Wild Strawberry Latin

[Iynx]

As I was working recently, someone nearby had a television on, and was watching, on a classic-movies program, Ingmar Bergman’s Smultronstället, known in English as Wild Strawberries. I don’t speak Swedish, and the dialog was to me just background noise. But suddenly, to my surprise, I heard unmistakable Latin coming out of that TV.

Now there isn’t a whole lot of contemporary Latin out there (yes, mes enfants, to some of us 1957 is comtemporary). So I wanted to get this bit straight. I got hold of a DVD of the movie, and isolated the Latin.

I found that while I could understand a lot of it without much trouble, other parts, frustratingly, escape me. So I thought I would ask my colleagues here for help.

The protagonist in the film, Dr. Isak Borg, is being honored on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his doctorate; the words are spoken by a sort of master of ceremonies:

Primo, pilieum meum sumo, et capite meo impono.

(First I take my cap, and put it on my head).

Isak Borg, medice beneficime atque experimentissime, inventor medicorum instrumentorum sagacissime!

(There are problems here. Surely the superlative of benefice should be benficentissime? And of what adjective is experimentissime the superlative? Still, I suppose this to mean “Isak Borg, most beneficent and long-tested physician, most sagacious inventor of medical instruments!”)

Salve medicinae doctor perclarissime!

(Hail most illustrious Doctor of medicine!)

Accipe pilieum…

(Accept the cap…)

There follow a string of words that I really can’t make out. Some of them are obscured by Swedish dialog. I think I can hear virtute and perhaps diplomam in the Latin. Then we have

Vale perclarissime medicinae doctor…

(Farewell most illustrious Doctor of medicine…)

The last two words sound like jubilaris something-densis. Now a jubilaeus is a jubilee, and a jubilarius is someone who has occupied a position for fifty years. I suppose that the vocative of jubilarius would be jubilarius (fili and geni are exceptions, right?). But I seem to hear only four syllables in the word in the movie.

Who can help me?

Thanks in advance,
Iynx Senex

 

[Alatius]

Sorry for the late answer, but this is what I hear in the movie (bold where it differs from your transcription):

Primo pileum meum sumo et capiti meo impono.
Isak Borg, medice peritissime atque experimentissime, inventor medicorum instrumentorum sagacissime.
Salve medicinae doctor praeclarissime.
Accipe pileum libertatis spectateque virtute. (There's probably a mistake here.)
Ecce anulus ...
En diploma ... ac priviligorum testimonium.

Vale, praeclarissime medicinae doctor jubilaris Lundensis.

I.e. "...of the university of Lund [a city]".

Jubilaris, is, I think, an adjective; he is a "jubilaris doctor".

Note that the pronunciation is an unfortunate mix between restored classical and traditional Swedish: "medike", "sagakissime", but "medisine" and "aksipe".

Doctors are promoted in a similar fashion even to this day: see e.g. http://www.lu.se/o.o.i.s/13485 (in Swedish.)

The formulation there given are as follows:

Accipe pileum, insigne libertatis!
Ecce anulus, sincerae fidei pignus!
Ecce diploma, doctrinae virtutisque testimonium!

As you see, there are some differences.

 

[Iynx]

Gratias tibi ago, mi amice.