''Festina lente'' () or ''speûde bradéōs'' (, ) is a classical

adage A proverb (from ) or an adage is a simple, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and are an example of formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phrase ...

and

oxymoron An oxymoron (plurals: oxymorons and oxymora) is a figure of speech that Juxtaposition, juxtaposes concepts with opposite meanings within a word or in a phrase that is a self-contradiction (disambiguation), self-contradiction. As a rhetorical de ...

meaning "make haste slowly" (sometimes rendered in English as "more haste, less speed"). It has been adopted as a

motto A motto (derived from the Latin language, Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian language, Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a Sentence (linguistics), sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of a ...

numerous times, particularly by the emperors

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

and

Titus Titus Caesar Vespasianus ( ; 30 December 39 – 13 September AD 81) was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, becoming the first Roman emperor ever to succeed h ...

, then later by the

Medici The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...

s and the Onslows. During the 1960s the Cuban Revolution used this ancient phrase (apresúrate lentamente) in its message to the masses. The original form of the saying, ''speũde bradéōs'', is

Classical Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archa ...

, of which ''festīnā lentē'' is the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

translation. The words and ''festina'' are second-person-singular present active imperatives, meaning "make haste", while and ''lente'' are adverbs, meaning "slowly".

History

The Roman historian

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...

, in ''

De vita Caesarum ''De vita Caesarum'' (Latin; "About the Life of the Caesars"), commonly known as ''The Twelve Caesars'' or ''The Lives of the Twelve Caesars'', is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire writte ...

'', tells that Augustus deplored rashness in a military commander, thus "" was one of his favourite sayings: Certain

gold coin A gold coin is a coin that is made mostly or entirely of gold. Most gold coins minted since 1800 are 90–92% gold (22fineness#Karat, karat), while most of today's gold bullion coins are pure gold, such as the Britannia (coin), Britannia, Canad ...

s minted for Augustus bore images of a

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...

and a

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

to attempt an emblem for the adage. Other such visualizations include a

hare Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores and live Solitary animal, solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are precociality, able to fend for themselves ...

in a

snail shell The gastropod shell is part of the body of many gastropods, including snails, a kind of mollusc. The shell is an exoskeleton, which protects from predators, mechanical damage, and dehydration, but also serves for muscle attachment and calcium ...

; a

chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (Family (biology), family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 200 species described as of June 2015. The members of this Family (biology), family are best known for ...

with a

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

; a diamond ring entwined with

foliage A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, f ...

; and perhaps most recognizably, a

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...

entwined around an

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ', which itself comes from the Greek (). Anch ...

Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo I de' Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was the second and last duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first grand duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death. Cosimo I succeeded his cousin to the duchy. ...

took ''festina lente'' as his motto and symbolised it with a

sail A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or other membrane materials, that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may b ...

-backed

tortoise Tortoises ( ) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like o ...

. This emblem appears repeatedly throughout his

Palazzo Vecchio The ( "Old Palace") is the town hall of Florence, Italy. It overlooks the , which holds a copy of Michelangelo's ''David'' statue, and the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi. Originally called the ''Palazzo della Signoria'', a ...

where it was painted by the artist

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...

. There are about 100 instances in the palace decorations and

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

s and there are now tours with the object of finding them all. The Renaissance printer

Aldus Manutius Aldus Pius Manutius (; ; 6 February 1515) was an Italian printer and Renaissance humanism, humanist who founded the Aldine Press. Manutius devoted the later part of his life to publishing and disseminating rare texts. His interest in and preser ...

adopted the symbol of the dolphin and anchor as his

printer's mark A printer's mark, Heraldic badge, device, emblem or insignia is a symbol that was used as a trademark by early Printer (publishing), printers starting in the 15th century. The first printer's mark is found in the 1457 Mainz Psalter by Johann Fust ...

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...

(whose books were published by Manutius) featured the phrase in his ''

Adagia ''Adagia'' (singular ''adagium'') is the title of an annotated collection of Greek language, Greek and Latin proverbs, compiled during the Renaissance by Dutch Humanism, humanist Erasmus, Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus. Erasmus' repository of p ...

'' and used it to compliment his printer: "Aldus, making haste slowly, has acquired as much gold as he has reputation, and richly deserves both." Manutius showed Erasmus a Roman silver coin, given to him by

Cardinal Bembo Pietro Bembo, (; 20 May 1470 – 18 January 1547) was a Venetian scholar, poet, and literary theorist who also was a member of the Knights Hospitaller and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. As an intellectual of the Italian Renaissance ( 15th� ...

, which bore the dolphin-and-anchor symbol on the reverse side. The adage was popular in the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

era and

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

alluded to it repeatedly. In ''

Love's Labour's Lost ''Love's Labour's Lost'' is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s for a performance at the Inns of Court before Queen Elizabeth I. It follows the King of Navarre and his three companions as ...

