# veretis



## yasemin

Hi!
Can you please help me with this phrase: 'quidquid instrumenti veretis aulae erat'?
Whatever instruments the court had?? I don't understand the word veretis.
Thanks in advance,
yasemin


----------



## wandle

Hallo. 
*veretis* is at least an unusual word, possibly a proper name, possibly an error. Some background and context is necessary here.

(1) Background. Where does this text come from? From what period? Is it part of a legal document? Who wrote it?

(2) Context. Please give more of the actual text from which this is taken.

(3) Accuracy. Are you sure there is no error in the text? Could it be a mistake for *Venetis*?


----------



## yasemin

Hi wandle,
Thank you very much for your message.
Well, it's actually an English text, narrating a Roman auction. 
"(...) Caligula, who being short of money thought fit one day to put up to auction everything in the royal palace that was either useless or out of fashion, _quidquid instrumenti veretis aulae erat."
_I think there might be a typo. Which word do you think was intended here?


----------



## wandle

What English text?


----------



## yasemin

"(...) Caligula, who being short of money thought fit one day to put up to auction everything in the royal palace that was either useless or out of fashion, _quidquid instrumenti veretis aulae erat."
_It's a book on the history of conservation.


----------



## wandle

What is the title of the book, please, who is it by, and who is the Latin writer whom the author is quoting?


----------



## yasemin

Our architectural heritage: from consciousness to conservation
by Cevat Erder
Pliny


----------



## wandle

Is it Pliny the Younger? Is the text from his Epistles?


----------



## wandle

I have tried Pliny's Epistles online and not found it there.

Latin *instrumentum* also means 'furniture', which must be the sense here.
It is just possible that *venetis* may be a mistake for *venustioris*, comparative of *venustus*, beautiful or elegant.
In that case, *quidquid instrumenti venustioris aulae erat* would mean '_whatever elegant furniture there was in the palace_'.


----------



## wandle

On second thoughts, a far more likely textual possibility is *veneris*, genitive of *venus* meaning 'grace' or 'elegance'.
Thus *instrumentum veneris* would mean 'furniture of elegance'. This yields the same translation as given above.


----------



## yasemin

It is Pliny the Older.
In the meantime, I found "quidquid instrumenti veteris aulae erat" (whatever the old court has?), in the Life of Caligula by Suotenius. I can't understand if Pliny quotes from Suotenius in one of his letters though..


----------



## wandle

*quidquid instrumenti veteris aulae erat* means 'whatever old furniture there was in the palace'.

This must be the true reading. 
After all, even Caligula would be more likely to get rid of the old furniture rather than the elegant.


----------



## yasemin

Right! Thank you so much wandle!!


----------

