coelum non animum

[Anonymous]

An octagenarian friend found the words

coelum non animum

inscribed on an antique silver chafing dish that was handed down from his aunt. It may be part of a family crest/coat of arms. I think the non animum is something like without spirit, but I do not see how the entire phrase makes any sense.

 

[Akela]

This is an interesting one.

coelum is an accusative (direct object) of sky, heaven.
animum is an accusative of mind, soul, feelings, pride.

This seems to be saying:
"[focus on] heaven, not pride", or
"[pay attention to] heaven, not mind"

Or something like this..

 

[Chris Kirk]

Only half a correction: *coelum* is the nominative form as well as the accusative. So it's probably the subject of the motto. I've recently seen this very word about a hundred times. /:|

(*Coelus* does seem to be a very early form, though. I found that at the Perseus Institute website, This ought to be a direct link to the entry:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=#6043)

But I don't know what the motto means. 'The heavens don't feel'?; 'have no soul'? Maybe I'm thinking too darkly.

Other than the literal 'wind', *animus* has a lot of related uses, though they all turn on the *animus* being vs *corpus*, the body: 'soul', 'mind', 'sense', 'heart (in the meaning of being central to a life), 'passion, emotion' - all are *animus* roles.

(The unity of soul and body is an *anima*, the feminine form. A bunch of them are *animae*; as a collection, they are the *animalia*)

I hope that this helps narrow a translation down.
Kirk

 

[brok]

Page 266 of the Punch Magazine (December 11 1897) Has a splendid cartoon of Mr. Gladstone reclining on a beach reading. The main heading being "Coelum non animum" and the punchline, (yes, that's where the expression originated) "The works of reference required by Mr. Gladstone have been forwarded to him in the South of France." Loosely translating COELVM NON ANIMVM MVTANT QVI TRANS MARE CVRRVNT he who hurries across the sea changes the sky not himself. (Horace).

 

[Cambrinus]

The Romans also used caelum to mean weather or climate.

 

[Elisabeth Frankish]

This link says that those words are the motto of the Harper family: http://anglicanhistory.org/nz/harper/04.html

 

[Aurifex]

This link says that those words are the motto of the Harper family: http://anglicanhistory.org/nz/harper/04.html

They may be, but ultimately they're the work of Horace (Epistles, I, 7), as Brok rightly said. The meaning of the phrase is unintelligible unless you know the original source.

 

[Amanda Rhoades]

Have a friend in England that posted my husband's crest and family tree name for "Rhoades" and the motto at the bottom reads "COELUM NON ANIMUM" which they have transcribed as, "You may change your climate, but not your disposition"