LaTeX files for Lane & Morgan binding project

Jesse

Over at reddit.com/r/latin, I was asked about my working methods for producing “remastered” pdfs of old books in the public domain. For some reason, WordPress doesn’t allow users to upload .tex files as sharable media, so I’m having to share my input files through this blog post.

Adjusting page angle and offset (lane-offset.tex)

%!TEX program = xelatex
\documentclass[twoside]{memoir}
\setstocksize{5.5in}{4.25in}
\usepackage[paperheight=5.5in,paperwidth=4.25in]{geometry}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\usepackage{comment}

Imposition of book pages onto printed sheets (lane-imposition.tex)

%!TEX program = xelatex
\documentclass{memoir}
\usepackage{fp}
\usepackage{pdfpages,expl3}
\usepackage[margin=0.25in]{geometry}

Adding section marks to each sheet (lane-folio-marks.tex)

\documentclass[oneside]{memoir}
\usepackage{fp}
\usepackage[margin=1.1in,footskip=0.85in]{geometry}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\usepackage{alphalph}

A little bookbinding project

Jesse

In my last post, I described my search for an edition of the Latin text of Augustine of Hippo’s De civitate Dei to give to my good friend and parish priest.

In the dark days of the Covid-19 lockdowns, when other people were learning to bake break, I learned how to bind books. (For anyone interested in learning, I particularly recommend the YouTube channel DAS Bookbinding, where an Australian bookbinder named Darryn Schneider publishes incredibly generous instructional videos on a huge range of binding techniques. For tools and materials, I can recommend my local Canadian supplier, George Hill & Co.)

So, I decided to make for my friend a copy of the deluxe 1924 edition of De civitate Dei of which I gave some photos in my last post. I downloaded the high-resolution scan from the University of Heidelberg, converted it to black and white text, scaled it for printing on a standard 8.5″x11″ page, and ran it through BookletCreator to generate the layout for printing 17″x11″ sheets to fold into 16-page gatherings for sewing. I printed this on Xerox Bold Digital 24 lb. Ledger paper, in which, which is crucial for bookbinding, the paper grain runs parallel to the short end.

I decided to attempt the eighteenth-century “flexible style” of binding, in which the gatherings are sewn onto thick hemp cords. Here is how the structure is illustrated in Arthur W. Johnson’s Manual of Bookbinding:

Once I had folded all the gatherings with the aid of a bone folder, I marked the text block for the sewing stations where the linen thread would pass through the paper and loop around the hemp cords. I then used a hacksaw to sew channels at these points just deep enough to penetrate the innermost sheet of each gathering.

Marking the sewing stations.
Sawing the sewing stations.

I didn’t have any “nice” paper large enough to fold into endpapers, so I selected some beautiful handmade linen sheets that a friend picked up for me on a visit to Prague and attached them with a joint of unbleached linen cloth.

Improvised large endpapers with a linen cloth joint.

I then measured a series of holes spaced 3mm apart along the edges of the folds of the first and last gatherings. This allowed me to reinforce these points with “overcast” sewing.

Measuring for overcast sewing.
First and last gatherings reinforced with overcase sewing.

I then set up my (very) home-made sewing frame with the hemp cords at the required spacings.

Setting up the sewing frame.

After that, it was a matter of sewing the (many!) sections onto the cords. Johnson observes that this sewing method is “difficult, almost laborious.” That was certainly my experience. It took many hours of the afternoon of Christmas Day, when the rest of the family was in a turkey coma.

Gatherings sewn onto the raised cords.

At this point, I would ideally have trimmed the uneven edges of the text block with a heavy lying press and plough. At this stage in my bookbinding career, however, I didn’t have either of those things. (And as will be evident from the photo below, I didn’t yet have a proper backing hammer either.) I moved on to rounding the spine, which is done by spreading a layer of PVA glue and pulling and, if necessary, hammering the spine into a dome shape.

Rounding the spine.

The next step was “backing,” which involves squeezing the spine between angled boards with metal plates and hammering the spine into a mushroom shape. This leaves room for the cover boards to tuck in under the “shoulders” of the spine. This procedure should also be done with a lying press, but I had to accomplish the same result with vise grips.

Before “backing.”
After “backing.”

At last it was time to think about covers for the book. To get an appropriate thickness for so large a book, I thickened some standard 3mm binder’s board by glueing and pressing on a 1mm layer of strawboard, which I then covered with a layer of white paper to ensure a smooth surface under the eventual leather covers.

In the “flexible style,” the cover boards are pierced with two holes for each of the hemp cords, offset at a 45-degree angle. The loose ends of the hemp cords are rubbed with the dull back edge of a knife until the threads unwind into “slips” that look like little pony tails. Each slip is rubbed with starch paste and twirled into a point that can be inserted into the first hole in the cover and then back out the second hole. Once the cover has been tighened snug to the shoulder of the spine, the ends of the slips are spread out and hammered into the boards, a bit like steel rivets.

