Expert: Maria - 9/6/2004

Question
A mnemonic hexameter supposedly of the 12th century consists of seven words as questions:
Quis, Quid, Ubi, Quibus Auxiliis, Cur, Quomodo and Quando. I have been unable to find definitions, perhaps you could help. Thank you very much.

Answer
Hello,

The  12th century Latin hexameter « Quis, Quid, Ubi, Quibus Auxiliis, Cur, Quomodo, Quando » means literally :

“Who, what, where, by what aids (or ‘with what'), why, how, when."

This verse is  however  based on Cicero, who in his Rhetoric ( ‘De Inventione ‘) gives seven circumstances which are contained in these seven keyword questions.
For in acts we must take note of "who" did it,"what" he did, ,"where" he did it,"by what aids" or "instruments" he did it, "why" he did it, "how" and "when" he did it".

This hexameter, useful for memory,  was used by  Scholastic philosophers or theologians as a meditation to analyze the deviation of the soul from the path of righteousness and later by Baron von Boenninghausen (1785-1864), a homeopath , to define the characterizing features of the symptom-totality on which he could select the similar remedy.

Best regards
Maria
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Quis ?= Who?
Quid?=what?
Ubi?=Where?
Quibus Auxiliis?=by what aids?/with what?
Cur?=why?
Quomodo ?=How?
Quando ?= When?