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What does "horae" mean in scholarly book titles?


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The word "horae" deserves a reward for being the most evasive term I have ever looked up.  I believe, checking the time right now, that I have spent about 30-60 minutes of time trying to find the meaning of this term, with absolutely no success.  What does "horae" mean in all these titles?

 

Horae Biblicae

Horae Hebraicae Et Talmudicae: Hebrew and Talmudical

Horae semiticae

 

That should be good enough.  What does "horae" mean in all these titles?  What language is it, even?

 

Thanks.

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The language is Latin: The English word hour is from there. It means hour and time. It is used in the catholic church for the prayer time with books. For a more in-depth exegesis another has to answer. 

Edited by Fabian
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Thanks Fabian.  Yes, I quickly found the Latin meaning of the word.  It means "hours" in the Bible.  And aside from that, most dictionary entries refer "horae" to false Greek goddesses of seasons (hence "times").  But that is clearly not the context in which "horae" is used in titles like those above.

 

Whoever can answer what it exactly means in scholarly works like these below, you will deserve a hefty reward.  I'm utterly stunned that out of nearly a dozen books online with the title "horae," not one webpage bothered to translate the title (including "horae") into English.

 

You would think if someone was referencing "Horae Biblicae," or selling a book online, they might actually bother to translate the name into English--at least somewhere, on some website.  But over the course of 30+ minutes, I found nearly a dozen different publications with the word "Horae" in the title, and not a single webpage translated it.  It is almost like I am already supposed to know what the word means.

 

Yet, when I checked my dictionary / encyclopedia program, containing 50+ dictionaries and encyclopedias, not one of them had an entry other than Greek goddesses and Latin "hour" / "times" for this word.  Simply unbelievable.

 

Horae Biblicae

Horae Hebraicae Et Talmudicae: Hebrew and Talmudical

Horae semiticae

Edited by TYA
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Not sure it adds anything but here's the OED definition of horae and below it (italics) are the sub-definitions pithing Hours for the ecclesiastical and mythological definitions

 

horae, n.

Pronunciation:  /ˈhɔːriː/
Frequency (in current use):  
Etymology: Latin, plural of hōra hour n.
 
  A book of hours (hour n. 5, 6).
 
1875   Quaritch's Gen. Catal. Suppl. 51   The earlier editions of Kerver's series of Horæ.
1927   Observer 27 Nov. 22/4   An exquisite Flemish Horæ of about 1500.
1967   D. Diringer Illum. Book (ed. 2) vii. 406   An interesting Horae of the Bodleian Library, at Oxford..was executed in France about 1430–40. A French Dominican Horae of the British Museum..was executed between 1425 and 1450.
 
--------- from definition of Hour
 
5. Ecclesiastical In plural. The prayers or offices appointed to be said at the seven stated times of the day allotted to prayer (canonical hours: see canonical adj. 1b); (also, short for book of hours) a book containing these. Rare in singular.
The earliest recorded use, = Latin horae, Old French ures; in Old English (seofon) tída.
 
a1250  (▸?a1200)    Ancrene Riwle (Nero) (1952) 2   Sum is clergesse. & sum nis nout. & mot te more wurchen. & an oþer wise siggen hire vres.
1377   W. Langland Piers Plowman B. Prol. 97   Here messe and here matynes and many of here oures Arn don vndeuoutlych.
c1400   St. Alexius (Laud 622) 30   Forto seruen god almiȝth By tides and by houres.
?c1450   Life St. Cuthbert (1891) l. 1427   When þe oure of terce was done.
1530   Myroure Oure Ladye (Fawkes) (1873) ii. 164   Complyn ys the Seuenthe and the laste houre of dyuyne seruyce..in the ende therof the seuen howres of dyuyne seruyce ar fulfylled.
1669   A. Woodhead tr. Life St. Teresa (1671) ii. xviii. 121   They recited their Canonical Hours.
1873   W. H. Dixon Hist. Two Queens I. iii. i. 119   Illuminated hours, and golden missals.
1894   S. Baring-Gould Deserts S. France II. 130   A nun saying her hours.
(Hide quotations)
 
 
 6. Mythology. In plural, with capital H (= Latin Horae, Greek Ὧραι). Female divinities supposed to preside over the changes of the seasons.
 