Lacing on the cover boards.
Pasted ends of the “slips” hammered into the outside of the cover board.

At this point, what began as a stack of paper is starting to look an awful lot like a book!

Covers laced on. I’ve also added “fake” silk endbands at the head and tail.

The “flexible style” gets its name from how the cover material is stuck directly to the spine and bends into a concave “U” shape when the book is opened. To sustain that kind of tension and strain, the spine has to be covered with several layers of glued-on material: (1) a strong mesh called “mull”; (2) strips of heavy “kraft paper” between the raised hemp cords; and (3) a strip of leather that is moulded tightly around the raised cords and then rubbed with sandpaper so that it’s flexible, smooth, and ready to receive the outer covering material.

Spine covering layer 1: mull.

Spine covering layer 2: kraft paper.

Spine covering layer 3: leather, shaped tightly to the raised hemp cords.

Leather spine covering, sanded down.

At this point, another layer of paper is pasted onto the outside of the cover boards and then sanded down aggressively to level out any “bumps” where the hemp cord slips have been hammered into the boards. The edges are then bevelled with a sharp knife and the corners closest to the spine are “back cornered” to allow room for the leather hinge to bend when the book is opened.

Sanding down the second layer of paper, to remove bumps at the lacings.
Boards bevelled and “back-cornered.”

It’s almost time to cover the book with leather. (I actually just use castoffs and sample hides that I pick up cheap at a local fabric outlet store. It would probably be easier to work with “real” book leather from a specialist supplier.)

The leather has to be made thinner along the line of the spine hinges and where it will be “turned in” from the outside to the inside of the cover boards. I didn’t yet have a proper leather paring knife or spokeshave, so I used a razor-blade scraping tool.

When it’s finally time to cover a book with cloth or leather, it all has to be done quite quickly and there’s no good moment to take a picture! Leather is a bit more forgiving: you sponge the outer side with water so that when the inner side is brushed with starch paste it won’t dry out too quickly. Everything gets folded over and carefully smoothed out. At the head and tail of the spine, the leather is folded over a length of cord and shaped with a bone folder to created a “headcap.” Then, the book is held between “tying up boards,” and strings are run along each edge of the raised hemp cords so that the leather doesn’t pull away from the surface as it dries.

Shaping the headcaps.
Drying in the tying-up boards.

Leather stretches when it’s pasted, so the edges of the turn-ins on the insides of the covers will be uneven and need to be trimmed square. The edges of the leather have been pared, but to make sure that there isn’t a pronounced ridge under the endpapers, a layer of card is cut to meet the leather edges and pasted to the board. The book is left to dry under a weight.

Leather turn-ins trimmed. Card cut and pasted flush with the leather edges.
Boards drying with moisture-absorbent paper inserts under a weight.

Finally, the endpapers are pasted down to the boards. Together with the under-layer of card, the endleaves will dry as they contract, counteracting the opposite pull of the drying leather, which wants to warp the coverboards outwards. Once the endpapers have been pressed smooth to the boards, the covers are held open to dry.

Endleaves pasted down and drying.

At last, the book was made! I’m always a bit shocked when my books come out looking like actual books.

All that remained was to to compose a Latin gift inscription bookplate and to add a spine label. For the latter, I used portions of the lettering on the title page to create abbreviations for the author and title and inked the letters with a fibre-tipped permanent pigment pen.

Rough translation: This book was handmade for a father by a son, for a teacher by a pupil, for a friend by a friend, for Walter by Jesse, and given on the feast of the Circumcision of Christ [January 1], 2024. “What is there that comforts us in this human society so full of errors and troubles if not the unfeigned loyalty and mutual love of true and good friends?” (Augustine, De civitate Dei, book 19, chapter 8)
Ready to be given away!

My friend liked the book very much. (Or he at least did a good job of pretending he liked it.)

I’ve made progress in my skills since then, and there are several things in this particular book that I’d love to be able to “do over.” But that’s actually part of the fun. Each book I make or repair gives me a chance to try something new or get something right.

The Latin text of Augustine of Hippo’s City of God

Jesse

A while back, I found out that my friend and parish priest, who is an authority on Augustine of Hippo, did not own a copy of the Latin text of Augustine’s City of God (De civitate Dei). That clearly had to be remedied. But what text should I find for him?

On this question, I found almost everything I needed to know in an article by James J. O’Donnell, “Augustine’s City of God,” which he was commissioned to write in 1983 but which was never subsequently published. (O’Donnell is a great advocate of “open access” scholarship: whenever he can, he makes his publications available for free online, which has sometimes involved “buying back” the rights to a book from his publisher after the original print run has sold out.) What follows is largely a summary of what O’Donnell reports, with links to public-domain scans of each edition when these are available.

