March 05, 2011

Hiatus

This blog project is on hiatus, but to find out the latest goings-on in the world of the Bestiaria Latina, visit the Round-Up blog. :-)

I have also disabled comments due to an onslaught of spam, including spam by "people" with Google accounts (scary!) - I'll turn comments back on in a week or so after the bots have gone elsewhere.
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March 01, 2011

Libri quosdam ad scientiam, quosdam ad insaniam deduxere

Recording also available at iPadio using this link.
Today's saying is Libri quosdam ad scientiam, quosdam ad insaniam deduxere. In English: "Books have led some to knowledge, and others they have led to madness."

I've posted some proverbs in praise of books already this week, and I will continue to post more proverbs in praise of books in the future, yet I wanted to include this saying too, which warns us that not all books are inherently good. A book is a tool and, like any tool, it can be used for good or ill. Just because something is printed in a book does not mean it is reliable; if you read a book, that does not mean you will gain knowledge from it. Just the opposite might happen. I have found it odd in recent years that people rail against the Internet for its lack of reliability when there are plenty of crazy books in print, too, and always have been. Readers need to be discerning both in print and online. This proverb warns us that just as all food is not good for you just because it is for sale in the grocery store, all books are not good for you just because you can buy a copy at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

This quote comes from an absolutely marvelous dialogue by the great Italian scholar and poet, Petrarch. For the Latin dialogue, along with an English translation, see this post from the marvelous blog Laudator Temporis Acti.

For those of you who are fans of macrons, here is the Latin written with macrons:

Librī quōsdam ad scientiam, quōsdam ad insāniam dēdūxēre.



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February 28, 2011

Libri sunt magistri qui nos instruunt sine virgis et ferula

Recording also available at iPadio using this link.
Today's saying is Libri sunt magistri qui nos instruunt sine virgis et ferula. In English: "Books are teachers who instruct us without rods and the whip."

Yesterday's proverb told us that books are silent teachers. When you learn from a book, it is just you and the book, one on one, very different from the classroom environment. Many people do have fond memories of teachers whom they respected and even adored, but what today's proverb reminds us of is that there can be a dark side to the teacher-student relationship as well, either the literal punishments inflicted with rods and whips, or the metaphorical blow that can be struck by a harsh word or by silent contempt. Teachers face an almost impossible task in the classroom, with so many different students to attend to, and so little time in which to do that. It is no wonder that teachers often fail in this impossible task. I am someone who always found it safer and more reliable to learn from books; I am guessing there are other successful learners out there who might agree with me.

The Latin is an adaptation of a longer quote by the medieval scholar Richard de Bury: Hi sunt magistri qui nos instruunt sine virgis et ferula, sine pane et pecunia. Si accedis, non dormiunt ; si inquiris, non se abscondunt ; non remurmurant si oberres ; cachinnos nesciunt si ignores. "These are teachers who instruct us without rods and the whip, without (the reward of) food or money. If you come to see them, they do not sleep; if you have a question, they do not hide; they do not grumble if you make a mistake; they know not how to mock you if you are ignorant of something."

For those of you who are fans of macrons, here is the Latin written with macrons:

Librī sunt magistrī quī nōs instruunt sine virgīs et ferulā.



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February 27, 2011

Libri muti magistri sunt

Recording also available at iPadio using this link.
Today's saying is Libri muti magistri sunt. In English: "Books are silent teachers."

I thought this would make up a good follow-up to yesterday's saying about how writing allows those who are absent to be present via the written word. When someone's words of wisdom are recorded in writing, that allows the person to become your teacher, even if you are not in a classroom together in the same place, at the same time. You can learn from listening to a teacher's spoken words, but you can also learn from the written words recorded in a book, which is how that book can become your silent teacher. For me, this has been profoundly true: even in school, I learned more from books than from listening to teachers in the classroom, and now as an adult, I do almost all my learning directly from books, especially the treasure-trove of GoogleBooks. That is why I consider reading to be a fundamental skill, essential for all students to learn: when you can read, the whole library becomes your teacher.

In terms of Latin grammar here, the trick is definitely in separating the subject from the predicate. As you read long, you find the word libri first, "books," and then the next word, an adjective, muti, "silent," could go with books, grammatically speaking, but that really does not make sense: libri muti would imply that there are some books which are not muti, talking books as it were. Since that really does not make sense, you need to place a mental pause there, taking libri, provisionally, as the subject, and muti, provisionally, as part of the predicate. Then, sure enough, the next word lets everything fall into place. Libri, subject, are muti magistri, predicate.

For those of you who are fans of macrons, here is the Latin written with macrons:

Librī mūtī magistrī sunt.



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February 26, 2011

Litteris absentes videmus

Recording also available at iPadio using this link.
Today's saying is Litteris absentes videmus. In English: "By means of writing, we see those who are absent."

Yesterday I invoked the saying, Litteras disce, "Learn your letters," which is to say, everyone should learn to read. Today's saying reminds us of what a magical thing this is. When I read, I see in my mind's eye people who live in distant times and distant lands. Because they committed their words to writing, it is as if these people are present to me, even though they are absent. The end of life is a great loss and a sadness, but if people are able to take the best of themselves and put that into writing, a part of them does live on. As the Roman poet Horace said, Exegi monumentum aere perennius, "I have built a monument more lasting than bronze." This was no idle boast. Horace's poetry does live on. Writing lets us reach out across space and across time, allowing us to be present, virtually, even when we are physically absent.

This proverb shows the range of meaning of litterae in Latin. As in English "letters," the Latin plural litterae can mean the letters of the alphabet, written documents, or writing in a general sense. It can also refer to what we call a "letter" in English: a document addressed and sent to an intended recipient. More narrowly, litterae can also refer to "letters" in the sense of "literature" or what is called in French belles lettres.

For those of you who are fans of macrons, here is the Latin written with macrons:

Litterīs absentēs vidēmus.



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February 25, 2011

Week 5: Reptitio

So, here are the proverbs from this week, along with a link to each podcast:
Plus here are the previous proverbs:
I'll be back next week with more! :-)
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Litteras disce

Recording also available at iPadio using this link.
Today's saying is Litteras disce! In English: "Learn your letters!"

I am going to use this proverb to make a comment that might seem unexpected: I am in complete agreement that people should "learn their letters" in the sense of learning how to read. Being able to read is, I think, essential, and it is worth any and all the time that it requires in school. Yet I am not convinced that writing is something that deserves the same amount of attention. Given that I teach writing, that might seem like a strange thing to say, but I certainly have a lot of experience on which to base my opinion. Writing is a skill very different from reading, and far more difficult. Learning to spell, learning the rules of punctuation, and learning the specialized vocabulary of formal written English requires thousands of hours beyond the time it takes to learn to read. Is it the best use of a student's time? I definitely believe that students should learn to express themselves clearly and creatively. I am not so sure that writing is the best way to do that, unless the student is personally motivated to write.

The Latin plural here, litterae, "letters," has the same connotation of the English use of "letters" to mean literature. So the saying is not just about learning the alphabet from A-Z, but instead being able to read and learn from the great body of written literature, the things that have been written down and preserved with the magic of the alphabet for all of us to share and learn from, even when the authors of those written works have long since passed away.

For those of you who are fans of macrons, here is the Latin written with macrons:

Litterās disce.



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