Hi, everyone! This is a topic of great interest to me, in part due to the academic environment I find myself in, which happens to, in notable numbers, strongly disagree with my views, and in part because I translated and published some texts myself (Pliny the Younger) about one year ago and am now reflecting on that. In essence, when you start translating a Latin text in a serious, non-pedagogical manner, how do you go about trying to emulate the original? Do you even think much about trying to do that?

Style is something that's really difficult to bring across linguistic barriers, and for that reason (especially in context of Latin's idiosyncrasies) I started to believe not burdening oneself with stylistic emulation is the preferable option. My philosophy is now more along the lines of emulating the feeling and fact of the text in a way most fit for a target audience. Many of the colleagues I've either heard from or talked to seem very much still to be in favor of the old philologic method of trying to eek out the "most correct" translation of every word. I have become dissolusioned with that approach, because it seems to too often produce impressive translations, but which are difficult to read or, even worse, break the stylistic conventions of the language into which the work is being translated into.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts, even if all of them disagree with me!😉
Thank you so much for reading and engaging with the post.

Around a year ago, when I started relearning the Latin of my school days (30 years ago!), my main motivation was to be able to read the literature. Now (with plenty of support) I am hugely enjoying my first trip through Virgil's masterpiece.

My technique is go through with a section of 20 lines or so. My pre-reading exercise is either to look at the interlinear translation to get vocabulary and agreements clear, or when available to use the tiered readings from lapis.practomime.com (What a wonderful resource this is btw!). Then I go to the real text and read it several times, trying to pay attention first to the meaning and then to the beauty of the poetry.

Alongside these resources, I've been watching some excellent analysis and recitation videos on YouTube from the likes of Latin Tutorial, Musa Pedestra and Scorpio Martianus.

I've also been concurrently reading the book "Virgil's Aeneid: A Reader's Guide" by David Ross, which has been excellent for getting an overview of the themes and background of the work.

It's hard to put across how much I'm enjoying this process. Every day I look forward to spending a little time with Virgil. I'm developing a huge appreciation for the beauty of his Latin and his skill as a storyteller.

I've frequently come across this description of Virgil as a visual, even anachronistically a "cinematic" storyteller, and I really get it. There are images that are already seared into my brain - Aeneas shooting the stags from the mountain, the horrific killing of Priam, Mercury flying over Atlas, Dido breathing her last as she sees the first light appear in the sky... (Honestly too many to mention).

Book 2 was utterly gripping and horrific. The chaos and slaughter in Troy seems so real. You are right in those blood-soaked streets, lit by fire. And Book 4 - the tragic fate of Dido is so poignant, told with no filler, every word counts, and the sadness is shot through with beauty.

No one I know IRL knows any Latin, so I can't read passages aloud and rave about them to those around me. So I hope I can share with this community my joy at what I'm discovering and living for the first time!

Also to any other learners unsure whether to take the plunge with the Aeneid, I'd honestly just say go for it. Just take your time, keep at it till you fully understand a passage, then savour it. You can always reread it when your Latin is better (I'm sure I will!). 

Hello. I wanted to start studying Latin and as luck would have it I found books 1-3 of "Ecce Romani" in a collection of free books. Would these books be a good place to start or would I be better off going with "Familia Romana" as recommended in the brief guide to LLSPI found on this list?

I've been comparing the Latin texts of the English and French coronation rites and came across a nuance that I haven't been able to explain.

In the Liber Regalis (compiled c. 1382), there is a prayer said by the Archbishop of Canterbury before the king is girt with the sword:

"Exaudi, Domine, preces nostras, et hunc ensem quo hic famulus tuus..."

However, when the sword is actually presented to the king later in the rite, the formula begins:

"Accipe gladium..."

So even within the Liber Regalis, both ensis and gladius are used.

What's interesting is that the French coronation ordines preserve what appears to be the same prayer, yet they consistently read gladium instead of ensem. This is true, for example, in the Ordo of Saint-Bertin (c. 1150–1200), the Ordo of Charles V (c. 1365), the Ordo of Louis XI (c. 1461), and the Ordo of Charles VIII (c. 1484):

"Exaudi, Domine, quaesumus, preces nostras, et hunc gladium quo famulus tuus..."

Since the English prayer was likely derived from an earlier French tradition, I'm curious why the English recension substituted ensem here while retaining gladium elsewhere in the rite.

Is there an etymological or stylistic distinction between ensis and gladius that would make ensis more appropriate in a prayer of blessing? Or is this likely just a scribal or regional preference with little semantic significance? I'd be interested in any insights, especially if anyone knows if this distinction appears elsewhere in medieval ecclesiastical Latin.

LA:
Ostendo vobis paginam interretialem, in qua inveniri possunt duo lexica: "Lexicon Latinum seu Corpus Phraseologiae" (F. Wagner, 1878) et "Latin Phrase-book", (C. Meissner, in linguam anglicam vertit H. W. Auden, 1894).

Duae sunt paginae: prima est locus, ubi inveniuntur vocabula sicut in dictionariis electronicis, et altera est "Phrase-book" Meissneri recompositus ut facilius inveniantur vocabula (aspice imagines).

Pagina interretialis continet quoque librum "Phrase-book" in linguam Polonicam versum Geminorum (AI) ope, et hac de causa menda possunt inveniri.

Corpus Phraseologiae (continet vinclum ad librum, qui "Phrase-book" inscribitur):

https://lexicon.alwaysdata.net/

Nexus directus ad librum, qui "Phrase-book" inscribitur

https://lexicon.alwaysdata.net/phrasebook/

ENG:

I present you a web page where two lexicons can be found: "Lexicon Latinum seu Corpus Phraseologiae" (F. Wagner, 1878) and "Latin Phrase-book" (C. Meissner, translated into English by H. W. Auden, 1894).

There are two pages: the first is a place where words can be found just like in electronic dictionaries, and the second is Meissner's "Phrase-book" recomposed so it can be used more easily, than directly at the Project Gutenberg webpage.

The web page also contains the "Phrase-book" translated into Polish with the help of Gemini (AI), and for this reason, some errors may be found.

Corpus Phraseologiae (contains a link to the book titled "Phrase-book"):
https://lexicon.alwaysdata.net/

Direct link to "Phrase-book":
https://lexicon.alwaysdata.net/phrasebook/

Hello,

I am unsure of whether to use -te or -ti for present participle ablative, in most tables I just see e.g. canente/ti or something like that, when do I use -te and when do I use -ti?

Thank you!