Help Needed: Mons Spes

Latin Medieval and Neo-Latin
1

Salvete,

I would like your opinion on two questions for my latest transcription projects, Arcadius Avellanus’ Mons Spes et Novellae Aliae. The answers seem to be quite obvious, but I still would like to have your opinion, just in case. After all, “It Ain’t What You Don’t Know That Gets You Into Trouble. It’s What You Know for Sure That Just Ain’t So.”

pl. 135:

“At vero,
quum haec fiunt, utrum mensae sua sponte moveantur,
aut vero diabolicae maniae in circulo magico compareant,
aut manus incorporeae exsurgant, resque
materiales e medio subducant, aut, denique, umbra
atra, talis qualis sese mihi obversabat, sanguinem nostrum
gelet – tamen mihi persuasum est haec omnia
vicaria nonnisi esse ad meam mentem ab alia quadam
mente, veluti per fila electrica transfusa ac permissa
esse. Organis nonnullorum corporis inest quaedam
chemia naturalis, et hi valent mira quaedam chemica
edere; aliis aliquid liquidi, voces licet vim electricam,
hi mira electrica edent. Haec tamen a scientia vera
differunt, quod omnia sunt puerilia, frivola, expertia
propositi ac finis.”

Any reason, why it should not read “Organis nonnulorum corporum”?


p. 237:

“Ex mea quidem,” inquit, “sententia, ille Alexander ad Matrem Carey
deberet reverti. Ipse enim certe eius pullus est. Cette — num
creditis eum scire ubi versetur? Anne credit
ipse Hunnos ad circandum parvulum dromonem in medio Atlanti
dimittere, an vero scitne ipse se hicce in vicinia littorum iacere?”

Logic dictates that this should be “Certe” instead of “Cette”. Or is there any other reading possible?

Thank you for your help,

Carolus Raeticus

2

My two cents.

Organis nonnullorum corporis: To the organs of some people’s body
Organis nonnullorum corporum: To the organs of some bodies
The first one seems more natural to me in the book’s context.

In the second sentence, I agree it could a typo for certe. Cette can be an old plural imperative form though, with the meaning “tell!/say!”. Given Avellanus fondness for rarer words, I think it probably is what he was going for here.

cĕdo , old
I.imperat. form, whose contr. plur. is > cette > (cf. Prob. II. p. 1486 P.; Non. p. 84, 31 sq.) [compounded of the particle -ce and the root da-; v. 1. do], hither with it! here! give! tell, say (implying great haste, familiarity, authority, and so differing from praebe, dic, etc.); cf. Key, § 731.
(…)

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dcedo2

3

Salve Shenoute!

Thank you for help. I will leave the first word unchanged as well as the second, but add a footnote concerning the unclear reading “cette” or “certe” to the second one.

Vale,

Carolus Raeticus