Insegnare il latino nell’alto medioevo: il caso dell’Anonymus ad Cuimnanum

The grammar of the so-called Anonymus ad Cuimnanum is a commentary on the second book of Donatus’ Ars maior, presumably written in the first half of the 8th century, in an Irish context. This text, first edited by B. Bischoff and B. Löfstedt in 1992, was studied especially for its linguistic features and for the legacy of Late Antique grammarians on its anonymous author. In this contribution, however, the focus is on examining the text in terms of its content, starting from its didactic purposes. Attention is therefore given to certain sections of the work, some of which reveal the anonymous teacher’s conception of grammatical studies, while others highlight the way he adapted and employed specific tools used in Latin language education in previous centuries.