Censorinus was a
Roman grammarian
Grammarian may refer to:
* Alexandrine grammarians, philologists and textual scholars in Hellenistic Alexandria in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE
* Biblical grammarians, scholars who study the Bible and the Hebrew language
* Grammarian (Greco-Roman ...
and miscellaneous writer from the 3rd century AD.
Biography
He was the author of a lost work ''De Accentibus'' and of an extant treatise ''De Die Natali'',
written in 238, and dedicated to his patron Quintus Caerellius as a birthday gift. The contents are of a varied character: the natural history of man, the influence of the stars and ''
genii,'' music,
religious rites,
astronomy, the doctrines of the
Greek philosophers, and
antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...
subjects.
The second part deals with chronological and mathematical questions, and has been of great service in determining the principal epochs of ancient history. The whole is full of curious and interesting information. The style is clear and concise, although somewhat
rhetoric
Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
al, and the —for the period—good.
The chief authorities used were
Varro and
Suetonius
Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire.
His most important surviving work is a set of biographies ...
. Some scholars, indeed, hold that the entire work is practically an adaptation of the lost ''Pratum'' of Suetonius. The fragments of a work ''De Naturali Institutione'', dealing with astronomy,
geometry,
music, and
versification, and usually printed with the ''De Die Natali'' of Censorinus, are not by him. Part of the original manuscript, containing the end of the genuine work, and the title and name of the author of the fragment are lost.
A bright
crater
Crater may refer to:
Landforms
*Impact crater, a depression caused by two celestial bodies impacting each other, such as a meteorite hitting a planet
*Explosion crater, a hole formed in the ground produced by an explosion near or below the surfac ...
in the
Sea of Tranquility
Mare Tranquillitatis (Latin ''tranquillitātis'', the Sea of Tranquillity or Sea of Tranquility; see spelling differences) is a lunar mare that sits within the Tranquillitatis basin on the Moon. It is the first location on another world to be v ...
on the Moon has been named after him.
Works
*
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Good edition with commentary by Heinrich Lindenbrog (1614)
* Critical editions by
**
Otto Jahn (1845)
**
Friedrich Hultsch (1867)
**
Ivan Cholodniak (1889)
**
Kai Brodersen (2012)
* English translation of th
''De Die Natali''(the first eleven chapters being omitted) with notes by William Maude (New York, 1900)
*
* New English translation of the ''De Die Natali'' by Holt N. Parker (trans.): ''Censorinus. The Birthday Book''. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007. Pp. xiv, 102.
* New German translation by Kai Brodersen (trans.): ''Censorinus. Das Geburtstagsbuch''. Darmstadt: Primus, 2011. Pp. 120.
* New critical edition with German translation by Kai Brodersen: ''Censorinus. Über den Geburtstag'' (Edition Antike). Darmstadt: WBG, 2012. Pp. 160.
External links
(Latin text, French translation: Cholodniak's edition)
Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum: complete texts and full bibliography
3rd-century Romans
Grammarians of Latin
3rd-century Latin writers
Ancient Roman antiquarians
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