This article introduces the special collection Teaching Late Latin: Past and Present, Challenges and Prospects and sets out a deliberately innovative, contrastive agenda for this issue of the Journal of Classics Teaching. While clearly programmatic in nature, this article advances a central claim: that examining the teaching of Latin in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages alongside the teaching of Late Latin today offers a productive lens through which to rethink Latin pedagogy across time. The special collection is structured around two dialoguing sections, Ars docendi antiqua and Ars docendi nova, which place medieval and contemporary classrooms side by side. In both contexts, teachers respond to shifting sociolinguistic landscapes with methodological creativity. By foregrounding these parallels, the volume challenges the widespread equation (still prevalent across much of the education system) of “Latin” with a narrowly defined Classical norm. At the same time, it calls for closer dialogue between philology and pedagogy, between historical transmission and present-day practice, and between scholars who research Late Antiquity and those who teach it. Our aim is not to offer definitive solutions, but to initiate a conversation. If this editorial has a programmatic edge, it is because we believe that reflecting on how Latin was (and is) taught is inseparable from reflecting on what kind of subject Classics wishes to be.

This article traces the history of teaching Vulgar and Late Latin (LVLT) at Finnish universities from the mid-19th century to the present, focusing on the University of Helsinki. Drawing on archival sources, we examine changes in teaching programmes, degree requirements and thesis output. We show how LVLT was gradually integrated into Latin studies through philological renewal, Romance philology and epigraphic research, peaking in a ‘boom’ from the 1960s to the 1990s. Key figures such as Veikko Väänänen and Iiro Kajanto were central to embedding LVLT in teaching and research. However, recent structural reforms and cuts to staff and courses have contributed to a decline in LVLT instruction.

The article examines current challenges in teaching Vulgar and Late Latin (LVLT) at the University of Helsinki, the institution with the longest tradition of teaching LVLT in Finland. Based on structured interviews with researcher-teachers and doctoral students, as well as the author’s own didactic experience, the study identifies institutional, teaching-related, and learning-related challenges for effective LVLT instruction. The key institutional challenges stem from significant reductions in degree requirements and teaching staff, limiting students’ exposure to LVLT. Teaching-related challenges emphasise the need for improved alignment between teaching methods and intended learning outcomes, while learning-related challenges concern declining Latin proficiency and academic skills among graduate students. Despite the difficulties, interdisciplinary and student-centred approaches have proven effective in LVLT teaching. The study highlights the importance of the linguistic, philological, and historical contextualisation of LVLT texts, especially original documents, as well as the necessity of independent study to supplement formal instruction.