can pro and cum share the same ablative?

Latin after CDLXXVI
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Rufus Coppertop
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can pro and cum share the same ablative?

Post by Rufus Coppertop »

In the Oration to Mercury - Berengarius Ganellus' Summa Sacre Magice', L2 F10. P78 of digitized PDF, there is or appears to be the following

et tibi dedit pro pietatem miscendi cum omni natura et cum omni nobili scitu.

Obviously, the manuscript contains many abbreviations, contractions and the like but from consulting Capelli, there's no doubt that the P with the little thingy curling off to the left is 'pro' and not 'per' and there's also no doubt that 'miscendi' is genitive not ablative and it definitely ends in 'i' rather than 'o'.

In my mind, if we get rid of the pro, we end up with and to you he gave the duty of mixing with every nature and with every noble decree

Maybe I'm a bit thick but I just can't see what the pro is doing there because if it's meant to go with omnia natura, then what's the cum doing? And wouldn't the meaning be garbled?

Shenoute
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Re: can pro and cum share the same ablative?

Post by Shenoute »

The upward stroke at the end of the line indicates that pro is the beginning of the word, so I think the sentence reads et tibi dedit prop<r>ietatem miscendi cum....

Image

https://orka.bibliothek.uni-kassel.de/v ... 736802/78/

It seems the manuscript has facto(?) and not natura but maybe that's not the one you are reading from.

Rufus Coppertop
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Re: can pro and cum share the same ablative?

Post by Rufus Coppertop »

After I posted here, I posted the same question on Latindiscussion and Pacifica gave the same answer as you. It makes perfect sense in the context re proprietatem and yes, you're right about facto. Natura occurs elsewhere in the text close by.

Even though I already had the answer, it was good of you to take the trouble to reply. Gratias tibi do.

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