Disputatio:Bibliotheca Nationalis Centralis Florentina

De nomine et anno[fontem recensere]

Nomen Latinizavi sicut in aliis linguis variis fit (sed redirectio e nomine Italiano manet). De anno bibliothecae conditae possumus multis modis constituere, et licet, si necesse sit, duos aut plures annos decernere.

Aut in hac pagina aut in alia oportet de antiqua bibliotheca Magliabechiana disserere. Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 11:23, 1 Iulii 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Since Florence doesn't stand at the geographic center of Italy, the word Central in the name National Central Library (Florence) can't mean 'centrally located'. Instead, it's sense must be more like that of 'main, chief, cardinal, principal, prime, primary, first, foremost, uppermost, paramount, most important' (or even 'pivotal, axial, key, focal, basic, basal, fundamental, essential, indispensable, vital'), all of which may have more precisely apter Latin counterparts than centralis. Perhaps: Summa Bibliotheca Civitatis Florentina ? IacobusAmor (disputatio) 11:44, 1 Iulii 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You're quite right about English main: that is (according to my Italian dictionary) a possible sense of centrale, e.g. with railway stations. If with them, why not with libraries? So, conceivably, principalis, a logical but not grammatical superlative. I feel that to use "summa", a real and grammatical superlative, would be to over-translate. [Added later: a superlative just won't work, because there is another equally "nazionale centrale" library in Rome. But a city can have several main railway stations, so I suppose a country can have two "centrale" libraries.]

Don't let's trip into "Civitatis", though: that just radiates ambiguity. Like it or not, in this nationalistic age, we need "nationalis". Andrew Dalby (disputatio) 12:04, 1 Iulii 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Civitatis here = 'of the state'. Nationalis is problematic, referring, as it does, to 'a tribe, race, people, esp. uncivilized' (Cassell's), as its Spanish descendant is seen in the full & formal name of the Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, 'the Plurinational State of Bolivia'—a single civitas, incorporating multiple nationes. IacobusAmor (disputatio)