Dr. Wilfried Stroh (Ludwig-Maximillian University, Munich) gave a lecture on ancient culture and literature at the HSE Faculty of Philosophy.

Doctor Wilfried Stroh, also known in a latinized form as Valahfridus, is an outstanding scholar, an expert on the Latin language and ancient literature, and a zealous supporter of the "living Latin" tradition. His book Latein ist tot, es lebe Latein! Kleine Geschichte einer großen Sprache (Latin is dead, long live Latin! - Berlin, 2007) has become a bestseller.
This autumn professor Stroh visited Russia on the invitation of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. During his visit, he gave a lecture on ancient culture and literature at the HSE Faculty of Philosophy.
Professor Stroh began his lecture with mentioning to the foundation of Pontificia Academia Latinitatis. This event is very important for the development and the maintenance of living Latin traditions. He further described the fate of the Latin literary language and traditions of its study, giving examples from different eras: Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Modern period. The main purpose of this lecture was to show that the Latin language is not actually dead and that the death of this language made it immortal in European culture.