Can anyone render this passage from Lorenzo Valla's original Latin translation of Herodotus into modern text?
Upvote:6
Aegyptios autem, qua p(er)suasum habent ignem animatam beluam esse, et o(mn)ia quae nascuntur (nanciscitur) de uorare (devorare): et post(quam) deuorando (devorando) fuerit expleta, una cum ipsa re deuorata (devorata) emori.
Text in brackets is compared to better known versions (Svikert 1820) of the text or abbreviations expanded.
The "p" in "psuasum" has an understroke making it "persuasum"; the "postque" near the start of the 3d line is definitely "postquam": the "q" has both an understroke making it a "qu", and an overstroke indicating "am". – kimchi lover
The text uses long s ſ and a historic form of & for et. Diacritics seem to abbreviate prefixes and suffixes. At times the text seems to use a different source or is just corrupted.
Especially the differences between Svikert nanciscitur nancīscī, nancīscor, nactus sum (verb, cons. conj.) nanciscitur: 3. Ps. Sg. Pres. Ind. (deponens) seems weird compared to Valla nascuntur nāscī, nāscor, nātus sum (verb, cons. conj.) nascuntur: 3. Ps. Pl. Pres. Ind. (deponens).
For those reading along here but not 'fluent' in Latin, the passage is originally Greek and reads in English something like:
III. 16:
When they were weary of doing this (for the body, being embalmed, remained whole and was not dissolved), Cambyses commanded to burn it, a sacrilegious command; for the Persians hold fire to be a god; therefore neither nation deems it right to burn the dead, the Persians for the reason assigned, as they say it is wrong to give the dead corpse of a man to a god; while the Egyptians believe fire to be a living beast that devours all that it catches, and when sated with its meal dies with the end of that whereon it feeds. Now it is by no means their custom to give the dead to beasts; and this is why they embalm the corpse, that it may not lie and be eaten of worms. (p23)
–– Herodotus with and English translation of Alfred Denis Godley, in Four Volumes, Volume II, Books III and IV, London: William Heineman's, New York: GP Putnams's Sons, MCMXXVIII
While in a critical edition of the sources it would read like:
Πέρσαι γαρ θεὸν νομίζουσι εἶναι πῦρ. τὸ ὦν κατακαίειν γε τοὺς νεκροὺς οὐδαμῶς ἐν νόμω οὐδετέροισί ἐστί, Πέρσῃσι μέν, διόπερ εἴρηται, θεῷ οὐ δίκαιον εἶναι λέγοντες νέμειν νεκρὸν άνθρώπον • Αἰγνπτίοισι δὲ νενόμισται πῦρ θηρίον εἶναι ἔμψυχον, πάντα δὲ αὐτὸ κατεσθίειν, τά περ ἂν λάβῃ, πλησθὲν δε αὐτὸ τῆς βορῆς συναποθνήσκειν τῷ κατεσθιομένῳ. (p263–264)
–– Herodoti Historiae, Volumen 1, Libros I–IV Continens, Edidit Haiim B. Rosen, Bibliotheca Scriptorvm Graecorvm Et Romanorvm Tevbneriana, BSB B. G. Teubner Verlagsgesellschaft: Leipzig, 1987.
(p247)
–– Herodoti: "Historiae", Recognovit Brevique Adnotatione Critica Instruxit N G Wilson, Collegii Lincolnensis Apvd Oxonienses Socivs, Tomus Prior, Libros I–IV Continens, Scrptorium Classicorum Bilbiotheca Oxonisensis, Oxonii E Typographeo Clarendoniano, Oxford University Press: Oxford New York, 2015.
More post
- 📝 How early did restrictions on hunting start?
- 📝 When did London newspapers start to use typewriters in their offices?
- 📝 Whig party identification in the House of Lords
- 📝 What unknown laws were mentioned in earlier Coronation Oaths of England?
- 📝 Where did Vasco Núñez de Balboa first see the South Ocean?
- 📝 During the time of the British Mandate, who opposed the term "Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine" and who if any were OK with it being called that?
- 📝 How to travel from Koblenz (Germany) to Paris (France) in May 1805?
- 📝 Are there non-russian sources related to how Rurikid Dynasty became rulers of Russia?
- 📝 How long were Old Frankish dialects spoken in modern France?
- 📝 Was Robert McNamara present at Los Alamos, 1945?
- 📝 Pedophilia in ancient Greek and Roman culture
- 📝 Was there Nazi Collaboration at an Institutional level in Poland?
- 📝 Until when did Russia occupy Paris after 1814
- 📝 What was the dominant Soviet strategy for invading Germany in the 1980's?
- 📝 How many Western Roman rump states were there?
- 📝 Why did native Americans and Europeans mix in South America but not in North America?
- 📝 When did h*m*sexuality become unacceptable in Europe?
- 📝 Who said, "Freedom to do what?"
- 📝 What was Rousseau's point in "The Social Contract"?
- 📝 Once formed, could a Confederate militia company find replacements to remain an effective force? How?
- 📝 Is there anything to back up Mearsheimer's claims that Roosevelt pushed the Japanese to attack the United States and tried to get the US into WW2?
- 📝 Why were steering wheels so big, even in 20th century ships?
- 📝 What is the dating of the earliest manuscript of the Book of Arda Wiraz?
- 📝 What were contemporary Japanese views on the Taiping Rebellion and Heavenly Kingdom?
- 📝 Were there ever any farming societies without a calendar?
- 📝 When was the first time lower-class people had a reasonable chance of having a fair trial?
- 📝 What are early archeological clues of humans boiling food?
- 📝 Has there been significant progress in our knowledge of the Aztecs and/or Maya since the '60s?
- 📝 Were the Islamic Caliphates (Umayyad and Abbasid) and the Mongol Empires truly as benevolent as they are portrayed?
- 📝 Were the Japanese aware of Desmond Doss's actions?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Can anyone render this passage from Lorenzo Valla's original Latin translation of Herodotus into modern text?
- 📝 Can anyone identify the military branch and rank of the man in the front row? This is from Germany @1932
- 📝 Can anyone identify the regiment and rank from this WWI photograph?
- 📝 Can anyone explain why the Scottish flag on this map from 1504 has a red cross on a white background?
- 📝 Can anyone identify what uniform this child soldier from Switzerland c1870 is wearing?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this uniform from SE Asia?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this European ?naval uniform from photograph and likely date (belle époque)?)
- 📝 Can anyone identify this warship?
- 📝 Can anyone tell me what this coin was used for, an approximate date and possibly what it’s worth?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this tank?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this sword guard?
- 📝 Did the passage from Latin to English, in England, help science flourish?
- 📝 From what time can this jewelry date?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this possibly Czechoslovak uniform?
- 📝 Can anyone help identify the name of the white vessel in this photo w/the masts and funnel?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this Union commander?
- 📝 Can you identify this possibly Austro-Hungarian military uniform from either WW1 or before?
- 📝 Can anyone help identify this passenger steamship with double funnels and two masts?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this woman’s uniform?
- 📝 Can anyone help identify this uniform jacket?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this (circa 1841) uniform?
- 📝 Does anyone recognize this signature from Lord Rayleigh's "The Theory of Sound"?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this uniform?
- 📝 Can anyone help identify this soldier's uniform?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this uniform, the rank and if possible the date?
- 📝 Can anyone help identify this French military uniform?
- 📝 Can anyone help identify this World War One uniform?
- 📝 Can anyone help identify the country, rank, and unit this WWI uniform is from?
- 📝 Can anyone help me identify this Coat of Arms?
- 📝 Can anyone identify this coin found in Spain?