Review: Forcellini's 'Lexicon totius Latinitatis'

Here you can discuss all things Latin. Use this board to ask questions about grammar, discuss learning strategies, get help with a difficult passage of Latin, and more.
Post Reply
Carolus Raeticus
Textkit Enthusiast
Posts: 584
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:46 am
Contact:

Review: Forcellini's 'Lexicon totius Latinitatis'

Post by Carolus Raeticus »

Salvete!

Last December I started to learn reading Italian (relatively easy once you have a certain knowledge of Spanish, and a bit of Latin does not hurt either). Combining my interest in Latin and Italian, I looked for information about Latin in Italian. While doing so I stumbled upon the web-site Vivarium Latinum. Lots of material to be found there.

One of the resources I found there, was a link to a monolingual Latin dictionary: Forcellini's Lexicon totius Latinitatis. It is the first real monolingual Latin dictionary I found (with translations sometimes given in Italian, French, English, German). There is Wagner's Lexicon Latinum (available as a 743-pages PDF-file), but contrary to that one the Forcellini is far more comprehensive and explains the words instead of giving just a few (almost) snyonyms (and opposites) and a French translation. The Lexicon atriale by Commenius is, of course, not in this league (and perhaps has a different focus?).

The PDF-version is spread across 6 files (pages given = pages of PDF-file):
  • File 1: Praefationes, Index Scriptorum Latinorum, and Appendices (139 pages, 20 MB)
  • File 2: Dictionary A-C (933 pages, 223 MB)
  • File 3: Dictionary D-K (975 pages, 368 MB)
  • File 4: Dictionary L-Q (1,032 pages, 111 MB)
  • File 5: Dictionary R-S (647 pages, 269 MB)
  • File 6: Dictionary T-Z (410 pages, 174 MB)
This makes for a grand total of 1.16 GB. So, you will need broadband access to download these.

Despite of the huge file sizes, scrolling through them using Acrobat Reader is pretty fast. My PDF-edition of Cassell's Latin Dictionary is far slower, in comparison (probably because the Forcellini uses B&W TIF-files whereas my Cassell-version seems to use "colours"). The scans could be better, but are legible without any problem (better scans would have meant even greater file sizes!). Each PDF contains an index which makes finding an entry faster.

All in all, a very interesting dictionary. I love monolingual dictionaries and in any language try to move to these as quickly as possible. If only this one existed in a (real) digital version.

Valete,

Carolus Raeticus
Sperate miseri, cavete felices.

gerases
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:36 pm

Re: Review: Forcellini's 'Lexicon totius Latinitatis'

Post by gerases »

What a treasure you found. It's really cool. Not only the monolingual dictionary is priceless but also Cassell's in PDF -- I didn't know it existed. Only this morning when driving to work I thought how nice it would be to have Cassell on iPhone. Now, if the monolingual dictionary was available on iPhone it would be, well, heaven. They can also make OLD available on iPhone, I won't object very much.

Thanks for the post!

Neither did I know about Wagner's lexicon or Commenius. I'm getting me them dictionaries :)

cb
Textkit Zealot
Posts: 762
Joined: Tue Sep 18, 2007 3:52 pm

Re: Review: Forcellini's 'Lexicon totius Latinitatis'

Post by cb »

hi, also see this previous textkit discussion on latin monolingual dictionaries:

viewtopic.php?t=8491

cheers, chad

gerases
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:36 pm

Re: Review: Forcellini's 'Lexicon totius Latinitatis'

Post by gerases »

Thanks a bunch!

gerases
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:36 pm

Re: Review: Forcellini's 'Lexicon totius Latinitatis'

Post by gerases »

I downloaded Cassell, extracted each page, reduced its size and reassembled the pdf. It's much faster now, but the file size jumped to 320 MB. I could upload it somewhere so it can be used by more people. Is that dictionary in the public domain?

Carolus Raeticus
Textkit Enthusiast
Posts: 584
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:46 am
Contact:

Re: Review: Forcellini's 'Lexicon totius Latinitatis'

Post by Carolus Raeticus »

Salve!
gerases wrote:I downloaded Cassell, extracted each page, reduced its size and reassembled the pdf. It's much faster now, but the file size jumped to 320 MB. I could upload it somewhere so it can be used by more people. Is that dictionary in the public domain?
It ought to be, since I got my PDF-edition from Archive.org. On the respective page there is this note from a reviewer:
This book is in the Public Domain, and I am working on correcting the ocr errors in the plain text file. Upon completion I plan to share it.
I would definitely appreciate a faster Cassell-version, even if the memory-footprint is larger.

Vale,

Carolus Raeticus
Sperate miseri, cavete felices.

gerases
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:36 pm

Re: Review: Forcellini's 'Lexicon totius Latinitatis'

Post by gerases »

Here's the link, please let me know if it doesn't work or whatever.
Last edited by gerases on Thu Aug 02, 2012 8:26 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Carolus Raeticus
Textkit Enthusiast
Posts: 584
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 11:46 am
Contact:

Re: Review: Forcellini's 'Lexicon totius Latinitatis'

Post by Carolus Raeticus »

Ave!

The link is not working. I get the error message "Not found - Error 404".

Vale,

Carolus Raeticus
Sperate miseri, cavete felices.

gerases
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:36 pm

Re: Review: Forcellini's 'Lexicon totius Latinitatis'

Post by gerases »

I just changed some settings. Please try again and let me know how it worked.

Modo mutavi proprietates quasdam. Rogo iterum tentes documentum detrahere. Fac me certiorem cesseritne bene necne.

gerases
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2011 2:36 pm

Re: Review: Forcellini's 'Lexicon totius Latinitatis'

Post by gerases »

I think it would be cool if someone re-typed the dictionary -- if it is indeed in the public domain. Anybody know of such a typing service and how much it would cost for a dictionary like this?

It probably have to be done in some interchangeable format. XML is best, but even HTML would work. The possibilities after that are endless: online lookup for example.

By the way, has anybody noticed how many words in Millner's LATINUM audio vocabulary is pronounced with the wrong stress? I have a lot of respect for Evan for doing what he did, but from the point of view of learning...

Post Reply