Week 7: Hrabanus Maurus: De rerum naturis. Background | Background Quiz | Starting Assumptions | Resources | Extras Vocabulary | Etymology | Grammar | Perseus Dictionary | Perseus Tool Reading Overview | Reading Quiz: English | Reading Quiz: Latin Discussion Questions | Latin Composition | Weekly Checklist

Latin Composition

A draft of your composition work (A and B) is due by Friday midnight. It will be returned to your with comments, corrections, hints and suggestions on Saturday. The final draft is due by Monday midnight. Note: This first draft is required: if you do not turn in a draft of the composition by Friday midnight, you will receive no composition credit for the week.

** If you are not an OU student, I will try to mark your compositions as well; send it to laura-gibbs@ou.edu and make sure you put MEDIEVAL LATIN in the subject line **

A. Answer the questions - in Latin...! Please make sure that your email contains both the question and the answer. If you are having trouble with this exercise, check out these Hints for Answering Questions in Latin.

B. Write a small Latin composition on your own. You will choose either to describe a picture or to write a small monologue/dialogue. If you are having trouble with this exercise, check out these Hints for Free Composition in Latin.

• When describing a picture, do not say "in the picture" or "the picture shows"... instead, imagine you are looking at the actual scene itself, and describe the scene ("the sheep are sleeping", "the fox is dead", "the woman is very beautiful"). Examples.
• When writing a dialogue, do not use indirect speech ("Samson says... Delilah says..."), but just write out what the characters say - don't worry, I should be able to figure out who's talking! Examples.

1. Quid significat terra ubi in malum posita est?
2. Quid significat lutum ubi in bonum positum est?
3. Quid significat lutum ubi in malum positum est?
4. Quid terram circumfluit?
5. Quid significat orbis terrarum iuxta historiam?
6. Quid significat orbis terrarum iuxta allegoriam?
7. Quot cardines terram continent?
8. Quomodo orbis terrarum divisus est?
9. Quis fermentum in farina abscondit?
10. Quid mulier in parabola significat?

B. Latin composition

Choose either one description or one dialogue/monologue to write in Latin.

Description: Choose one of the following images and describe the scene in Latin. You should write 5 sentences that are each at least four words long each. Please please do not use an English-Latin dictionary. You should have plenty of vocabulary from this week's reading to write your description!

• 9th century map, Strasburg (the handwriting is odd for us: what are the names here?)
• map of 1203 (some of the writing is too small to read here, but you can still see some unusual features of this map that make it different from the others)
• map of 1472 (try to read and understand all the words on the map if you can)

Dialogue/Monologue: Choose one of the following scenes and write the words you can imagine the characters saying. You should write 5 sentences that are each at least four words long each. Please please do not use an English-Latin dictionary. You should have plenty of vocabulary from this week's reading to write your description!

• Hrabanus Maurus et Christopherus Columbus. Imagine that Hrabanus Maurus and Christopher Columbus somehow managed to cross paths (we'll ignore the 700 year difference in their ages)... How would each of them describe how they imagine the "terra"? What else would they want to say to each other? How would they explain who they were and what their lives were about?
• Hrabanus Maurus et Sally Ride. Imagine that Hrabanus Maurus and Sally Ride somehow managed to cross paths (we'll ignore the 1200 year difference in their ages)... How would each of them describe how they imagine the "terra"? What else would they want to say to each other? How would they explain who they were and what their lives were about?