4 ms·

Vatican ATM displays instructions in Latin

22 points by csilverman 6y ago

cguess 6y ago
Being a language nerd I've tried very hard to find these in Vatican City, but unfortunately I'm pretty sure there aren't any available to regular tourists. (Side note: the gift shop at the Vatican also doesn't sell bibles, which I find even weirder.)
- cointreau 6y ago
  I...did not know that. I’m legitimately amazed. That’s like if Disneyland didn’t sell any books about Disney or something.
- cbm-vic-20 6y ago
  That made me wonder what version of the bible would be sold in the VC. Looks like the "official" bible of the RCC is the "Nova Vulgata"[1]- and that was only declared the official version in 1979, revised in '86. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Vulgata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Vulgata
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > Looks like the "official" bible of the RCC is the "Nova Vulgata" That's the official Latin Bible, which has a special role given that Latin remains the oficial language of the Holy See, but since 1943 the new official Bibles in local languages have not been based on the official Latin translation (before the Nova Vulgata, the Clementine Vulgate of 1592), so the Nova Vulgata is not really the singular official Bible of the Catholic Church the way the Clementine Vulgate was before Divino afflante Spiritu [0] (e.g., the official American English Bible, the NAB, was first published and adopted in 1970, before the Nova Vulgata, and has since bien revised in 1986 and 2011.) [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divino_afflante_Spiritu https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divino_afflante_Spiritu
- linksnapzz 6y ago
  These are almost certainly ATMs for the Institute for The Works of Religion; essentially a private bank for the Holy See & its employees. Those ATMs may not be in publicly accessible. I’ve looked too.
decuran 6y ago
deus ex ATM
Grustaf 6y ago
Of course they're in Latin, but I want to know if they dispense denarii. On a side note I found an ATM in Southern Japan that had a Portuguese language option, that amazed me.
- uhartelightning 6y ago
  There was a lot of Japanese immigration to Brazil, and recently there has been a movement of their descendants "returning" to Japan. These descendants are 2nd-4th generation Brazilians and often only speak Portuguese, resulting in the signs you mention in Japan.
  - Grustaf 6y ago
    I always imagined it was related to Portuguese adventures to Formosa and perhaps beyond, to Japan. But I did have lunch at a Japanese-Brasilian's house this weekend...
- quantified 6y ago
  Some neighborhoods around Boston had a Portuguese option at their ATMs. Got ripped out and replaced with Spanish when the banks upgraded their software at some point, but since the neighborhoods were still heavily Brazilian that didn’t make sense.
throwawaygulf 6y ago
Makes sense. Catholic leaders from dozens of different countries speaking dozens of different languages convene in the Vatican often. The lingua franca of the Vatican is Latin, so, regardless of your mother's tongue, you can use the ATM.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > The lingua franca of the Vatican is Latin Italian, actually, but Latin remains the official language of the Holy See (Italian being the main working language and French the main diplomatic language, because who needs simple?), to which the State of Vatican City is subordinate, however.
- tinus_hn 6y ago
  How do they work with modern things in a dead language? I doubt Latin has a word for computer or the Internet. Do they have some team that creates new words?
carabiner 6y ago
This is blessed.
greenyoda 6y ago
Posted in this Twitter thread was an interesting obituary of the priest who was responsible for that Latin ATM translation: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/27/obituaries/reginald-foster-vatican-latinist-who-tweeted-in-the-language-dies-at-81.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/27/obituaries/reginald-foste... He was also in charge of the Pope's Latin Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/pontifex_ln https://twitter.com/pontifex_ln

22 points by csilverman 6y ago

Being a language nerd I've tried very hard to find these in Vatican City, but unfortunately I'm pretty sure there aren't any available to regular tourists. (Side note: the gift shop at the Vatican also doesn't sell bibles, which I find even weirder.)

cointreau 6y ago
I...did not know that. I’m legitimately amazed. That’s like if Disneyland didn’t sell any books about Disney or something.
cbm-vic-20 6y ago
That made me wonder what version of the bible would be sold in the VC. Looks like the "official" bible of the RCC is the "Nova Vulgata"[1]- and that was only declared the official version in 1979, revised in '86. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Vulgata https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Vulgata
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > Looks like the "official" bible of the RCC is the "Nova Vulgata" That's the official Latin Bible, which has a special role given that Latin remains the oficial language of the Holy See, but since 1943 the new official Bibles in local languages have not been based on the official Latin translation (before the Nova Vulgata, the Clementine Vulgate of 1592), so the Nova Vulgata is not really the singular official Bible of the Catholic Church the way the Clementine Vulgate was before Divino afflante Spiritu [0] (e.g., the official American English Bible, the NAB, was first published and adopted in 1970, before the Nova Vulgata, and has since bien revised in 1986 and 2011.) [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divino_afflante_Spiritu https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divino_afflante_Spiritu
linksnapzz 6y ago
These are almost certainly ATMs for the Institute for The Works of Religion; essentially a private bank for the Holy See & its employees. Those ATMs may not be in publicly accessible. I’ve looked too.

decuran 6y ago

deus ex ATM

Grustaf 6y ago

Of course they're in Latin, but I want to know if they dispense denarii. On a side note I found an ATM in Southern Japan that had a Portuguese language option, that amazed me.

uhartelightning 6y ago
There was a lot of Japanese immigration to Brazil, and recently there has been a movement of their descendants "returning" to Japan. These descendants are 2nd-4th generation Brazilians and often only speak Portuguese, resulting in the signs you mention in Japan.
- Grustaf 6y ago
  I always imagined it was related to Portuguese adventures to Formosa and perhaps beyond, to Japan. But I did have lunch at a Japanese-Brasilian's house this weekend...
quantified 6y ago
Some neighborhoods around Boston had a Portuguese option at their ATMs. Got ripped out and replaced with Spanish when the banks upgraded their software at some point, but since the neighborhoods were still heavily Brazilian that didn’t make sense.

throwawaygulf 6y ago

Makes sense. Catholic leaders from dozens of different countries speaking dozens of different languages convene in the Vatican often. The lingua franca of the Vatican is Latin, so, regardless of your mother's tongue, you can use the ATM.

dragonwriter 6y ago
> The lingua franca of the Vatican is Latin Italian, actually, but Latin remains the official language of the Holy See (Italian being the main working language and French the main diplomatic language, because who needs simple?), to which the State of Vatican City is subordinate, however.
tinus_hn 6y ago
How do they work with modern things in a dead language? I doubt Latin has a word for computer or the Internet. Do they have some team that creates new words?

carabiner 6y ago

This is blessed.

greenyoda 6y ago

Posted in this Twitter thread was an interesting obituary of the priest who was responsible for that Latin ATM translation: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/27/obituaries/reginald-foster-vatican-latinist-who-tweeted-in-the-language-dies-at-81.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/27/obituaries/reginald-foste... He was also in charge of the Pope's Latin Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/pontifex_ln https://twitter.com/pontifex_ln