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#neolatin — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #neolatin, aggregated by home.social.

  1. About to give a talk on #LOD in #Neolatin Studies at the Centre for Medieval Studies in Prague. This presentation was great fun to prepare. Slides as usual at doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20179402

    #wikidata

  2. Very happy about the opportunity to talk about #neolatin and #lod in Prague next week.

    @neolatin

  3. Question for the #digitalclassics or #digital #neolatin crowd (and @diyclassics in particular, I guess): What would be the best semantic embedding models for (Neo-)Latin currently available (not word embeddings but embeddings of text chunks)?

    Recommended reading btw.: Burns, P. J. (2025). Pretrained Word Vectors for Latin Philology. In Evolving Perspectives on Digital Classics. Routledge.

  4. What Should We Call the “Appeal to Chatbot” in Latin?

    Douglas Creek where it flows through PKOLS Park, Saanich. Photo by Sean Manning, March 2026.

    The Latin language is always expanding. Sometimes this is easy, as when it picked up gladius “sword” from Celtic and sclopetum “arquebus, smoothbore gun” from Italian. Other times it is hard and you have to invent a new word or phrase. Sometimes you even think for a long time and decide that crisare “to shake one’s hips” is good enough substitute for to twerk. Trying to settle an argument by pulling out a dictionary is an argumentum ad dictionarium. What should we call trying to settle an argument by quoting a chatbot?

    Slop (“fodder for a pig, output from a chatbot”) is clearly pabulum in Latin (Columnella de re rustica 7.9.7 Internet archive). Its not so clear what a Latinate take of words like bot, generative AI, or large language model would be. The obnoxious thing about these programs is that they emit vast amounts of stuff which sometimes seems plausible but should never be trusted. It does not matter how they work when you have to clean up after them. So after some tooing and froing I decided on fountain of lies or deceitful fountain. One good name would be fons mendacitatis. However, Greyor @[email protected] pointed out that Plautus has the adjective falsidicum “false-speaking.” The ancients did not have a sophisticated language to talk about lies, fiction, bullshit, and shared games, so I will chose the word that delights me and not worry about parsing different kinds of untrustworthy untruths.1

    So a LLM chatbot is a fons falsidicus, and the “appeal to chatbot” is an argumentum ad fontem falsidicum. Botanists might have to wait for someone with enough Latin to name a new species, but bookandswordblog readers get this one straight away!

    There are some sad things I could say about why some people feel the need to ask chatbots what is true, and about how the playful language games of New England hacker culture turned into the magical thinking and purposeless self-perfection of Bay Area tech culture (already skewered by Plutarch, Life of Pyrrhus, 14.2-8). But the world does not need more sadness and it is a beautiful spring day in Victoria.

    The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction is a great place to explore how robot became bot “diminutive name for a robot” then “automated computer program.” I don’t know of a good successor to the Jargon File since Eric S. Raymond was not a good steward.

    PS. Some people call attacking the source of the information an argumentum ad fontem. If you use that, and you want to be clear to young people without Latin who might confuse fons “source of information” and fons “fountain of lies”, you could all the appeal to chatbot an argumentum ad automaton. Greek words were popular in working Latin although pagan writers avoided them in literature. But I think it important that every language have spicy words for the bad and malevolent technology which is American-style generative AI.

    (scheduled 23 March 2026)

    1. I read an article on true, false, and pseudo-true statements for the Cyrus’ Paradise conference in 2012, but lost access to my notes when a ‘free’ service ran out of money. I will edit this post if I ever find the reference again. Memento mori! And never ever trust a ‘free’ service hosted on someone else’s computer. ↩︎
    #badArguments #modern #Neolatin #stateOfTheWeb #whimsy
  5. What Should We Call the “Appeal to Chatbot” in Latin?

    Douglas Creek where it flows through PKOLS Park, Saanich. Photo by Sean Manning, March 2026.

    The Latin language is always expanding. Sometimes this is easy, as when it picked up gladius “sword” from Celtic and sclopetum “arquebus, smoothbore gun” from Italian. Other times it is hard and you have to invent a new word or phrase. Sometimes you even think for a long time and decide that crisare “to shake one’s hips” is good enough substitute for to twerk. Trying to settle an argument by pulling out a dictionary is an argumentum ad dictionarium. What should we call trying to settle an argument by quoting a chatbot?

