Frustula Augustiniana

Si distortum digitum haberes, non ad correctorem digiti tui medicum curreres? Certe tunc se habet bene corpus tuum, quando sibi concordant membra tua; tunc diceris sanus, tunc bene vales. Si autem aliquid in tuo corpore dissentiat ab aliis partibus, quaeris qui emendet. ...Certe viliores sunt ceteris membris capilli tui? Quid vilius in corpore tuo capillis tuis? Quid contemptius? Quid abiectius? Et tamen si male te tondeat, irasceris tonsori, quia in capillis tuis non servat aequalitatem... De utilitate ieiunii vi.8 . For the Curious This is a post from a year ago, which I have pruned of its context because I want to focus on hair, for more on which, see below. Before that, however, here's a little context. This sermon has been dated by Edmund Hill to the Ember days of 411 or to Lent of 412 – a sound argument based on Augustine's use of compelle intrare and its relation to the decrees of the Council of Carthage in 411 regarding the Donatists. Augustine became fond of using...

Idipsum et idipsum et idipsum, sanctus, santus, sanctus, dominus deus omnipotens. Augustinus, Confessiones XII.vii.7 . For the Curious In principio...   This just happened to be the beginning of the Frustula Augustiniana back in 2017. I posted it on Facebook when I still had that, people loved it, and so it began. It is, so far, the second shortest of all the frustula. For the really curious While O'Donnell's commentary on Conf.  IX.iv.11  has plenty for us to chew on about  idipsum in Augustine, he doesn't help with understanding where this odd use might have come from and whether Augustine knew that he was turning an adverbial into a name for being. Let's look at what we've got here: The very center of Augustine's thought (being)* found shaped through a Greek adverbial construction reinterpreted in order to praise the author of all our understanding and of every being. Where did it come from? Augustine used the phrase id ipsum with specifyin...

Idibus novembris... I published this on Facebook last year, but never posted it here.  It is the date of Augustine's birth. How do we know that his birth occurred on Nov. 13, or rather on the Ides of November? He tells us himself in his preface, addressed to Flavius Manlius Theodorus, of his De Beata Vita, written in 386-87. For Theodorus, you can read Claudian's Panegyricus dictus Theodoro (if you like late antique panegyric). Augustine, within a decade, ended up regretting his admiration of Theodorus (see Conf. vii.9.13). I've introduced this frustulum in Eng lish since, like most quotations taken from prefaces addressed to one person, I found it did not stand well on its own. Now that you know the context, it's clearer how he is being a good Ciceronian by establishing the time (natalis dies), the place (balneae), and the participants (Monica mater, Navigius frater, Trygetius et Licentius discipuli, Lastidianus et Rusticus consobrini, Adeodatus filius) of his...

  Defectus solis by Evan Smith Mente sua enim quaerunt ista [discere de stellis et sidereis plagis et viis astrorum] et ingenio quod tu dedisti eis et multa invenerunt et praenuntiaverunt ante multos annos defectus luminarium solis et lunae, quo die, qua hora, quanta ex parte futuri essent, et non eos fefellit numerus. et ita factum est ut praenuntiaverunt, et scripserunt regulas indagatas, et leguntur hodie atque ex eis praenuntiatur quo anno et quo mense anni et quo die mensis et qua hora diei et quota parte luminis sui defectura sit luna vel sol: et ita fiet ut praenuntiatur.( Confessionum Lib. V.iii.4 ). FOR THE CURIOUS “Only in dark the light.” Ursula LeGuin,  A Wizard of Earthsea Today is such a big day in the United States. Our professional talkers haven’t been able to stop talking about and making us anticipate it. Given the other things in our common life for us to discuss, an eclipse can seem like a distraction, but it is a truly marvellous time, a convergence of tur...

Affectiones quoque animi mei eadem memoria continet: non illo modo quo eas habet ipse animus cum patitur eas; sed alio multum diverso, sicut sese habet vis memoriae. Nam et laetatum me fuisse reminiscor non laetus, et tristitiam meam praeteritam recordor non tristis, et me aliquando timuisse recolo sine timore, et pristinae cupiditatis sine cupiditate sum memor; aliquando e contrario tristitiam meam transactam laetus reminiscor, et tristis laetitiam. Quod mirandum non est de corpore: aliud enim animus, aliud corpus. Itaque si praeteritum dolorem corporis gaudens memini, non ita mirum est. Hic vero cum animus sit etiam ipsa memoria: nam et cum mandamus aliquid ut memoriter habeatur, dicimus, Vide ut illud in animo habeas; et cum obliviscimur, dicimus, Non fuit in animo; et, Elapsum est animo; ipsam memoriam vocantes animum: cum ergo ita sit, quid est hoc quod cum tristitiam meam praeteritam laetus memini, animus habet laetitiam, et memoria tristitiam; laetusque est animus ex eo quod in...

Nam quaero a vobis [Manichaeis omnino a carnibus abstinentibus], si quis existat – quod fieri potest – ita homo parcus et frugi ut, appetitum ventris et gutturis moderans, non epuletur bis per unum diem; et huic cenanti holuscula cum exiguo lardo apponantur, eodem lardo uncta atque condita, quantum comprimendae fami sat est; sitimque irriget propter diligentiam valetudinis, duabus aut tribus vini meracis potionibus, isque illi victus sit cotidianus: alius vero ex alia parte nihil gustans carnium, nihil vini, exquisitas et peregrinas fruges multis ferculis variatas et largo pipere aspersas nona hora libenter assumat, noctis etiam principio talia cenaturus; bibat autem mulsum, carenum passum, et nonnullorum pomorum expressos succos, vini speciem satis imitantes, atque id etiam suavitate vincentes; et bibat non quantum sitit, sed quantum libet; idque sibi exhibendum curet quotidie, talique victu deliciisque perfruatur, nulla necessitate, magna voluptate: quem tandem horum duorum, quod ad...

... nullam carnem immundam ducimus, tenentes Apostoli sententiam, dicentis  Omnia munda mundis  ( Tit 1.15 ).  ( Contra Faustum Manichaeum 6.6 )