Commentarium in Cantica canticorum

Chunk numbers below predate the 2026-07-05 re-chunk (chapter heads recovered; boundaries shifted). Locate cruces by column mark, not chunk.

Corrupt/garbled printed Latin rendered literally (not emended); logged here per translation protocol.

Chunk 0010

• col 0331D — interdum aureosi soloris, crispantes — aureosi soloris is garbled; contextually = aurei coloris ("of golden color"). Rendered "sometimes of golden color" from context; printed reading is corrupt.
• col 0331D–0332A — haec juxta itteram de elatis palmarum Comae ergo sponsi elatis palmarum comparantur — itteram = litteram, and the clause haec juxta litteram de elatis palmarum is syntactically incomplete/truncated (no predicate) before the next sentence begins. Rendered literally as "this according to the letter concerning the shoots of palms."

Chunk 0011

• col 0332D — tam Veteris Vestamenti quam Novi mysteria perscrutantur — Vestamenti = Testamenti. Rendered "of the Old Testament."

Chunk 0012

• col 0338A — in lege praecitur ut quicunque per ignorantiam peccaverit — praecitur = praecipitur ("it is commanded"). Rendered "it is commanded."
• col 0338C — nisi quod ad dilect onem Dei et proximi pertinet — dilect onem printed with an internal space break = dilectionem. Rendered "love."

Chunk 0014

• col 0343A — quanto magis memores sunt snae fragilitatis — snae = suae ("their own frailty"). Rendered per sense.
• col 0343B (lemma) — Duo ubera tua sicut duo hinnul gemelli capreae — hinnul is a truncated/garbled hinnuli ("two young fawns, twins of a roe"). Rendered per evident sense.

Chunk 0015

• col 0346D — in inferioribus aspera est, in superiobus pulcherrima — superiobus = superioribus. Rendered per sense.
• col 0347B — uno codemque tempore — codemque = eodemque ("at one and the same time"). Rendered per sense.

Chunk 0016

• col 0351C — impossibile est homini in praesinti vita — praesinti = praesenti ("in the present life"). Rendered per sense.

Chunk 0018

• col 0357C (lemma) — assimilare capreae hinnu loque cervorum — hinnuloque printed split as hinnu loque (line-break artifact). Rendered "and to the fawn of the harts." <!-- corpus-polarity-sweep 2026-07-28 --> ## Corpus polarity sweep — 2026-07-28

Blind Opus read of the Latin/English pair for sense-reversing defects (one word or one letter asserting the opposite of what the context requires). 9 site(s). Migne's defects are recorded here and rendered literally in the English; our own errors were fixed in place. Full context: data/sweeps/corpus-polarity/REPORT.md.

0302B — dropped-word (ours, medium confidence)

Printed: Videns sponsam suam ad requiem festinare, et labores fugere, ac per quietem praesentis temporis ad aeternam beatitudinem tendere, se per pressuras et labores hujus saeculi illuc pervenire debere: « Sicut (inquit) lilium inter spinas, sic amica mea inter filias. »

Conjecture: The accusative subject se ... pervenire debere continues the indirect statement about the bride (sponsam suam), not the bridegroom: 'whereas she must come thither through the afflictions and labors of this world.' The English assigns the necessity to Christ ('he himself must come thither'), and supplies an adversative 'whereas' that the Latin does not print.

The bridegroom's own gloss on the verse, in the next sentence, puts the labors squarely on the bride in the second person: 'Sic tibi vivendum est, et sic parata esse debes contra omnia adversa ... quia non solum ab his qui extra Ecclesiam sunt, mala pateris, verum etiam ab illis qui regenerati per baptismum ...' — rendered 'Thou must so live, and so must thou be prepared against all adversities ... because thou sufferest evils not only from those who are outside the Church, but also from those who seem, regenerated through baptism, to have come into the adoption of God.' The lemma being expounded is 'sicut lilium inter spinas, sic AMICA MEA inter filias': it is the bride, not Christ, who must reach beatitude among the thorns. As rendered, the sentence makes Christ the one who must attain thither through this world's afflictions, the opposite of what the immediately following exposition requires.

0315D — sense-reversing-letter (migne, medium confidence)

Printed: Deus Ecclesiae praecipue erat Petrus, cui dictum est in visione: « Surge, occide et manduca. »

Conjecture: Dens Ecclesiae praecipue erat Petrus (Dens, not Deus — a single letter)

The whole paragraph is expounding the teeth: « ita et per dentes Ecclesiae doctores intelliguntur: dentibus enim cibos commolimus », and two sentences later « Bene autem hi dentes ovibus tonsis et lavacro lotis comparantur. » Migne's plate as printed makes Peter the GOD of the Church rather than one of her teeth, which the immediate neighbour flatly denies. Our English silently reads the correct 'teeth' — the defect survives only on the Latin plate, so the pair does not agree with itself.

0318C — opposite-rendering (ours, medium confidence)

Printed: Sole autem iterum super terras ascendente, inclinantur umbrae, id est cadit nox.

Conjecture: 'that is, night sinks away' / 'night comes to an end' — cadit nox here is the ending of night, not its onset

The preceding clause of the same sentence supplies the contrast: « Nam nox nihil est aliud nisi umbra terrae, quae sole descendente consurgit » — night RISES when the sun goes down. The sun is now ascending, so what happens must be the opposite. English 'night falls' is the standard idiom for nightfall, i.e. night arriving, so our rendering asserts exactly what its own previous clause excludes; it also breaks the allegory the passage is built on (« donec aspiret dies et inclinentur umbrae » = the eternal day dawning and the darkness of this world passing).

