Portenta, ostenta et monstra...oh my!

Working with an excerpt of Isidore of Seville's Etymologies

It seems apropos to post something spooky-adjacent for Hallowe’en—something involving both monstra (portents) and monstra (monsters)—so I dug a few paragraphs of Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae (Etymologies) out of my archives.

In my view, this is a dizzying section. Many words (dicta) seem to share similar meanings with only the subtlest shades of difference. If you were to look up the Latin word for portent (portentum, portenti), the dictionary would offer ‘portent’, ‘omen’, ‘sign’, but also ‘monster’ and ‘monstrosity’. Monstrum, monstri gives you some slight variations: it can mean a ‘portent’, a ‘wonder’, a ‘warning’, a ‘monster’ or even a ‘monstrous event’. Ostentum, ostenti also renders ‘portent’ or ‘prodigy’, and prodigium, prodigii, a ‘portent’, a ‘monster’ or a ‘freak.’

In a way, it’s helpful to know this ahead of tackling the reading because you’ll need to distinguish not only between the various nouns but also the verb forms. Isidore tells us that these words are derived (perhibent) from what they do: they portend (portendare), but also reveal thoroughly (praeostendare). While we may think that these occurrences are contrary to nature (contra naturam), Isidore emphasizes that they are, in fact, created by the will of God (divina voluntate).

Monstra and monstra were commonplace in the Medieval world, though Isidore would be quick to clarify: ‘Inter portentum autem et portentuosum differt’. Nevertheless, as readers we are likely to encounter both in didactic texts, like the Etymologiae, and in stories and saint’s lives. While some of these accounts may be fictionalized, we can’t overlook the fact that real monstra did exist; Isidore confirms this when he writes that God sometimes wants to show us what is to come (ventura) through dreams, oracles and even, somewhat troublingly, through injuries or defects (noxia) among newborns.

A bit about Etymologiae

Isidore’s Etymologiae, completed in the early seventh century, was one of the ‘greatest hits’ of the Middle Ages, influencing generations of scholars and the majority of writers (plerumque scriptorum) across Western Europe. It’s not a stretch to imagine this as a standard reference book in every monastic library and as the foundation on which various early Medieval scholars drew. In the Anglo-Latin context (yup, you’ll get a lot of this owing to what your faithful blogger is interested in), Aldhelm, Bede and Ælfric all not only read Isidore, but drew heavily upon his work for their various literary and natural philosophical works.

Etymologiae can be characterized as word-association-game-meets-encyclopedia (but serious scholars would likely prefer to characterize it as both ‘lexicographical’ and ‘encyclopaedic’). If you were studying in an eleventh-century monastery, then this is definitely the book you would want to use to cram for any exam as it contains information about the organization and structure of the church, ‘war and games’ (De bello et ludis), the basics of astronomy, condemnations of heathen things (like magic and divination), mathematics, medicine and more.

About the booklet

Totaling six pages, I adapted this study text from my notes. For reference, I spent about a week on it (the first seven sections, though I’ve only reproduced the first five here). Some of the strategies I used to make sense of the text included:

• Reading articles related to the subject matter to prime myself for the vocabulary I would encounter (you don’t necessarily need to do this since I tried to provide clues for you in the introduction to this text);

• Find the cultural references (again, you don’t need to do this because I included information that will help you make sense of certain sections); and

• Parsing the sentences using multi-coloured hi-liters corresponding to each of the cases (I didn’t parse the text for you - that you can do yourself!).

After that, I worked with the text in different ways, some of which I provided for you on pages 4-6. This included practicing noun declensions and verb conjugations (in my view, you can never get enough practice!), translating certain easier phrases back into Latin, and filling in the blanks.

Based on studies around vocabulary acquisition, repetition is key. Of course (quippe), there are considerations around how frequently you need to see the word, not only in terms of numerical frequency but also how that frequency is spaced. Varying the repetition is important, but, at the end of the day, there’s no magic number, although it seems that any fewer than ten times won’t cut it.

One of the problems with this is finding a text that hits that sweet spot between repetition, spacing, variation and difficulty level. Generally, there aren’t many as proved by most experiences (plurimis experimentis probatum est). Language learners (myself included) feel perpetually stuck at that intermediate level with too few texts available to those who are beyond the basics.

One of the ways that you can achieve this artificially is by compiling separate texts on a narrow theme, like monstra and monstra, which I hope to do for you across a few future posts. The goal is incremental exposure.

One final thing that I would suggest is that you keep texts on a constant cycle. It’s tempting to translate a few passages and move onto the next big challenge, but returning to previous texts has been key for me not only to gauge how far I’ve come, but also where I’m still weak. I cycle through the same texts once every three to six months, but you can find an interval that makes sense for you.

A disclaimer

There are bound to be mistakes in the booklet (and not for some intentional pedagogic reason). I’m working in isolation and while I do proofread, several hours at the same document can blind you to obvious errors. If you do find mistakes, please drop me a line at studieslatin@gmail.com so I can correct and reissue an amended version.

Will these always be free?

No. I’ll definitely be making booklets available for free in both Latin and Old English sporadically and for a set period before paywalling them, but the vast majority will be available to subscribing members. Believe it or not, it does take time to make these, especially because I’m not just scanning my chaotic notes and hoping someone finds them valuable. I know how frustrating the lack of free resources can be when learning a language, so, if you can’t afford a membership, I will be making tips and reviews of free texts available for everyone from time to time. I hope you understand!