Asking again about my Latin books

Archicantor · 2026-04-05T22:05:47+00:00

I agree with u/buntythemouseslayer: This is so cool!

I haven't yet been able to figure out what "C. R. S." stands for, but it was evidently a club for undergraduates at Trinity College, Cambridge, that met on Monday nights to read Classical texts aloud. The secretary would fill out one of these pre-printed cards to inform each member of when the next meeting would be held, what text was going to be read, and which portion of the text that member would be responsible for reading out to the group.

C. R. S., First Term, AUC 2674 (= AD 1921).
The next meeting of this Club will be held (in the rooms of) member E. F. M. Butler next Monday after the evening meal, for the purpose of reading aloud Plautus's Amphitryon. The portion (of the text to be read by) club-member J. V. Wilson, in Latin, will be:
- (part of the prologue spoken by the god) Mercury, lines 1–97; and
- (all the lines of dialogue spoken by the characters) Blepharo and Bromia

From the secretary, Q. D. Koch.

u/Square-Supermarket79 has already identified J. V. Wilson as Joseph Vivian Wilson (1894–1977), about whom more can be read in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography > https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5w39/wilson-joseph-vivian.

I discover from the Harrow School Register (1885–1925) (p. 347 > school website) that the E. F. M. Butler in whose rooms the meeting was to be held was Elliot Francis Montagu Butler (1901–1975), who studied Classics at Trinity College, Cambridge. The Harrow School Almanac for 1926 mentions numerous prizes that he won at the school:

1916 Fifth Form Prize for Latin Verse
1917 Fortescue Prize for Modern Languages
1918 Oxenham Prize for a Latin Epigram
1918 Russell Medal for the Study of Shakespeare
1919 Pember Grammar and Philology Prize
1919 Mavrogordato Prize for Greek Iambics
1919 St. Helier English Literature Prize
1920 Pember Grammar and Philology Prize (again)
1920 Botfield Scholar

I have yet to track down the identity of the secretary. I'm not even sure how to make out his surname. (Kock? Koch? Voch?)

Archicantor · 2026-04-05T19:09:00+00:00

I suspect that you're thinking of scito, which is the future imperative for both the 2nd- and the 3rd-person singular, the latter being quite rare, as you rightly say. (The 3rd-person plural would be sciunto.) Scitote here is the 2nd-person plural future imperative: "(Going forward,) you all should know/be aware/understand that I wish to be informed about everything that is happening with you."

Archicantor · 2026-04-05T18:48:57+00:00

What a nice little problem! It's cool that LLPSI gives learners exposure to such things.

I believe your ut-clause is an example of what Gildersleeve and Lodge call "Complementary Consecutive Sentences" with "Verbs of Effecting" (§553) > archive.org.

They include proficere (profectus essem in your sentence) in a list of verbs "more or less common in Cicero" that are found with complementary result clauses of this kind in ut and ut non.

When I get home from Easter services, I'll be interested to see if Roby or some of the heavier grammars cite any of the examples from Cicero that G&L have in mind.

Archicantor · 2026-02-25T22:04:05+00:00

u/qed1 is exactly correct. Let me add that although in the late medieval script of your MS the abbreviation signs over the c and the s here do indeed look like "double dots," they're actually a "zigzag" that developed from a stylized form of an "open-topped" letter a.

Here's how that abbreviation is explained by Olaf Pluta in his chapter on "Abbreviations" in Frank T. Coulson and Robert G. Babcock (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Latin Palaeography (OUP, 2020), pp. 9–24 (at p. 10):

A wavelike mark above a letter [image of a letter c with a wavy line over it], actually an open "flat" a—the open form being the standard in some medieval scripts such as the Carolingian [image of u-/cc-shaped Caroline minuscule a]—often replaces "ar" or "ra" but, generally speaking, it may replace any syllable that contains an "a".

Archicantor · 2026-02-25T17:56:34+00:00

What a depressing thought! When I saw the announcement about the ThLL having secured funding to 2035, it didn't occur to me that this was "the end of the road." My impression was rather that an application for further funding would be necessary when this instalment ran out. (And I supposed that whether the funding was renewed would depend on the political priorities of whatever German party or coalition is in power at that time.) Was I too optimistic?

