Why Was Latin So Important in Scientific Publishing?
Latin as the universal language of the Republic of Letters, the slowness of vernacular adoption, the rise of national scientific languages, and Latin's symbolic role.
Why Was Latin So Important in Scientific Publishing?
Latin was the universal language of European learning throughout the medieval period and well into the eighteenth century. It was the language in which the Church conducted its official business, in which the universities delivered their lectures, in which the legal and medical professions wrote their treatises, and in which the natural philosophers published their works. The Scientific Revolution was, in significant part, conducted in Latin, and the great works of the seventeenth-century scientific revolution — Copernicus’s De revolutionibus (1543), Galileo’s Dialogue (1632) in Italian, Newton’s Principia (1687), Descartes’s Principia philosophiae (1644) — were all, with the major exception of Galileo’s later Italian writings, written in Latin. The use of Latin in scientific publishing was a major feature of the Scientific Revolution, and it had both practical and symbolic dimensions. The practical dimension was that Latin allowed the new science to be communicated across the national and confessional boundaries of Europe. The symbolic dimension was that Latin gave the new science a claim to universality, a claim that was a major part of its cultural authority. The story of the use of Latin, and the gradual transition to the vernacular languages, is the subject of this article. For a broader account of the role of education in the Scientific Revolution, see Education, Universities, and the New Science. For the transformation of the universities, see How Did Universities Change During the Scientific Revolution?. And for the broader social impact of the revolution, see The Impact of the Scientific Revolution on Society. For the broader question of why the Scientific Revolution happened in Europe, see Why Did the Scientific Revolution Start in Europe?.
Latin as the Universal Language of Learning
Latin was the universal language of European learning for several reasons. The first was historical. Latin had been the language of the Roman Empire, and it had been preserved, with varying degrees of purity, as the language of the Western Church throughout the medieval period. The second was institutional. The universities, which were established in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, used Latin as the language of instruction, and the graduates of the universities used Latin as the language of their professional practice. The third was cultural. Latin was the language of classical literature, of the Church Fathers, of the legal tradition, and of the philosophical tradition, and the recovery of this literature in the Renaissance gave Latin a renewed prestige. The use of Latin in scientific publishing was, accordingly, a natural extension of the use of Latin in the other domains of learning. The natural philosophers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were trained in Latin, they read the classical and medieval scientific works in Latin, and they wrote their own works in Latin. The works of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo (until his later Italian writings), Descartes, Newton, and Leibniz were all written in Latin, and they were read, debated, and criticized by a Latin-reading audience across Europe. The use of Latin had a number of practical advantages. It allowed the new science to be communicated across national boundaries, since Latin was a common language for educated Europeans of all nationalities. It allowed the new science to be communicated across confessional boundaries, since Latin was a common language for Catholics and Protestants alike. It allowed the new science to be communicated across generations, since Latin was a stable language that did not change rapidly. And it allowed the seventeenth-century science to claim a kind of universality, since the Latin language was a kind of universal medium for the communication of learning.
The Republic of Letters
The use of Latin was the linguistic basis of the Republic of Letters — the informal community of educated Europeans who corresponded with one another across national and confessional boundaries. The Republic of Letters included natural philosophers, philosophers, historians, jurists, theologians, and men of letters, and it was held together by the regular exchange of letters, books, and pamphlets. The Republic of Letters was the principal medium by which the new natural philosophy was disseminated across Europe, and it was the institutional predecessor of the international scientific community of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Republic of Letters was made possible, in part, by the use of Latin. The natural philosophers of different countries could read one another’s works, correspond with one another, and debate one another’s conclusions, all in Latin. The use of Latin, in other words, was a major part of the infrastructure of the new natural knowledge, and the gradual transition to the vernacular languages in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was a major transformation of that infrastructure.
