Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Latin edition)

As far as length and complexity, Harrius Potter provides a much-needed middle-ground between the simple works such as Fabulae Mirabiles and the less challenging of the Classics.

Sensing that such was the case, I bought this book for a specific reason. I had studied Latin in my younger years and, having recently taken it up again, I wanted to teach myself to read and understand a longer work directly without translating it (even subconsciously) in my mind.

The simple but engaging subject of this book, together with the impeccable Latin in which it is written, proved to be a perfect combination for my puspose. As I turned the pages of Harrius Potter, the dictionary became less and less necessary, until I realized that I was able to *taste* the language directly off the page.

Apart from this personal anecdote, I enjoyed Harrius Potter for many reasons. The Latin is simple yet quite elegant; virtually all verb-moods and tenses are employed along the most orthodox rules of the "consecutio temporum," together with all the pronouns and a good syntactical variety of clauses and case-usage. The necessary neologisms are tastefully chosen in a way that does not sound far-fetched. The size of the book is manageable, and the story is truly a jolly good one.

Actually, had it not been for its being available in Latin, I probably would not have read any of Rowling's novels - as I have now found out, she is a truly great storyteller deserving of the notoriety she has earned. And if anything, the Latin language bestows Harrius Potter even more of a timeless aura.

I sincerely hope that more works such as this will become available in the near future.

Great book, great translation.

Since this is the first modern book that I've read in Latin, the thing that initially surprised me most is the fact that it could be done at all. It's a testament to the timeless quality of J. K. Rowling's writing, as well as to the brilliance of her translator, Peter Needham, that the book reads beautifully and fluently despite the occasional appearance of twentieth-century problems such as Uncle Vernon's car (autocinetum), the trafffic jam (vehicula impedita) in which it gets stuck, and motorcycles (birotulae automatariae), flying and earth-bound.

What I began to realize as I read Needham's delightful translation is that reports of the demise of Latin have, as they say, been exaggerated. One of my Greek professors used to joke about a student of his who went on to study at Oxford after getting a degree in classics here in the U.S. The report came back that his tutor at Oxford was pleased with this student's Latin, to which the response from his teachers here was, "That's high praise coming from a native speaker." As you read Needham's translation, it seems indeed that Latin is his native tongue.

That Harry Potter could be translated so convincingly into Latin also says a lot about the indebtedness of our culture to the Romans--the Romanness of European culture if you will--even this far down the road from Cicero and Caesar. In ways so deep and broad that we entirely overlook them, our culture is unthinkable without the Romans. Indeed, despite advances in science, technology, and general knowledge, Roman culture still feels remarkably modern and offers enough points of similarity and contact with our own that it's not absurd to imagine Harry Potter transposed to ancient Rome. How different it would be reading Harry Potter in Sumerian or ancient Egyptian or even biblical Hebrew.

Here's to hoping Needham will continue on with the rest of the series!

Original review date: 12/31/05. Updated 3/6/07. The much-hoped-for, and equally delightful, second installment of the Latin series was released in late 2006. I have reviewed this book as well.

At age 68 I recently decided to renew my brief high-school acquaintence with Latin so picked up a copy of Wheelock's Latin (another superb book)and jumped right in. By Chapter 14 (out of 40), I wanted to tackle something a little more meaty and different than the Wheelock exercises, but certainly not the classics yet. Harrius Potter is currently filling that bill very well. The Latin is obviously not a perfect translation, but close enough that the English version is a good check when I need a hint. At my re-learning stage, it's dictionary-heavy work (Cassell's and/or Chambers Murray work fine) and it forces me to jump ahead for grammar items not yet covered in my normal progression...both good things. And, of course, it's a good story.

I read the original Harry Potter years ago, and I really enjoyed it. This Latin version is very enjoyable, and enough time has passed since my first reading that the story feels new again. The main thing, however, is that the translation seems straight forward and perfect for keeping your Latin skills in tact. I just finished reading the Hobbit in Latin, and it was also excellent.

I've never read any of the Harry Potter books at all (in English or any other language) but now I've embarked on reading Harrius Potter in Latin, just for fun. I've studied latin in high school and taken courses at university where I studied Latin authors, and I have read Vergil's Aeneid in latin from start to finish (took me two years!), so I have a good deal of experience in reading Latin.

My impression, after having finished Chapter One and started on Chapter Two, is that the Latin in this book is much simpler in vocabulary and syntax than the Latin that would have been written by an ancient Roman author. For example, so far there have been none of the lengthy, complicated "periods" of the type favored by Roman authors such as Caesar and Cicero. In other words, the Latin is very easy, and I've only had to look up half a dozen words in the dictionary. It would be interesting to see what the Latin would have been like if Livy or Cicero had translated Harry Potter into Latin.

