Help with a Latin sentence

Latin Learning Latin
1

In Ad Alpes chapter 24 I read this sentence:

“Id nescio,” inquit Publius; “sed auctor Plinius, qui de Christianis litteras illas scripsit, quaedam satis miranda de lacu sibi noto narrat.”

It is the last part of the sentence that I do not quite understand. Should it be, ‘narrates something rather wonderful about a famous lake’ which cannot be right because it leaves ‘sibi’ untranslated.

Or perhaps, ‘narrates something rather wonderful about a lake known to him’. However, noto seems to be ablative, and on the second reading I would expect it to be ‘notus’.

Neither seems quite right.

Thanks in advance.

2

Your second option is right. Pliny is not known to himself (which is what the nominative would suggest), the lake is known to him, so “known” has to modify “lake.”

3

Thanks