1637   J. Milton Comus 34   The Graces, and the rosie-bosom'd Howres.
1748   T. Gray Ode in R. Dodsley Coll. Poems II. 265   Lo! where the rosy-bosom'd hours, Fair Venus' train appear.
1835   C. Thirlwall Hist. Greece I. vi. 221   The goddesses who preside over them [the seasons]—the Hours—were originally three in number.
1851   Official Descriptive & Illustr. Catal. Great Exhib. IV. 1286   The Hours bringing the horses to the chariot of the Sun; from the basso-relievo..by John Gibson, R.A.
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Just a hunch: might it  mean something like "[things I've gleaned from] the hours I've spent with the Bible" (/Talumd/Semitics)? If someone has several works like this and can compare their genres, you might see whether they are collections of otherwise unrelated thoughts (sort of like Bengel's Gnomon or Ehrlich's Randglossen Zur Hebräischen Bibel or Driver's Notes on Samuel), in contrast with a sustained commentary or theological exposition.

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Just a hunch: might it  mean something like "[things I've gleaned from] the hours I've spent with the Bible" (/Talumd/Semitics)?

 

An article in the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia translations John Lightfoot’s commentary, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae, as Hours with the Hebrew and Talmud. 

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They're right: the full title of the 1658 volume is Horae hebraicae et talmudicae impensae: I. in chorographiam aliquam terrae Israeliticae. II. In Evangelium S. Matthei. a Joanne Lightfooto, S. Theol. Doct. & Collegii, sive Aulae S. Catherinae, in alma Academia Cantabrigiensi praefecto. I would render that as "Hebraic and Talmudic Hours, spent (1) upon some geography of the land of Israel, (2) upon the Gospel of St. Matthew, by John Lightfoot, Doctor of Sacred Theology and Master of the College or Hall of St. Catherine of the alma University of Cambridge." I leave "alma" in Latin because no good English translation comes to mind: the idea is that he is grateful for having been intellectually nourished by the university.

 

My first thought was to look in Du Cange to see if there was some relevant Late Latin sense of hora, but there isn't: when impensae is left out of the title, it remains obscure.

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Horae, (from the Latin Hours) in the academic language of the 17th century Renaissance is equivalent to Lectures, Exercitations;

Horae Hebraica et Talmudica or Hebrew and Talmudical Hours
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Horae, (from the Latin Hours) in the academic language of the 17th century Renaissance is equivalent to Lectures, Exercitations;

Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae or Hebrew and Talmudical Hours
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The first book that comes to my mind is the classic Horae Synopticae, a collection of data on the synoptic problem and named after the ​hours spent studying the synoptic gospels. 

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in the academic language of the 17th century Renaissance is equivalent to Lectures, Exercitations;

 

All the responses above were helpful and reasonable, but this one right here comes across as the most logical answer--that is, it sounds reasonable, though I would think there exists some dictionary or encyclopedia that backs it up (yet I find none out 50+ that I have.

 

And yes, regarding the word "Exercitations," that is the subtitle of Lightfoot's "Horae," so I naturally thought that "Horae" could mean just that.  However, after finding at least half a dozen other titles with "Horae," the "Exerciations" just didn't seem to fit universally.  Indeed, it has been a very elusive term.

Edited by TYA
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When i saw this thread, i was immediately reminded of the Beautifully illustrated book of hours such as HORÆ beatæ Mariæ Virginis, common in the 13th to 15 th centuries usually written in latin or french. 
 

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/13th-century-english-book-of-hours

 

so thanks for this. I look forward to a time when museums are open again. 
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_hours

Edited by ukfraser
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Beautifully illustrated book of hours such as HORÆ beatæ Mariæ Virginis

 

Yeah, I read about this on Wikipedia, but again, I quickly found out that "horae" was Latin for "hours."  It just didn't fit the context of all the other scholarly titles I found.

Edited by TYA
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  • 5 weeks later...

Just a hunch: might it mean something like "[things I've gleaned from] the hours I've spent with the Bible" (/Talumd/Semitics)? If someone has several works like this and can compare their genres, you might see whether they are collections of otherwise unrelated thoughts (sort of like Bengel's Gnomon or Ehrlich's Randglossen Zur Hebräischen Bibel or Driver's Notes on Samuel), in contrast with a sustained commentary or theological exposition.

This is exactly the meaning intended by Sir John Hawkins:

 

"It is called by the plural name ' Horae Synopticae', because, while it is the outcome of a good many hours spent in examination of the Synoptic Gospels and in tabulation of the results thus obtained, those results are presented separately and almost indepen- dently in the successive sections of the book, no attempt being made to combine them as foundations or supports of any system or theory."

Edited by robrecht
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