The Maurist edition (1685)

The text prepared by the Benedictines of the Congregation of Saint-Maur (the “Maurists”), which appeared in 1685 as the seventh volume of their eleven-volume edition of the complete works of Augustine (1679–1700), superseded all that had come before. (I have not yet succeeded in finding a scan of the original edition, but a 1700 reprint can be consulted in the digital collection of the Bavarian State Library.) The Maurist text was reprinted many times, with annotations by later scholars, and finally in Migne’s Patrologia Latina 41 (1845).

Two modern critical editions have attempted to replace the Maurist text, and but it retains an independent value of its own. The Maurist edition and the critical edition most commonly used today (that by Dombart and Kalb, described below) between them give variant readings from a total of thirty-seven manuscripts, but only four of these manuscripts were collated in both editions. O’Donnell reports that there 394 manuscripts containing all or part of De ciuitate Dei are known to have survived from Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (more than even of Augustine’s Confessiones). Writing in 1983, he notes that more manuscripts might become known through the “HUWA catalogue,” viz., Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des heiligens Augustinus, under the general editorship of Clemens Weidmann. I see that the most recent volume held in the University of Toronto library system (vol. 11) appeared in 2010. 

Hoffmann’s CSEL text

Of the two modern critical texts, the less influential is that in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL), number 40 (in two volumes), edited by Emanuel Hoffmann:

The first volume of Hoffmann’s edition received negative reviews when it appeared (e.g., that by P. Lejay in Revue critique d’histoire et de littérature n.s. 50, no. 1 [January 1, 1900]: 165–66). Hoffmann responded indignantly to his critics in the preface to the second volume, but he died before he could see them double down on earlier assessment (e.g., P. Lejay in Revue critique d’histoire et de littérature n.s. 51 [January 7, 1901]: 326–28).

The Dombart/Kalb Teubner text

The other modern edition, which in a revised form holds the field today, is that in the Bibliotheca Teubeneriana, originally edited by Bernhard Dombart and later revised by Alfons Kalb:

1st edition (1863)vol. 1, books 1–13
vol. 2, books 14–22
2nd edition (1877–92)vol. 1, books 1–13 (1877)
vol. 2, books 14–22 (1892)
3rd edition: vol. 2 1905) revised by Dombart, who died in 1907; vol. 1 (1908) revised by Alfons Kalbvol. 1 (1908) (requires US IP address)
vol. 2 (1905) (requires US IP address)
4th edition (1928–29), revised by Alfons Kalbvol. 1 (1928)
vol. 2 (1929)
(still under copyright, no online access)

A so-called “fifth edition” was published in the Bibliotheca Teubneriana in 1981 (and reprinted again, without alteration, in 1993). This is merely a photographic reprint of the fourth edition, enhanced only by the addition of the text of Augustine’s two “Letters to Firmus,” edited by Johannes Divjak, which were inserted as pp. xxxv–xlix in vol. 1. These letters, which give important information about the genesis and early circulation of the text of De ciuitate Dei, were discovered by Cyrille Lambot and first published by him (from two manuscripts) in 1939. Divjak’s texts of these letters are also available in his contribution to the ongoing CSEL edition of Augustine’s works, Epistulae in duobus codicibus nuper in lucem prolatae (CSEL 88, 1981), as Ep. 1A (pp. 7–9) and Ep. 2 (pp. 9–21).

Re-use of the Dombart/Kalb text

The text of the fourth Teubner edition was reprinted without (deliberate) alteration in the Corpus Christianorum: Series Latina (2 vols., CCSL 47–48, 1955):

It was also printed, with a facing French translation and copious learned notes, in the Bibliothèque Augustinienne (5 vols., BA 33–37, 1959–60):

  • vol. 1 (BA 33), books 1–5
  • vol. 2 (BA 34), books 6–10
  • vol. 3 (BA 35), books 11–14
  • vol. 4 (BA 36), books 15–18
  • vol. 5 (BA 37), books 19–22

It was likewise taken as the basis of the Latin text of the Loeb Classical Library edition (7 vols., LCL 411–17), with a facing English translation made by several different scholars. The few verbal departures from Dombart-Kalb introduced by the translators are advertised in the footnotes. The punctuation of the Latin texts was also modified according to English conventions:

  • vol. 1, books 1–3 (trans. George E. McCracken, LCL 411, 1957)
  • vol. 2, books 4–7 (trans. William M. Green, LCL 412, 1963)
  • vol. 3, books 8–11 (trans. David S. Wiesen, LCL 413, 1968)
  • vol. 4, books 12–15 (trans. Philip Levine, LCL 414, 1966)
  • vol. 5, books 16–18.35 (trans. Eva Matthews Sanford and William McAllen Green, LCL 415, 1965)
  • vol. 6, books 18.36–20 (trans. William Chase Green, LCL 416, 1960)
  • vol. 7, books 21–22 (trans. William M. Green, LCL 417, 1972)

Such is the state of play as far as critical texts go.

