[The Club Dumas] Can you crack this Latin code?

nikolai

nikolai

First Post
Hello,

Some of you will know that the books forum hosts the ENWorld book club. The club's current selection is the The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte, which we will start to discuss on the 15th of October.

More information is here: http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=99429

The Club Dumas is a books about books. One of these books is the Book of the Nine Doors of the Kingdom of Shadows, a manual for summoning the devil. There's a small extract from this book in the 3rd chapter. But it's in a latin code (which is decipherable). I want to find out what this extract says in preparation for the Book Club's discussion. I have looked, but it hasn't been deciphered anywhere on the internet that I know of. And my latin is not very good. So I need your help.

The code is "just" abbreviated latin, so, as an example in the book goes:

The Code: Nem. perv.t qui n.n leg. cert.rit
The Latin: Nemo pervenit qui non legitime certaverit
The Translation Only he who has fought according to the rules will succeed.
Click to expand...

So, what does this (the introduction) say?

Nos p.tens L.f.r, juv.te Stn. Blz.b, Lvtn, Elm, atq Ast.rot. ali.q, h.die ha.ems ace.t pct fo.de.is c.m t. qui no.st; et h.ic pol.icem am.rem mul. flo.em virg.num de.us mon. hon v.lup et op. for.icab tr.d.o,.os.ta int. nos ma.et eb.iet i.li c.ra er. No.is of.ret se.el in ano sag. sig. s.b ped. cocul.ab sa Ecl.e et no.s r.gat i.sius er.t; p.ct v.v.t an v.q fe.ix in t.a hom. et ven D:
Fa.t in inf int co.s daem.
Satanas. Belzebub, Lcfr, Elimi, Leviathan, Astaroth
Siq pos mag. diab. et daem. pri.cp dom.
Click to expand...

And this (the first few lines)?

D.mine mag.que L.fr, te D.um m. et.pr ag.sco. et pol.c.or t ser.ire a.ob.re quam.d p. vvre; et rn.io al.rum d. et js.ch.st. et a.s sn.ts tq.e s.ctas e. ec.les apstl. et rom. et om. i sc.am. et o.nia ips. s.cramen. et o.nes.atio et r.g q.ib fid. pos.nt int.rcd. p.o me; et t.bi po.lceor q. fac. qu.tqu.t m.lum pot., et atra. ad mala p. omn. Et ab.rncio chrsm. et b.ptm omn...
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Thanks to anyone who can offer help on this. The discussion of the book (The Club Dumas, not the Nine Doors) starts on the 15th over in the books forum, everyone is welcome. It'd be nice if the code is cracked by then, so it can be revealed to those of us who can't read abbreviated latin in our heads.
 

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tarchon

tarchon

First Post
nikolai said:
So, what does this (the introduction) say?
Click to expand...
It's not a conventional style of abbreviation, so it's saying "translating this is way more trouble than it's worth." It's more like a corrupted text than an abbreviated text, with certain letters obscured pseudo-randomly. I think I see a glaring error in the first two words anyway. The author probably intends "nos potentes" ("We powerful ones") but writes "p.tens." Ick.
 

nikolai

nikolai

First Post
For what it's worth the book says that it's a "style of abbreviation similar to that found in ancient latin manuscripts". And it is difficult to read, you'd have to know latin well enought to guess words. A bit like a crossword.

As for this line:

Satanas. Belzebub, Lcfr, Elimi, Leviathan, Astaroth
Click to expand...

I can figure out who the first three names are. Who are the second three?
 

L

LizardWizard

Explorer
nikolai said:
I can figure out who the first three names are. Who are the second three?
Click to expand...
In the Ancient Hebrew language, "Elim" means "gods". By "Elimi", the author presumably wanted to say "my gods" (or "my God", as God is referred to in plural form in the Hebrew Bible), but it's a wrong form; the correct one is "Elai" AFAIK.
Leviathan is a titanic sea monster described in chapter 40 (or 41, the order in the Slavic Bible is somewhat different) of the Book of Job. In the Middle Ages, it was believed to be one of the devil's names.
Astaroth is the plural form of Astarta, an ancient Semitic goddess of lust and fertility. Also once considered to be a demonic being.
 

tarchon

tarchon

First Post
nikolai said:
For what it's worth the book says that it's a "style of abbreviation similar to that found in ancient latin manuscripts". And it is difficult to read, you'd have to know latin well enought to guess words. A bit like a crossword.
Click to expand...

It's like a crossword where you don't know the clues and 10% of the words
are misspelled.
If you want a vague outline, the first one is a pact between the aforementioned demons and a party in the 2nd person, which somehow concerns a thumb, love, virgins' flower, fornication, the church, and living, perhaps happily.

Editum est: the "thumb" (pollicem) is fortunately more likely to be "pollicem[ur]" "we promise."
 
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tarchon

tarchon

First Post
Oh, and something about "offers to us once a year [something - a sign?] under the foot [gibberish - "a small cook from his Church?"] and asks us of the same was[?!]"
The verbs don't make much sense.

2nd one:
"Lord and Master Lucifer, thee God ??? acknowledge (possibly te Deum meum esse agnosco - 'I acknowledge thee to be my god') and? ?? ? I promise to serve thee? so long as [I am able]? to live; and I renounce the god of others and jesus christ and ? ? and holy spirit? thee? saints? and apostolic church and rome and all ? ? the same holy things (sacraments) and ? and rules? certain? faith? they can kill for me; and to thee I promise that? do however much can?, and dark to? evil things for? all. And from renounce? chistianity? and baptism all?..."

You get the idea anyway. Satan's Latin sucks.
 
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nikolai

nikolai

First Post
Thanks very much for the help.

tarchon said:
Oh wait - this is the book they made the Ninth Gate from, wasn't it?
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Yes, this is the book they made the Ninth Gate from. Though everyone who's read it says the Club Dumas is better than the film. You're all welcome to read it and join in the discussion on the 15th.

I think it's probably deliberately mangled. The author uses un-coded latin else where, and I haven't seen any complaints that it's incorrect.

tarchon said:
It's like a crossword where you don't know the clues and 10% of the words are misspelled.
Click to expand...

It .s n.t qu.t th.t b.d! W.th Engl.h t.xt we w.ld pr.b.bly al. be abl. to d.c.ph.r wh.t it s.ys.
 


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