Questions tagged [medieval-latin]
Questions regarding the Latin of the Medieval period, approximately 500–1400
122
questions
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Mountains and Mountain Ranges: Names
I have been recently enjoying Mark Walker's delightful translation of Professor Tolkien's masterpiece, The Hobbit (Hobbitus Ille). I was especially charmed by Tolkien's maps, translated into Latin (...
3
votes
1answer
79 views
Why does Ecclesiastical Latin pronounce “au” as written?
Salvete,
Ecclesiastical Latin, by which I mean here the Italian Traditional Pronunciation seems to have preserved some characteristics of rustic Roman pronunciation despite the spelling remaining ...
4
votes
1answer
62 views
Non obstante eo
What is the translation of "non obstante eo" in the context of this sentence? Also, is the rest of my translation accurate?
This is the original text:
De Gentilibus dicitur passim, quod rejectis ...
3
votes
1answer
52 views
Pronunciation of ngi in Italianate Pronunciation
Salvete,
Does anyone know how people schooled in the Italian style of pronunciation would pronounce diphthongi, the plural of diphthongus?
I have seen some examples of books printed circa 1700 where ...
2
votes
0answers
43 views
Cantus de beata virgine quae de ea in sabbatis agitur officium in conventu
This is a rubric for the hymn Ave maris stella from a French 13th century source. Someone helped me and gave me: 'A song for the Blessed Virgin when her office is celebrated on Saturdays in the ...
4
votes
1answer
109 views
Item versi in laude Christi editi a juvenco presbytero. can[untur] quando reversi fuerint et appropinquant regias ecclesie (sic)
This is a rubric for the hymn Gloria, laus, et honor from an 11th century manuscript. I've asked several people for help on it. Some said it is partly in Italian. I'm not sure why the (sic) is ...
4
votes
1answer
66 views
ad sextam in tertiis et totis duplicibus
This is a rubric (instruction) for when to sing a hymn. I translated it as "At Sext on third and all doubles." This doesn't seem right to me because the 'third' is redundant. I would like to know ...
6
votes
1answer
229 views
What did bishop Rémi say to Clovis?
When Clovis, the first king of Franks, stepped into the church where we was to be baptized, he was allegedly told by Rémi, bishop of Reims
Depona colla, Sicamber.
We were taught at school (in ...
3
votes
1answer
91 views
Dative/Ablative Substantive Translation?
Is this translation accurate?
Qui viam dicit qua ad illam perveniri non tantum potest sed et debet, dicit id quod optimo et optatissimo in vita proximum est. Qui hanc viam ignorat, caetera omnia ...
2
votes
1answer
73 views
Medieval Latin to English translation
Secundo firmamentum caeli in medio libravit aquarum, ipsis aquis ac terra cum caelo superiore ac virtutibus, quae in ea conditorem laudarent, ante horum sex dierum exordium creatis.
This sentence is ...
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vote
1answer
75 views
Instructional book for the Medieval philosophy student
I'm seeking for a book which contains several fragments of the medieval philosophical works, literally translates them and explains the obscure points for who wants to improve his Latin.
9
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1answer
170 views
Which ancient Latin works survived into the Middle Ages or later but are now lost?
While reading Saint Aldhelm's 'Riddles' I saw a reference to Lucan's Orpheus, a Latin poem written in the first century AD. The seventh century writer Aldhelm had a copy of Orpheus, but it is now lost ...
6
votes
1answer
82 views
finding a Latin quote
I am reading the book "6/5" by Alexandre Laumonier, in French about high-frequency trading in electronic financial markets (bear with me). Near the end of "5", he says
Pour autant, comme l'écrivit ...
4
votes
1answer
320 views
Latinisation of a surname. Seeking advice from expert Latinists
I have a need to Latinise a surname (details about that name are provided further down in my question) rather urgently, but with my miniscule knowledge of Latin I cannot do that myself well. I hope ...
2
votes
1answer
93 views
Online text of the Officium Parvum
What version do you have of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Officium Parvum Beatae Mariae Virginis)? I have the one posted on Play Books but it has some errors. Can you show me where the ...
1
vote
1answer
43 views
What do “inexquisitum” and “supramemorati” mean?
In a medieval document I am reading the words "inexquisitum" and "supramemorati" appear. I do not know these words, can not find them on Google and they are not in my dictionary. Does anyone know what ...