More recent textual scholarship

The study of the text of De ciuitate Dei has not stood still. I came across the following very interesting and useful article (itself in Latin!):

Bengt Alexanderson, “Adnotationes criticae in libros Augustini de civitate Dei,” Electronic Antiquity 3, no. 7 (May 1997), https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V3N7/alex.html

Alexanderson begins by listing numerous typographical errors in the CCSL presentation of the Dombart-Kalb text. He then considers the textual basis of the CCSL/Dombart-Kalb edition, listing a number of preferable readings found in manuscripts that were undervalued by the editors and a number of erroneous readings transmitted by manuscripts treated by the editors as the most reliable (including the most ancient copy, MS V, which contains books 11–16 and was copied in North Africa in the early fifth century!). He concludes that it will probably be impossible to construct a genealogical stemma of the manuscripts, because there has been too much cross-contamination of variant readings. There follows a lengthy list of corrections (and reasons for them) that Alexanderson proposes for emending the CCSL/Dombart-Kalb edition.

An édition de luxe of 1924

O’Donnell does not mention a very interesting (and extremely sumptuous) edition that was published in 1924 in a deluxe format, printed by the monks of Bremen in a limited run of just 385 copies. The text is that of the 3rd Teubner edition (ed. Dombart, completed by Kalb, 1905–8), but with a number of emendations by Carolus Weyman, drawn mainly from the critical apparatus of both Dombart and Hoffmann. These changes are noted in an appendix (Adnotatio critica), with the variant readings of Dombart and Hoffmann marked under the sigla “D” and “H”.

A high-resolution colour scan of copy number 95 (of 385) of this edition has been made freely available by the University of Heidelberg.

There is also one physical copy in Toronto (copy number ), held by our own Graham Library at Trinity College (Rare Book Upjohn-Waldie 1924b S28 fol.). When I perused this copy in person, I took some photos of it beside a 15″ ruler to capture an idea of its grandeur:

A substantial volume, printed on untrimmed rag paper.
14 inches tall.
Extremely wide margins, reminiscent of a medieval manuscript.
Hand-set metal type, clear and beautiful.

From a purely aesthetic perspective, it’s hard to imagine a more pleasing edition of De ciuitate Dei than this one. And the Latin text is perfectly serviceable. The very generous margins are crying out for annotations incorporating Bengt Alexanderson’s emendations. 

So, what do you think I decided to do for my friend? See the sequel!

How to choose a Latin Dictionary

Jesse

At the graduate level, you will not be helped much by “college” and “school” dictionaries, such as those published by Cassell’s, Bantam, and Collins. These are fine if what you need is a portable glossary of Classical Latin, but they do not provide the range of vocabulary or the detailed information about usage that you will need for studying medieval Latin texts.

Time periods covered by various Latin dictionaries

The following table allows comparison of the chronological range, by centuries BCE and CE, of sources on which various excellent Latin dictionaries are based. Links will take you to the description of each dictionary below.

 Old LatinClassical LatinLater LatinMedieval LatinRenaissance Latin
L&S        
Smith’s Naevius (d. 201 BCE)  Ausonius (d. ca. 390 CE)   
OLD        
ThLL        
Souter
Later		        
Blaise Chr.        
Blaise, Méd.        
Nier.        
DuC        
NGML
        
DMLBS
        

 

Old
Latin		Classical
Latin		Later
Latin		Medieval
Latin		Renaissance
Latin
L&S
Smith’sNaevius (d. 201 BCE)Ausonius (d. ca. 390 CE)
OLD
ThLL
Souter
Later
Blaise Chr.
Blaise, Méd.
Nier.
DuC
NGML
DMLBS
ThLLOLDL&SSouter
Later		Blaise Chr.Blaise, Méd.Nier.DuCNGMLDMLBS
BCE
6th		✔︎✔︎
5th✔︎✔︎✔︎
4th✔︎✔︎✔︎
3rd✔︎✔︎✔︎
2nd✔︎✔︎✔︎
BCE
1st		✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
CE
1st		✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
2nd✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
3rd✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
4th✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
5th✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
6th✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
7th✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
8th✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
9th✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
10th✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
11th✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
12th✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎✔︎
13th✔︎✔︎✔︎
14th✔︎✔︎✔︎
15th✔︎✔︎✔︎
16th✔︎

Dictionaries for daily use

Lewis & Short

Lewis-Short-PIMS.jpg

A few of the copies of “Lewis & Short” in the PIMS Library.

If you are going to have only one Latin dictionary, the best one to have for reading medieval Latin is “Lewis and Short,” which originally appeared in identical forms under two different titles:

  • Harper’s Latin Dictionary (New York: American Book Company, 1879)
  • A Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879)

It has been in print continuously ever since, and new copies can still be acquired from Oxford University Press. Less expensive used copies often turn up in the inventories of online and bricks-and-mortar used book sellers.

