Latin Mention Papal puzzler: Leo XIII anonymously published riddles in Latin

[Bestiola]

Going by the pseudonym "X," Pope Leo XIII anonymously crafted poetic puzzles in Latin for a Roman periodical at the turn of the 19th century.

The pope created lengthy riddles, known as "charades," in Latin in which readers had to guess a rebus-like answer from two or more words that together formed the syllables of a new word.

Eight of his puzzles were published anonymously in "Vox Urbis," a Rome newspaper that was printed entirely in Latin between 1898-1913, according to an article in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

A reader who submitted the correct answer to the riddle would receive a book of Latin poetry written by either Pope Leo or another noted Catholic figure.

The identity of the mysterious riddle-maker, however, was soon revealed by a French reporter covering the Vatican for the daily newspaper Le Figaro.

Felix Ziegler published his scoop Jan. 9, 1899, a year after the puzzles started appearing, revealing that "Mr. X" was, in fact, the reigning pope, the Vatican newspaper said July 20.

In the pope's hometown, Carpineto Romano, which is about 35 miles southeast of Rome, students at the middle school now named for him have published 26 of the pope's Latin puzzles in a new book titled, "Aenigmata. The Charades of Pope Leo XIII."

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1403030.htm

 

[scrabulista]

Can anyone figure out if Leo XIII wrote the English (and Italian) versions of the charades also?

http://books.google.com/books?id=orcVAAAAYAAJ

(The above link doesn't work directly but if you fool around with it enough it does.)

 

[Imber Ranae]

I decided to have a go at this "charades" thing with an attempt of my own. You can see it (and try to solve it) here. I don't think it should be that hard, but I guess we'll see.

Any critique is also welcome.

 

[Bestiola]

Can anyone figure out if Leo XIII wrote the English (and Italian) versions of the charades also?

http://books.google.com/books?id=orcVAAAAYAAJ

(The above link doesn't work directly but if you fool around with it enough it does.)

I suspect that some others translated it for him, since in the "Poems, charades, inscriptions of Pope Leo XIII", in the Notes at the end of the book certain Brunelli is mentioned as one of his first translators of his poems (into Italian). I suspect it was the same with English versions since H.T. Henry is mentioned as a translator into English, at least for this edition....but not much can be found.

Here is the book at the archive.org - https://archive.org/details/poemscharadesin01henrgoog

 

[Abbatiſſæ Scriptor]

Leo XIII was one of my favourite popes. I frequently find myſelf reciting his prayer to St. Michæl in Latin when the need ariſes.

 

[scrabulista]

I had to ping this thread in honor of the new pope....Leo XIV....habemus papam!

 

[rothbard]

Apparently in Latin they don't call the pope Leo, as they do in English; they call him Leeonee (Sky News).

 

[Clemens]

Apparently in Latin they don't call the pope Leo, as they do in English; they call him Leeonee (Sky News).

What on earth is Sky News on about?

 

[scrabulista]

I believe they announce the name in the ablative.

 

[Clemens]

The text I saw uses the accusative. Maybe Sky News is confusing Latin and Italian?

 

[Pacifica]

Maybe Sky News is confusing Latin and Italian?

That occurred to me.

 

[CleopatraJohnson]

I believe that mastering Latin pronunciation is crucial for appreciating the beauty of the language. However, with so many variations and regional accents, how can we determine what "correct" pronunciation truly is? Is it possible that the original sounds of Latin are forever lost, or could modern technology help us rediscover them?

 

[Pacifica]

It would be great to have a technology enabling us to listen to the past, wouldn't it?

Linguists have been able to reconstruct, to an extent, how "standard" Latin sounded in the classical period. That reconstruction is based on things like spellings in inscriptions, phonetic rules and developments in the daughter languages, poetry (classical Latin poetry is based on patterns of long and short syllables, so we can often tell from that if a vowel is long or short), and comments that Roman authors themselves made on pronunciation.

But some uncertainties remain, and there's no way we can know about all the variations across time and space.