Text: English, Latin

This text is formatted in such a way that the reader learns the language is a systematic fashion. In other words, each unit builds on the previous unit. The thorough student will master each unit before moving on to the next.

Moreover, everything anyone could ever want to know about the language is present in this text. For instance, kinds of sentences, nouns, verbs, adjectives and all their declensions, pronunciations, irregular and deponent verbs, etc., all are clearly and carefully covered in this text. As the student of this text reads and learns, Collins periodically places drills and sections called "notes" to quiz the reader on what was just covered. The text demonstrates an emphasis on vocabulary as well, has an English-Latin and Latin-English vocabulary section as well as a nice index on words and subjects.

This is probably the best overall text on Ecclesiastical Latin available, I highly recommend it!

68 of 69 found the following review helpful:


GREAT RESOURCE! One of my Favorites!  Oct 02, 2001
After spending dollar after dollar, trying to find easy-to-use and comprehensible Resources for learning Latin (Especially Ecclesiastical Latin), I was fortunate enough to come across this little Treasure!

"Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin", by John F. Collins is rich with information as well as vocabulary, Biblical Text and a sample of Writings from Doctors of the Church: St. Ambrose, St. Thomas Aquinas and others.

I take it to Holy Mass with me every time I go; it has the text of the Liturgy in an easy to follow format.

The reader will find this book extremely useful and beneficial. I love it and highly recommend it to all; whether you're a beginner or an old pro! :)

66 of 67 found the following review helpful:


One of a kind  Mar 02, 2005 By Ryan R. Grant
This book was much needed at its publication, and is one of a kind.

No other book on Church Latin covers grammar, vocabulary and the syntax of Christian Latin as comprehensively as Dr. Collins.

The book starts off slowly with the concepts of Grammar, and speeds up once you get to the 6th unit, and is rather intensive. There is lots of vocabulary in each unit, however if you eat it up you will learn the language quickly. I used this book in college and learned to read and speak Latin in 6 months. Since Classical Latin and Ecclesiastical Latin differ little in grammar, Dr. Collins take the best of Classical approaches, and teaches with a Christian vocabulary toward reading the Vulgate and other Patristic sources and Medieval sources. One who successfully completes this book can easily go back and learn Classical vocabulary and syntax, and read Cicero and Caesar in a month!

The Excercises are germain, and tailored to the grammar and syntax just learned, and are often in later chapters selections from scripture, and also selections from hymns, and various liturgical documents.

The only drawback is that Dr. Collins looks ruefully at the Traditional Mass and Breviary, which will offend most Traditional Catholics, a significant group who will want this book. All the liturgical exercises are taken from the New Order of Mass (1970), and nothing is given from the Traditional Mass (1570) or other ancient sourcebooks like the Ambrosian Liturgy, the Gelasian Sacramentary, and other liturgical fragments that survived. The Vulgate readings however are well selected, and words that the student has not encountered yet are footnoted with translation.

This is an excellent resource either for a class or for someone to teach themselves Latin.

56 of 60 found the following review helpful:


not for self-teaching  Mar 10, 2002 By Robert W. Flammang
If, like me, you want to teach yourself Latin so that you can read the Vulgate and the Breviary, then you have only two choices of introductory texts here at Amazon: Scanlon & Scanlon's "Latin Grammar" and John F. Collins "A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin". Both texts are intended for classroom use.

Collins slowly introduces you to Latin grammar while building up your Latin vocabulary. Scanlon & Scanlon tend to push you through the grammar more quickly, relying on cognates early on to help you cope with the vocabulary. Scanlon & Scanlon supply accent marks in all their texts and vocabularies to show you which syllable to accent; this is very helpful if you are teaching yourself. Collins provides macrons to mark long vowels in his texts and vocabularies; these suffice to let you figure out for yourself where the accent is, and they help you appreciate the meters used in classical poetry. For those who care about such things, physically Collins is clearly superior, with larger pages and larger type and plentiful margins. Scanlon & Scanlon comes with a splendid vocabulary in the appendix, small but complete, for reading the Breviary, the Missal, and the Gospels.

My approach to teaching myself Latin is "Teach me the grammar, give me a dictionary, and let me at the text". So I much prefer Scanlon & Scanlon to Collins. If you want to take the grammar more slowly though, you'll probably prefer Collins.

Honorable mention goes to Gavin Betts who wrote an excellent textbook, "Latin: A Complete Course (Teach Yourself)", that is intended for self-teaching. Unfortunately, its emphasis is almost entirely classical. Still, Classical and Ecclesiastical Latin are similar enough that it makes a good supplement to either Scanlon & Scanlon or Collins.

If you choose Collins, once you start reading the Vulgate, you'll probably want Leo F. Stelten's "Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin". Neither the Cassel's nor Chambers-Murray nor even the Oxford Latin Dictionary is adequate, although Lewis and Short's is, if you can afford it.

29 of 29 found the following review helpful:


An Excellent Collegiate Ecclesiastical Latin Text  Mar 08, 2003 By Matthew K. Minerd "The Coding Catholic"
I was first introduced to Collins' text when I was taking an Ecclesiastical Latin class at the Seminary that is part of my College's complex. I had 3 years of Latin in high school so most of what we did was a review. However, I noticed how quickly the text proceeds through the topics we covered in High School. It was quite different from the text series we used in high school, Ecce Romani, which gives many exercises and chances to strengthen vocabulary in each chapter. Collins' text teaches Latin concepts very briefly and then presents the reader with some exercises. In the end, I have found that this approach can be in many ways just as good as the approach that was used in my high school Latin course. I feel that for advanced, devoted study, this primer is, by far, an excellent choice for learning Latin. My only suggestion is not to use it if you can not devote a lot of time to just memorizing inflections and vocabulary. (If you feel that you would better benefit from having a book with more focus given to using the language to learn it, I suggest the Ecce Romani series.)

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