4
votes
1answer
89 views
Help with a medieval Latin sentence
I am trying to translate a sentence in medieval Latin (see below). It comes from a document that concernes an estate that is given to a monastery. Below you can see the relevant excerpt, I bolded the ...
4
votes
1answer
81 views
Did “sanctifico” ever mean “to make the sign of the cross”?
The Spanish word "santiguar" means "to make the sign of the cross". So for instance, when a Catholic enters a church, s/he "se santigua" (s/he makes the sign of the cross on her/himself).
According ...
4
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1answer
124 views
Where does this plural come from?
I am translating a medieval Latin text about the donation of a monastery. In the text there is this sentence:
Idcirco noverit omnium fidelium sanctae dei ecclesiae nostrumque praesentium scilicet ...
3
votes
1answer
66 views
How to translate this medieval sentence
I am trying to translate the following sentence:
Si liberalitatis nostrae munere de beneficiis a deo nobis conlatis locis ecclesiasticis quiddam conferimus, id nobis procul dubio as aeternae ...
6
votes
2answers
396 views
What did “quid pro quo” originally mean?
The phrase quid pro quo means "what for what" in Latin, but that makes very little sense to me.
Wikipedia hints at the original meaning having to do with substitutions.
That makes sense, as pro can ...
2
votes
2answers
502 views
What is a “robot” in Latin?
I read in Wikipedia the word robotum and robotor. Also, there is automaton, and androides. I don't see such a word in the [short online version of the] Lexicon Recentis Latinatis by the Vatican (which ...
2
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1answer
54 views
Which word best translates spark as in a spark of energy?
Any latin, my tags aren't a mistake. The more variations the better thanks
3
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1answer
72 views
Latin expression for “carrying something on one's back”
In Spanish, the word cuesta is nowadays used as slope. Nonetheless, the etymology of the word indicates that it comes fom Latin costa, ae meaning "a side" but also "a rib". In fact, an old meaning for ...
3
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1answer
431 views
Variation in the spelling of word-final M
I recently visited the museum of the main monastery of the Carthusian order near Grenoble.
I saw this in an open book on display in a former chamber of a monk:
What took me by surprise is the ...
6
votes
1answer
179 views
What does a red v with a dot above mean in the Misal rico de Cisneros (Spain, 1518)?
What do the red v. mean?
Manuscript:
http://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=12826&page=246 page 675
As stated in my other question, I've been making the manuscript into a font.
4
votes
2answers
266 views
Occasus nescius
In the first line of this 12th-century conductus:
Sol oritur occasus nescius
what does nescius refer to? Maybe diagramming the sentence is all I need, because I don't follow the grammar.
If the ...
3
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0answers
63 views
Zeugma on a genitive noun: extraordinary or prosaic?
This Reddit comment points out that there is a zeugma on a genitive noun in this sentence from the conductus "Sol oritur occasus nescius"* in the Hortus Deliciarum:
Et filiæ fit pater filius
I'd ...
9
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1answer
860 views
What do three diagonal dots above a letter mean in the “Misal rico de Cisneros” (Spain, 1518)?
I can't seem to find this in any books about medieval scribal abbreviations.
Manuscript: http://bdh-rd.bne.es/viewer.vm?id=12826&page=246
page 223/1613
They can be found all throughout the ...
8
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1answer
288 views
Why does the Misal rico de Cisneros uses the word “Qiſſa”, and what is it supposed to mean? Why not “Miſſa” (Missa)?
The Misal rico de Cisneros, produced by archbishop Cisneros, the archbishop of Toledo, Spain, in the early sixteenth century, is a Latin Catholic missal also known as the Missale secundum ...
4
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2answers
114 views
The meaning of 'belgicare' in Notker Balbulus
What is the meaning of the obscure verb belgicare or belgico?
Background
Notker Balbulus of St. Gall (c. 840 to 912) writes this verb in a letter/epistle to a certain Lantbert, wherein Notker ...
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1answer
60 views
What is the Tinctura Physica?
This question quotes an alchemical text by Sendivogius, which mentions the Tinctura Physica as equivalent to the Lapis Philosophorum, i.e. the Philosopher's Stone.
But what exactly was the Tinctura ...
5
votes
2answers
351 views
Longest Text in Latin
What are the longest texts, say top 5, transmitted via manuscript from the Classical/Early Medieval period?
