sententia
{{Short description|Brief moral saying}}
{{italic title}}
Sententiae, the nominative plural of the Latin word sententia, are brief moral sayings, such as proverbs, adages, aphorisms, maxims, or apophthegms taken from ancient or popular or other sources, often quoted without context. Sententia, the nominative singular, also called a "sentence", is a kind of rhetorical proof. Through the invocation of a proverb, quotation, or witty turn of phrase during a presentation or conversation one may be able to gain the assent of the listener, who will hear a kind of non-logical, but agreed-upon truth in what one is saying. An example of this is the phrase "age is better with wine"{{cite book|first1=Elizabeth|last1=Schneider|author-link1=Elizabeth Schneider|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cQuiDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA111|title=Wine for Normal People: A Guide for Real People Who Like Wine, but Not the Snobbery That Goes with It|page=111|publisher=Chronicle Books|date=November 5, 2019|isbn= 9781452171418|oclc= 1119627959}} playing off of the adage "wine is better with age".{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} The same saying is present in {{bibleverse|Luke|5,39|KNJV}}.{{cite book|first1=John|last1=Trapp|author-link1=John Trapp (writer)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vtfaDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA726|title=A Commentary or Exposition upon all the Books of the New Testament|via=[http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/browse?type=atitle&key=Trapp%2C%20John%2C%201601-1669&c=x onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu]|access-date=July 11, 2021|page=387|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|date=March 9, 2020|isbn= 9781725269965|oclc= 1145561623}}
History
The use of sententiae has been explained by AristotleRhetoric 2.21 [1394a19ff] (when he discusses the γνώμη gnomê, or sententious maxim, as a form of enthymeme), Quintilian,Institutes of Oratory, 8.5 and other classical authorities.
Early modern English writers, heavily influenced by various humanist educational practices, such as harvesting commonplaces, were especially attracted to sententiae. The technique of sententious speech is exemplified by Polonius' famous speech to Laertes in Hamlet.Act 1, scene 3 Sometimes in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama the sententious lines appear at the end of scenes in rhymed couplets (for instance, John Webster's Duchess of Malfi). In some early modern dramatic texts and other writings, sententiae are often flagged by marginal notes or special marks.G.K. Hunter, "The Marking of Sententiæ in Elizabethan Printed Plays, Poems, and Romances," The Library 5th series 6 (1951): 171-188
The "first Roman book of literary character" was the Sententiae of Appius Claudius, which was composed upon a Greek model.Boak, Arthur E. R. & Sinnigen, William G. History of Rome to A.D. 565. 5th Edition. The Macmillan Company, 1965. p. 95
A similar literary genre recurred in 1150 within the Libri Quattuor Sententiarum (The Four Books of Sentences) of Peter Lombard, a book which was widely commented during the Middle Age, namely by Saint Thomas Aquinas{{cite book|title=Commento alle "Sentenze" di Pietro Lombardo e testo integrale di Pietro Lombardo. Libro quarto. Distinzioni 14-23, La penitenza, l'unzione degli infermi|language=Italian|oclc= 469296610|publisher= Ed. Studio Domenicano |location=Bologna|year=1999|via=[https://archive.today/20210711075054/https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=hotseries&q=se:%22Commento+alle+Sentenze+di+Pietro+Lombardo%22 archive.is]|series=Commento alle Sentenze di Pietro Lombardo}} (FRBNF38880564). and Saint Bonaventura.{{cite book|author= Giovanni Ballaini|title=D. Bonauenturae S.R.E. Episcopi Card. Albanienis. Doctorisq. SERAPHICI In Secundum Librum Sententiarum elaborata dilucidatio. Collectis vniuersis prioribus editionibus; quidquid aut elegantiae, aut eruditionis in illis anteà sparsim legebatur; huic uni appositum est totum; & longè copiosus, ac emendacius: ita ut vix ampliùs sit, quod in tanto opere desiderari queat|language=Latin|year=1573|location=Venice|oclc= 898175147|via=[https://archive.today/20210711075640/http://opac.unicatt.it/search*ita/o(OCoLC)ocn898175147 archive.is]}}
There is a classical, Roman novel written by Publilius Syrus. The book is a series of proverbs written in Latin.
See also
- Commonplace books
- Publilius Syrus, a writer of sententiae
- Sentences, or The Four Books of Sentences (Libri Quattuor Sententiarum), a book of theology written by Peter Lombard