Daniel Skinner - Writing Style

Writing Style

Skinner's writing style, in particular his abilities with Latin, are of particular concern to scholars, in that they shed light on his presumed rôle as amanuensis.

Gordon Campbell observes that the Latin that Skinner used in his letter to Pepys "contains small touches which would have been condemned by Milton or any purist", and that Skinner's mistakes "while fairly rare, seem to point to a limited competence in Latin rather than carelessness". Campbell notes that Skinner's occasional slips in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew render suspect the oft-made assertion that Skinner was one of Milton's pupils; pointing out that whilst the Latin of Picard's portion of De doctrina Christiana is "virtually perfect", Skinner's chapters of the same contain "a light sprinkling of errors". (Dr Charles Richard Sumner records 27 errors in Skinner's work, but only four in Picard's, which is longer than Skinner's.)