What is the superlative of ipse?

Question

In later Latin, as ipse started to lose its force, Petronius uses ipsimus for emphasis:

Tamen ad delicias ipsimi [domini] annos quattuordecim fui. Nec turpe est, quod dominus iubet. Ego tamen et ipsimae [dominae] satis faciebam. Scitis, quid dicam: taceo, quia non sum de gloriosis.

Well, I was my very own [master]'s beloved at age fourteen. It's not shameful, whatever your master orders. And, well, I also used to do enough for my very own [mistress], too. You all know what I mean—I won't say any more, because I'm not the boastful type.

(Translation mine—this is from the mouth of Trimalchio, who uses intentionally bad Latin at times.)

Much more recently, Aleister Crowley uses a form ipsissimus in his esoteric writings:

And this is the Opening of the Grade of Ipsissimus, and by the Buddhists it is called the trance Nerodha-Samapatti.

Both seem like standard superlative forms from ipse, treating it like a normal adjective.

But are either of these good Classical style? Is there a "correct" superlative form attested in non-Vulgar Latin? And if so, which is it?

Answer 1

Joonas is correct: those forms don’t belong in good classical style.

Peter Stotz’s Handbuch zur lateinischen Sprache des Mittelalters mentions that Donatus explicitly forbade comparatives and superlatives from pronouns (note 180 in the linked page) but I could not find the citation online.

The same source says that Plautus’ ipsissimus was “certainly” (gewiß) modeled after Greek αὐτότατος.

To my knowledge there are no reflexes of ipsissimus in Romance languages, while the origin of Italian medesimo, French même, Spanish mismo, Sardinian matessi, etc. can be traced back to egomet ipsimus “I myself in person”, reanalysed as ego *metipsimus, so maybe ipsimus had some currency in colloquial Latin.

Answer 2

Classical corpus searches suggest that ipsimus is only attested in Satyricon and ipsissimus is used once by Plautus and once by Afranius. There are not enough attestations to decide which is correct, or whether both superlatives should be dismissed as improper classical Latin.

Since nothing is found in the best classical authors, I would say that in good classical style the superlative does not exist. I think a superlative of ipse would be something Cicero would have most certainly found use for, but his abstinence from this word signals that he did probably not consider it proper Latin. This is a matter of taste of course, but we should at least agree that the word is very rare in classical Latin.