Tag: Renaissance

Improving on Antiquity

~ Erik ~ Leave a comment

Coluccio Salutati, de Laboribus Herculis 1.7.11

“The investigations of any science would quickly dry up if posterity had accepted each field’s principles with such simplicity that it thought nothing therein worth inquiring after but what the original thinkers either could or would make known. Indeed, our sciences have grown mature by successive and continual gradations; and, by the force of new and daily considerations, many things have been discovered which not only could escape, but in fact did escape the notice of the first thinkers.”

Image result for coluccio salutati

Nimis etenim arida foret cuiuslibet artis speculatio si que ex arte dicta sunt adeo simpliciter posteritas recepisset quod nichil in eis duceret speculandum nisi quod inventores ipsi potuerint vel voluerint declarare. Adoleverunt equidem artes successivis et continuis incrementis, et novis in dies considerationibus multa sunt deprehensa que priscos illos nedum latere potuerunt sed sine dubio latuerunt.

Improving on Antiquity

~ Erik ~ 1 Comment

Coluccio Salutati, de Laboribus Herculis 1.7.11

“The investigations of any science would quickly dry up if posterity had accepted each field’s principles with such simplicity that it thought nothing therein worth inquiring after but what the original thinkers either could or would make known. Indeed, our sciences have grown mature by successive and continual gradations; and, by the force of new and daily considerations, many things have been discovered which not only could escape, but in fact did escape the notice of the first thinkers.”

Image result for coluccio salutati

Nimis etenim arida foret cuiuslibet artis speculatio si que ex arte dicta sunt adeo simpliciter posteritas recepisset quod nichil in eis duceret speculandum nisi quod inventores ipsi potuerint vel voluerint declarare. Adoleverunt equidem artes successivis et continuis incrementis, et novis in dies considerationibus multa sunt deprehensa que priscos illos nedum latere potuerunt sed sine dubio latuerunt.

Sententiae Recentiores: The Greatness of Vergil

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“A teacher should prefer Vergil above all other poets, since his eloquence and glory are so great, that they could be neither increased by anyone’s praises nor diminished by anyone’s censure.”

Inter heroicos Vergilium cunctis praeferat, cuius tanta eloquentia est, tanta gloria, ut nullius laudibus crescere, nullius vituperatione minui possit.

-Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, de Liberorum Educatione, chp. 69

Sententiae Recentiores: A Thought for Election Season

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“There is also an obnoxious group of people, who praise whatever they hear praised, and will censure when they hear another censuring; they deny if another denies, and they affirm when they hear someone else affirming; and, just as the octopus will change its color to look like the soil underneath it, so too do these people change their opinions to match the pleasure of the audience, and they are prepared to testify against justice or even against God himself if they think that it would please the audience.”

Est enim pestiferum genus hominum, qui laudant quaecumque audiunt laudari, et rursus cum vituperante vituperant; negant si quis negat, et affirmant ubi audiunt affirmantem; atque ut polypus ad speciem subiecti soli colorem mutat, ita et isti ad voluptatem audientium sententias variant, parati et adversus iustitiam et adversus Deum testificari, si placitum esse putarint audienti.

-Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, de Liberorum Educatione, chp. 32

Sententiae Recentiores: Cato Seems Cool in Comparison!

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“The authority of the great Cato has more weight with me, since he – though an old man – applied himself to learning Greek literature, than does the notion of Gaius Marius, who thought that it was a shameful thing to learn a literature whose teachers lived in servitude.”

Plus enim apud me valet magni Catonis auctoritas, qui vel senex Graecis litteris operam dedit, quam Gaii Marii, qui eas litteras turpe putabat discere, quarum magistri servirent.

-Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, de Liberorum Educatione, chp. 61

Sententiae Recentiores: Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, de Liberorum Educatione cp.6

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“We encounter few, however, who are unteachable by nature. For just as birds (as Quintilian notes) are born for flying, and horses for running, and beasts for savagery, so too are cunning and mental activity the proper sphere of humanity. Dull and ineducable people are therefore born no more according to nature than are prodigious and remarkable bodies are in monsters. And though one person might excel another in natural talent, there is no one to be found who cannot attain something with a bit of application.”

“Pauci tamen reperiuntur quibus natura indocilis est. Sicut enim aves ad volatum (Quintilianus ait), equi ad cursum, as saevitiam ferae gignuntur, sic hominis propria est agitatio mentis atque solertia; hebetes vero et indociles non magis secundum naturam quam prodigiosa corpora et insignia monstris eduntur. Et quamvis alius alium praestet ingenio, nemo tamen reperitur qui nihil sit studio consecutus.”

Sententiae Recentiores: Coluccio Salutati, de Laboribus Herculis 1.7.11

~ Erik ~ 2 Comments

“The investigations of any science would quickly dry up if posterity had accepted each field’s principles with such simplicity that it thought nothing therein worth inquiring after but what the original thinkers either could or would make known. Indeed, our sciences have grown mature by successive and continual gradations; and, by the force of new and daily considerations, many things have been discovered which not only could escape, but in fact did escape the notice of the first thinkers.”

Nimis etenim arida foret cuiuslibet artis speculatio si que ex arte dicta sunt adeo simpliciter posteritas recepisset quod nichil in eis duceret speculandum nisi quod inventores ipsi potuerint vel voluerint declarare. Adoleverunt equidem artes successivis et continuis incrementis, et novis in dies considerationibus multa sunt deprehensa que priscos illos nedum latere potuerunt sed sine dubio latuerunt.

 

NOTE: Salutati was the Chancellor of Florence during the late 14th century, in addition to being a rather active man of letters in the early Renaissance by publishing his own works, corresponding with notable figures like Petrarch, and encouraging other scholars who later became central to the revival of learning. As is true of most authors of his time, much of his work bears a deep stamp of Classical learning, and you can therefore expect to see more of this sort of thing on the site!