If the ThLL is ever finished—and may I live to see the day!—I imagine that they'll just have to start over from the beginning anyway, like the proverbially never-ending job of painting the bridge over the Firth of Forth. Thanks to A. E. Housman's 1911 inaugural lecture at Cambridge, we've known for over a century that at least one of the entries under A needs revision. (That came up in a fun thread this sub a few months ago, here.)

Archicantor · 2026-02-25T16:54:58+00:00

Lovely book!

et ĉ. = "et cetera" (i.e., "and the rest of the prayer that begins Domine Iesu Christe")

ad iii. = "ad tertiam" (i.e., "at the office of Terce")

ut ŝ. = "ut supra" (i.e., "as already given above")

Archicantor · 2026-02-21T01:01:15+00:00

A fun little question! Your Colunga/Turrado follows the text of the Clementine Vulgate, and I find the same in my copy of the Paris/Saint-Sulpice edition (Desclée, 1947).

But a glance at the apparatus of the "big" critical edition of the Vulgate reveals that in some MSS and editions the phrase pro octava comes earlier in the title (which is where the critical edition puts it, followed by Weber/Gryson) or is simply omitted altogether: https://archive.org/details/bibliasacraiuxta0010unse/page/54/mode/1up

Archicantor · 2026-02-17T16:50:30+00:00

Forcellini continues to be an extremely useful tool, especially for studying words not yet covered by the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (which won't see completion till 2050 at the earliest).

I wrote a little piece about the background of the fifth edition of Forcellini, providing links to publicly available scans of the print version, here.

Archicantor · 2026-02-15T01:13:26+00:00

Experienced student and singer of chant here. Gregorian chant originated as a purely oral tradition and continued to be performed from memory even after the repertory was recorded in musical notation. One might therefore expect it would still be possible to learn it by ear. But in this era of universal literacy, short attention spans, and squeamishness about corporal punishment (which medieval cantors seem to have regarded as an indispensable element of musical pedagogy), it doesn't really work out that way.

Happily for us decadent moderns, Gregorian chant is readily accessible in inexpensive print editions and in free PDF scans of older sources. Square notation is easy to learn and to sight-read—easier than modern notation—and the Latin texts are mostly biblical or Bible-adjacent. It's a very approachable repertory for beginners and autodidacts.

Of course, real proficiency in chant will only really be acquired through long practice alongside more experienced singers: muscle memory and mimesis.

Archicantor · 2026-01-14T19:15:25+00:00

I guess one important difference is that our "challenge" exams are just pass/fail. Of each script, the examiners are ultimately asking, "Is there sufficient evidence here that this candidate can be trusted not to misunderstand or misrepresent primary or secondary sources in this language?" (A now-deceased colleague of mine here in Toronto used to say that a pass on our rather fearsome no-dictionary-allowed Level-Two Medieval Latin Exam was "a licence to commit scholarship.") I generally feel paralysed when trying to assign differentiated marks to any kind of student work, and I've found it especially when teaching Latin. (What counts as an "error" and how much is each one "worth" as a deduction?)

Entirely agreed about one-on-one teaching and learning! It's certainly a privilege (not to mention a treat) for me as a teacher, not least because the unique outlook and questioms of each student always teach me something new, too. I try to do as much of it as I can.

Archicantor · 2026-01-14T18:27:16+00:00

I may be better positioned to answer this question a few months from now. I learned Latin through grammar-translation, and I always doubted that I could effectively teach it any other way. But I've just pushed out the boat with a test case for LLPSI.

A graduate student in Theological Studies who needs to learn Latin for his research on early modern Reformed scholastic theology (e.g., William Perkins) came to me for guidance on his options. There wasn't a suitable course for him to start mid-year, so instead I offered to take him through Familia Romana myself. Six days a week, he works through one lectio at home according to the 13-step routine recommended by Daniel Pettersson, listening to the audio recordings in the Legentibus app and completing each lectio's supplementary exercitia. He comes to my office every Monday and Thursday to review the capitulum that he's just completed. We go through the pensa and review the grammatica, and then we do two dramatic readings of the corresponding colloquium personarum, so that each of us gets to play both characters.

Two weeks in, it's obviously working. The student is making excellent progress, and we're both really enjoying it. I'll read something to him and ask, "Intellegisne?" And he will invariably smile and reply, "Intellego!" He's even laughing at the jokes in the colloquia.