    Slop (“fodder for a pig, output from a chatbot”) is clearly pabulum in Latin (Columnella de re rustica 7.9.7 Internet archive). Its not so clear what a Latinate take of words like bot, generative AI, or large language model would be. The obnoxious thing about these programs is that they emit vast amounts of stuff which sometimes seems plausible but should never be trusted. It does not matter how they work when you have to clean up after them. So after some tooing and froing I decided on fountain of lies or deceitful fountain. One good name would be fons mendacitatis. However, Greyor @[email protected] pointed out that Plautus has the adjective falsidicum “false-speaking.” The ancients did not have a sophisticated language to talk about lies, fiction, bullshit, and shared games, so I will chose the word that delights me and not worry about parsing different kinds of untrustworthy untruths.1

    So a LLM chatbot is a fons falsidicus, and the “appeal to chatbot” is an argumentum ad fontem falsidicum. Botanists might have to wait for someone with enough Latin to name a new species, but bookandswordblog readers get this one straight away!

    There are some sad things I could say about why some people feel the need to ask chatbots what is true, and about how the playful language games of New England hacker culture turned into the magical thinking and purposeless self-perfection of Bay Area tech culture. But the world does not need more sadness and it is a beautiful spring day in Victoria.

    The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction is a great place to explore how robot became bot “diminutive name for a robot” then “automated computer program.” I don’t know of a good successor to the Jargon File since Eric S. Raymond was not a good steward.

    (scheduled 23 March 2026)

    1. I read an article on true, false, and pseudo-true statements for the Cyrus’ Paradise conference in 2012, but lost access to my notes when a ‘free’ service ran out of money. I will edit this post if I ever find the reference again. Memento mori! And never ever trust a ‘free’ service hosted on someone else’s computer. ↩︎
    #badArguments #modern #Neolatin #stateOfTheWeb #whimsy
  6. What Should We Call the “Appeal to Chatbot” in Latin?

    Douglas Creek where it flows through PKOLS Park, Saanich. Photo by Sean Manning, March 2026.

    The Latin language is always expanding. Sometimes this is easy, as when it picked up gladius “sword” from Celtic and sclopetum “arquebus, smoothbore gun” from Italian. Other times it is hard and you have to invent a new word or phrase. Sometimes you even think for a long time and decide that crisare “to shake one’s hips” is good enough substitute for to twerk. Trying to settle an argument by pulling out a dictionary is an argumentum ad dictionarium. What should we call trying to settle an argument by quoting a chatbot?

    Slop (“fodder for a pig, output from a chatbot”) is clearly pabulum in Latin (Columnella de re rustica 7.9.7 Internet archive). Its not so clear what a Latinate take of words like bot, generative AI, or large language model would be. The obnoxious thing about these programs is that they emit vast amounts of stuff which sometimes seems plausible but should never be trusted. It does not matter how they work when you have to clean up after them. So after some tooing and froing I decided on fountain of lies or deceitful fountain. One good name would be fons mendacitatis. However, Greyor @[email protected] pointed out that Plautus has the adjective falsidicum “false-speaking.” The ancients did not have a sophisticated language to talk about lies, fiction, bullshit, and shared games, so I will chose the word that delights me and not worry about parsing different kinds of untrustworthy untruths.1

    So a LLM chatbot is a fons falsidicus, and the “appeal to chatbot” is an argumentum ad fontem falsidicum. Botanists might have to wait for someone with enough Latin to name a new species, but bookandswordblog readers get this one straight away!

    There are some sad things I could say about why some people feel the need to ask chatbots what is true, and about how the playful language games of New England hacker culture turned into the magical thinking and purposeless self-perfection of Bay Area tech culture. But the world does not need more sadness and it is a beautiful spring day in Victoria.

    The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction is a great place to explore how robot became bot “diminutive name for a robot” then “automated computer program.” I don’t know of a good successor to the Jargon File since Eric S. Raymond was not a good steward.

    (scheduled 23 March 2026)

    1. I read an article on true, false, and pseudo-true statements for the Cyrus’ Paradise conference in 2012, but lost access to my notes when a ‘free’ service ran out of money. I will edit this post if I ever find the reference again. Memento mori! And never ever trust a ‘free’ service hosted on someone else’s computer. ↩︎
    #badArguments #modern #Neolatin #stateOfTheWeb #whimsy
  7. What Should We Call the “Appeal to Chatbot” in Latin?

    Douglas Creek where it flows through PKOLS Park, Saanich. Photo by Sean Manning, March 2026.

