quarta post obitum die

[Subcontrary]

The whole sentence is "Senex quidam quarta post obitum die consuetis ceremoniis sepelitur."

My best guess is "A certain old man was buried on the fourth day after his passing, with the usual ceremonies," but not only am I not quite sure overall, but it doesn't seem like it makes a ton of sense either. Four days is a long time to leave a dead body around IMHO. Thank you for any help you can offer!!!!

 

[Dantius]

That's what it means. (technically "is buried", not "was buried" if you want to be super literal)

 

[Pacifica]

I don't think four days is that long, actually. I think dead people have rarely been buried straight away.

It could be that it was actually on what we would call the third day, if the author used the Roman counting system which would include the day of death itself as the first day.

 

[Laurentius]

Besides they didn't have modern medicine and stuff so I guess it was safer to wait a little... Not sure if that's actually one of the reasons.

 

[Subcontrary]

Thanks everybody! The text I'm wrestling is from 1725, and this section is about a potential premature burial, so perhaps he was left unburied that long to be safe after all! Nevertheless if I had the opportunity in 1725 to see a 3-4 day old corpse, I would decline!

 

[Godmy]

Well, there are also practical reasons. In certain parts of the world people didn't used to have cold places enough to store the bodies, it was "better" (if you understand me) to do the burial as soon as possible.