It has also, of course, been completely digitized. Not only is Lewis and Short searchable through websites and smartphone apps, it has also been fully integrated into several databases and other digital tools, such as the Perseus Latin Word Study Tool.

Lewis and Short only includes headwords and citations from Classical and Late Latin authors down to ca. 600 CE., which means that some distinctively “medieval” words and usages are not covered. Furthermore, it is marred by errors and oversights that have long been lamented and lampooned by Classical scholars.1 But for medievalists, there is simply no other one-volume dictionary that comes close to Lewis and Short for range and versatility.

“Smith’s Smaller”

smiths-smaller.jpgchambers-murray.png
An evidently much-used copy of “Smith’s Smaller”Reborn in paperback and still in print as the Chambers Murray Latin-English Dictionary

For quick reading reference, or to keep in your backpack for consultation when riding the TTC, you might find it convenient to use the following, which is my favourite “hand-sized” dictionary. Like Lewis and Short, it too can be found in two (identical) forms:

  • William Smith and John Lockwood, A Smaller Latin-English Dictionary, 3rd edn (London: Murray, 1933; various unaltered in reprints with later dates).
  • Reprinted as the Chambers Murray Latin-English Dictionary (Edinburgh: Chambers; London: John Murray, 1976; most recent reprint 2001)

“Smith’s Smaller” is more restricted in range than Lewis and Short, covering only select Classical authors down to Ausonius (d. 390 CE). But it’s more than adequate for general use, and what makes it especially valuable is that it puts macrons over all long vowels, including the “hidden” ones that are not marked in Lewis & Short.

Oxford Latin Dictionary (OLD)

OLD-PIMS.jpg

Oxford Latin Dictionary, ed. P. G. W. Glare (Oxford: Clarendon Press, issued in fascicles 1968–1983; 2nd edn, 2 vols., 2012). This one isn’t usually of much interest to medievalists, but it’s essential for those studying Latin from its origins down to ca. 200 CE. It has enjoyed a mixed reception. See, for example, this (in)famous review of the first edition by F. R. D. Goodyear.

There is no “official” online version of the OLD. A scan of the first edition (completed in 1983) can be consulted at the Internet Archive.

The second edition of the OLD (2012), however, is built into the “back end” of Oxford Scholarly Editions Online, to which students and professors at universities often have institutional access. If you open up the OSEO version of a work by any Latin author, there will be a column at the righthand side containing links to OLD entries on Latin words in the edited text. If you click on one of these, a pop-up widget will appear. The widget will show you the entry for that word in the OLD, but it will also have a search box into which you can enter any word to see its entry. You might bookmark the OSEO edition of Cicero’s Brutus, for example, and use it as your access point.

Dictionaries for research work

Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (ThLL)

ThLL-PIMS.jpgThLL-Materia.jpg
ThLL on the shelves in the PIMS Library.Some of the boxes containing handwritten slips that make up the “materia” of the ThLL.

The Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (ThLL)is the heavy of heavies. What the Oxford English Dictionary is for English, the ThLL is for Latin, from the earliest evidence down to ca. 600 CE. And just as the OED is a dictionary of English that is written in English, so the ThLL is a dictionary of Latin written in Latin. (See the pages About the TLL at the project website.)

Many of the articles include references to every single occurrence of the word in question in the whole corpus surveyed. (An asterisk before a word means that the article does not give this complete coverage.) If you are trying to pin down the usage of a word in a difficult passage, the ThLL will clearly lay out the various possibilities and supply you with ample examples with which you can compare your own text.

Completion of the whole dictionary is not expected before 2050. The published volumes covering A–nemus and O–relinquus can be consulted freely online. It is expected that those covering relinquo–resilio will be put online sometime next year.

Alexander Souter, Glossary of Later Latin to 600 A.D.

Souter-PIMS.jpg

This little glossary can be used as a supplement and corrective to Lewis and Short for words attested after the cutoff date of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (i.e., after ca. 200, down to ca. 600). Souter was the original editor of the OLD, and he seems to have been a rather demanding and difficult character! But he was a very diligent discoverer of “new” words that had been missed in earlier dictionaries.

Albert Blaise, Dictionnaire latin-français des auteurs chrétiens, rev. Antoine Dumas (1954)

Blaise-Patristic-PIMS.jpg

For those who work on the Vulgate Bible and Christian authors, from the origins of Christianity down as far as authors writing in the eighth century, this dictionary is indispensable.

The only downside is that the French definitions are sometimes conveying shades of nuance that cannot be appreciated by an English-speaker without the aid of a “big” French-English dictionary, such as J. E. Mansion, Harrap’s New Standard French and English Dictionary, part 1: French–English, rev. and ed. R. P. L. Ledésert and Margaret Ledésert, 2 vols. (London: Harrap, 1972).