    The Latin language is always expanding. Sometimes this is easy, as when it picked up gladius “sword” from Celtic and sclopetum “arquebus, smoothbore gun” from Italian. Other times it is hard and you have to invent a new word or phrase. Sometimes you even think for a long time and decide that crisare “to shake one’s hips” is good enough substitute for to twerk. Trying to settle an argument by pulling out a dictionary is an argumentum ad dictionarium. What should we call trying to settle an argument by quoting a chatbot?

    Slop (“fodder for a pig, output from a chatbot”) is clearly pabulum in Latin (Columnella de re rustica 7.9.7 Internet archive). Its not so clear what a Latinate take of words like bot, generative AI, or large language model would be. The obnoxious thing about these programs is that they emit vast amounts of stuff which sometimes seems plausible but should never be trusted. It does not matter how they work when you have to clean up after them. So after some tooing and froing I decided on fountain of lies or deceitful fountain. One good name would be fons mendacitatis. However, Greyor @[email protected] pointed out that Plautus has the adjective falsidicum “false-speaking.” The ancients did not have a sophisticated language to talk about lies, fiction, bullshit, and shared games, so I will chose the word that delights me and not worry about parsing different kinds of untrustworthy untruths.1

    So a LLM chatbot is a fons falsidicus, and the “appeal to chatbot” is an argumentum ad fontem falsidicum. Botanists might have to wait for someone with enough Latin to name a new species, but bookandswordblog readers get this one straight away!

    There are some sad things I could say about why some people feel the need to ask chatbots what is true, and about how the playful language games of New England hacker culture turned into the magical thinking and purposeless self-perfection of Bay Area tech culture. But the world does not need more sadness and it is a beautiful spring day in Victoria.

    The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction is a great place to explore how robot became bot “diminutive name for a robot” then “automated computer program.” I don’t know of a good successor to the Jargon File since Eric S. Raymond was not a good steward.

    (scheduled 23 March 2026)

    1. I read an article on true, false, and pseudo-true statements for the Cyrus’ Paradise conference in 2012, but lost access to my notes when a ‘free’ service ran out of money. I will edit this post if I ever find the reference again. Memento mori! And never ever trust a ‘free’ service hosted on someone else’s computer. ↩︎
    #badArguments #modern #Neolatin #stateOfTheWeb #whimsy
  8. #neulatein|ische Neuerscheinung: Simonetta, Nicolini, Anselmi Gian Mario, Ferrilli Sara, Giovanardi Alessandro, Lollini Fabrizio, Pesaresi Jacopo, Schaffenrath Florian, u. a. L’amore, le armi, le stelle. Lysa Publishers. doi:10.54179/2501, lysapublishers.com/book/lamore (zugegriffen: 29. Januar 2026).

    #neolatin @neolatin

  9. #neulatein|ische Neuerscheinung: Simonetta, Nicolini, Anselmi Gian Mario, Ferrilli Sara, Giovanardi Alessandro, Lollini Fabrizio, Pesaresi Jacopo, Schaffenrath Florian, u. a. L’amore, le armi, le stelle. Lysa Publishers. doi:10.54179/2501, lysapublishers.com/book/lamore (zugegriffen: 29. Januar 2026).

    #neolatin @neolatin

  10. #neulatein|ische Neuerscheinung: Simonetta, Nicolini, Anselmi Gian Mario, Ferrilli Sara, Giovanardi Alessandro, Lollini Fabrizio, Pesaresi Jacopo, Schaffenrath Florian, u. a. L’amore, le armi, le stelle. Lysa Publishers. doi:10.54179/2501, lysapublishers.com/book/lamore (zugegriffen: 29. Januar 2026).

    #neolatin @neolatin

  11. #neulatein|ische Neuerscheinung: Simonetta, Nicolini, Anselmi Gian Mario, Ferrilli Sara, Giovanardi Alessandro, Lollini Fabrizio, Pesaresi Jacopo, Schaffenrath Florian, u. a. L’amore, le armi, le stelle. Lysa Publishers. doi:10.54179/2501, lysapublishers.com/book/lamore (zugegriffen: 29. Januar 2026).

    #neolatin @neolatin

  12. #neulatein|ische Neuerscheinung: Simonetta, Nicolini, Anselmi Gian Mario, Ferrilli Sara, Giovanardi Alessandro, Lollini Fabrizio, Pesaresi Jacopo, Schaffenrath Florian, u. a. L’amore, le armi, le stelle. Lysa Publishers. doi:10.54179/2501, lysapublishers.com/book/lamore (zugegriffen: 29. Januar 2026).

