Laudator Temporis Acti

On the case (genitive or dative) of "Eloquentiae" in the University of Salamanca inscription, Eric Thomson writes:

It would be well to take into consideration the more or less contemporaneous inscriptions to be found over the entrances to the University's other lecture theatres, all of which open unambiguously in the dative:

Aula Francisco de Vitoria:

MEDICINAE SERVATRICI.
CORPORA UT ANIMAE INHABITENT SUAVIUS ET
VITA TOT PERICULIS OBNOXIA CON-
STET, SENATUS CONSULUIT PHI-
LOSOPHIAE ET ASTRONOMIAE.

Aula Miguel de Unamuno:

JURI CANONICO
QUO SIT CHRISTI ECCLESIA FELIX, FAUSTAQUE SEM-
PER RELIGIONE AC PIETATE, JURA PONTIFICUM
INSTINCTU CONDITA, PATRUM DECRETO HOC LOCO DISSERENDA CURATUM.

Aula Fray Luis de León:

THEOLOGIAE SACRAE
QUA, RERUM DIVINARUM COGNITIONE HOMINUM MEN-
TES IMBUTAE, TERRENA DESPICIANT, COELUM VOTIS
PETANT, BEATUMQUE IAM NUNC INCIPIANT VI-
VERE VITAM.

Present-day Publications Department:

LINGUIS
HEBRAICAE, CHALDAICAE, ARABICAE,
GRAECAE, UT OMNIS PATEAT AD
SAPIENTIAM ADITUS, SENATUS
PUBLICUM LUDUM STATUIT.

Sala de la Columna:

JURI CIVILI
UT NON SOLUM ARMIS, SED LEGIBUS ETIAM MUNI-
TA RESPUBLICA EQUITATE AC JUSTITIA POPU-
LUM REGAT, ATQUE ILLARUM COGNITIONE PROBI
QUIDEM STUDIO RECTI, IMPROBI METU POENAE SCE-
LERA FUGIANT, SENATUS CONSULUIT.

Aula Francisco de Salinas:

JURI CIVILI
QUO POSSINT PRINCIPES REMPUBLICAM BENE GERERE,
ET CURAS HOMINUM RECTE COMPONERE, SITQUE
OMNIBUS CORDI PAX ET JUSTITIA, PRUDENTIAM
MAJORUM HOC LOCO, SENATUS JUVENTUTEM EDO-
CENDAM CURAVIT.

See José Oroz Reta, "El latín en las Universidades de Salamanca: En torno a unas inscripciones," Helmantica 43 (1983) 485-496. Also Fernando Araujo, La Reina del Tórmes: Guia Histórico-Descriptiva de la Ciudad de Salamanca (Salamanca, 1884), p. 159, who cites the author of a number of these inscriptions as the Cordoban humanist Fernán Pérez de Oliva (1492?–1530 or 1531). The Oroz Reda article, which claims to correct the texts of the inscriptions offered by Araujo, is itself plagued with misprints, one or two of which I've corrected. Attempts to find photographs of all of the plaques have met with only partial success (one attached), but in any case I should have mentioned that they are all to be found on the ground floor of the same cloister and so presumably intended to form a coherent series exhibiting a degree of 'variatio'. I think 'hunc' must be understood with 'ludum' in 'senatus ludum aperuit' just as it is also implicit in 'publicum ludum statuit' in the 'Linguis Hebraicae ...etc' inscription.


More of Pérez de Oliva's neo(n)-Latin shop-signs can be found in Las Obras del maestro Fernán Pérez de Oliva, tomo 1 (Madrid, 1787). One in particular deserves attention as it sheds light on the stand-alone dative of THEOLOGIAE SACRAE above:

Theologiae Sacrae
quod mortalium animos sancte
instituat, deo impleat, et futurae
immortalitatis foveat spe, locus dicatus.