Latin and Greek Summer Schools at St Albans Cathedral
11 August - 14 August
Taught by Dr John Taylor
Join us in the beautiful setting of St Albans Cathedral this summer for an exciting opportunity to immerse yourself in the ancient languages of Latin or Greek (or both!). Whether you’re continuing your language studies or rediscovering ancient texts in a fresh way, these summer schools offer inspiration, insight, and a deepened understanding — all under the guidance of expert tutor Dr John Taylor.
We recommend that these are most suitable for those with intermediate level Latin and/or Greek.
Greek: The Gospel of John
The fourth Gospel stands at some distance from the preceding three as a spiritual meditation on the life and significance of Jesus, rich in symbolism. We will read and translate Chapters 1 and 2 (the prologue ‘In the beginning was the Word’, and the miracle at Cana); Chapter 6 (‘I am the bread of life’); Chapters 9 to 11 (the man born blind, the good shepherd, and the raising of Lazarus – unique to John); and Chapters 18 to 20 (the betrayal, trial, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Latin : Virgil’s Georgics Book 4
Virgil’s four-book didactic poem about agriculture is less famous than his Aeneid but was described by John Dryden as ‘the best poem of the best poet’. Written during the turbulent years after the murder of Julius Caesar, it uses the farm as an allegory about the conduct of life and society. The climactic fourth book treats bees as an ideal citizen body of ‘little Romans’; this leads to an account of how the hero Aristaeus replaced his lost bees, with the haunting inset story of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Dates | Tuesday11 – Friday 14 August 2026
Times | 9:00 – 14:30 (Greek); 11:15 – 16:45 (Latin)
Tickets | £125 for one language, or £220 for both languages (discount is applied at checkout), available from www.stalbanscathedral.org/summer-schools-2026
About our tutor
Dr John Taylor is one of the country’s foremost experts in the teaching of Greek and Latin. He is the author of numerous textbooks for learning the classical languages at all levels, including Latin Beyond GCSE and Greek Beyond GCSE, and co-author of Writing Greek: An Introduction to Writing in the Language of Classical Athens, as well as of collections of Greek Stories and Latin Stories for use alongside his own Greek to GCSE and Latin to GCSE textbooks.
