Letter 147: A book handled by Musaeus becomes almost musical and sharpens understanding.
I have received the book, and it has become dearer to me because, taken up in your hands, it perhaps drew in something musical, so that anyone using it now feels his understanding sharper, I think, no less than Socrates did when he sat beside the Ilissus, where there was a shrine of the Nymphs and a dwelling place of Pan. If only, after receiving the other books as well, you would make them like this, so that as I approach each one in turn I may always feel a more divine inspiration.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Μουσαίωι Δέδεγμαι τὴν βίβλον, ποθεινοτέραν μοι γενομένην, ὅτι ταῖς ὑμετέραις ἀναληφθεῖσα χερσὶ τάχα τι καὶ μουσικὸν ἐπεσπάσατο, ὡς τὸν κεχρημένον λοιπὸν ὀξυτέρας οἶμαι τῆς διανοίας αἰσθάνεσθαι, οὐχ ἧττον ἢ Σωκράτης, ἡνίκα δὴ παρὰ τὸν Ἰλισσὸν ἐκαθέζετο, ἔνθα καὶ Νυμφῶν ἱερὸν καὶ Πανὸς ἐνδιαίτημα. ἀλλ' εἴθε μὴν καὶ τὰς ἄλλας βίβλους λαβὼν τοιαύτας ἐργάσαιο, ὥστε με κατὰ μέρος ἑκάστῃ προσβάλλοντα θειοτέρας ἀεὶ τῆς ἐπιπνοίας αἰσθάνεσθαι.
Revision history
- 2026-05-27v2.2.34-import
Initial corpus import from modern procopius gaza batch9 matia greek v1.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://www.matia.gr/pisth/pdf/pg_migne/Procopius_of_Gaza_PG_87a-87c/Epistulae.pdf
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