'', he copied the crab and butterfly imagery with the characters Moth and Armado. The French poet and critic

Nicolas Boileau Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

, in his ''Art poétique (The Art of Poetry)'' (1674) applied the dictum specifically to the work of the writer, whom he advised in those words:

Jean de la Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French Fable, fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''La Fontaine's Fables, Fables'', which provided a model for subs ...

alluded to the motto in his famous fable of "The Hare and the Tortoise" (''

Fables Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse (poetry), verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphized, and that ...

'', 1668–94), writing that the tortoise "with a prudent wisdom hastens slowly". The Onslow family of

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

has the adage as its motto, generating a

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

upon the family name: "on-slow". The adage was a favourite of the influential judge,

Sir Matthew Hale Sir Matthew Hale (1 November 1609 – 25 December 1676) was an influential English barrister, judge and jurist most noted for his treatise ''Historia Placitorum Coronæ'', or ''The History of the Pleas of the Crown''. Born to a barrister and ...

Meaning

The meaning of the phrase is that activities should be performed with a proper balance of urgency and diligence. If tasks are rushed too quickly then mistakes are made and good long-term results are not achieved. Work is best done in a state of

flow Flow may refer to: Science and technology * Fluid flow, the motion of a gas or liquid * Flow (geomorphology), a type of mass wasting or slope movement in geomorphology * Flow (mathematics), a group action of the real numbers on a set * Flow (psyc ...

in which one is fully engaged by the task and there is no sense of time passing.

Allusions

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

, the name "Festina Lente Limit" has been applied to the Strong Confinement Limit, which is a mode of an

atom laser An atom laser is a coherent state of propagating atoms. They are created out of a Bose–Einstein condensate of atoms that are output coupled using various techniques. Much like an optical laser, an atom laser is a coherent beam that behaves lik ...

in which the frequency of emission of the

Bose–Einstein condensate In condensed matter physics, a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) is a state of matter that is typically formed when a gas of bosons at very low Density, densities is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero#Relation with Bose–Einste ...

is less than the confinement frequency of the trap. Composer

Arvo Pärt Arvo Pärt (; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of contemporary classical music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabuli, a compositional technique he invented. Pärt's music is in p ...

wrote ''Festina lente'' for strings and harp, in which some instruments play the melody at half-speed while others play it at double-speed, so the music is both fast and slow.

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

refers to both the proverb and Augustus' adoption of it in his poem ''

Hermann und Dorothea ''Hermann and Dorothea'' is an epic poem, an idyll, written by German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe between 1796 and 1797, and was to some extent suggested by Johann Heinrich Voss's ''Luise'', an idyll in hexameters, which was first published ...

'' (helpfully for poetry, the German rendition itself rhymes—"''Eile mit Weile''"): The Lord Chancellor uses the phrase in W S Gilbert's ''

Iolanthe ''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert ...

'': "Recollect yourself I pray, and be careful what you say — as the ancient Romans said, ''festina lente''." In

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...

's 1897 novel ''Dracula'', Dr. Van Helsing says of Count Dracula,

He has all along, since his coming, been trying his power, slowly but surely; that big child-brain of his is working. Well for us, it is, as yet, a child brain; for had he dared, at the first, to attempt certain things he would long ago have been beyond our power. However, he means to succeed, and a man who has centuries before him can afford to wait and to go slow. ''Festina lente'' may well be his motto.Stoker, Bram. ''Dracula.'' London: Arcturus Publishing, 1897. pages 282-283. Print.

The novel ''

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore ''Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore'' is a 2012 novel by American writer Robin Sloan. It was chosen as one of the best 100 books of 2012 by the '' San Francisco Chronicle'', was a ''New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is a ...

'' by

Robin Sloan Robin Sloan is an American author. His debut novel, '' Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore'', was published in 2012. Early life Sloan was born to a home economics teacher and an appliance salesman. He grew up in Troy, Michigan, where he attended ...

involves a

secret society A secret society is an organization about which the activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence ag ...

devoted to

, whose members use "Festina lente" as a motto/greeting. Basketball coach

John Wooden John Robert Wooden (October 14, 1910 – June 4, 2010) was an American basketball coach and player. Nicknamed "the Wizard of Westwood", he won ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, nati ...

used the adage throughout his writing on coaching, changing it to, ''"Be quick, but don't hurry."''

References

{{reflist, refs= {{citation , title=Suetonius , volume=1 , chapter=Lives of the Caesars , author=Suetonius, John Carew Wolfe , year=1998 , publisher=Harvard University Press , isbn=978-0-674-99570-3 {{citation , chapter-url=http://golden-age.over-blog.com/article-m-durmius-aureus-52629759.html , title=L'Age d'Or de la Poésie latine , date= 20 June 2010 , chapter=M. Durmius’ Aureus , author=Aleta Alekbarova {{citation , title=Some rare or unpublished Roman gold coins , journal=The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society , volume=7-8 , publisher=

Royal Numismatic Society The Royal Numismatic Society (RNS) is a learned society and charity based in London, United Kingdom which promotes research into all branches of numismatics. Its patron was Queen Elizabeth II. Membership Foremost collectors and researchers, bo ...