    #neolatin @neolatin

  13. Probably not among the juiciest topics in #NeoLatin and #Jesuit studies, but in the unlikely event that you feel like learning more about the legal basis of the Jesuits’ congregationes procuratorum, I’ve got you covered: “The Formula of the Congregation of Procurators: Introduction, Latin Text, and English Translation.” In Political Agents and Cultural Mediators. Brill 2025. doi.org/10.1163/9789004750548_.

    #neolatin #jesuit #earlymodern

  14. Tommasi, Girolamo: Hieronymi Thomasi Neapolitani, *De situ paradisi terrestris cum annotationibus r. Pauli Portarelli ad ... (Neapoli : apud Horatium Saluianum, 1589 ., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). Digital Copy: internetculturale.it/jmms/iccu #neolatin #EDIT16

  15. Al-Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya: Razae *Libellus de peste de Graeco in Latinum sermonem uersus. Per Nicolaum Macchellum medicum Mutinensem. ... (Venetiis : apud Andream Arriuabenum ad signum Putei, 1555., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). Digital Copy: books.google.it/books?vid=IBNR #neolatin #EDIT16

  16. Parisetti, Lodovico <1503-1570>: Iunioris Ludouici Pariseti Regiensis *Pausithea ad P. Syluerium. . (Venetiis : apud Aldi filios, 1554 ., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). Digital Copy: books.google.it/books?vid=IBNR #neolatin #EDIT16

  17. nice talk by Alessandro #Barbero on the use of #Latin in the middle ages and the early modern period:

    Il podcast di Alessandro Barbero: Lezioni e Conferenze di Storia: #214 Ma nel medioevo ci si dichiarava in latino? – ExtraBarbero (Vercelli, 2025)

    Episode webpage: spreaker.com/episode/214-ma-ne

    Media file: dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/a

    #neolatin @neolatin

  18. The #IANLS has now its own #zenodo community where all presentations held at the #ianls25 can be published: zenodo.org/communities/ianls/r

    A small but hopefully important step towards more #openaccess in the field of #neolatin studies.

    @neolatin

  19. Interesting project presentations this morning in the special session on digital technology at #IANLS25 : Malika Bastin-Hammou presented the database of 16th century paratexts of ancient drama: ithac.elan-numerique.fr

    Šime Demo talked about LAPIS, a database of Latin church inscriptions in Croatia. The project uses Semantic MediaWiki: easy to use, powerful and reasonably interoperable. The database isn't publicly available yet (lapis.fhs.unizg.hr) but it looks promising.

    #neolatin

  20. Later, I'll be giving a talk at #IANLS25 on some quantitative analyses of Latin book prodcution in Germany (and Italy in part) from 1500 through 1800. Slides, code and data can be found here: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15878272

    I'm looking forward to the questions and the discussion!

    #Neolatin @neolatin #VD16 #VD17 #VD18 #EDIT16

  21. Spinelli, Matteo: Elegia de singulari certamine Ascanii Cornei, et Ioannini Thadei florentini: per Matthaeum Spinellum. ... (1546., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  22. Casselina, siue Compendiolum de breuibus & longis syllabis Sacrae Scripturae. . (Venetijs, 1565 ., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  23. Certosini: Missale secundum Ordinem Carthusiensium nouiter impressum cum nouo & perutili repertorio ... insuper ... ([Venezia : Lucantonio Giunta il vecchio] ., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  24. Lambardi, Girolamo: Antiphonarium vespertinum dierum festorum totius anni iuxta ritum Romani Breuiarii jussu Pij ^V=5^ reformati, ... (Venezia : Tipografia del Cenobio di S. Spirito, 1597., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). Digital Copy: daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~ #neolatin #EDIT16

  25. großartige #openaccess #neulatein​ische Neuerscheinung: Hintzen, Beate. 2025. Lateinische Literatur des Barock: Inhalte, Formen und Funktionen. Brill | Fink. doi.org/10.30965/9783846769416.

    @neolatin #neolatin #baroque

  26. großartige #openaccess #neulatein​ische Neuerscheinung: Hintzen, Beate. 2025. Lateinische Literatur des Barock: Inhalte, Formen und Funktionen. Brill | Fink. doi.org/10.30965/9783846769416.

    @neolatin #neolatin #baroque

  27. großartige #openaccess #neulatein​ische Neuerscheinung: Hintzen, Beate. 2025. Lateinische Literatur des Barock: Inhalte, Formen und Funktionen. Brill | Fink. doi.org/10.30965/9783846769416.

