translate book plate from latin into english

[lamebrain]

Hi,
I have a pack of book plates which have a picture of a preist / scribe reading at a desk medieval in style. The words at the bottom are: nai fcriuerti & achora per che le noftre
and underneath (where you would write your name is): Ex Libris

Can any clever person translate this Latin back into English please. The f's maybe s's

[Mosaic]

I think it's Italian (the first bit), the last bit 'ex libris' is standard latin from libraries and means 'from the books of' ie from the libray of...whoever.
I think you are correct that the 'f's are s, but could do with a photo of the plate to decipher the handwriting. Can't quit figure the exact wording otherwise but i think it might be an accounts book of some kind?

[dotty.]

what we would now consider a lower case f (but handwritten) was the old s which actually was sometime two For Funks Sake together

[sg]

A bit of Googling with the text led me to this, http://en.wikipedia.o...tural_History_(Pliny)

[Mosaic]

not getting how the link relates.
just me?

[sg]

I copied the text lamebrain has given, and got an image from an illuminated initial, which was labelled as "Pily's Historia Naturalis".

Still, that doesn't translate the latin, but you can find the whole thing in Google Books.. and start from there.

[lamebrain]

Many thanks to; Dotty, Mosaic and sg for getting back to me. The links and advice you have given sg have given me an excellent starting point :-)
I'm sorry you felt my question held only a loose relation to Arts & Literature Mosaic, but I simply could'nt find a closer heading that covered my request for help, I sincerely thank you for your suggestions.
Regards
Lamebrain

[fredpuli47]

Ex libris = from the library (literally 'from the books'). A standard form of words on bookplates, accompanied by the name of the owner.

The rest is fairly impenetrable. How confident of you of the letters? What you have is odd!

.' Le nostre' isn't Latin but old French spelling for what translates as ' who/ which is ours',' our' . Nai isn't Latin , fcriuerti may be 'scriperti' some form of a word derived from scribo (I write) like e.g. 'scripta' 'things written'. Scriperti doesn't seem to be one itself. Achora isn't Latin. Achor is but achora isn't a form of that noun. As achor means ' the scab or scale on the back of the head '(!) it seems an unlikely word anyway. Per is Latin for through or by means of, che is not Latin but could be an abbreviation for some word; abbreviations are common in inscriptions and in formal records, where scribes would use them for commonly used words .

It may be that the whole text, apart from 'ex libris' is merely decorative and not meant to mean anything.

[NOX]

My ex wife suggests that she thinks it's Occitan, certianly it isn't Latin.

[lamebrain]

Hi Fredpuli 47,
This is begining to make sense out of non-sense now!
thanks for your detailed translation. The Oxford Bodleian Library has a lot to answer for!
Regards
Lamebrain

[margie04]

fcriuerti = scriverti = scrivere + ti = to write to you in Italian
le nostre also Italian, f. plural.
A fascinating post - please let us know what nai means....

[Mosaic]

lamebrain, I was querying how SG's link to a wiki of Pliny's natural history helped at all translate your book plate. I think your post is most interesting and placed in exactly the right place. Just to set the record straight.

[Mosaic]

Just had another thought about this, which might give another lead in: is it possible that the Italian or Occitan inscription is actually an aristocratic family motto? This might account for its somewhat arcane nature - either because it is lifted straight from medieval language forms or because it was created in the 1700's - 1800's to seem ancient,and is not quite right linguistically. This was something that the wealthy often did in order add cachet to their family tree, especially if they wanted to distance themselves from 'humble' backgrounds.
So, if anyone knows anything about aristocatic mottos of Savoy and northern Italian families you might get a little further in.
It would also account for you having a stack of them - presumably all printed the same? Leftovers from some rich bod's library?

[margie04]

'nai' is Italian 'noi' (=we)
Per che or perche is Italian 'because'

However I think fredpuli is right to suppose that the whole text is merely decorative, as there' s no sign of a finite verb.

[jno]

I've found it... but I don't know what it means

hope this link works

http://books.google.c...20le%20noftre&f=false

[jno]

oh, sorry, you'd found that yourself. Anyway, it's oldish Italian, translated from the Latin.

[mike11111]

At least it confirms that it is a Latin work translated into mediaeval Italian.