George Buchanan and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland

Better known for his Latin poetry and teaching Greek to the young James VI, as well as fluency in French, Hebrew, Spanish and possibly Italian, George Buchanan was a native Scots and Gaelic speaker. Professor Ali Cathcart will examine Buchanan’s writings about the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland: the Highlands and Isles, and the region’s inhabitants, and will explore his comments about clanship, his description of the islands around Scotland found in his 1582 Rerum Scoticarum Historia, and the significance of these aspects of his writings.