On Apr 7, 2007, at 20:41, Bev Walker wrote:
Hi Jeanette and everyone
I made an attempt to translate on-line via babelfish, got better
results
when I realized it is Italian rather than Latin (you get a point for
being
close!).
The text is
"Opera non men bella, che utile, & necessaria, et non piu venduta in
luce."
So, something like:
"Beautiful work not men (than) useful and necessary, and (piu) (did not
translate, best guess - word related to pious, godly?) not sold in
light."
Does this help?
Can you rework the translation for a better meaning.
My Italian is even worse than my Latin, which is bad/rusted enough
(though I did realise it was an Italian, not Latin, quote, because it's
"lux" in Latin, not "luce"), but I seem to remember that "piu" is
either "little" or "more". "men" is what has me stumped though; just
doesn't sound either Latin or Italian :) Of course, I've never even
seen old Italian, except in those pattern book dedications...
It's not "venduta"; it's "veduta" -- in both books (ie, not a "typo").
I have no clue what it means, though it's less likely to be connected
to selling. And I think "opera" is plural (works)...
I think it's, probably, something like "works not merely beautiful, but
useful and necessary", or "works as useful and necessary as they're
beautiful", though I wouldn't stake my reputation on it :) Yeah, I know
"che" is usually translated as "than", but it can as easily be used as
"as/like" -- in a comparison .
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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