5
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1answer
552 views
Translation of the latin word 'sit' in Thomas Aquinas' works
Modern translations of medieval texts frequently translate the Latin verb 'sit' as he/she/it is. However, 'sit' is the subjunctive mood of the verb 'sum'.
In my view it should be translated as he/...
4
votes
1answer
148 views
What is the “apparatus fontium”?
I have encountered with apparatus fontium for example in this reference:
Gundissalinus, De divisione philosophiae, apparatus fontium ad pp. 36 –7
What is it and what is it's the literal meaning?
5
votes
4answers
301 views
Meaning of “individuandum”
What is the meaning and structure of individuandum?
I guess that it is an accusative gerund of unknown verb to me.
For example in this context: (Siger de Brabant, Quaestiones in metaphysicam, 1981, p....
6
votes
1answer
146 views
In what sense is a university (universitas) a whole?
The word for a university in many languages (not Finnish though!) comes the Latin word universitas.
The word appears to mean roughly "the whole", but one might also analyze it along the lines of "...
8
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2answers
577 views
What sort of grammatical construct is ‘Quod per sortem sternit fortem’?
In the poem ‘O Fortuna’ (anon., 13th c., but made famous by Carl Orff’s setting), there is this verse:
Quod per sortem
sternit fortem
mecum omnes plangite!
This is typically translated as ‘...
3
votes
1answer
126 views
Which Latin verb was closer to the current meaning of English “solve”?
Nowadays the English verb solve means:
Find an answer to, explanation for, or means of effectively dealing with (a problem or mystery).
The etymology of the word indicates that it comes:
from ...
6
votes
1answer
100 views
Help with paleography in a 16th century grant
I'm transcribing/translating a 16th century document relating to my ancestors, but struggling with a few words. One in particular is proving difficult - the contracted last word on the 1st line of the ...
6
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5answers
229 views
How does one “imitate into everything”?
"Good King Wenceslas" is a classic Christmas song, but its melody was taken from an older song: "Tempus Adest Floridum", from the Finnish carol book Piae Cantiones ("Pious Songs").
The first few ...
11
votes
2answers
204 views
what does “less correctly” mean in the Lewis & Short?
1.
L&S: caenum (less correctly coenum)
L&S: cena (not coena, caena)
It seems “coenum” and “coena” both are medieval spellings which were straight borrowed from Greek. So both of them should ...
5
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0answers
208 views
Was the name “Sasan/Sassan” often spelled with a double S in Latin or Greek?
A question on ELU (“Sassanian” vs. “Sasanian”) brought up the fact that the name of Sāsān has often been spelled in English with a double S in the middle: "Sassan". (The same goes for related words ...
5
votes
2answers
113 views
Meaning of “naturam unibilitatis”
In Summa theologiae (ST I q. 29 a. 1 ad 5) one can read:
Ad quintum dicendum quod anima est pars humanae speciei, et ideo, licet sit separata, quia tamen retinet naturam unibilitatis, non potest ...
6
votes
1answer
144 views
Latin etymology of Spanish “tarde”
In Spanish, the word "tarde" has two different meanings:
The part of the day between noon and dusk. Equivalent to the English noun "afternoon".
Happening after the due, usual, or proper time. ...
10
votes
1answer
822 views
Pun on Leibniz quote
Can anyone help me out with the two Latin sentences in the quote below ? After googling and looking up a dictionary I was only able to come up with something like, "It is unncessary to employ many ...
6
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2answers
529 views
What does “Sion respectat dominus” mean?
I want to ask a question about medieval Latin.
Sion respectat dominus.
Does this sentence in English mean: "The lord gives some thought to Zion"? Is this translation correct?
This title is from ...
3
votes
1answer
62 views
Translating “jerusalem duplici jugo gravata” into English
What does this mean?
jerusalem duplici jugo gravata
Ekkehard of Aura was the monk in medieval. He departed to the crusades of 1101. This sentence is from his book Hierosolimita in RHC V, PP. 1-40.
6
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1answer
128 views
Latin Bibles (other than Vulgata) available as text?
Is it possible to find the text online of any of the Bibles/NT's in the list below? I fetched the "text only" option of Beza's NT from archive.org, but the amount of typos is considerable :(
Theodore ...
6
votes
1answer
128 views
How might I write a latin phrase for swapping bodies?
Putting together a small literary piece where an item is inscribed with a Latin phrase that hints that it can be used to swap bodies (or minds, depending, I suppose, on your perspective) with another ...
