Editing Classical Latin (section)

===Canonical===
[[File:David Ruhnken - Imagines philologorum.jpg|thumb|left|David Ruhnken]]
Imitating Greek grammarians, Romans such as [[Quintilian]] drew up lists termed ''indices'' or ''ordines'' modeled after the ones created by the Greeks, which were called ''pinakes''. The Greek lists were considered classical, or ''recepti scriptores'' ("select writers"). [[Aulus Gellius]] includes authors like [[Plautus]], who are considered writers of [[Old Latin]] and not strictly in the period of classical Latin. The classical Romans distinguished Old Latin as ''prisca Latinitas'' and not ''sermo vulgaris''. Each author's work in the Roman lists was considered equivalent to one in the Greek. In example, [[Ennius]] was the Latin [[Homer]], [[Aeneid]] was the equivalent of [[Iliad]], etc. The lists of classical authors were as far as the Roman grammarians went in developing a [[philology]]. The topic remained at that point while interest in the ''classici scriptores'' declined in the medieval period as the best form of the language yielded to [[medieval Latin]], inferior to classical standards.

The [[Renaissance]] saw a revival in Roman culture, and with it, the return of Classic ("the best") Latin. [[Thomas Sébillet]]'s ''Art Poétique'' (1548), "les bons et classiques poètes françois", refers to [[Jean de Meun]] and [[Alain Chartier]], who the first modern application of the words.{{Citation needed|date=December 2010}} According to [[Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary|Merriam Webster's ''Collegiate Dictionary'']], the term classical (from ''classicus)'' entered modern English in 1599, some 50 years after its re-introduction to the continent. In Governor [[William Bradford (Plymouth Colony governor)|William Bradford]]'s ''Dialogue'' (1648), he referred to [[synod]]s of a [[separatist]] church as "classical meetings", defined by meetings between "young men" from New England and "ancient men" from Holland and England.<ref>{{Cite book|first=William|last=Bradford|contribution=Gov. Bradford's Dialogue|title=New England's Memorial|url=https://archive.org/details/newenglandsmemor00m|editor-first=Nathaniel|editor-last = Morton| publisher = Congregational Board of Publication|location= Boston|year =1855|orig-year=1648|page = [https://archive.org/details/newenglandsmemor00m/page/330 330]}}</ref> In 1715, [[Laurence Echard]]'s ''Classical Geographical Dictionary'' was published.{{Sfn|Littlefield|1904|p=301}} In 1736, [[Robert Ainsworth (lexicographer)|Robert Ainsworth]]'s ''Thesaurus Linguae Latinae Compendarius'' turned English words and expressions into "proper and classical Latin."<ref>{{Cite journal|first=Robert|last= Ainsworth|title= Article XXX: Thesaurus Linguae Latinae Compendarius|journal= The Present State of the Republic of Letters|volume= XVII|date= January 1736|location = London|publisher=W. Innys and R. Manby}}</ref> In 1768, [[David Ruhnken]]'s ''Critical History of the Greek Orators'' recast the molded view of the classical by applying the word "canon" to the ''pinakes'' of orators after the [[Biblical canon]], or list of authentic books of the Bible. In doing so, Ruhnken had secular [[catechism]] in mind.<ref>{{cite book |page=51|title=The making of the modern canon: genesis and crisis of a literary idea|first=Jan |last=Gorak|location=London|publisher=Athlone|year=1991}}</ref>