4.1249 Who said?: Primus inter pares; St. Bernard (2/37)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 17 Apr 91 22:24:44 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 1249. Wednesday, 17 Apr 1991.
(1) Date: Tue, 16 Apr 91 12:39:09 IST (10 lines)
From: "David M. Schaps" <F21004@BARILVM>
Subject: Primus inter pares
(2) Date: Tue, 16 Apr 91 12:35:29 PDT (27 lines)
From: Alain Gowing <alain@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Dante and St. Bernard
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 91 12:39:09 IST
From: "David M. Schaps" <F21004@BARILVM>
Subject: Primus inter pares
Could anybody identify for me the source of the expression "primus
inter pares"? A sexagenarian student asked me this question about two
years ago, and neither the commonly used Latin dictionaries nor the
various classicists whom he has asked (including, among others, one
at Harvard and someone in the Secretariat of State at the Vatican)
have been able to give him an answer.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------39----
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 91 12:35:29 PDT
From: Alain Gowing <alain@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Dante and St. Bernard
My colleague Paul Pascal (who will be joining HUMANIST presently) has
asked me to post the following:
A recent query on this network about a quotation alleged to be from the
works of St. Bernard, that turned out to be no such thing, has reminded
me of another similar problem involving the same author. The last line
(148) of Canto XXX of Dante's Inferno reads "...voler cio udire e bassa
voglia." In N. Sapegno's edition of Dante, he compares, on the
authority of a certain Father Berthier, words of similar import alleged
to be by St. Bernard: "Audire quod turpe est pudori maximo est." When
the Bernard Concordance appeared, I was able to determine that this
sentiment does not in fact appear there. Can anyone cast any light on
this? Is a black market in St. Bernard quotations beginning to emerge?
Paul Pascal
Professor, Medieval Latin
Dept. of Classics
Univ. of Washington
Seattle WA 98195
paulpasc@u.washington.edu