08.04.24: medical notes from 1631 [first post]

Imagine you have a twelve year old daughter who has just started French at school. Let’s say, she’s been studying the language for a month or so. Now imagine she comes home during that time with a 250 page novel in French which the teacher expects her to read. You’d go crazy and rightly so because how could anybody expect to read such a work in a foreign language when that language is still completely new? Therefore, why do people want to do that with Latin?

Being able to read the Roman authors is an “end point”. Classical Latin literature is not easy, and to get there is a long journey. However, it is simply not the case that there are no “middle stages”. Apart from the extracts from the school textbooks, together with relatively simple quotations from the Roman authors that have been posted here – and I’ll keep posting those as they continue to present increasingly challenging language and / or illustrate a point – there are other sources which, while not Classical Latin, still have all the Latin you need to develop your knowledge.

There is another big “milestone” coming up and, once that’s done, what you can read in Latin will increase enormously at which point we can take a look at some Mediaeval texts. Similarly, the Vulgate which, by its very name indicates that it was written for “ordinary” people, is written in a style that provides a “stepping stone” to more advanced language.

The extract I’m going to discuss in the next post is from 1631 – whether you want to call that the Renaissance period or the Age of Enlightenment depends on whose opinion you ask, but, regardless of the "label", Latin was the language used during that period by scholars to transmit their work to as many of their peers as possible throughout Europe.

Some medical notes from 1631

"Quōmodo diēs bonī ā malīs, per observātiōnem numerī lūnāris discernantur."

• How good days are distinguished from bad days through the observation of the lunar number.

"Experientiā ductī sunt aliquī ut crēdant quod sint diēs aliquī in mēnsālī Lūnae cursū, ergā īnfirmōs propitiōrēs aliīs, vel ferōciōrēs atque īnfēlīciōrēs."

• Through experience, some people have been led to believe that there are some days in the course of the lunar month that are more favourable (propitiōrēs) than others, or fiercer and more unlucky.

It’s interesing to note how Robert Fludd, the author, distances himself from these beliefs: “Some people have been led to believe…”

He provides a list using many future tenses referring to what will happen on a particular day during the month.

In the next post are extracts from that list, and there may be some days on which you may wish to avoid being ill!