Pillbug tale
B. T. Raven
some Ordovician shale outcrops and chipped out a large and beautiful
specimen of the trilobite _Phacops rana_. The underside that had been
embedded in the rock bore the curious inscription:
OVO MIRA NOVO SIC OVO NON TVBER OVO,
DORICA CASTRA CLVENS TVTOR TEMERARE TIMETO.
Does any of you know what this might mean? I suspect a hoax since
remains of this particular extinct arthropod species haven't ever been
found in this locale before! Would intelligent design fanatics go so far
as to plant confusing evidence like this? A dentist who had been
tonguing his/her meds might have been capable of something like this.
--
/\ /\
(^.^)
(")")
*Hoc est virus telematicum feliculae scitulae, quod exscribas suadeo in
chirographum tuum ut quam latissime percrebrescat.
Johannes Patruus
> On a recent trip through the Texas panhandle I was scratching around in
> some Ordovician shale outcrops and chipped out a large and beautiful
> specimen of the trilobite _Phacops rana_. The underside that had been
> embedded in the rock bore the curious inscription:
>
> OVO MIRA NOVO SIC OVO NON TVBER OVO,
> DORICA CASTRA CLVENS TVTOR TEMERARE TIMETO.
>
> Does any of you know what this might mean? I suspect a hoax since
> remains of this particular extinct arthropod species haven't ever been
> found in this locale before! Would intelligent design fanatics go so far
> as to plant confusing evidence like this? A dentist who had been
> tonguing his/her meds might have been capable of something like this.
A similar inscription is mentioned in "Ovum Incantatum Neapolis":
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/AV/ovum.html
Johannes
Aug. de Man
>
> > On a recent trip through the Texas panhandle I was scratching around in
> > some Ordovician shale outcrops and chipped out a large and beautiful
> > specimen of the trilobite _Phacops rana_. The underside that had been
> > embedded in the rock bore the curious inscription:
> >
> > OVO MIRA NOVO SIC OVO NON TVBER OVO,
> > DORICA CASTRA CLVENS TVTOR TEMERARE TIMETO.
"Johannes Patruus":
> A similar inscription is mentioned in "Ovum Incantatum Neapolis":
> http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/AV/ovum.html
which is "The Secret History of Virgil, by Alexander Neckam,
said to be based on a History by Gaius Asinius Pollio.
From a Manuscript in Old Royal Library in the British Museum
Edited and Translated By Joannes Opsopoeus Brettanus (c) 1996".
OVUM (IN) VITRO NOVO NON SIC TURBABOR (AB) OVO.
DORICA CASTRA CLUENS TUTOR, TEMERARE TIMETO.
The panhandle inscription can be found on
http://www.classicitaliani.it/comparetti/comparetti203.htm
(Domenico Comparetti, Virgilio nella tradizione letteraria fino a Dante):
"In un ms. napoletano della metà del secolo XIV si parla di questa leggenda
sull’autorità di Alessandro Neckam, il quale però non ne dice nulla[21]. Alla denominazione e alla
leggenda si riferisce pure la iscrizione enimmatica,
anch’essa del secolo IV, che ci ha conservato la raccolta Signorili"
- "in a Napoletan manuscript from the mid-14th century this legend (of the
enchanted egg) is mentioned on the authority of Alexander Neckam, but
this author doesn't talk about it at all."
So might this "Joannes Opsopoeus Brettanus" be a John Cook from England
who decided to produce Neckam's text himself?
His text gives two hexameters which make some sense; he will not have
written the Texas lines which come from the Napoletan manuscript;
"OVO MIRA NOVO SIC OVO NON TVBER OVO"
doesn't mean much.
August de Man
B. T. Raven
"Aug. de Man" <audeman a. wanadoo p. nl> wrote in message
news:433909d7$0$76657$dbd4...@news.wanadoo.nl...
I agree, but "meaning" (of a facultative sort at least) can be forced
into any well-formed construction even if the author (or prankster)
didn't mean it. How about?:
1. Ovo, ovare - normally intransitive but "ovatum aurum" occurs so it
can be twisted into 'I carry in triumph.'
2. Wonderful things
3. thus with a new egg
4. not a mushroom
5. same as 1.
Eduardus