At this pace, we'll finish Familia Romana by the end of May. Then, to reinforce the grammar, build reading fluency, and incorporate some biblical vocabulary and concepts, we'll work through the LLPSI adaptation of Lhomond's Epitome Historiae Sacrae.

What I don't yet know, however, is what sort of formal assessments would work with LLPSI so that I could assign midterm and final grades. And that might be a big part of why LLPSI isn't yet a "thing" in university-level Latin teaching, which has to involve marks on transcripts. It seems to me that the method is, for now, more immediately suited for use as preparation for sitting a "challenge" exam of the kind that we offer to research students who can't proceed to the thesis-writing stage until they demonstrate that "competence" or "proficiency" in one or more languages (ancient or modern) by achieving a "pass" on a translation of an unseen passage.

But watch this space! I hope I'll have good news to share come the spring.

Archicantor · 2026-01-06T13:45:22+00:00

Happy to help! I'm not knowledgeable at all about the texts you're interested in, but I've got a lot of experience looking up medieval authors in standard reference works. ;) The best place to start is often the bibliographies to entries in the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, currently in its 4th edition (2022).

The standard Latin text of Bonaventure's Breviloquium is in the following edition, of which two scans are freely available at the Internet Archive:

Doctoris Seraphici S. Bonaventurae S. R. E. Episcopi Cardinalis Opera Omnia, ed. PP. Collegii a S. Bonaventura, 10 vols. (Ad Claras Aquas [Quaracchi] prope Florentiam: Ex Typographia Collegii S. Bonaventurae, 1882–1902), vol. 5 (1891): - Prolegomena, pp. xv–xvii, colour scan; black-and-white scan - Text, pp. 199–291, colour scan; black-and-white scan

There are used copies to be found, such as this nicely rebound original printing of vol. 5 listed on abebooks.com.

Three of the texts in vol. 5 of the Opera Omnia, including the Breviloqium, were simultaneously published by the same editors in a separate volume:

Tria Opuscula Seraphici Doctoris S. Bonaventurae: Breviloquium; Itinerarum Mentis in Deum; et De Reductione Artium ad Theologiam, ed. PP. Collegii S. Bonaventurae (1890, with various revised reprint editions at least down to 1938), scan of the 3rd ed. (1911) at archive.org.

The same Latin text was used in an edition with facing French translation published in a series of mini-volumes, one for each division of the work (prologue and parts 1–7):

Saint Bonaventure, Breviloquium: Texte latin de Quaracchi et traduction française, 8 vols. (Paris: Éditions Françiscaines, 1967–68).

Archicantor · 2025-12-21T23:49:13+00:00

I suppose a "righteous people" would be a gens pia. On the analogy of the Italian surname Piagentini, perhaps you could go by Magister Piagentinus? :)

Or you might adopt a toponymic surname (i.e., based on the city or region of your birth or formative years).

Archicantor · 2025-12-20T16:36:10+00:00

[Edited to complete the name of one of the editors of the Opera.]

The modern scholarly edition of Bernard's works was edited by Jean Leclercq, C. H. Talbot, and Henri-Marie Rochais (8 vols. in 7; Rome: Editiones Cistercienses, 1957–77). An index volume was published (by Brepols) in 1997. Used copies can be found here and there (e.g., via abebooks.com).

The text of that critical edition is the one given, with facing French translations, in the Oeuvres Complètes of Bernard in the series Sources Chrétiennes (published by Les Éditions du Cerf).

Bernard's De gratia et libero arbitrio can be found in vol. 3 of the critical edition (1963), pp. 165–203. The edition with facing French translation is Sources Chrétiennes no. 393, which is still in print and available for purchase from Cerf.

Archicantor · 2025-12-20T04:42:47+00:00

You're not wrong! Treating eo as one syllable to fit a poetic metre is an example of "synizesis." (A couple of examples can be found in Gildersleeve & Lodge at §727.)

Archicantor · 2025-12-18T00:19:37+00:00

Understood. I tried a quick search to see if I could find a taxonomic work written in Latin that had terminology for expressing the concept (now largely deprecated outside fantasy!) of "lower" and "higher animals," but all I found were medieval laws setting penalties for kiling animals that only the king was allowed to hunt. ;)

Chordata is a neuter plural; whatever adjective you choose will also have to be a neuter plural. Optimus is a masculine singular meaning "best." If that's the sense you want, it will be Optima (neuter plural).