0328A — dropped-non (migne, medium confidence)

Printed: Lavi pedes meos, hoc est, actiones quibus nunquam pulverem tangere, hoc est, terrena agere consueveram, dignis poenitentiae fletibus ablui

Conjecture: quibus nonnunquam pulverem tangere ... consueveram ('with which I was sometimes wont to touch the dust') — nonnunquam broken to nunquam

The same sentence says these actions were washed « dignis poenitentiae fletibus »: there is nothing to wash away, and no penance to weep, if the feet NEVER touched dust. The following lemma makes it explicit — « Quomodo inquinabo illos? id est, quomodo fieri potest, ut iterum ad cogitanda caduca et terrena redeam » — 'again' presupposes that she formerly did touch earthly things. This is the nonnulli/non novelli class of word-division defect.

0328A — sense-reversing-letter (migne, medium confidence)

Printed: Timet ergo Ecclesia, vel anima quaeque sancta, hac tunica exui, et in contemplatione sui Conditoris requiescens, iterum reindui et saecularibus negotiis occupari.

Conjecture: hac tunica exuta ... iterum reindui timet — the participle, not the infinitive: 'stripped of this tunic and resting in contemplation, she fears to be reclothed'

The tunic has just been defined as worldly cares, and being rid of it is the good the whole passage defends: « Exspoliavi me tunica mea, quomodo induar illa? » and « Qui in sublimi contemplationis arce consistit, non descendat ut tollat tunicam suam. » As printed (and as rendered), the sentence has her fearing BOTH to be stripped and to be reclothed — the first fear is the opposite of what she has just said she did gladly. 'exuta' also restores the parallel with the nominative participle 'requiescens', which 'exui' leaves stranded.

0332B — dropped-non (migne, medium confidence)

Printed: quae quanto magis claritatem sui conditoris contemplantur, eo amplius quam utile sit omne creatum, in ejus comparatione aspiciunt, et ideo nigrae quasi corvus esse dicuntur.

Conjecture: quam inutile sit omne creatum (the in- of inutile lost)

The clause has to explain the blackness: « et ideo nigrae quasi corvus esse dicuntur » — seeing how USEFUL every creature is would not make the angels black. The exactly parallel sentence a few lines earlier settles it: « quam quanto magis percipiunt, tanto magis in oculis suis peccatores sibi et contemptibiles esse videntur », and « quia fidelium multitudines suae fragilitatis sibi consciae sunt, et nihil se boni ex se habere noverunt. » Our English performs the silent repair ('how of little use'), which rescues the sentence while leaving the printed Latin asserting the opposite.

0344C — sense-reversing-letter (migne, high confidence)

Printed: Ipsi enim sagaciter discernere noverunt inter fragilitatem catholicae fidei doctrinam et letiferum haeretici corporis fetorem.

Conjecture: fragrantiam catholicae fidei doctrinae — 'the fragrance of the doctrine of the Catholic faith'; Migne's fragilitatem turns the good odour into a weakness, and the English carried the defect through as an ungrammatical genitive chain (fragilitatem … doctrinam, two accusatives, is itself unconstruable).

The sentence immediately before states the terms of the antithesis: « Quia naso fetores et bonos odores discernimus, recte per nasum Ecclesiae iidem sancti doctores intelliguntur. » The nose discerns STENCHES and GOOD ODOURS; the second limb duly supplies the stench (« letiferum haeretici corporis fetorem »), so the first limb must supply the good odour of Catholic doctrine, not its 'frailty'. Nothing in the passage ascribes frailty to the Catholic faith — the same paragraph calls the teachers those who 'hold the highest place in the Church' and 'defend the Church'.

0345D — dropped-word (migne, low confidence)

Printed: Neque enim ad vitia incurvatur, sed recta et immobilis persistit. Unde Psalmista exspectantium voce dicebat: « Incurvatus sum et humiliatus usquequaque. »

Conjecture: peccantium (or poenitentium) voce — 'in the voice of sinners'; exspectantium assigns the bowing to the waiting faithful, i.e. to the very party the sentence has just declared unbendable.

The clause it is adduced to illustrate is « Neque enim ad vitia incurvatur, sed recta et immobilis persistit », and the parallel citation that follows keeps the speaker a sinner: « propheta sub specie Hierusalem PECCANTI ANIMAE de malignis spiritibus dicit: Quia humiliaverunt te… Incurvare ut transeamus », capped by « At contra sancta Ecclesia recta stat, nec unquam incurvari consentit. » As printed, the bent speaker and the unbent Church are the same party.

0353B — sense-reversing-letter (migne, medium confidence)

Printed: Matrem et genitricem Synagogae, majorem et principaliorem Judaicae plebis patrem dicit, quales erant Scribae et Pharisaei…

Conjecture: partem for patrem — 'the greater and more principal PART of the Jewish people'. The English silently repaired the singular patrem into a plural 'fathers' to make the sentence run.

The gloss is explaining 'mother' and 'she that bore thee', and the very next clause keeps the maternal figure: « qui reliquam plebem tanquam mater et genitrix regere debebant et erudire. » 'reliquam plebem' (the REST of the people) presupposes that the referent is a part of that people, not a father of it; and defining matrem et genitricem as a patrem contradicts the lemma it is glossing («Ibi corrupta est mater tua, ibi violata est genitrix tua»).