Many years ago my dentist had a sign - in Latin - posted in his office.
Summa Ars Est Celare Artem
which he translated as "The Greatest Art Is The Hidden Art"
Very appropriate, I thought, for a dentist.
Now, has my memory recalled the spelling correctly? Any comments? Translation? Anything?
Thank you.
Looks good. I might quibble about the translation, but that's just me. I'd go with:
The greatest art is to hide the art.
Could Celare be meant to be "caecum?"
k
The NYC morgue (1st Avenue and 25th Street or so, squished between the Veterns Hosp, and the Bellevue Medical center)
has a latin motto in the entry way, greeting people,
i don't remember the latin, but the translation is Enter(welcome,) here, were death delights to teach the living.
a good motto for a grim place.
(One joy of my former employment as a Xerox tech, was, i got to go places i normally never would.. so i have been in the stacks of the 42nd street library, and in the morgue, and lots of other places, that are off the beaten path.)
Definition of: ars est celare artem
ars est celare artem: True art is to conceal art.
Look, all the above translations are pretty good, considering the difficulties involved. Not to hide one's light under one's bushel (or *however it's being translated nowadays), one refers you to
http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=108918~
camel in my needle's eye
Taceant colloquia. Effugiat risus.
Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae.
(Let conversations cease. Let laughter depart.
This is the place where death delights to help the living.)
-- The Latin motto posted in the autopsy room of Dr. Milton Helpern, the medical examiner of New York City in the 1960's
