Unguentum

Unguentum (The Perfume) is a sheltered-vocabulary Latin novella published by Peter Sipes in 2020. It tells the story of Catullus, a poet who is trying to arrange a dinner with his friend Fabullus, but his only contribution is a special perfume given to his girlfriend by Venus and Cupid. It is notable for being directly based on Catullus’s poem 13: it uses every word in the poem, and contains several simplified versions within the narrative, culminating in the original poem. It is designed so that readers can comprehend the poem by reading it rather than translating it.

Available from Amazon.

Reading level

The intended level is not given in the author’s published material. As of this writing, it has not been rated by Comprehensible Antiquity.

Diverse & Multicultural Identities

For information about how representation of multicultural and diverse identities is analyzed in LNDb, see here.

Parallel cultures

No depictions identified.

Gender

Features one cis male main character (Catullus). Features no cis female main characters or transgender main characters.

Sexual identity

Features a depiction of heterosexual identity: Catullus has a girlfriend named Clodia, and Fabullus has a girlfriend named Aemilia.

SES/class

Catullus is poor—his purse is famously full of spider webs—and so he arranges for Fabullus, his rich friend, to provide the food and wine for dinner.

Religion

No depictions identified.

Disability

No depictions identified.

Language Statistics

Vocabulary

Word counts may differ from the author's advertised figures. See here for information about how words are counted in LNDb.

Word List

A complete word list for Unguentum can be found here.

Glosses

This novella contains glosses in the form of both footnotes with English translations and pictures.

Of the 125 unique words (not counting proper nouns) used in the text, 16 of them (12.8%) are glossed at their first appearance in the text. Of the 1575 total words in the text, 21 of them (1.3%) are glossed.

Glossary

This novella contains a Latin-English glossary, with words listed by headword only. The glossary is complete.

Syntax

The ratio of compound sentences indicates what proportion of the total sentences are compound sentences, on average. A compound sentence is defined as a sentence with multiple T-units.
The ratio of complex sentences indicates what proportion of the total sentences are complex sentences, on average. A complex sentence is defined as a sentence with one or more subordinate clauses or verb phrases.

See here for more information.

Summary

The graph above shows the vocabulary and syntax of the novella relative to the other novellas studied. A higher position on the graph means that this novella scores higher than average in this criterion. These scores are not necessarily tied to reading level; this graph is descriptive of the novella's language rather than predictive of its difficulty.

Genre & Sources

This novella is in the genre of historical (Classical).

It is directly based on Catullus’s poem 13, and includes simplified versions of the poem as well as the original.

Complete Plot Summary

CONTAINS SPOILERS

Catullus is a poet, and because he has no money to buy gifts for his girlfriend Clodia, he writes her poetry. Venus sees Catullus and Clodia and gives Clodia a special gift: a perfume made by Cupid that is “liquid love” itself. Venus and Cupid give the perfume to Clodia, who shows Catullus. Catullus is amazed and says that his friend Fabullus should smell it too. He would like to host a dinner for Fabullus, but he does not have the money, so he convinces Fabullus to provide the dinner and wine. At dinner, they all have a good time, and Clodia brings out the perfume. When Fabullus smells it, he declares that he wishes he could be all nose.

First 100 Words

Underlined words are glossed in the text.

Catullus erat poēta. poēta erat bonus, sed Catullus pecūniam nōn habēbat. quī poēta pecūniam habet?
poēta poēmata habēre dēbet neque pecūniam habēre dēbet. et Catullus multa poēmata habuit neque pecūniam habuit.
Catullus amīcōs habēbat. amīcī erant bonī. Fabullus erat Catullō amīcus bonus. Catullus saepe cum Fabullō cēnābat. cūr Catullus cum Fabullō cēnābat? Catullus cibum nōn habēbat. cūr Catullus cibum nōn habēbat? Catullus erat poēta et pecūniam nōn habēbat.
Catullus amāsiam habēbat. amāsia erat Clōdia. Catullus Clōdiam amābat et Clōdia Catullum amābat. Clōdiā saepe Catullō dōna dabat. cūr Clōdia Catullō dōna dabat? quia Clōdia Catullum amābat.
quae dōna Catullus Clōdiae dabat? Catullus Clōdiae poēmata dabat, quia pecūniam nōn habēbat.

Studies show that a reader should understand 98% of the words in a text in order to have a good chance of comprehending it. One rule of thumb is to read the first hundred words and count the number of unfamiliar words. If there are two or fewer unfamiliar words, it can be read without much difficulty. Three to five unfamiliar words is possible to read, but may be difficult. If there are six or more unfamiliar words, the text may be too difficult.

Supplementary Materials

If you have resources for Unguentum and would like to share them on LNDb, please contact me.

Presentation

Illustrations?	no
Illustrator	N/A
Macrons?	yes
Font	Times New Roman, 22 pt
Pages of story	35
Total pages	55
Chapters	11

Key Information

Publication date	May 29, 2020
Publisher	Pluteo Pleno
ISBN	missing value
ISBN-13	978-1937847098