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Which languages did John Milton learn during his education?
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John Milton
John Milton, engraving by Jacob Houbraken, 1741.
During his education at St. Paul’s School and later at Christ’s College, Cambridge, John Milton developed remarkable linguistic skills. He excelled in the study of Latin and Greek, both of which were central to his formal schooling and his later literary compositions.12
In addition to these classical languages, Milton acquired proficiency in Italian. He became so skilled in the language that he could speak it as fluently as a native speaker, a talent he demonstrated during his travels in Italy. Furthermore, Milton demonstrated an early aptitude for Hebrew, as evidenced by his translation of a psalm from the original Hebrew into English verse while he was still a student at St. Paul’s.123