I remembered this post about a pesty cat micturating upon a 15th century scribe’s book; it did the rounds a few years ago.  “Here is nothing missing, but a cat urinated on this during a certain night.  Cursed be the pesty cat that urinated over this book during the night in Deventer and because of it many others too.  And beware well not to leave open books at night where cats can come.”

What I didn’t remember was that this was a translation.  The original script was in Latin.  “Hic non defectus est, sed cattus minxit desuper nocte quadam.  Confundatur pessimus cattus qui minxit super librum istum in nocte Daventrie, et consimiliter omnes alii propter illum.  Et cavendum valde ne permittantur libri aperti per noctem ubi catti venire possunt.”

So if you wanna curse a pesty cat in Latin, just remember “confundatur pessimus cattus.”

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