SIDONIUS TO HIS DEAR NYMPHIDIUS, GREETINGS
1. Claudianus Mamertus, the most learned of Christian philosophers and the foremost of all educated men, has taken every limb, art, and part of the philosophy he has pursued to adorn and cultivate at length the famous three-volume work on the nature of the soul, revealing that the nine so-called Muses are disciplines, not women. For in his pages the watchful reader will find the true names of the Camenas, who produce their proper designation from their own nature: for there grammar distinguishes, rhetoric declaims, arithmetic counts, geometry measures, music weighs, dialectic argues, astronomy foretells, architecture builds, and poetry composes its metres.
2. Gladdened by the novelty of this reading and roused by its ripeness, you requested it, as you indicated, to be reviewed and copied quickly — as you requested, so you obtained it, under the pledge of swift return. It is not fitting for me to be deceived nor for you to deceive. It is time for what was borrowed to be restored: for if the book pleased, it ought to have produced its fill of satisfaction; if it displeased, it ought to have produced disgust. But whatever it may be, discharge your obligation promptly — lest, if you are preparing to restore a book that has been requested back rather tardily, you seem to love the parchment more than the literature. Farewell.
EPISTULA II
Sidonius Nymphidio suo salutem.
1. Librum de statu animae tribus voluminibus inlustrem Mamertus Claudianus peritissimus Christianorum philosophus et quorumlibet primus eruditorum totis sectatae philosophiae membris artibus partibusque comere et excolere curavit, novem quas vocant Musas disciplinas aperiens esse, non feminas. namque in paginis eius vigilax lector inveniet veriora nomina Camenarum, quae propriam de se sibi pariunt nuncupationem. illic enim et grammatica dividit et oratoria declamat et arithmetica numerat et geometrica metitur et musica ponderat et dialectita disputat et astrologia praenoscit et architectonica struit et metrica modulatur.
2. huius lectionis novitate laetatus excitatusque maturitate raptim recensendam transferendamque, ut videras, petisti, ut petieras, impetrasti sub sponsione citae redhibitionis. nec me falli nec te fallere decet. tempus est commodata restitui, quia liber ipse, si placuit, debuit exhibere satietatem, si displicuit, debuit movere fastidium. tu autem, quicquid illud est, fidem tuam celeriter absolve, ne si repetitum libellum serius reddere paras, membranas potius videaris amare quam litteras. vale.
◆
SIDONIUS TO HIS DEAR NYMPHIDIUS, GREETINGS
1. Claudianus Mamertus, the most learned of Christian philosophers and the foremost of all educated men, has taken every limb, art, and part of the philosophy he has pursued to adorn and cultivate at length the famous three-volume work on the nature of the soul, revealing that the nine so-called Muses are disciplines, not women. For in his pages the watchful reader will find the true names of the Camenas, who produce their proper designation from their own nature: for there grammar distinguishes, rhetoric declaims, arithmetic counts, geometry measures, music weighs, dialectic argues, astronomy foretells, architecture builds, and poetry composes its metres.
2. Gladdened by the novelty of this reading and roused by its ripeness, you requested it, as you indicated, to be reviewed and copied quickly — as you requested, so you obtained it, under the pledge of swift return. It is not fitting for me to be deceived nor for you to deceive. It is time for what was borrowed to be restored: for if the book pleased, it ought to have produced its fill of satisfaction; if it displeased, it ought to have produced disgust. But whatever it may be, discharge your obligation promptly — lest, if you are preparing to restore a book that has been requested back rather tardily, you seem to love the parchment more than the literature. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.