Italian and Classics

Italian and classics is a combination with a deep intellectual coherence, because Italian is the modern descendant of Latin, and the civilisation of ancient Rome is the direct ancestor of much of what has made Italian culture one of Europe's most creative and influential. Studying them together allows you to trace the continuities and transformations that link the ancient world to the medieval and Renaissance periods and on to modernity, engaging with two of the richest literary and cultural traditions in Western history through both their original languages and the scholarly methods needed to understand them.

This four-year, full-time programme at the University of Edinburgh gives you access to one of the UK's strongest departments in both Italian and classics. You will develop your Italian language skills to a high level, engaging with contemporary and classical Italian texts, and study the literature, history, philosophy, and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. The combination allows you to read Virgil and Dante in relation to each other, to understand how the Renaissance reimagined antiquity, and to trace the ways in which classical culture has continued to shape Italian and European thought and expression.

Graduates of Italian and classics programmes have an intellectual profile that is genuinely distinctive. Careers in academia, publishing, translation, cultural institutions, journalism, education, and the arts are all natural destinations. The combination of two classical literary traditions and the linguistic precision that both require produces graduates who can read closely, argue carefully, and communicate with depth.

The Edinburgh context and the strength of the relevant departments give graduates excellent preparation for academic careers in Italian studies, classics, or comparative literature. Further postgraduate study in Italian, classical studies, or Renaissance studies is a natural extension for those who wish to pursue specialist research.