In 1957, when Reginald Foster was sixteen years of age and a student at the Carmelite Seminary in Peterborough, New Hampshire, he was an avid reader of Latinitas, the tantum-Latine magazine produced in the halls of the Vatican. He had learned of the existence of this magazine from his Latin teacher, Conrad Fliess, who had been a subscriber since 1954, the second year of the magazine’s existence. Reading through the April 1957 issue gave the two Latin lovers an electric thrill: Peterborough, New Hampshire, had made it into the magazine! A letter which Fliess had written to Carolus Egger, who handled correspondence for the magazine (and was second-in-command handling Latin correspondence for Pope Pius XII himself), had resulted in a short article about the proper Latin term for Peterborough, New Hampshire. I think Egger did the subject full justice, and the short article he wrote on the question should be reproduced in full:
QVOMODO LATINE REDDATUR VVLGARE NOMEN “PETERBOROUGH”
Conradus Fliess, sacerdos, linguae Latinae doctor in oppido quod “Peterborough” vulgo appellatur et in finibus Foederatarum Americae Septemtrionalis Civitatum positum est, quaesivit quomodo Latine diceretur nomen loci eiusdem.
Cuius precibus libenter obsecundanti commemorandum mihi videtur de cognomini urbe Brittaniae (in regione Northantoniensi sita), quae originem traxit a pervetere coenobio sodalium Benedictinorum, anno DCLVI p. Ch. n., atque adeo Saxonum aetate, condito. Est autem “Peterborough” duobus verbis effectum: “Peter,” quo, ut liquet, Petrus significatur, et “borough,” quod est priscum vocabulum Anglorum Saxonumque atque idem quod Germanicum “burg” (Gothicum “baurgs”), cuius vis est Aurogra online pharmacy castrum seu buy cheap neurontin in iowa overnight vicus circummunitus.
Sciendum quoque est in linguam Latinam senescentis Romanorum aetatis receptum esse verbum burgus, i (cf. VEGET. Milit. IV.10; OROS. Hist. VII, 32,12). Quam vocem viri in enodandis originibus periti e duplici fonte permanasse asseverant: e Graeco et Germanico. In Graecorum enim sermone occurrit purgos, hoc est turris ad defensionem apta, Germani autem appellant locum munimentis conclusum “burg,” quemadmodum supra dictum est.
Cum vero urbs Britannica “Peterborough,” e cuius nomine oppidum illud Americanum nuncupatum esse conici licet, in litterarum monumentis media aetate Latine conscriptis vocetur Burgus Sancti Petri, nihil impedit quominus illi oppido idem hoc nomen imponatur.
Latinius etiam nomen, si libet, est in procinctu; dixerim enim Castrum Sancti Petri vel Castrum Petrianum, quandoquidem Romani verbo castri usi sunt ad plura significanda loca; cf. Castrum Album in Hispania Tarraconensi, LIV. XXIV, 41; Castrum Inui in Latio prope Ardeam, VERG. Aen. VI, 774; Castrum Novum in Piceno (hodie audit “Giulianova”), PLIN. III, 5,6 (44), e. a.
Ita me satisfecisse puto Conrado praeceptori.
CAROLVS EGGER
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