Expert: Maria - 2/26/2011

Question
Can you translate for me the following subtitle of a book by Fabio Colonna (1616) entitled "Purpura" (referring to the shellfish - not the color):

Hoc est de Purpura ab Animali testaceo fusa,de hoc ipsi Animali, aliique raioribus testaceis quibusdam.

Appreciate your assistance

Answer
Hello,

“Hoc est de purpura ab animali testaceo fusa, de hoc ipso animali, aliisque rarioribus testaceis quibusdam”, i.e. the correct subtitle of a book by Fabio Colonna (born 1567- died 1650), entitled "Purpura" and published in 1616, Rome, means:

“This book is about the purple made by a testaceous animal, about this  animal, and other rarer testaceous animals”, i.e. “This book is about the purple color  made from the juice of the shellfish, it is  just about this  animal, and other uncommon shellfishes”.

As you can see, this book entitled “Purpura”,  which in Latin means either “purple colour“ or  “shellfish yielding purple dye“, refers to both the colour and the shellfish.

See below for grammatical analysis.

Best regards,
Maria
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Note that:

-Hoc (nominative neuter of the  masculine demonstrative pronoun HIC) = this. I’ve added “book”.

-est (from SUM, I am) = is

-de (preposition which takes the ablative case PURPURA) = about

-purpura (ablative singular, 1st.declension) = purple colour/purple

-ab  (preposition which takes the singular ablative case ANIMALI ) = by

-animali (ablative singular of ANIMAL, 3rd.declension) = animal

-testaceo (ablative of the adjective TESTACEUS agreed with ANIMALI) = testaceous/ covered with a shell

-fusa (ablative feminine of the past participle FUSUS [from FUNDO]agreed with the feminine ablative PURPURA )= made/secreted

-de (preposition which takes the ablative case HOC IPSO ANIMALI and ALIIS TESTACEIS QUIBUSDAM ) = about

-hoc (ablative singular masculine agreed with ANIMALI) = this

-ipso (ablative singular masculine of IPSE, same, agreed with ANIMALI) = same

-animali (ablative singular of ANIMAL, 3rd.declension) = animal

-aliisque (ablative plural of ALIUS agreed with TESTACEIS + the enclitic –QUE meaning “and”) = and other

-rarioribus (ablative plural, comparative of the adjective RARUS) =literally, “rarer”, i.e. “uncommon”.

-testaceis (ablative plural of the adjective TESTACEUS agreed with QUIBUSDAM and ANIMALIBUS which is implied) = shellfishes

-quibusdam (ablative plural of the adjective QUIDAM, certain, agreed with TESTACEIS ANIMALIBUS) = literally, “certain”.