orbis terrarum nova et accuratissima tabula meaning

#ORBIS TERRARUM NOVA ET ACCURATISSIMA TABULA MEANING FULL#

In other words, I believed my argument to be a possible explanation of the reading I found most likely at the time, and absolutely did not intend to be dismissive of the author's knowledge or ability. I would never have the audacity to use such a word in speaking of a Medieval composition, even if, as is sometimes the case, the Latin were modeled on the native language of the author. I want to make it clear that I never said anything about a 'clumsy' translation. )Ĭlick to expand.Although, as I said above, I agree completely with Enlil's argument, I feel that you have misrepresented my earlier position a bit. The order here is child's play by comparison with some of Virgil's more fanciful flights. (And, by the way, if you think this translation is belied by the word order, try reading the Aeneid sometime. Now you have two masculine singular genitive adjectives, totius and novi, and a masculine singular genitive noun phrase, terrarum orbis.Īccording to this interpretation (which I believe is correct), the translation is:Ī new map of the whole, or rather of the new, world. Since the only reason for construing totius as a substantive is to explain the peculiar phrase totius terrarum, recognizing terrarum orbis as a single entity removes this need. If you have these two words in a sentence, the most likely reason is that the author had this phrase in mind. What everyone is forgetting is that terrarum orbis (circle or orb of lands) is a very common Latin idiom for 'world'. I've seen pictures of a map with this legend, and it's been incorrectly cited here. It makes me wonder if the 'land' or 'world' should come first in the translation. I'm curious as to its construction considering in the original Latin, the 'land' reference came first, but the noun wasn't introduced until the latter half. I would say our 'sive' can actually act as that semicolon, considering it's trying to make a comparison. Making it a fragment: A new map of all the lands a new map of the world.Ī new map of the world, of all the lands. Maybe some of our fancy English punctuation can be our friend here.

#ORBIS TERRARUM NOVA ET ACCURATISSIMA TABULA MEANING FULL#

So this is practically a double frame, or a frame within a frame? Totius terrarum would be a frame of its own if it included the noun, but the full frame is novi orbis tabula, which makes it almost one-and-a-half, therefore giving you the reason to believe that they are presented as two of the same ways to describe the nova tabula? Wonderful! Okay so then maybe the 'or' operator in the translation needs to be less emphasized. To me, this indicates that the two genitive phrases totius terrarum and novi orbis are presented as two different, but equally valid ways of describing the same nova tabula. In this case, we have descriptive genitives separated by sive within the frame nova.tabula. It entails placing the modifier first in a sentence, clause, or phrase, and the modified noun last.

The text Jeff has given provides, I believe, a clear example of 'framing,' a very common technique in Latin composition. 'A new map of all (of) the lands, or of the new world.' (Note that novi modifies orbis not tabula.)ĮDIT-The justification for my translation: I now believe that we should read your text as:

Latin had a different way of indicating 'not only.but also.' 'Not only Mars, but also Ares, was the god of war.' Example:Ĭlearly, the two names are simply alternative ways of referring to the same deity. Sive suggests that the thing being described differs only in the words used to refer to it. The Early Latin genitive plural of terra was terrōm, which developed into terrāsom, which, through rhotacism, became terrārom, which then became the familiar classical terrārum.Īs for your translation, I would not feel comfortable using 'not only.but also' for sive.

Click to expand.I am not familiar that that winged 'O'-honestly, I don't even know whether it's meant to be an 'O' or a 'U.' Either would be correct.

Orbis terrarum nova et accuratissima tabula meaning