Expert: Maria - 10/15/2008

Question
I wonder what this means: "Operis perficiendi curam indefissius" (followed by the name of a person). It is on a 17th century church.


Answer
Hello,

First of all I think that the inscription you mention should be “Operis perficiendi cura indefessus” (not ‘curam  indefissius’).

In fact the word ‘indefissius’ does not exist in Latin, while the accusative ‘curam’ is wrong in this context, where the adjective ‘indefessus’ needs the  ablative case ‘cura’.

Anyway this inscription, which means literally “Tireless in the effort of performing his work” and then simply “Tireless in performing  his work”, seems to be  a  tombstone epitaph which aims at  pointing  out that this dead man has been tireless in achieving his goals/mission.

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-OPERIS (genitive of OPUS, 3rd.declension, meaning ‘work’ ) = his work

-PERFICIENDI (genitive gerundive  of the verb PERFICIO, I perform/ I achieve) = of performing

-CURA ( Ablative of CURA ) = literally,’ in the effort’

-INDEFESSUS (adjective in the nominative masculine singular)= tireless.

As you can see, Latin word order is different from English.