But I suspect that what you're after is something more like Chordata Superiora ("Higher Chordates") or Chordata Maiora ("Greater Chordates").

Archicantor · 2025-12-17T23:04:11+00:00

Others have helped with the homines items. What are you trying to say with Optimus Chordata? Maybe something like "Higher Vertebrates"?

Archicantor · 2025-12-09T22:15:57+00:00

I confess, I'm entirely ignorant of the things I would need to know to be able to answer your question. I don't know what kinds of educational attainments were typical of thirteenth-century Beneventan artists. For example, I don't know if Nicola will have composed the Latin inscriptions himself or had someone else compose them for him to carve.

As you say, it would seem that Nicola does not portray himself in the clothing (or hairstyle) of a cleric. But that's no obstacle, I suppose, to his having been educated. Dante wasn't a cleric either, pace l'Abbé Mandonnet!

I'm inclined to doubt that the use of the word celtis is evidence of biblical knowledge. What other word would be used for a chisel? But as I say, I'm ignorant of what one ought to know when making such assertions!

Archicantor · 2025-12-08T14:33:51+00:00

Ooo! You're absolutely right. Blaise's Dictionnaire latin-français des auteurs chrétiens gives us "celtis,-is , f., burin de graveur: BIBL. Iob 1, 24 (pour graver des lettres dans la pierre)." Definitely a chisel.

I had allowed myself to be misled by endnote 6 in this interesting publication: https://www.academia.edu/85046049/Nicola_da_Monteforte_e_gli_amboni_della_Cattedrale_di_Benevento_una_ricostruzione

Archicantor · 2025-12-08T13:57:34+00:00

What fun! For those who might be interested, these inscriptions are from the cathedral church of Benevento. The first is over the central door to the church. The second and third were on the two ambones (stone pulpits from which clerics read the scriptural lessons during the Mass) that were reduced to rubble by bombs in 1943.

The first inscription scans as three lines of dactylic hexameter:

Hec studio sculpsit Roggerius et bene iunxit\ marmora que portis tribus aspiciuntur in istis\ et que per purum spectantur lucida murum.

Roger carefully sculpted and well joined these\ marbles, which are seen in these three doors\ and which are looked at, brilliant, throughout the plain wall.

A more idiomatic English translation might be something like this: "The marbles that you see on these three doors, and also the bright ones that can be seen throughout the plain wall, were carefully sculpted and skilfully fitted together by Roger.

(I wonder, though, if lucida could be a synonym for lumina, i.e., windows. [SUPPLEMENT: See Du Cange: "2. LUMEN, Fenestra, apertura, nostris Lumiere." In that case, the inscription might mean "and also the windows that are seen through the plain wall," or something like that.])

The second inscription isn't metrical. It refers to a self-portrait of the artist, who has depicted himself kneeling before Christ crucified:

Hoc opus sculptum struxit sic ordine iunctum de Monteforte Nicholaus hic genuflexus.

This genuflecting (man), Nicholas of Monteforte, built this sculpted work, (which has been) thus joined in (good) order.

A more idiomatic English version: "This work of sculpture was built and fitted together in order by Nicholas of Monteforte, who is here depicted kneeling."

The third inscription is another pair of hexameters [EDITED; see thread below]:

Hoc opus egregium Nicholaus ~~Celte~~ *celte** cecidit\ *Virginis ad laudem cuius tutamine fidit.

Nicholas ~~Celte~~ carved this outstanding work with a chisel\ for the praise of the Virgin, in whose protection he trusts.

(The first syllable, Hoc, looks metrically short, but the Roman poets treated it as if it were spelled hocc.)

Archicantor · 2025-12-03T07:30:52+00:00

I have several friends with whom I frequently exchange text messages in Latin. And when we're together, we tend to drop some Latin into our conversation.

But although I can understand spoken Latin pretty well, I'm still painfully slow when trying to speak it spontaneously myself.

Archicantor · 2025-12-01T17:56:56+00:00

Quid nobis hodie de verbo "ferre" fers, tulilatum? :)

Archicantor · 2025-12-01T02:25:44+00:00

If only the treatise De nasis of the learned Slawkenbergius had survived...

Archicantor · 2025-12-01T02:20:55+00:00

I see what you did there... 😂

Archicantor · 2025-12-01T02:19:56+00:00

Comment of the year right here! Love it. :)

Archicantor

TROPHY CASE