For me, it's a fun diversion to read this book. There's nothing wrong with the Latin being "easy". However, for a student learning Latin, I have mixed feelings about using the easy Latin of Harrius Potter to get experience in reading Latin ESPECIALLY if the student in question has already read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in English (from reading other reviews, some of them have read the book in English more than once). Obviously, if you're still learning to read Latin, it's MUCH easier to understand what a piece of Latin is supposed to be saying when you already know what it means because you read the thing before in English. I think if you struggle through a piece by Cicero or Caesar (that you've never read before at all in any language) the grammar/vocabulary will stick with you alot better than if you read something in (an easy variety of) Latin you've read several times in English. In any event, I would rather have my students read real Latin as opposed to made-up "dog" Latin.

In summary: Reading Harrius Potter might help beginners pick up some vocabulary but I don't think it will help prepare them for Lucretius or Vergil.

Anyway, those are just my two cents worth. I'm really enjoying the story and hope they release future volumes in Latin. (As an aside, I'm curious as to why the translator chose to begin each sentence with a lower case letter. For an English speaker/reader, beginning each sentence with a lower case letter just introduces an unnecessary distraction into the mix).

UPDATE: Shouldn't the title be "De Harrio Potter et Philosophi Lapide"? Isn't that how the Romans would have put it?

I'm thoroughly enjoying this wonderful Latin translation. Keep in mind, however, that just because this is a story for children, that doesn't mean that the Latin is easy. To understand this text you will need an advanced knowledge of Latin grammar. Just off the top of my head, here are some of the grammatical elements used in this book:

-purpose clauses ("ut" clauses)
-passive periphrastics
-future passive participles
-ablative absolutes
-indirect statements (with perfect, present, and future infinitives)
-lots of idioms (iter facere=to travel or journey, facere certiorem=to inform, etc)
-deponent verbs
-verbs in every tense, mood, voice, person, and number

In short, you will need to have a good knowledge of Latin grammar. Or, view this book as a way to learn more grammar as you go.

I would also recommend having access to a good online Latin dictionary as you read. I have been using William Whitaker's Words, and marking unknown words in the margins for my own learning.

I did not read yet the book, but I will as soon as I can. For the moment, I would like to share this news with people who loves Latin. Valete.

The other day a friend asked me how potato was written in Latin. Yes, Latin, that ancient language that is taken for dead now and was the language of the Roman Empire when Rome conquered the world, some 2.000 + years ago. I asked the same question to an acquaitance of mine who happens to be an expert on such type of foodstuff and the answer was « sorry, there is no sense in that question : potatoes were first brought to Europe when the Spaniards first settled in America after 1492. Even the etymology of the word is of Centro-american Origin » . He was right !! As happened with syphilis, potato was one of the things the Spaniards brought back home when returning from their conquers. There could not be a word for a thing that did not already exist at the time of the Roman Empire when Latin was at its heyday, not to mention many other things that were not yet discovered, invented or even supposed to exist. Sure, potato was not at all alone in this type of category. The same happened with things or words like astronauts, motorbikes, top-models, typewriters, and many others, just to name a few.

To mend the situation and to give a hand to the people that still has to use Latin as it were still a living language, like people from the Vatican bureaucracy that have to write a lot of cannonical stuff in Latin, The Libraria Editoria Vaticana, hired a bunch of scholars, led by the recently deceased great latinist, the Italian Carlo Ergg (Carolus Egger, in Latin). After years of difficult work they constructed this 15.000-word beautifully printed dictionary and formed, out of what seems to be strict Latin rules of formation of words, this very rich (but intrinsically weird) book of what can be called modern Latin words. The edition that I have in my hand is for German speaking enthusiasts of Latin, a sequel to the original one, which was (sure) Italian/Latin. The importance Latin has in German, Austria and some other German language countries is paramount, where it is part of the regular curriculum of any student in his/hers teens for at least 6 years. I have been told that in Italy, all the Exact Sciences students have Latin for some 4 or 5 years, which helps them a lot in the build-up of their logical thinking.

Ok, but how is potato to be written in « modern Latin » ? The answer is « tuber solani ». And typewritter ? « mensa scriptoria ». Sex shops ? "Rerum obscenarum taberna". Astronauts? "Nauta sideralis". Soccer is " folle pedibusque ludo".

So, besides the seriousness of such a kind of stull, there is some jocular aspects of it, given the gymnastics the word inventors had to perform in order to have their job done. To sum it up, this is one of the weirdst, although pretty much serious word stuff that I have got in my hands in the last years, and I would like to congratulate the people who made it possible to have Latin reinvented and still useful today. See in this regard the Latin web pages at the Finn radio called Nuntii Latini (news in Latin). Valete !!

It is what it is. Whether the plot is good or not is irrelevant. It's in Latin. Is the Latin good. Yes, it is. There are a few errors and once in a while the translation is a bit whimsical. Anyway, this is for someone who wants a project, not someone who wants to read the story.

Having studied Latin for seven years, I was very excited about the Latin translation of Philosopher's Stone. The translation is very good, marked only by inconsistant spellings of proper names which should have been picked up by any editor. The style is simple enough that any student with a good base of Latin grammar should be able to translate with the help of a dictionary, as the vocabulary will be in any basic lexicon.

Beautiful book. Excellent to use as a learning tool for budding Latinists who need everyday practice with the language as well as building vocabulary.