The Caro and Cuervo Latin Grammar
One evening a couple of years ago, I was in a bar in the Candelaria, the historical quarter of Bogotá, listening to a jam session. The bar also acted as a second-hand bookstore, and I came across a grammar for Latin written in Spanish. I pulled out the book, and perused it. It was first published in 1867 by Miguel Antonio Caro (1843-1909), aged 24, and Rufino José Cuervo (1844-1911), aged 23, and this edition was published by the Instituto Caro y Cuervo in Bogotá.
Caro and Cuervo were co-founders in 1871 of the Academia Colombiana de la Lengua [Colombian Academy of the Language], the second of the 23 Spanish-language academies around the world, the first being the Real Academia Española [Royal Spanish Academy] in Spain.
Their career paths diverged significantly. Cuervo began in 1872 the work on the eight-volume Diccionario de Construcción y Régimen de la Lengua Castellana [Dictionary on the Construction and Regime of the Spanish Language], which was only finished in 1994, more than eighty years after his death; the dictionary is today published by Herder in Barcelona. As for Caro, he became a Colombian politician. He was one of the writers of the 1886 constitution, and was President of Colombia from 1892 to 1898, during the tumultuous years that ultimately led to the War of a Thousand Days, at the end of which Colombia lost Panamá.
In 1942, the Instituto Caro y Cuervo was created in Bogotá, initially to continue the work on Cuervo’s dictionary. This linguistic institute, which offers courses in Latin, Greek and Spanish, is now also used for the recording and preservation of Colombia’s indigenous languages.
The institute had a stand at the Bogotá International Book Fair, and I was able to buy a mint copy of the Latin grammar, printed in 1972, for the princely sum of 17’500 Colombian pesos. In today’s exchange, that works out to 4.57 USD!
The book is also available as a fully searchable PDF file with hyperlinks:
Just remember: you never know what you will come across when you enter a bar!