translation: ubi est imago, etc.

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MarcJohn
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Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2012 3:44 pm

translation: ubi est imago, etc.

Post by MarcJohn »

Hello everyone,

I've attempted a translation of a short passage in which Thomas Aquinas asks what an image is. If anyone can make my English rendering more beautiful or more idiomatic, then that would please me, but most of all I'd appreciate learning from you whether I've parsed the Latin correctly.

"Sicut Augustinus dicit in libro octoginta trium quaest., ubi est imago, continuo est et similitudo; sed ubi est similitudo, non continuo est imago. Ex quo patet quod similitudo est de ratione imaginis, et quod imago aliquid addit supra rationem similitudinis, scilicet quod sit ex alio expressum, imago enim dicitur ex eo quod agitur ad imitationem alterius." (Summa Theologiae Iª q. 93 a. 1)

Translation: As Augustine says in his book Eighty-Three Questions, where an image is, there, without more, is similarity too; but where similarity is, is as yet and without more no image. From which it is obvious that since similarity is, solely by reason of there being an image, and since an image adds something more to the ground that makes for similarity, one can see that whatever is the expression of some other thing is therefore called an image of that other because it is made in imitation of the other.

I was wondering, for instance, does the "eo" here refer back to the "alio" in "quod sit ex alio expressum" ("imago ... ex eo" = "image of it/that other")? Or does "ex eo" perhaps modify "dicitur" ("dicitur ex eo quod" = "is called ... for the reason that")?

With kind regards, and thanks in advance,
Marc.

adrianus
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Re: translation: ubi est imago, etc.

Post by adrianus »

ex eo quod = "by which", "whereby" or/seu "for the reason that" (as you say // ut dicis)
continuo = immediately, straightaway (or 'necessarily', even, in this context // hoc in loco)
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

MarcJohn
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Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2012 3:44 pm

Re: translation: ubi est imago, etc.

Post by MarcJohn »

Gratias tibi ago!

Marc.

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