Ad Cultores Optimos

To most people, 67-year-old Monsignor Antonio Bacci of the Vatican might seem a lonely man. He admits that he is--sometimes. His title is Secretary of Briefs to Princes, but not even the princes to whom he writes always understand what he says. The language Monsignor Bacci uses officially is an elegant Ciceronian Latin, and few men, says he ("inter doctos quoque viros"), can read it with ease.

For the last ten years Monsignor Bacci has been doing his best to revive and enliven the Latin of Cicero (106-43 B.C.). As editor of the Latin Dictionary of Modern Terms, he has translated hundreds of post-Ciceronian words and phrases, from newspaper reporter (diurnarius scriptor--daily writer), to spaghetti (pasta vermiculata--little worm-shaped dough) and "Tennis, anyone?" ("Ludere manubriato reticulo quisnam vult?"--"Is there someone who wants to play the game of the net with handle?"). Last week, Monsignor Bacci was embarked upon a new project: publication of the world's first international Latin quarterly.

As Monsignor Bacci sees it, Latinitas is more than just a magazine. For Latin scholars everywhere, it should also be a call to arms. "It is our intention," he says in his statement of policy, "to rally . . the most excellent cultivators of a pure Latin style (latinitatis cultores optimos) so that they may contribute ... to its re-establishment and renewal." With the first issue of the magazine fresh off the press, readers can find out just what the most excellent cultivators can do.

Though Editor Bacci will consider for publication any subject except politics, his contributors are apparently not yet accustomed to such latitude. For their first appearance in print, most stuck close to familiar academic ground. One scholar wrote about the poetry of Catullus; another about the sorrows of St. Augustine's mother; still another about the various shades of purple in Virgil ("We must tell the cardinals!" exclaimed Pope Pius after reading the article). But in spite of such heavy fare, subscriptions were pouring in at the rate of about two dozen a day--including a daily five or six from the Foederatae Americae Civitates.

Eventually, Editor Bacci hopes to boost his circulation to about 3,500. But to do that, he knows that he must update his authors as well as his Latin. The big trouble, says he, is that those who know Latin best seem to know the modern world least. "We planned to include a report on a soccer match," sighs Editor Bacci. "But the author, a most brilliant Latin writer, found he did not know enough about soccer. The report will be published as soon as the author, who is now studying a manual on how to play soccer, acquires the technical knowledge to describe what is happening on the field."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.