“Small Latin...”
Sir, —In his tribute to the late Mr M. J. Barnett, the writer, J.L.H., referring to the plaque in St. Paul’s Cathedral commemorating Sir Christopher Wren, says that the inscription reads: “For his monument, look around you.” One has not seen St. Paul’s for years, but according to a reliable authority, the actual wording on the plaque is: “Si monumentum requiris, circumspice”; surely, one of the most familiar of all Latin tags. It is difficult not to draw the inference that the Latin was thought likely to be incomprehensible to the average reader of “The Press”; hence the English substitution, and a poor thing by comparison with the original. Have we indeed reached the stage when “cave canem” is so much Greek to the schoolboy?—Yours etc., M.T. October 18, 1964.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30575, 19 October 1964, Page 12
Word Count
132“Small Latin...” Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30575, 19 October 1964, Page 12
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