Albert Blaise, Lexicon latinitatis medii aevi (1975)

Blaise-Medieval-PIMS.jpg

Albert Blaise’s Lexicon Latinitatis medii aevi praesertim ad res ecclesiasticas investigandas pertinens / Dictionnaire latin-français des auteurs du Moyen-Âge (1975) second dictionary covers only words and usages for the period ca. 600–ca. 1500 that he did not cover in his 1954 Dictionnaire des auteurs chrétiens. The two must therefore be used in tandem. As the Latin version of the title says, it primarily covers the vocabulary of ecclesiastical sources.

J. F. Niermeyer, Mediae Latinitatis lexicon minus

Niermeyer-PIMS.jpg

For work on non-ecclesiastical medieval sources, the counterpart to Blaise is Niermeyer, here shown in its revised second edition (2 vols., 2002). Niermeyer covers mainly narrative, legal, and documentary sources for the period ca. 600–ca. 1200. Each entry has glosses and explanations in three languages (English, French, and German), which makes it a very popular and useful resource.

Du Cange, Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis

DuCange.jpg

Novum Glossarium Mediae Latinitatis (NGML)

NGML-PIMS.jpg

Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources (DMLBS)

DMLBS-PIMS.jpg
  1. You will very often see references to the “mistakes” or “unreliability” of Lewis and Short, but it’s harder to find a convenient list of these. One very interesting resource is Henry Nettleship, Contributions to Latin Lexicography (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889). [Internet Archive] Nettleship had been commissioned to produce a new Latin dictionary for Oxford University Press, but when, after over ten years, he had received none of the help that had been promised to him, the press suggested that he instead give them a book of “additions to, or improvements upon, what may be found in current Latin dictionaries.” In the resulting volume, Nettleship said: “I have taken Lewis and Short’s Dictionary as my basis; and have published nothing which I do not, on full consideration, deem to be a necessary improvement upon that work” (p. vii). For example, under usage 1 of Ā, ăb, abs (“In the local sense of on the side of“), Nettleship quotes Caesar’s De bello Gallico 2.25.1: “quidam a novissimis,” adding in parentheses, “wrongly explained by Lewis and Short as = ex novissimis.” ↩︎

Latin Grammars

Jesse

Over at r/latin on Reddit, someone asked for recommendations of more “advanced” Latin grammars. Partly for my own future reference, here’s the list that I suggested. I hope it may be helpful to anyone looking for such a list who may stumble upon it here.

One-volume Reference Grammars

In my experience, the most comprehensive of the standard one-volume grammars in English is the following:

But its terminology is somewhat different from contemporary standards, and, depending on the problem, I may still need to “triangulate” between it and other standard grammars, including the following:

More advanced grammars of Classical Latin

When a one-volume reference grammar isn’t enough, I often turn to the following two classics:

Also extremely useful are the (very fat!) textbooks that have made available to the world the teaching approach of the late Fr. Reginald Foster, especially because the index to the second volume helpfully cross-references the grammatical constructions that are taught in volume 1 to real-life examples from the letters of Cicero in volume 2:

Two options offering a more historical/linguistic approach are the following:

  • James Clackston (ed.), A Companion to the Latin Language (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011).
  • Michael Weiss, Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin (Ann Arbor, MI: Beech Stave Press, 2009; 2nd edn 2020).

I have not personally made use (yet) of the following, to which I have online access through my university but which seems prohibitively expensive to buy (probably because each volume is over 1400 pages long):

  • Harm Pinkster, The Oxford Latin Syntax, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015–2021).
    • vol. 1 (2015): The Simple Clause.
    • vol. 2 (2021): The Complex Sentence and Discourse.

The Heavies

For really heavy grammatical study, however, no one can beat the Germans, to whom we owe the following multi-volume reference works in the series Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft [“Handbook of Studies in Antiquity”], one for Classical Latin and one for Medieval Latin:

Classical

Manu Leumann, J. B. Hofmann, and Anton Szantyr, Lateinische Grammatik auf der Grundlage des Werkes von Friedrich Stolz und Joseph Hermann Schmalz [“Latin Grammar, Based on the Work of Friedrich Stolz and Joseph Hermann Schmalz”], new edn, 3 vols., Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft 2.2 (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1972–79):

Medieval

Peter Stotz, Handbuch der lateinischen Sprache des Mittelalters, 5 vols., Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft 2.5 (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1996–2004). All five volumes accessible at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/2.5.5.-p.-stotz-bibliographie-quellenbersicht-und-register-2004/

  • vol. 1 (2002): Einleitung: Lexikologische Praxis; Wörter und Sachen; Lehnwortgut. [“Introduction: Lexicographical Practice; ‘Words and Things’ (a technical term for a trend in twentieth-century philology); Loanwords”]
  • vol. 2 (2000): Bedeutungswandel und Wortbildung. [“Change in Meaning and Word-Formation”]
  • vol. 3 (1996): Lautlehre. [“Morphology”]
  • vol. 4 (1998): Formenlehre, Syntax und Stilistik. [“Accidence, Syntax, and Style”]
  • vol. 5 (2004): Bibliographie, Quellenübersicht und Register. [“Bibliography, Overview of Sources, and Index”]

Latin Grammars Written in Latin

As for grammars of Latin written in Latin, apart from a few specimens at the introductory level, the ones that I’m aware of were written in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the early modern period:

“Find out how the Young are enjoying themselves, and put a stop to it.”

