I'm working my way through D'Ooge's "Latin for Beginners", available on Project Gutenberg, and I believe I've found an error in the text.
In 90. Exercises it reads "Germania, patria Germanorum, est clara terra." Germany, homeland of the Germans, is a famous land. Straightforward enough.
In 95, another exercise reads "Magna est Italiae fama, patriae Romanorum, et clara est Roma, domina orbis terrarum." Great is Italia's fame, homeland of the Romans, and famous is Rome, leader of all the world, or something similar. But I can find no reason for this example to have patriae when the former had patria. The sentences are simple enough and similar enough that I can see no way for patria to be anything but nominative singular.
Am I wrong or is (was) he?
I'm convinced it isn't a transcription error by the good folks at Project Gutenberg, because Google Books has a scan of the original text, and Gutenberg is faithful to it. (They will make corrections, because I've already found and reported a couple, but I doubt they'll second guess the original author even if he's in error.)
In 90. Exercises it reads "Germania, patria Germanorum, est clara terra." Germany, homeland of the Germans, is a famous land. Straightforward enough.
In 95, another exercise reads "Magna est Italiae fama, patriae Romanorum, et clara est Roma, domina orbis terrarum." Great is Italia's fame, homeland of the Romans, and famous is Rome, leader of all the world, or something similar. But I can find no reason for this example to have patriae when the former had patria. The sentences are simple enough and similar enough that I can see no way for patria to be anything but nominative singular.
Am I wrong or is (was) he?
I'm convinced it isn't a transcription error by the good folks at Project Gutenberg, because Google Books has a scan of the original text, and Gutenberg is faithful to it. (They will make corrections, because I've already found and reported a couple, but I doubt they'll second guess the original author even if he's in error.)
