# Laudato si', mi Signore



## giacinta

*Can someone enlighten me about this please?

Laudato Si’, mi’ Signore*

I have seen this translated as: _Praise be to you, my Lord._

When I first saw it I assumed it would be in Latin, as has been the custom with previous papal encyclicals.  *laudato *is in fact a word in Latin.

However, it is in Italian, apparently a quote from St Francis of Assisi’s _Canticle of the Sun_. It may be medieval Italian, perhaps Umbrian.

Some reports said it was _Laudato *Sii. *_ 

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Giacinta


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## Scholiast

salvete!


> However, it is in Italian, apparently a quote from St Francis of Assisi’s _Canticle of the Sun_. It may be medieval Italian, perhaps Umbrian.
> 
> Some reports said it was _Laudato *Sii.*_


Quite. It is indeed mediaeval Latin, in fact the opening words of St Francis' poem/hymn to God as revealed in His creation of the natural world - which, incidentally, has been set to music by several composers. _Laudato_ does look like Latin, but it is equally good Italian of the period (for the passive participle "praised"), and _si_ or _sii_ is the singular imperative of the verb _esser_, "to be". Literally therefore, "Be praised, my Lord...".

Pope Francis chose his papal name to express his spiritual affinity with the Saint, who of course was and is known for his reverence for God in nature, which makes it appropriate as a title for an encyclical concerned with environmental matters.

Σ


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## NotNow

I read that it is an Umbrian dialect of medieval Latin, and I was surprised that there was such a thing.

Is there any truth to it?


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## Necsus

As far as I know, the 'Cantico delle creature' is known as the most ancient poetical text in the Italian literature and it is maybe the first document written in vulgar Italian (that was obviously influenced by the regional dialects).


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## giacinta

Scholiast said:


> salvete!
> 
> Quite. It is indeed mediaeval Latin, in fact the opening words of St Francis' poem/hymn to God as revealed in His creation of the natural world - which, incidentally, has been set to music by several composers. _Laudato_ does look like Latin, but it is equally good Italian of the period (for the passive participle "praised"), and _si_ or _sii_ is the singular imperative of the verb _esser_, "to be". Literally therefore, "Be praised, my Lord...".
> 
> Pope Francis chose his papal name to express his spiritual affinity with the Saint, who of course was and is known for his reverence for God in nature, which makes it appropriate as a title for an encyclical concerned with environmental matters.
> 
> Σ


Thank you so much!


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## Scholiast

salvete iterum!

Corrigendum:  in my previous post I wrote:  





> It is indeed mediaeval Latin...


. I am sorry, I meant of course mediaeval _*Italian*_.

_meus error_.

Σ


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## bearded

The same sentence in modern Italian would be :  _Sii lodato, mio Signore. _As one can see, differences with respect to mediaeval Italian are small, and the sentence is well intelligible to today's Italians (besides being famous thanks to  St.Francis' poem).  Putting 'sii' after the participle was a word order more similar to Latin;  the diphthong -au- in 'laudato' is now closed to -o-; 'mi+apostrophe' for 'mio'  isn't possible any more today.
Finally, I find it surprising that the editors of the Pope's encyclic text chose -si'- instead of 'sii', because in modern Italian this may cause a confusion with si'(=yes), and it seems that 'sii' was indeed the original version.
PS. And the original title of the poem was _Cantico delle creature _(Canticle of the creatures).


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## Scholiast

salvete de novo!



> _Sii lodato..._ the diphthong -au- in 'laudato' is now closed to -o-


 (bearded man, # 7).
Vulgar Latin knew this phonetic variant already in classical times (hence e.g. _plostrum_/_plaustrum_, and P. Claudius Pulcher adopting the form _Clodius_ on his adoption into the _plebs_ in 59 BC).

Σ


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## bearded

Scholiast said:


> Vulgar Latin knew this phonetic variant already in classical times (hence e.g. _plostrum_/_plaustrum_, and P. Claudius Pulcher adopting the form _Clodius_ on his adoption into the _plebs_ in 59 BC).