Jesse

At his unmissable blog “Mutual Enrichment,” Fr. John Hunwicke has reminded us of that fateful day in 1581 when Edmund Campion’s pamphlet (in Latin) against the Protestant Reformation in England appeared on the seats of the audience at the annual “University Act” at Oxford. The title loosely translates as “Ten propositions that Edmund Campion, of the Society of Jesus, has offered to uphold in a debate against his adversaries about the (Catholic) Faith.”

I managed to track down a scan of the original printing, and in a characteristic bout of “productive procastination,” I spent a couple of hours cleaning up the scan to make it as legible as I could and then formatted it for at-home printing: Rationes decem (1581)

In deference to Fr. Hunwicke and his British readers, the resulting pdf is sized for A5 paper. But I’m sure that anyone who finds it here will be able to resize it for printing on whatever paper is desired.

Hurter’s “Nomenclator” for looking up Catholic theologians who lived between 1109 and 1894

Jesse

In a great many theological works written (in Latin) from the early modern period down into the twentieth century, there is a casual assumption that readers will understand references to an abbreviated form of an author’s name, plus a volume and page number. If you aren’t part of the assumed audience—the people who just “know”—there won’t be anything like a list of abbreviations or bibliography of works cited to help you out.

For example, a colleague recently asked me to help him translate a (rather racy!) passage from an 1835 edition of St. Alphonsus Liguori’s Theologia moralis, where I encountered an in-text citation that looked like this:

Negant Sanch. l. 9. D. 17. n. 5 et Boss. c. 7. n. 175 et 193. cum Fill. ac Perez …. Sed verius affirmant Spor. de Matrim. num. 498. Tamb. l. 7. c. 3. §5. num. 33. et Diana. p. 67. tr. 7. R. 7. cum Fagund.

That means that some guys named “Sanch., Boss., Fill., and Perez” said “No” to the question under discussion, whereas some guys named “Spor., Tamb., Diana., and Fagund.” said “Yes,” and that, in St. Alphonsus’s view, “more truly” (verius). But who are the writers, and what are the works, that St. Alphonsus is referring to?

Hunting for answers in the venerable 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, I noticed that the entry for one of these theologians cited “Hurter Nomenclator,” and that led me to the following work, which has been made freely accessible at the Hathi Trust Digital Library:

Hugo Hurter (1832–1914), Nomenclator literarius recentioris theologiae catholicae theologos exhibens qui inde a Concilio tridentino floruerunt aetate, natione, disciplinis distinctos, 2nd edn, 4 vols. (Oeniponte [Innsbruck]: Libraria academica Wagneriana, 1892–99).

(“A literary name-identifier for more recent Catholic theology, showing the names of theologians who flourished after the Council of Trent, divided by era, nation, and discipline.”)

  • Vol. 1 (1892): Theologiae Catholicae seculum primum post celebratum Concilium Tridentinum, ab anno 1564–1663 [Hathi Trust]
  • Vol. 2 (1893): Theologiae Catholicae seculum secundum post celebratum Concilium Tridentinum, ab anno 1664–1763 [Hathi Trust]
  • Vol. 3 (1895): Theologiae Catholicae seculum tertium post celebratum Concilium Tridentinum, ab anno 1764–1894 [Hathi Trust]
  • Vol. 4 (1899): Theologia Catholica tempore Medii Aevi, ab anno 1109–1563 [Hathi Trust] [index of names for all 4 volumes]

(The fourth volume goes back in time to the Middle Ages.)

There were subsequent third editions of a couple of these volumes, and even a fourth edition of one of them, but those aren’t accessible online.

Hurter covers everybody, but there’s not much on offer in the way of “immediate gratification.” For example, when I looked up “Boss.,” I found fourteen possible names, scattered across all four volumes. But I worked out a fairly quick way of sorting between them. I looked in the (very detailed) table of contents of each volume and checked to see where the page number next to each name fell in the various sub-disciplines of “Theology.”

It didn’t take long to notice that the page number for “Bossio Jo. Barn. it (1665) II, 288” fell in a section of volume 2 devoted to the topic at hand, namely, “Theologia moralis.” Turning to that section, it was only a matter of minutes to work out that St. Alphonsus had to be referring to Giovanni Angelo Bossi (1590–1665) and to his treatise De effectibus contractus matrimonii (1655).

I don’t know how I would have worked that out without Hurter’s Nomenclator!

What I’ll probably do is print out a booklet containing the union index of names from volume 4 and the tables of contents from all four volumes, to speed up the name-hunting process.