, page=225 {{citation , author=C. Suetonius Tranquillus, translated by Alexander Thomson , title=The Live of the Twelve Caesars , url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6400/6400-h/6400-h.htm#link2H_4_0003 , publisher=Project Gutenberg , ref=Thomson {{citation , title=The Crab and the Butterfly: A Study in Animal Symbolism , author=W. Deonna , journal=Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes , volume=17 , number=1/2 , year=1954 , pages=47–86 , publisher=The Warburg Institute , doi=10.2307/750132 , jstor=750132, s2cid=192413638 {{citation , title=Le Imprese Heroiche et Morali , author= Gabriele Simeoni , isbn=978-1-149-36798-8 , year=1559 , publisher=BiblioBazaar {{citation , title=Colin's campus: Cambridge life and the English eclogue , author=Gary M. Bouchard , chapter=Colin Clout's "Stayed Steps" , year=2000 , publisher=Susquehanna University Press , isbn=978-1-57591-044-4 {{citation , title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in Art , author=Hope B. Werness , chapter=Turtle , year=2006 , publisher=A&C Black , isbn=978-0-8264-1913-2 {{citation , author=Desiderius Erasmus, William Watson Barker , title=The adages of Erasmus , isbn=0-8020-4874-9 , publisher=University of Toronto Press , year=2001 {{citation , chapter-url=http://allegoriaparanoia.com/shakespeare/balklogic/appendix2.html , chapter=Allegories of Rhetoric and Dialectic in Shakespeare's Plays , title=Allegoria Paranoia , author=John McMichaels {{citation , editor=Charles Dudley Warner , title=A Library of the World's Best Literature , volume=V , location=New York , publisher=The International Society , year=1896 , page=2144 , quote=The translator originally chose "Gently make haste", here turned back to "Slowly make haste", which is more faithful to the French "lentement" {{citation , author=Jean de la Fontaine , title=The Fables of La Fontaine , translator=Elizur Wright Jr. , location=London , publisher=William Smith , year=1842 , page=36 {{citation , title=Patronymica Britannica , author=Mark Antony Lower , chapter=Onslow , year=1860 {{citation , title=The Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale , page=86 , author=

Gilbert Burnet Gilbert Burnet (18 September 1643 – 17 March 1715) was a Scottish people, Scottish philosopher and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch language, Dutch, French language, French, Latin language, Latin, Greek language, Gree ...

, year=1681 , publisher=William Shrowsbery {{citation , page=91 , title=Smarter, faster, better , author=Karlin Sloan, Lindsey Pollak , chapter=Festina Lente {{citation , url=https://medium.com/@stef/makefulness-737559ecb440 , title=Makefulness , author=Stef Lewandowski , date=5 August 2013 , publisher=Medium {{citation , url=http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?idn=970681119&dok_var=d1&dok_ext=pdf&filename=970681119.pdf , title=Optical Loading of a Bose–Einstein Condensate , author=Filip Floegel , year=2003 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225022525/http://deposit.ddb.de/cgi-bin/dokserv?idn=970681119&dok_var=d1&dok_ext=pdf&filename=970681119.pdf , archive-date=2012-02-25 , url-status=dead {{citation , url=https://thelistenersclub.com/2017/08/16/festina-lente-three-pieces-which-alter-our-perception-of-speed-and-time/ , title=Festina Lente: Three Pieces Which Alter Our Perception of Speed and Time , date=16 August 2017 , author=Timothy Judd , quote=The result is music which is both fast and slow {{citation , title=Scottish notes and queries , publisher=D. Wyllie and son , year=1895 , page=104 {{citation , pages=392–3 , title=The Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan , editor=Ian C. Bradley , publisher=Oxford University Press , year=2001 , isbn=9780198167105 {{citation , url=https://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/11/robin-sloan-interview-penumbra-24-hour-bookstore/ , journal=Mother Jones , title=Robin Sloan's Low-Tech Triumph , date=14 November 2012 , quote=This phrase that’s repeated in the novel—''festina lente''—what’s that all about? {{citation , author=Marcia Feuerstein , title=Camillo Sitte's winged snail – ''Festina lente'' and escargot , pages=131–140 , year=2017 , work=Confabulations , isbn=978-1-4724-6932-8 , publisher=Routledge {{citation , url=https://musefirenze.it/en/attivita/favola-della-tartaruga-con-la-vela/ , title=The story of the turtle and the sail , publisher=Associazione MUS.E Adages Latin mottos Latin philosophical phrases Oxymorons

History

Meaning

Allusions

See also

References