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tolerancetoday at 4:20 AM2 repliesview on HN

I’m not trying to pull your card, but can you read the language that the example is written in?


Replies

spudlyotoday at 6:42 AM

Nonne tu linguam Latinam legere potes?

> Incipit epistola sancti iheronimi ad paulinum presbiterum de omnibus divine historie libris capitulum primum.

I'm not entirely up on all the abbreviations and and shorthand used in medieval manuscripts, but the macron over the final ū in 'capitulū' indicates the vowel being nasalized, which often happens before the final 'm' consonant which in this case is suspended. The 'pmū' is similar, but also I think a contraction or abbreviation for primum. With all these tricks available to the scribes it's no wonder they can make the right edge look nice.

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lucumotoday at 6:46 AM

It's latin. "de omnibus" on the second line is pretty well recognizable. But holy hell is Gutenberg's font terrible. Look at the first word on the second line, it ends in seven undotted sticks that seem to bleed over into each other a bit. I read that as "mim" before I figured out it was "num".

Anyway, it's the Gutenberg bible. The epistle of St. Jerome, according to the alt text.