Reading Latin Epitaphs: A Handbook for Beginners with Illustrations: A Handbook for Beginners, New Edition with Illustrations (Cultural Legacies)

Exactly what I needed, to refresh schoolboy Latin for a new task.

Not really a beginners' book, as you need a fair bit of understanding of grammar in general, and especially of Latinate or even other inflected languages to work through it well - I have O-level Latin, & A-level Franch, with a smattering of Italian, but it did require a fair bit of mind-stretching. If you're prepared to do that (& I am as someone interested in the subject because of its connection with Heraldry, my particular anorak), it's fine.The price was good, as also delivery condition and time.

Handy slim volume to take around with you.

The author John Parker put together this work with the specific aim of helping those who would like to at least partly decipher some of the Latin epitaphs to be found in churches. It makes no claim to be thorough or comprehensive - there is a potted Latin grammar crammed into a dozen pages, but it is mostly example driven, with a selection of 52. With one exception (that of Samuel Johnson in Westminster Abbey) they are from churches in Devon. Each example has a full translation with explicatory comments on certain phrases. All the words found in the examples, plus other common words likely to be found more generally in epitaphs elsewhere, are gathered in a glossary at the end.

As a member of the Church Monuments Society with only a minimal knowledge of latin, but a constant need to read epitaphs, this book is ideal. Not latin for dummies by any means BUT lots of demonstrations of words AND layout, and an excellent vocabulary section.

Whether you wish to extend your Latin to cover the specialized area of epitaphs or you want to get more from your enjoyment of looking around churches you will benefit from this book. It is helpful even for those, like myself, whose Latin is minimal. The author comes across as a good teacher with good explanations and humour. I would thoroughly recommend this book.

Never learnt Latin at school, so this is helping me with my family history - I would recommend to anyone with no knowledge of Latin whose looking for the basics.