[1] Neo-Latin is important for understanding early modern European culture and society, including the development of literature, science, religion and vernacular languages.
Part of the work of the field is to make texts accessible, and translated, and another is to help non-Latinists to engage with the material and where necessary to challenge misconceptions about the nature of Latin writing in the period.
Such misconceptions include the longevity of the relevance Latin, which is typically underestimated,[5] the "derivative" nature of Neo-Latin writing,[6] or that it competed, in direct opposition, with vernaculars.
Neo-Latin studies help reveal subtler relationships between languages, through promotion of standardisation and cross fertilisation through introducing new models of genre, for example.
Longer term, there are challenges from the predominance of English, as Neo-Latin needs to be studied with knowledge of the vernaculars of the period, as well as the decline in confidence in Latin even among Renaissance scholars.