diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 68bcf6ace0..7dc25a674e 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ Authors@R: c(
     person("Lorenz", "Walthert", role = "ctb"),
     person("Lucas", "Gallindo", role = "ctb"),
     person("Martin", "Modrák", role = "ctb"),
+    person("Michael", "Braun", role = "ctb"),
     person("Michael", "Chirico", role = "ctb"),
     person("Michael", "Friendly", role = "ctb"),
     person("Michal", "Bojanowski", role = "ctb"),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 6bdd6971f7..da397dea65 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 ## NEW FEATURES 
 
+- Added a pattern and file type (.RLatex), so R code chunks in a LaTeX document can be defined within an Rcode environment.
+
 - It is possible to customize the sign `\times` used for the scientific notation of inline numeric output via a global option, e.g., `options(knitr.inline.times = '\\cdot ')` (thanks, @wuffi @trentks, #1563).
 
 ## BUG FIXES
diff --git a/R/output.R b/R/output.R
index e65c50512d..bd25d78d27 100644
--- a/R/output.R
+++ b/R/output.R
@@ -232,10 +232,11 @@ knit = function(input, output = NULL, tangle = FALSE, text = NULL, quiet = FALSE
            ext, "' in built-in pattern lists; ",
            'see ?knit_patterns on how to set up customized patterns')
     set_pattern(pattern)
-    if (pattern == 'rnw' && length(sweave_lines <- which_sweave(text)) > 0)
+    if (pattern %in% c('rnw','rlatex') && length(sweave_lines <- which_sweave(text)) > 0)
       remind_sweave(if (in.file) input, sweave_lines)
     opts_knit$set(out.format = switch(
-      pattern, rnw = 'latex', tex = 'latex', html = 'html', md = 'markdown',
+                      pattern, rnw = 'latex', tex = 'latex', html = 'html', md = 'markdown',
+                      rlatex = 'latex',
       rst = 'rst', brew = 'brew', asciidoc = 'asciidoc', textile = 'textile'
     ))
   }
@@ -344,7 +345,7 @@ process_file = function(text, output) {
 auto_out_name = function(input, ext = tolower(file_ext(input))) {
   base = sans_ext(input)
   name = if (opts_knit$get('tangle')) c(base, '.R') else
-    if (ext %in% c('rnw', 'snw')) c(base, '.tex') else
+    if (ext %in% c('rnw', 'snw', 'rlatex')) c(base, '.tex') else
       if (ext %in% c('rmd', 'rmarkdown', 'rhtml', 'rhtm', 'rtex', 'stex', 'rrst', 'rtextile'))
         c(base, '.', substring(ext, 2L)) else
           if (grepl('_knit_', input)) sub('_knit_', '', input) else
@@ -355,6 +356,7 @@ auto_out_name = function(input, ext = tolower(file_ext(input))) {
 # determine output format based on file extension
 ext2fmt = c(
   rnw = 'latex', snw = 'latex', tex = 'latex', rtex = 'latex', stex = 'latex',
+  rlatex = 'latex',
   htm = 'html', html = 'html', rhtml = 'html', rhtm = 'html',
   md = 'markdown', markdown = 'markdown', rmd = 'markdown', rmarkdown = 'markdown',
   brew = 'brew', rst = 'rst', rrst = 'rst'
diff --git a/R/pattern.R b/R/pattern.R
index 1899c6fafa..07a578d2ce 100644
--- a/R/pattern.R
+++ b/R/pattern.R
@@ -49,7 +49,16 @@ all_patterns = list(
     chunk.end = '^###[.]\\s+end[.]rcode\\s*$',
     ref.chunk = '^\\s*<<(.+)>>\\s*$',
     inline.code = '@r +([^@]+)\\s*@',
-    inline.comment = '^###[.].*')
+    inline.comment = '^###[.].*'),
+
+  `rlatex` = list(
+       chunk.begin = "^\\s*\\\\begin\\{Rcode\\}(?:\\[(.*)?\\])?\\s*(%.*)?$",
+    chunk.end = "^\\s*\\\\end\\{Rcode\\}\\s*(%+.*|)$",
+    inline.code = "\\\\Sexpr\\{([^}]+)\\}",
+    inline.comment = "^\\s*%.*",
+    header.begin = "(^|\n)\\s*\\\\documentclass[^}]+\\}",
+    document.begin = "\\s*\\\\begin\\{document\\}",
+    ref.chunk = "^\\s*\\\\begin\\{Rcode\\}\\[(.*)\\].*$")
 )
 
 .sep.label = '^(#|--)+\\s*(@knitr|----+)(.*?)-*\\s*$'  # pattern for code chunks in an R script
@@ -128,6 +137,9 @@ pat_rst = function() set_pattern('rst')
 pat_asciidoc = function() set_pattern('asciidoc')
 #' @rdname pat_fun
 pat_textile = function() set_pattern('textile')
+#' @rdname pat_fun
+pat_rlatex = function() set_pattern('rlatex')
+
 
 
 # helper functions
@@ -146,6 +158,7 @@ detect_pattern = function(text, ext) {
     if (ext %in% c('rmd', 'rmarkdown', 'markdown', 'md')) return('md')
     if (ext %in% c('rst', 'rrst')) return('rst')
     if (ext %in% c('asciidoc', 'rasciidoc', 'adoc', 'radoc')) return('asciidoc')
+    if (ext %in% c('rlatex', 'Rlatex', 'RLatex')) return('rlatex')
   }
   for (p in names(all_patterns)) {
     for (i in c('chunk.begin', 'inline.code')) {
diff --git a/tests/testit/test-rlatex.R b/tests/testit/test-rlatex.R
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bc636a2225
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testit/test-rlatex.R
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+library(testit)
+
+assert(
+  'detect_pattern() automatically detects syntax patterns',
+  identical(detect_pattern('<<>>='), 'rnw'),
+  identical(detect_pattern('<<foo, bar=TRUE>>='), 'rnw'),
+  identical(detect_pattern('\\begin{Rcode}'), 'rlatex'),
+  identical(detect_pattern('\\begin{Rcode}[foo, bar=TRUE]'), 'rlatex'),
+  identical(detect_pattern('asdf', 'rlatex'), 'rlatex'),
+  detect_pattern('foo') %==% NULL
+)
+
+
+ce = all_patterns$rlatex$chunk.end
+assert(
+  'patterns for rlatex',
+  identical(grep(ce, '  \\end{Rcode}'), 1L), # spaces before @
+  identical(grep(ce, '\\end{Rcode}   '), 1L), # spaces after @
+  identical(grep(ce, '\\end{Rcode} %asdf'), 1L), # comments after %
+  identical(grep(ce, '\\end{Rcode} asdf'), integer()), # only spaces/comments allowed
+  identical(grep(ce, ' \\end{Rcode} a% sdf'), integer())
+)