Comments on: Papal bull

By: Heather

Heather — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 21:56:41 +0000

Thanks.
I am more than a bit impressed by the level of Latin knowledge here. I am genuinely outclassed.
(Some half remembered bits of the Iliad and how to decline a few regular verbs are about it, except for recognising what a fair number of English and Romance language words mean from the Latin root.)

By: ed bernstine

ed bernstine — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 21:45:45 +0000

Caeli is the vocative (plural) of caelus (a masculine noun;”heaven”); caelum (a neuter noun) means the same thing, but caeli would be the genitive singular of that word - makes no sense.

This only completes the details of the correct answers of Alun and Rasputin:

“Drop rain/dew on us, O heavens” more or less.

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 01:50:14 +0000

Rasputin It must be working here then. There’s barely been more than a couple of hours that it hasn’t rained for months.
Alun: Yes, very good point.

And mea culpa, I recognised the imperative case bit, but I failed to notice that caeli was subject case.

By: Rasputin

Rasputin — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:33:13 +0000

Yeah, I’m with Alun on Rorate being the imperative and would suggest that it’s a prayer for rain.

By: Alun

Alun — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 23:26:58 +0000

I’m almost with the Vatican on this one. It’s ridiculous to repeatedly bring up the wartime role of Pius XII without rest. Surely there’s room to discuss regarding the current Pope’s wartime role too? Yet somehow I get the feeling that’s not the intention.

Rorate, I think, is the imperative of rorare, so Rorate Caeli is a command for the heavens to drop dew or moisten.