Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2016 December 14

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December 14

Translation of Latin quotation

What does the second Latin quotation mean in English?

Your assistance in translating the second Latin quotation on the title page shown would be much appreciated. The passage reads: "'Nam tametsi non integras contineant politiarum descriptiones, habent tamen memorabilia quædam instituta, nec in vulgus nota, quæ quidem talia sunt, ut, qui ea rectè adhibere voluerit, sæpe in consiliis, in legibus, in judiciis commodare potuerit.' Nich. Cragius in præf. Ad Heraclidæ Pontici de politiis libellum.——" As far as I can determine, "Nich. Cragius" is Nicolaus of Damascus, and the quotation is from Heraclides Ponticus's "little book on politics". — SMUconlaw (talk) 21:21, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

I'll let someone else do the translation, as I'm in a rush, but "Nich. Cragius in praef. ad Hericlidae Pontici de politiis libellum" means "Niels Krag in the preface to Heraclides Ponticus' De politiis libellus". Krag was the editor and publisher of an edition of Heraclides' "Little book about politics". Deor (talk) 22:37, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

Just to make it interesting, the passage in the edition Deor found (on the third page of the main text) is not exactly the same as the quotation SUMconlaw found. Instead it reads: "Nam tametsi non integras contineant politiarum descriptiones, qualis nostra de Republica Lacedæmoniorum: habent tamen memorabilia quarundam instituta, nec in vulgus nota. Quæ quidem talia sunt, vt, qui ea rectè adhibere nouerit, sæpè in consiliis, in legibus, in iudiciis & aliis multi Reipub. commodare poterit." I looked in Google Books to see if there was a published version of the book in English, but didn't find one. --76.71.5.45 (talk) 23:48, 14 December 2016 (UTC)

For the first version, a fairly quick and literal translation is: "For even though they do not contain full descriptions of politics, they nevertheless have certain noteworthy institutes, not known in the common tongue, which indeed are such that he who wishes to use them correctly, may often find pleasure in legal opinions, in laws, in judgements." I'm not sure what Krag means about Sparta (the Lacadaemonians), but at the end it is slightly different, he says "...he who knows how to use them correctly, will often find pleasure in legal opinions, in laws, in judgements." It will require a bit more time and effort to read the rest of Krag's introduction to figure out the context of the quote, if anyone is up for it. Adam Bishop (talk) 02:19, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

Thanks! — SMUconlaw (talk) 10:51, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

• Am I right in guessing that tametsi should be tamet si? I don't think a proper Latin word can contain ts (s "eats" a preceding t or d). —Tamfang (talk) 19:19, 17 December 2016 (UTC)

It's a compound—tam + et + si, "even if" or "although". Etsi itself (with much the same meaning) is quite a common word. Deor (talk) 19:53, 17 December 2016 (UTC)