    @neolatin #neolatin #baroque

  28. großartige #openaccess #neulatein​ische Neuerscheinung: Hintzen, Beate. 2025. Lateinische Literatur des Barock: Inhalte, Formen und Funktionen. Brill | Fink. doi.org/10.30965/9783846769416.

    @neolatin #neolatin #baroque

  29. großartige #openaccess #neulatein​ische Neuerscheinung: Hintzen, Beate. 2025. Lateinische Literatur des Barock: Inhalte, Formen und Funktionen. Brill | Fink. doi.org/10.30965/9783846769416.

    @neolatin #neolatin #baroque

  30. Anisio, Cosimo: Poemata. . (Neapoli : per Ioannem Sultzbacchium, 1533., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  31. Ovidius Naso, Publius: Publii Ouidii Nasonis *Libri de Ponto cum luculentissimis commentariis reuerendissimi domini Bartholomæi ... (., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  32. Toledo, Francisco: D. Francisci Toleti Societatis Iesu *Commentaria vna cum quaestionibus in vniuersam Aristotelis logicam. ... (Venetiis : apud Iuntas, 1578 ., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  33. Trachelaeus Statius, Franciscus: Propaedeumata oratoria Francisci Trachelaei Statii artium, ac philosophiae doctoris in quatuor libros ... ([Venezia : Pietro Boselli] : sumptibus Emmerammi Schuuelleri parochi Tirolen. ecclesiae, 1556 ., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). Digital Copy: books.google.it/books?vid=IBNR #neolatin #EDIT16

  34. Pius <papa ; 5.>: Sanctissimi d.n.d. Pii papae ^V=5.^ constitutio contra deferentes arma breuioris mensurae trium palmorum. ... (Bononiae : typis Alexandri Benacii, 1572., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  35. Assertiones theologicae, de incarnationis mysterio. Ante instaurationem studiorum, in templo Societatis ... (Romae : in aedibus Societatis Iesu, 1561., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  36. Medici, Vitale: Omelie fatte alli Ebrei di Firenze nella chiesa di Santa Croce, et Sermoni fatti in piu compagnie della ... (In Firenze : nella stamperia de' Giunti, 1585 ., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  37. Chiesa cattolica: Aurea historia de vita et miraculis Jesu Christi. . ([1525?] ., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  38. #Neulatein​ische Neuerscheinung: Navagero, Andrea, Andrea Navagero, Marco Antonio Flaminio, und Allan M. Wilson, Hrsg. Latin Pastoral Poetry. I Tatti Renaissance Library, ITRL 101. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2025.

    #neolatin @neolatin @renaissance

  39. Savonarola, Girolamo: Fratris Hieronymi Sauonarolae Ferrariensis Ord. pred. *De veritate fidei in dominicae crucis triumphum ... (., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  40. D'Evoli, Cesare: Caesaris Aeuoli Neapolitani, *De causis antipathiae, & sympathiae rerum naturalium. . (Venetiis : apud Franciscum Zilettum, 1580., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). Digital Copy: data.onb.ac.at/ABO/%2BZ1862347 #neolatin #EDIT16

  41. #Neulatein​ische Neuerscheinung (via The Medieval Review): Yocum, Demetrio S. (ed and trans). Petrarch's Penitential Psalms and Prayers. Series: William and Katherine Devers Series in Dante and Medieval Italian Literature (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2024). undpress.nd.edu/9780268207854/

    #Petrarch #neolatin @neolatin

  42. Civelli, Francesco: Francisci Ciuelli *Carmina quibus ob acerbam pestem Mediolanensium status deploratur. . (Mediolani : apud Io. Baptistam Pontium, 1577., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  43. Excellentiss. autorum diverse modulationes que sub titulo Fructus vagantur per orbem, ab Antonio Gardane ... (Venezia : Antonio Gardane, 1549., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  44. Pipi, Pietro: De peste opus carmine elegiaco. . (Panormi, 1577., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  45. Giraldi, Giovanni Battista: Cynthii Ioannis Baptistae Gyraldi Ferrariensis *De obitu diui Alfonsi Estensis principis inuictiss. epicedion. ... (., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). No digital copy in EDIT16. Do you know any? #neolatin #EDIT16

  46. Littara, Vincenzo: Vincentii Littarae ... *De rebus Netinis liber. In quo vrbis, agrique descriptio, Netinorum origo, res ... (Panormi, 1593 ., edit16.iccu.sbn.it/titolo/CNCE). Digital Copy: bibliotecacentraleregionesicil #neolatin #EDIT16