Italian and Latin

The study of Italian and Latin together offers a rare depth of perspective on European civilisation, connecting the spoken language of one of the world's great cultures to the written foundation from which it grew. Latin shaped the grammar, vocabulary, and literary traditions that Italian inherited and transformed over centuries, and studying the two side by side gives you a richer understanding of both than either could provide alone. This programme at the University of St Andrews draws on that relationship to develop your command of Italian to a high level of proficiency while also grounding you in the classical texts and traditions that have informed Western thought from antiquity onwards.

You will develop your Italian across all four skills, working towards fluency in writing, speaking, reading, and listening, and engaging with a broad range of specialist topics in Italian literature, culture, history, politics, and film. Alongside this, you will read and analyse Latin texts that span philosophy, poetry, history, and rhetoric, learning to interpret them closely and situate them in their historical and intellectual contexts. The combination cultivates precision in language, sensitivity to meaning across registers, and an ability to think critically about how cultures express and transmit ideas across time.

The programme runs over four years, including a year abroad, which gives you the opportunity to live and study in an Italian-speaking country, developing your fluency in an immersive setting and gaining firsthand experience of the culture you have been studying.

Graduates of combined language and classical studies programmes are highly regarded in a wide range of fields. Careers in translation, interpreting, publishing, journalism, education, and the cultural sector are natural paths, and the analytical rigour of classical study also prepares you well for law, public policy, diplomacy, and international organisations. Many graduates go on to postgraduate research in linguistics, literary studies, or classical scholarship, while others bring their language skills and cultural knowledge to roles in business, the arts, and heritage sectors across Europe and beyond.