That is true, and Claudius/Clodius' daughter Clodia Pulcra (pretty Claudia or Claudia the beautiful) was a famous Roman _matrona _during the 1st century BC.  Italian has inherited most ''vulgar'' phonetic changes of Latin.  By saying 'laudato' the poem purposefully adopted an archaic word shape.


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## francisgranada

Some personal observations:

In the same poem we find also _laudato sie_. This suggests that the "full form" in the Francis's (supposedly Umbrian) dialect/language was rather _sie _than _sii_.

According to the Romance evolution of the diphthong _au _(that you have mentioned), I should expect _lodato _instead of _laudato _even in the period of Saint Francis. So the verb _laudare _(with _au_) might be a learned word already in those times, as it was frequently used in religious contexts, and - perhaps - not in the colloquial speech.

In general, the spelling of the texts in early Romance languages is influenced by the Latin spelling, that's why we find forms like _benedi*ct*ione, *h*erba, fru*ct*i, etc_ ... in  the dicussed poem, however they were (most probably) already pronounced [_beneditsi'one], ['erba], ['frut:i]_. In the poem we find also _"cum tu*ct*e le sue creature"_, that seems to be a hypercorrection (_tucte _could not be pronounced [_tukte_] as  _tutto _in Latin is _totus, not_ *_tuctus_.)

Saluti
Francis (not yet Saint )


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## Giorgio Spizzi

For what it's worth I wholeheartedly agree with bearded man when he complains about the choice of "si" instead of "sii".
I suspect he—like me—has met quite a few Italians who didn't know that the Italian affirmative adverb has a written (usually grave) accent. 
Besides, there's the silly habit of using apostrophes instead of accents.
I somehow can't seem to get rid of the impression that to many of my compatriots the Pope's encyclical sounds something like "Laudato sì, ..., come no?".

GS


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## giacinta

I am grateful for all the responses however my concern about the “Latin”  aspect of the Italian phrase (_laudato sii_) is that I don’t think the auxiliary verb (here the verb “to be”) would be used with the perfect participle in classical Latin to express the passive imperative, ie  assuming you wanted to say: _Be praised, my Lord!_ Although _laudatus_ is a perfect participle meaning “praised” or “having been praised” _l_a_udatus es_ means _you _(singular) _have been or were praised _(perfect tense, indicative mood, passive voice). I don’t think it can mean “be praised” (imperative mood, passive voice, singular), even though the imperative of the verb “to be” (_sum_) is in fact_es_ (or _esto_). I gather, on the other hand, that in the Italian language past participles such as _lodato_(praised) can be linked with the auxiliary verb _essere_ (to be) in the imperative (_si’_ or _sii_) to mean “be praised.”

To say _Be praised, my Lord_ in classical Latin, I think, could be rendered _Laudare mi Domine _(ie passive imperative of _laudo_ followed by the vocative of _Dominus_, the vocative of _meus_ qualifying it). The imperative passive singular of _laudo_ happens to be the same as the present infinitive active, ie _laudare._


However, I think the passive imperative was not much used in Latin (except with deponent verbs). Also, if we adopt the English phrase “Praise *be* to you” the “be” seems to be the subjunctive of the verb “to be”. In Latin, this  “optative” subjunctive (or subjunctive of desire) could be rendered by the present subjunctive expressing a wish for the future: eg _felix sis_ (may you be happy).  But how would one say “May you be praised” ? _Lauderis _(?).  _Laudatus sis _does not seem right, any more than _laudatus es (_supra). Maybe _laus tibi sit….._!


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## bearded

Hi giacinta
Maybe _laudatus esto _(but it would be vulgar Latin, I think: _laudatus sum - _not perfect any more -eventually replaced _laudor _in vulgar Latin). Anyhow, _laus tibi sit _sounds like very good Latin.


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