Friday, July 23, 2010

Mapping the New World


A colleague, who is an outstanding teacher of geography, is conducting some research and came across this map of what is now eastern North Carolina. She needed a translation of the title in the upper right-hand corner and asked if I would translate it for her. The Latin reads:

Americae pars, nunc Virginia dicta: primum ab Anglis inuenta, sumtibus Dn. Walteri Raleigh, Equestris ordinis Viri, Anno Dni. MDLXXXV regni Vero Sereniss. nostrae Reginae Elisabethae XXVII, hujus vero Historia peculiari Libro descripta est, additis etiam Indigenarum Iconibus / autore Ioanne With; sculptore Theodoro de Bry, qui et. excud.

I had to do a little digging to understand some of the abbreviations, but here is my translation:

"Part of America, now called Virginia: first discovered by the English, by the expenses of Sir Walter Raleigh, a man of the rank of knight, in the year of the Lord 1585, indeed in the 27th (year) of the rule of our fairest Queen Elizabeth, indeed in that one's (Raleigh's) own book the history was described, also with the images of the natives added / with Ioanne With (John White) the author; with Theodoro de Bry the engraver, who also printed it"

I enjoy this type of exercise because it allows me to keep my skills in practice and apply them to assist others in learning. I learned that sumptus, sumptus, m. is the Latin word for "expenses, costs". I also learned a bit about Queen Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh, and the early exploration of the New World.

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