The Society for Ancient Languages
Week Seven
CASSIODORUS |
DIVINE LETTERS |
QUID AGENDUM A MONICHIS QUI ARTES IN LIBRO SEQUENTI POSITAS NON INTELLEGUNT |
WHAT MUST BE DONE BY MONKS WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE SKILLS OF FOLLOWING PROPER ARRANGEMENT IN A BOOK |
| Quapropter toto nisu, toto labore, totis desideriis exquiramus ut ad tale tantumque munus, Domino largiente, pervenire mereamur. Hoc enim nobis est salutare, proficuum, gloriosum, perpetuum, quod nulla mors, nulla mobilitas, nulla possit separare oblivio; sed in illa suavitate patriae cum Domino faciet aeterna exultatione gaudere. | On this account, with every effort, with every exertion, with every desire let us seek to deserve through the Lord's bounty to attain a gift of such quality and importance. For it is advantageous to us, beneficial, glorious, everlasting -- a gift of such sort that death, change, and forgetfulness cannot take it away, but in that sweet fatherland it will make us rejoice in the Lord with eternal exultation. |
DE ANTIQUARIIS ET COMMEMORATIONE ORTHOGRAPHIAE |
ON SCRIBES AND THE REMEMBERING OF CORRECT SPELLING |
| Ego tamen fateor votum meum quod, inter vos quaecumque possunt corporeo labore compleri, antiquariorum mihi studia (si tamen veraciter scribant) non immerito forsitan plus placere; quod et mentem suam, relegendo scripturas divinas, salubriter instruant et, Domini praecepta scribendo longe lateque disseminent. Felix intentio, laudanda sedulitas, manu hominibus praedicare, digitis linguas aperire, salutem mortalibus tacitam dare, et contra diaboli subreptiones inlicitas calamo atramentoque pugnare. Tot enim vulnera Satanas accipit quot antiquarius Domini verba describit. Uno itaque loco situs, operis sui disseminatione per diversas provincias vadit. In locis sanctis legitur labor ipsius; audiunt populi unde se a prava voluntate convertant et Domino pura mente deserviant. Operatur absens de opere suo. | I admit that among those of your tasks which require physical effort that of the scribe, if he writes correctly, appeals most to me; and it appeals, perhaps not without reason, for by reading the Divine Scriptures he wholesomely instructs his own mind and by copying the precepts of the Lord he spreads them far and wide. Happy his design, praiseworthy his zeal, to preach to men with the hand alone, to unleash tongues with the fingers, to give salvation silently to mortals, and to fight against the illicit temptations of the devil with pen and ink. Every word of the Lord written by the scribe is a wound inflicted on Satan. And so, though seated in one spot, with the dissemination of his work he travels through different provinces. The product of his toil is read in holy places; people hear the means by which they may turn themselves away from base desire and serve the Lord with heart undefiled. Though absent, he labors at his task. |