The
Latin expression ''Pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli'' (literally, "According to the capabilities of the reader, books have their destiny"), is verse 1286 of ''De litteris, De syllabis, De Metris'' by
Terentianus Maurus. ''Libelli'' is the
plural
In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...
of the Latin word ''
libellus
A ''libellus'' (plural ''libelli'') in the Roman Empire was any brief document written on individual pages (as opposed to scrolls or tablets), particularly official documents issued by governmental authorities.
The term ''libellus'' has particul ...
'', which is a
diminutive
A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...
of ''liber'' ("book"), suggesting the qualification ("''little'' books ...") was actually meant but in fact ''libellus'' was used to mean
tracts
Tract may refer to:
Geography and real estate
* Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots
* Land lot or tract, a section of land
* Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census
...
,
pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' ...
s etc.
William Camden
William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland that relates la ...
used the phrase in the preface to ''Britannia'' (1607), the first Chorography, chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. The phrase is translated as "Bookes receive their Doome according to the reader's capacity."
The early modern scholar Robert Burton (scholar) , Robert Burton deploys the expression in his ''The Anatomy of Melancholy'':
:Our writings are as so many dishes, our readers guests, our books like beauty, that which one admires another rejects; so are we approved as men's fancies are inclined. ''Pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli''.
The Latin is often only partially quoted as ''Habent sua fata libelli'' and then translated or understood as "Books have their own destinies." By extension the phrase is understood by Umberto Eco (in ''The Name of the Rose'') as "Books share their fates with their readers". In a talk about book collecting, titled "Unpacking My Library" from ''Illuminations'', Walter Benjamin cites the expression in its short form, noting that the words are often intended as a general statement about books; Benjamin's book collector, by way of contrast, applies them to himself and to the specific copies he collects.
Example uses
* It is quoted by James Joyce in a letter, dated April 2, 1932, to American publisher Bennett Cerf, a letter requested by Cerf concerning the details of the publication of Joyce's novel ''Ulysses (novel), Ulysses''.
* A modified version of the phrase translated as 'booklets and bailiffs have their own fate' appears as part of the footer on the American CAD file hosting website DEFCAD.
* Voltaire uses it in his play “Mérope”.
* Alexandre Dumas père used it in describing the genesis of "Le Capitaine Paul".
* The phrase is used in Marcel Proust's ''In Search of Lost Time''
's seventh and final volume, ''Time Regained'' (''Le temps retrouvé''), in reference to a "little brochure" of Brichot's, in which the character brags about having warned against German agression much prior to World War I.
References
{{reflist
Latin words and phrases