The Slowness of Vernacular Adoption
The transition from Latin to the vernacular languages in scientific publishing was a long and contested process. The vernacular languages had been used in some scientific works from the late medieval period — the Tacuinum sanitatis of the late Middle Ages, the herbal books of the early modern period, the practical manuals of agriculture and metallurgy. But the major works of this new approach, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were still written in Latin. The transition began in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, with the publication of important scientific works in the vernacular languages. Galileo, in his later years, wrote in Italian — the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632) and the Two New Sciences (1638) — and his example followeded by other Italian natural philosophers. Descartes, in his early philosophical works, wrote in French, and his example followeded by other French natural philosophers. The Royal Society, in its early years, made the publication of scientific works in English a matter of policy, and Newton’s Opticks (1704) was published in English rather than in Latin. The transition to the vernacular languages, in short, was a major transformation of the linguistic basis of the reformed natural philosophy. The transformation was driven by a number of factors: the increasing popularity of the experimental science among the educated public, the growth of the national literary traditions, the rise of the scientific societies, and the growth of the new printing industry. The transformation was also resisted by the defenders of Latin, who argued that the vernacular languages were less precise, less universal, and less suited to the communication of learning.
The Rise of National Scientific Languages
The transition to the vernacular languages, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, was accompanied by the rise of national scientific languages. Each major European language developed its own scientific vocabulary, its own scientific literature, and its own scientific community. The growth of the national scientific languages was, in turn, a major part of the growth of the national scientific traditions. The English scientific language developed rapidly in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with the publication of major scientific works in English — Newton’s Opticks (1704), Boyle’s The Sceptical Chymist (1661), Hooke’s Micrographia (1665), and many others. The English scientific language, in turn, became the principal language of the new philosophy of nature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the consequence that the English scientific community became one of the principal scientific communities in the world. The French scientific language developed in parallel, with the publication of major scientific works in French — Lavoisier’s Traité élémentaire de chimie (1789), the publications of the Académie des Sciences, and many others. The French scientific language, in turn, became the principal language of the new learning in France and in the French-speaking world. The German scientific language developed later, in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the publication of major scientific works in German — Kant’s Kritik der reinen Vernunft (1781), the publications of the Berlin Academy, and many others. The German scientific language, in turn, became the principal language of the seventeenth-century science in the German-speaking world, and it was the language in which many of the major scientific advances of the nineteenth century were published.
Latin’s Symbolic Role
The use of Latin in scientific publishing was not just a practical matter. It was also a symbolic matter, with important cultural consequences. The use of Latin gave the new natural knowledge a claim to universality, a claim that was a major part of its cultural authority. The use of Latin connected this new approach to the classical tradition, and it gave the reformed natural philosophy a kind of dignity that the vernacular languages, in the early modern period, could not provide. The use of Latin, in short, was a major part of the cultural framing of the experimental science. The symbolic role of Latin was particularly important in the contested domains of the new philosophy of nature. The Copernican system, for example, was first published in Latin (1543), and the use of Latin in the publication gave the new astronomy a claim to be considered as a serious contribution to the mathematical tradition. The use of Latin in the publication of the Principia (1687) gave Newton’s work a similar claim to be considered as a contribution to the mathematical tradition. The use of Latin in the publication of Descartes’s Principia philosophiae (1644) gave the Cartesian philosophy a similar claim. The symbolic role of Latin, in other words, was a major part of the cultural framing of the new learning. The new science was not just a new account of the natural world; it was also a new kind of cultural enterprise, with a claim to universality that the Latin language helped to establish. The transition to the vernacular languages, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, did not displace the claim to universality, but it did change the way in which the claim was established. The new claim to universality was based not on a common language but on a common method, a common set of standards, and a common community of inquiry.
The Long Legacy
The long legacy of the use of Latin in scientific publishing, in the period of the Scientific Revolution, was the establishment of a tradition of international scientific communication that has continued to the present day. The use of Latin established the model of a universal language for the communication of science, and the transition to the vernacular languages did not displace that model, but rather established a succession of vernacular languages that have played the same role — French in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, German in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, English in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The model, in short, has been a major part of the international character of modern science, and it has been one of the principal mechanisms by which the seventeenth-century science has been disseminated across the world. See How Did Universities Change During the Scientific Revolution?. The broader role of education in the Scientific Revolution is examined in Education, Universities, and the New Science. And the broader social impact of the revolution is set out in The Impact of the Scientific Revolution on Society.