I would love to see a translation of the greek line of the third section into english, if possible. It’s the title page to a 350 year old book published by the British Royal Society, and the writing itself may be a mistranslation.

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  2. From what I understand it is mistranslated and with wrong letters as well. Not sure but they probably wanted to say something like ”Πολλάκις γαρ καὶ μωρὸς ἀνὴρ μάλα καίριον εἴπεν.” which means something like “Sometimes even the fool says right things”.

  3. ask also in r/Greek

    sadly the font is really hard to read.

    edit: Googling “κηπωρος ανήρ κατακαιριον” I found this book of Schopenhauer:

    https://books.google.es/books?id=-dKvAMY2JzoC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=%CE%BA%CE%B7%CF%80%CF%89%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82+%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B7%CF%81+%CE%BA%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%B9%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%BF%CE%BD&source=bl&ots=IJbYTD4Iy7&sig=ACfU3U0ompmGZcAwkQ1lSyg8sczL-SOKRA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjd49yNsoD6AhUq-YUKHTJbCBsQ6AF6BAgDEAI#v=onepage&q=%CE%BA%CE%B7%CF%80%CF%89%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82%20%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B7%CF%81%20%CE%BA%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%B1%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%B9%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%BF%CE%BD&f=false

    It seems that it has ~~the same~~ a similar phrase:

    > Πολλακι και κηπωρος μαλα καιριον ειπε

    It has a Latin translation:

    > Et hortulanus saepe opportunissima dixit

    Google translates the latter as:

    > And the gardener often said the most appropriate

    edit2: the actual same phrase can be found in a later edition of Evelyn’s book:

    https://books.google.es/books?id=7tNWAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA2-PP7&lpg=RA2-PP7&dq=%CF%80%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%BA%CE%B9+%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B9+%CE%BA%CE%B7%CF%80%CF%89%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82&source=bl&ots=4R1GA7SW0K&sig=ACfU3U2rTT8QH4oJJ5XAp1j33LoRwXJz2g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj7mIu8tID6AhWMhP0HHbdtCLYQ6AF6BAgMEAI#v=onepage&q=%CF%80%CE%BF%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%BA%CE%B9%20%CF%84%CE%BF%CE%B9%20%CE%BA%CE%B7%CF%80%CF%89%CF%81%CE%BF%CF%82&f=false

    google provides the typed text with OCR probably. Corrected it’s:

    **”πολλάκι του κηπωρος ανήρ ~~κατακαίειον~~ μαλακαίριον είπε”**.

    I think I’ll go with the previous translation found in the Schopenhauer’s book:

    > And the gardener often said the most appropriate

    J. Evelyn was a gardener, among many other things, so I guess with this phrase he praises his book and also mentions that he said/wrote the most appropriate/necessary (?) things.

  4. The said text is an Aeschylus adage in Ancient Greek which the correct form is “Πολλάκις τοι και μωρός ανήρ κατακαίριον είπεν” and in modern Greek reads “Πολλές φορές ακόμα και ένας ανόητος είπε κάτι εντελώς σωστό”. In English is “Many times even a fool said something completely correct”.

  5. [Πολλακι και κηπωρος ἀνηρ μαλα καιριον εἰπε](https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B0:%D0%A8%D0%BE%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B3%D0%B0%D1%83%D1%8D%D1%80._%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B5_%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B1%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D1%81%D0%BE%D1%87%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B9._%D0%A2._III_(1910).pdf/655#cite_note-1)

    >”Often a simpleton will say very efficiently.” In this form Gaisford quotes this in the preface to Stob. Florileg., r. XXX, according to Gellius II, p. 6. In Florileg. themselves, Vol I, p. 107, we read Πολλακι τοι και μωρος ἀνηρ κατακαιριον εἰπε, as a verse by Aeschylus , which the publisher doubts.

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