Martha IRIGOYEN   Can Non-Italians write Latin? Diego José Abad’s Dissertatio ludicro-seria

Diego José Abad is, undoubtedly, one of the most frequently quoted and less read writers of the XVIII th. Century. Along with Alegre, Clavigero, Castro and Landívar he belongs to the most well-known Mexican Jesuits who were expelled in 1767. Among his works we can recall De Deo Deoque Homine Heroica, the Latin epic poem through which he gained fame and prestige as a Latinist in Europe as well as in America. Although his Cursus philosophicus is also known in Mexico through Bernabé Navarro and Mauricio Beuchot’s actual works, his biographers also mention other works on Geography, Law, Mathematics and Theology which have not yet been discovered.

To our fortune, Abad also published in Padua, Italy, in 1778 the Dissertatio ludicro-seria. Num posit aliquid extra Italiam natus bene Latine scribere, contra quam Robertus pronuntiat? This is a satiric essay, written in Latin, of which main purpose was to refute Giovanni Battista Roberti, an Italian writer’s opinion that had denied all foreigners (French, Belgian, Spanish and others) the ability of learning and dominating Latin language. Although for many years the continuous disputes between Spanish and the expelled Jesuits had grown due to historical and political facts, it had also become significant between Italians and the latter ones. Thus, the Dissertatio is a unique Neo-Latin piece, for it constitutes a brave and genuine defense of latinitas in every sense.

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