"On Pins and Needles" →

An article to catch a Classicist’s eye in this morning’s Wall Street Journal. An excerpt:

Turning to the history books for clues, she learned that scholars widely believed the elaborately teased, towering and braided styles of the day were wigs. She didn’t buy that. Through trial and error she found that she could achieve the hairstyle by sewing the braids and bits together, using a needle. She dug deeper into art and fashion history books, looking for references to stitching. In 2005, she had a breakthrough. Studying translations of Roman literature, Ms. Stephens says, she realized the Latin term “acus” was probably being misunderstood in the context of hairdressing. Acus has several meanings including a “single-prong hairpin” or “needle and thread,” she says. Translators generally went with “hairpin.” The single-prong pins couldn’t have held the intricate styles in place. But a needle and thread could. It backed up her hair hypothesis.

Vatican Manuscripts Online →

Roger Pearse shares some direct links to a few of the precious manuscripts that the Vatican Library has begun to digitize for sharing online.

@pontifex_lnThe Latin version of Pope’s #Twitter twitter.com/PCCS_VA/status…

— VaticanCommunication (@PCCS_VA) January 17, 2013

A brief video about the new pontifical academy for the promotion of Latin studies featuring the Secretary of the Pontifical Academy of Latin, Fr. Roberto Spataro, SDB, of the Faculty of Christian and Classical Literature of the Pontifical Salesianum University. We are looking forward to visiting with him this summer!

(I also enjoyed the cameo at the beginning of the video by Forcellini’s Lexicon Totius Latinitatis, a marvelous work!)

acidadebranca:

Interior of the Pantheon by Pannini

Color Illustrations | Giovanni Paolo Panini | 1691–1765 | 654

Ostia Antica: a new, official website →

A photograph from the new website:

And one of the sites (but not just virtually!) that we very much look forward to visiting this summer.

This video report doesn’t do much to tell us about the significance of Latina Lingua (for some thoughts on that, see here), but it does mention something I found interesting. I didn’t know that some terms found in the Vatican’s Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis (of which a sample here) have made their way into use in Italy as sort of chic terms, e.g. pasta tubulata for maccherone (macaroni). Incidentally, this is something that I hope the Academy founded by Latina Lingua will be able to do: to take the Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis, expand upon it, make it available in more languages, starting with English, and make it accessible on the web. Currently, it is only available in Italian and only a sample of it is on the web. It could be a resource for composition in Latin classrooms around the world as well as an obvious source of standardization for modern terms, or, I should say, even more than it is already.

Motu Proprio “Latina Lingua” (English translation)

The Department of Classics & Early Christian Literature of Ave Maria University hopes that this English language translation of the motu proprio Latina Lingua will promote an acquaintance with Benedict XVI’s aims in establishing a Pontifical Academy of the Latin language. Professor Michael Pakaluk of Ave Maria University’s Department of Philosophy offers his insights on the significance of the document here.

We warmly welcome this initiative and offer our thanks to the Holy Father for it! 

1. The Latin language has continuously received the great esteem of the Catholic Church and the Roman Pontiffs, inasmuch as they consider it their own language, and they have assiduously taken pains to make this language widely known, because it was capable of transmitting the message of the Gospel to the entire world, as our predecessor, Blessed John XXIII justly and rightly decreed in the Apostolic Constitution Veterum Sapientia.

Of course the Church from the time of Pentecost has spoken and prayed in all the languages of mankind. Nevertheless the Christian communities of the first centuries for the most part used the Greek and Latin languages, since in those places in which they dwelt these were the universal means of communication, and in this way the newness of the Word of Christ encountered the heritage of Roman and Hellenistic culture.

After the Roman Empire in the west ceased to exist, the Roman Church not only continued to use the Latin language but also in a certain way was the custodian and patronness of this language, in Theology and the Liturgy, as well as in the realm of education and the transmission of knowledge.

2. In our day as well a knowledge of the Latin language and culture is vital for looking into the springs from which very many branches of learning besides draw, such as Theology, liturgical studies, Patristics, and Canon Law, as the Second Vatican Council teaches (see the decree on the education of priests, Optatam Totius, 13).

