Options for Latin Comprehension exam

Hello all and thank you for the previous help with my work on Thomas. Here is the newest situation:

I need some help choosing a text for a Latin Comprehension exam. There are few qualifications on what I may or may not use. The first round of taking the course I chose to translate from Thomas’ Summa Theologiae and it was determined that I need to sharpen the skills a bit. The department head recommended I try something a bit “easier?. At least more straightforward. A large problem I had was not having time to do the work (it was approximately 4 pages of text in three hours).

So, I am coming to ask for suggestions. What would you say are straight forward texts to draw form (give me your top five, perhaps)? The professor says it can be virtually anything (philosophy, political, historical lit/prose). I chose Thomas because I am relatively well versed in him philosophically. Now I am considering looking at Augustine but am really hoping for some other suggestions as well.

Also, any etexts could help as well.

Hey,

4 pages in 3 hours - I would think that would be intimidating even for really advanced translators. For instance I am quite good in Spanish and can translate almost anything. But I would be quite pressed if I had do it that fast and be expected to produce smooth, completely idiomatic text.

Be that as it may, to your question I turn. What about Seneca? I find him to be one of the most accessible of the classical authors.

Ken

Ken,
Thank you, for the suggestion and also for helping me feel like this task is rightfully daunting. The problem I ran into in the first exam is that I got caught up in extreme precision in the first piece and then ran out of time as I moved through it.

As the professor suggested doing something other than Thomas I find myself in a new predicament. Although Thomas can be a bit boggling, even in the English, I have gotten a feel for his style and format and most importantly vocab. I spent some time today with a bit of Augustine and some Caesar. The most discouraging thing about turning to these is that it is relearning a style and vocab all over again.

I don’t want to be taken as one who wants to be simply leap as quickly through a hoop as possible, but at the same time, realistically, this hoop needs to be completed soon so that I may continue with my studies.

I do feel that I have a handle on the language in such a way that I can navigate texts for the sake of research, which is what I will need it for.

Regardless, thank you. I will look into Seneca.

Caeser is definitely very easy as far as classical Latin is concerned. He just presents straight forward narratives in a simple style. Lots of ablative absolutes.

I don’t have a lot of experience with it, but I’ve been reading some William of Ockham lately and I find it very easy. It’s medieval Latin, and the author’s first language was English, and the word order reflects this too a great extent. I find I can sight read his philosophical texts without much difficulty. Also, the scholastic philosophy should be similar to the Thomas you’re familiar with.

For example, here is the first paragraph from “Summula Philosophiae Naturalis” which I recently started reading:

Omne compositum componitur ex partibus sine quibus esse non potest, et dependet ex causis sine quibus una pars compositi alteri non unitur. Cum igitur scientia naturalis de compositis habeat considerare, sequitur quod ad considerationem eius pertinent partes compositi et causae eiusdem. Illae autem partes compositi per se sunt materia et forma, quae vocantur principia et causae eius. Ad naturalem igitur philosophum spectat docere tam de materia quam de forma.

Here is my quick translation for reference:

Everything composite is composed out of those parts without which it cannot be, and depends on those causes without which one part of the composite cannot be joined to the others. Since, therefore, natural science needs to consider composites, it follows that the composite parts and causes pertain to the consideration of that and of the same thing. But those composite parts are through themselves matter and form, which are called the beginnings and causes of it. Therefore it behooves the natural philosopher to teach as much of matter as of form.

The only things I’ve run into so far are a few Medieval constructions, and most of those you can figure out intuitively. For example, in the last sentence “spectat” is used as an impersonal construction of obligation, and the object takes “ad”. But even if you translate it as “it looks to the natural philosopher to teach…” it still makes sense. Also, I was told that “habeat considerare” functions here (intuitively) as “has to consider”.

Besides that, keep in mind the scholastic philosophy you’re dealing with. In his preface Ockham refers to “compositum per accidens” and “compositum per se unum.” This is the difference between artifacts and natural entities. A house is a single entity through accident or chance, while fire and animals are single entities in their own nature.

Thesaurus-
William of Ockham may be spot on. I will look into him this evening. Thanks for the contribution!

Of course, I am still taking other suggestions.

Thesaurus,
DO you by chance have an etext source for the Latin and English translation of that text?
Thanks.

I can’t seem to find any online version of the Summula. In fact, it looks very difficult to find any Ockham online whatesoever. However, here are some I’ve found:

Summa Logicae
http://home.riise.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~akyah59/ock.sl.index.html

Dialogus
http://www.britac.ac.uk/pubs/dialogus/wtc.html

For your information, the Summula comes from Ockham’s Opera Philosophica Vol. VI, page 155.

Thank you. I had found the dialogus in several locations, but the former other text may be a very nice piece to work out of.

A page with more William of Ockham’s work if anyone is interested:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.abelard.paris-sorbonne.fr/bibliothecavirtualis.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=4&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522summa%2Blogicae%2522%2Betext%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG[/url]

Try some Silver Latin such as Petronius: easy and interesting.

FOrgive my ignorance, what is “Silver Latin”? Thanks for the tip.

Petronius, Aulus Gellius, Phaedrus, Quintilian, etc., and the Latin used during the 1st and 2nd centuries.

I was seeking on the web for something and I casually came across the next exercises, which I didn´t know about, from The Latin Library:
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/101/
It provides texts, vocabularies, exercises, and I recommend you the Vergil´s section. It seems very good.