Update (April 13, 2024)

I’ve now created a permanent page for this resource under “Other Useful Reference Resources” in the navigation menu. And to make it easier for myself others to use it, I’ve also created, and made accessible for download, two pdf files, one with the whole union index from volume 4, and the other with the tables of contents from all four volumes:

Fringe and Unacceptable Professor

Jesse

For the record:

I am a member of Canadian Academics for Covid Ethics.

I am one of the original signatories of the Greater Toronto Declaration. (Recently taken down, without explanation, by Change.org.)

I oppose the cruel and irrational COVID-19 policies of the Province of Ontario, and still more those that have been adopted by the University of Toronto, under which my students are being expelled and my colleagues are being fired.

The university’s policy can be summarized as follows:

  • Students and faculty who haven’t submitted proof of vaccination, even if they’re willing to stay away from campus, aren’t eligible for any accommodation to study or work remotely, because their classes or job responsibilities might require them to come to campus.
  • Students and faculty who have submitted proof of vaccination, but are still scared to come to campus, are eligible to receive accommodations to study or work remotely, so that their classes or job responsibilities won’t require them to come to campus.

The government’s position is bad enough:

“You aren’t allowed to come to campus unless you submit proof of vaccination.”

The university’s position is surreal:

“You aren’t even allowed to STAY AWAY FROM CAMPUS unless you submit proof of vaccination.“

This is really happening. At Canada’s Top University™️.

(Since you’re probably wondering, Yes, I’m “fully vaccinated.” But that’s actually none of your business.)

This post has been re-published, with my permission, by the Toronto Moon (February 7, 2022).

What’s the use of studying history?

Jesse

The following reflection on what history is “for” comes from the conclusion of the three Cook Lectures delivered in 1990 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, by G. R. Elton, the celebrated historian of Tudor England. The lectures were published in his Return to Essentials: Some Reflections on the Present State of Historical Study (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991). (This passage is found on pp. 72–73.)

Elton takes issue with those who argue that the study of history allows us to discover the “laws” that govern human social organization and behaviour—laws that should be used to devise new and better schemes of government and economic regulation. Anyone who has really grappled with the facts of history, Elton argues, will see that such a view is both childish and dangerous. History, he says, gives us a chance to “grow up” and learn to carry ourselves wisely in a world that is fundamentally unpredictable.

Sir Geoffrey Rudolph Elton (1921–1994), Regius Professor of Modern History in the University of Cambridge. Image source: artuk.org

Human beings learn primarily from experience; if they are to think and act profitably—with positive and useful results—they need as wide a vision of the possibilities contained in any given situation and any present assembly of other human beings as they can acquire. An individual experience, of course, is always limited and commonly distorted by prejudice and self-interest: what men and women need is an enlarged experience against which to measure the effect of those disadvantages.

That experience is made available by the historian presenting the past in all its variety and potential, and all of it divorced from the immediate needs and concerns of the present. History provides the laboratory in which human experience is analysed, distilled and bottled for use. The so-called lessons of history do not teach you to do this or that now; they teach you to think more deeply, more completely, and on the basis of an enormously enlarged experience about what it may be possible or desirable to do now.

One of the most useful lessons so taught precisely contradicts what predicting historians would like to extract from our labours. Instead of telling us that certain conditions can be shown, from past experience, to lead to certain assured consequences, history for ever demonstrates the unexpectedness of the event and so instils a proper scepticism in the face of all those vast and universal claims. A knowledge of the past should arm a man against surrendering to the panaceas peddled by too many myth-makers.

This is known as growing up—outgrowing the arrogance of adolescence which, guided by moral principles unchecked by experience, will impose on suffering mankind the solution promoted by ignorance joined to faith. By enormously enlarging personal experience, history can help us to grow up—to resist those who, with good will or ill, would force us all into the straitjackets of their supposed answers to the problems of existence.

Thus I will burden the historian with preserving human freedom, freedom of thought and freedom of action, a burden he bears because he knows what happened before when supposedly inescapable schemes of thought and action were forced upon people.

Understand the past in its own terms and convey it to the present in terms designed to be comprehended. And then ask those willing to listen to attend to the real lessons of the past, the lessons which teach us to behave as adults, experienced in the ways of the world, balanced in judgement, and sceptical in the face of all the miracle-mongers.

Elton’s description of “the arrogance of adolescence” cuts close to the bone. My own adolescent self was indeed “guided by moral principles unchecked by experience“—principles that I tried with passionate intensity to impose on those around me, until experience taught me that I couldn’t even live up to them myself. It is fortunate that we are rarely in a position to impose our wills on the world!

Humility

Jesse

From Anthony de Mello, SJ (1931–87), One Minute Wisdom (New York: Doubleday, 1986), p. 70:

To a visitor who described himself as a seeker after Truth the Master said, “If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.”

“I know. An overwhelming passion for it.”

“No. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.”