List of Active-Language Classicists

This page lists classicists who have devoted significant professional effort into speaking Classical languages in an active way, for conversation, teaching, and other spontaneous verbal communication.

"Latin Spoken Here" in Latin (Hic Dicitur Lingua Latina) on a pin-back button

Many of these individuals have careers in academia, but not all of them. They work as scholars, instructors, organizers, authors, or academic researchers.

The listed individuals are distinctive because the majority of Classics scholars in modern times devote little effort to speaking Classical languages. In fact they frequently discourage this activity as mostly a waste of time. The individuals listed here are notable exceptions.

For the purpose of this list, we use the same definition of "Classical languages" as is used at Classics departments major European and North American universities, and indeed the same definition used at the Wikipedia Classics page: Latin and Ancient Greek.

However, specialists in other classical languages can also be listed here, provided that their professional activity is the same: The active use of one or several ancient and probably dead classical languages as spoken, conversational languages.

Individuals

Name	Lifespan	Professional description	Institutional affiliation(s)	Location(s)	Language(s)
Arcadius Avellanus	1851-1935	scholar, teacher, editor, organizer	Professor at St. John's College in Brooklyn	Hungary; U.S.	Latin
John Stuart Blackie	1809-1895	classical scholar and man of letters	Prof. of Greek at Edinburgh U; Prof. of Humanities at U. of Aberdeen	Scotland	Ancient Greek, Latin
Jean Capelle (politician)	1909-1983	politician	First international congress for living Latin (Avignon, 1956); French Ministry of National Education	France	Latin
Carlo Egger	1914-2003	Catholic abbott; classicist	Latinitas Foundation; Vatican Secretariat of State	South Tyrol, Italy; Rome, Italy	Latin
Reginald Foster	1939-2020	Catholic priest; renowned teacher of spoken Latin	Vatican Secretariat of State; Gregorian University	Rome, Italy; Wisconsin, U.S.	Latin
Alexis Hellmer	1984-	classicist	Founder of Studium Angelopolitanum; Rusticatio Virginiana; Conventiculum Bostoniense	Mexico	Latin
Stephen Hill		classicist, teacher	Wyoming Catholic College; Polis Institute	U.S.	Ancient Greek, Latin
Eduard Johnson	1840-1903	classicist, teacher, author, journalist and local historian	Plauen Gymnasium; Chemnitz Gymnasium; Vogtländische Anzeiger (local German newspaper)	Saxony, Germany	Ancient Greek, Latin
Leni Ribeiro Leite		classicist	Federal University of Espírito Santo; U. of Kentucky; Conventiculum Lexingtoniense	Kentucky, U.S.; Brazil	Latin
Tatiana Marvina		teacher	Polis Institute	Jerusalem, Israel	Ancient Greek
Milena Minkova		classicist, author	Pontifical Gregorian University; Pontifical Salesian University; U. of Kentucky; Academia Latinitati Fovendae (ALF); Conventiculum Lexingtoniense	Kentucky, U.S.; Rome, Italy	Latin
Luigi Miraglia	1965-	teacher, classicist	Founder of the Accademia Vivarium Novum; Academia Latinitati Fovendae (ALF); Pontifical Academy for Latin	Rome, Italy	Latin
Luke Amadeus Ranieri		teacher, author, prolific YouTuber	Ancient Language Institute; Paideia Institute; Polis Institute	U.S.	Latin, Ancient Greek
Christophe Rico		classicist, author, dean	Dean of the Polis Institute; University of Strasbourg	Jerusalem, Israel	Ancient Greek, Latin (and others)
W. H. D. Rouse	1863-1950	teacher, translator, author, headmaster	Cambridge University; Association for the Reform of Latin Teaching; Loeb Classical Library editor; Rugby School; The Perse School (headmaster)	U.K.	Latin
Wilfried Stroh	1939-2025	philologist, academic	U. of Munich; Academia Latinitati Fovendae (ALF)	Munich, Germany	Latin
Jenny Teichmann		teacher, organizer, YouTuber	Argos Didaskei ; Paideia Institute; Τρίοδος Trivium	Germany	Ancient Greek
John Traupman	1923-2019	classicist, author	Saint Joseph's University	Philadelphia, U.S.	Latin
Terence Tunberg	1950-	classicist, author	U. of Kentucky; Academia Latinitati Fovendae (ALF); Conventiculum Lexingtoniense	Kentucky, U.S.	Latin
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs	1825-1895	lawyer, jurist, journalist, writer, early gay rights activist	district court of Hildesheim; Accademia Pontaniana (Naples, Italy)	Germany; Italy	Latin

See also

• Classics
• Latin
  • Neo-Latin
  • Living Latin / Active Latin
• Ancient Greek
  • Attic Greek
  • Koine Greek
  • Modern Use
  • Experimental Ancient Greek wiki:
    • Κυρία Δέλτος (main page) (wiki incubator)
    • Index of pages (wiki incubator)
• Language revitalization
• Erasmus of Rotterdam

External links

• Global Latinists - Contains the full text of the cited "Global Latinists" article from volume 36 of The New Criterion (paywalled), at a blog edited by the Paideia Institute