Furthermore, to manifest the universal nature of the Church, the liturgical texts of the Roman Rite have their paradigmatic form in the Latin language, as do the principal documents of the Magisterium and the solemn, official acts of the Roman Pontiffs.

3. Nevertheless in today’s culture, in which humanistic studies have diminished, there is danger that the knowledge of Latin will be superficial, something which is noticed in the Theology and Philosophy curricula even of future priests. But on the other hand, in our world in which science and technology hold pride of place, a renewed interest in the Latin language and culture may be observed, and not only on those continents which have their cultural roots in the Greek and Latin patrimony. This is particularly remarkable because not only does this fresh interest involve the realm of universities and education, but it extends even to young people and to students from the most diverse nations and traditions.

4. For this reason it seems necessary to support efforts to learn the Latin language more deeply and to use it in a fitting fashion, whether in ecclesiastical affairs or in the broader field of culture. It is perfectly reasonable, for the success and propagation of these efforts, to employ new methods of teaching Latin that correspond to new conditions and to advance likewise the links among academic institutions and among students of the language, so that the rich and diverse patrimony of Latin may be promoted.

To attain this plan, we, following in the footsteps of our predecessors, establish a Pontifical Academy of Latin by means of this Apostolic Letter issued today motu proprio. This Academy will report to the Pontifical Council on Culture. A president will direct this Academy, assisted by a secretary and those nominated by us, while a council of academics will provide these aforementioned with their aid.

The Latinitas Foundation, the body established by Pope Paul VI with the papal letter Romani Sermonis on June 30, 1976, is suppressed.

We decree that this Apostolic Letter, given motu proprio, by which we approve the statutes below for a period of five years, be published in the newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.

Given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, on November 10, 2012, the memorial of Pope Saint Leo the Great, in the eighth year of our Pontificate.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

Motu Proprio: “Latina Lingua”

(The statutes, which follow this letter, can be found here.)

Notice that Benedict says that he founds this new Academy, calcantes semitas Decessorum Nostrorum. Paul VI had founded Latinitas, the predecessor of this new Academy, on June 30, 1976 with the papal letter Romani Sermonis; the document here has a parallel title, Latina Lingua. Too bad the genitive wasn’t preserved as well!

Dr. Dinan and I will host an informational meeting on Tuesday, October 30 at 5:30PM in the Lecture Hall to introduce a new summer course involving the study of Latin and a 10 day trip to Rome. If you would like to read about the course in advance of our meeting, please click here. We hope you will join us!

I’d like to thank my father, Joseph W. Yarbrough, for being so good as to design for our department a brochure advertising the course. We’ll distribute a copy of this at a our informational meeting, but I also include a preview of it in this post.

View high resolution

jmmcsphotography:

Florence.

The Latin language at the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles.

(Source: orbiscatholicussecundus.blogspot.com)

Fr. Daniel Gallagher here speaks about the revival of interest in the Latin language in the Catholic Church. (H/t to Mr. Sonnen of Orbis Catholicus Secundus.)

This nice video looks to be a teaser for software or a website providing a virtual tour of Hadrian’s Villa. Thanks for Darius Arya for mentioning it.

see my friend Prof. Bernard Frischer in a virtually re-created Hadrian’s Villa for @khanacademy @Smarthistory youtube.com/watch?v=Nu_6X0…

— Darius Arya (@SaveRome) July 15, 2012

The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World →

Spanning one-ninth of the earth’s circumference across three continents, the Roman Empire ruled a quarter of humanity through complex networks of political power, military domination and economic exchange. These extensive connections were sustained by premodern transportation and communication technologies that relied on energy generated by human and animal bodies, winds, and currents.

Conventional maps that represent this world as it appears from space signally fail to capture the severe environmental constraints that governed the flows of people, goods and information. Cost, rather than distance, is the principal determinant of connectivity.

For the first time, ORBIS allows us to express Roman communication costs in terms of both time and expense. By simulating movement along the principal routes of the Roman road network, the main navigable rivers, and hundreds of sea routes in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and coastal Atlantic, this interactive model reconstructs the duration and financial cost of travel in antiquity.

Taking account of seasonal variation and accommodating a wide range of modes and means of transport, ORBIS reveals the true shape of the Roman world and provides a unique resource for our understanding of premodern history.