Dear Otfried,

The Oxford English Dictionary is considered authoritative on history and
usage in English-speaking countries. It gives "persona" as simply the Latin
word for person, carried over into English in such phrases as persona grata
and persona non grata. Legal usage is secondarily recognized, but so are the
specialized secondary meanings the word has acquired in literary criticism
(where it's a very common term) and in Jungian psychology.

If you're implying that it's exclusively a legal term, it might be that usage
differs in Germany. I can send a copy of the OED definitions and usage
examples if you want. But as it's rather lengthy material I'd not want to do
this without your permission or George's.

pat
==========================================
In a message dated 3/9/01 3:07:30 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


Subj:Re: [M-R] Translation query
Date:3/9/01 3:07:30 PM Eastern Standard Time
From:    [log in to unmask] (Otfried Lieberknecht)
Sender:    [log in to unmask] (Scholarly discussions of
medieval religion and culture)
Reply-to: [log in to unmask] (Scholarly discussions of
medieval religion and culture)
To:    [log in to unmask]




medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Dear Luciana,

I hate to disagree with you, especially without having any sources at hand,
but I strongly suggest not to associate the legal term "persona" with
notions of 'personality'. In legal terms, even a group of individuals can
be a "persona (iuridica)", and this concept too was adopted by the CIC.
Again in legal terms, there is no difference between a full-fledged and a
not so full-fledged persona: you are a persona, or you are not. There are
borderline cases such as demented persons, which is why you are right to
quote Boethius in this context, but there is really no banality in the
statmente or interpretation that "(only) by baptism, man (and even woman)
becomes a person within the church". Being or not a member of the church
has nothing to do with qualifying as a persona, but baptism has everything
to do with qualifying as a person "within the church".

Medieval authors were aware of the fact that "persona" is a term of the
stage (etymologically, "persona" was derived from "personare" as referring
to the actor's voice expressing itself through his mask). "Persona" is the
very well defined role one or a group can play within the given body of the
church or state, and is by consequence slightly at odds with notions of
personal history and individual temperament and character as implied by the
concept of 'personality'. You are a persona regardless of your personality,
but with regard only to most general characteristics such as age,
understanding, and free will.

It might be of interest to check studies of the history of the word. I can
refer to, but I myself have not read, the following:

ELSA"SSER Michael
   Das Person-Versta"ndnis des Boethius. Diss. Wu"rzburg (Phil.
   Fak., 1970), 1973, 107 pp.
RHEINFELDER Hans
   Das Wort "persona". Geschichte seiner Bedeutungen mit be-
   sonderer Beru"cksichtigung des franzo"sischen und italieni-
   schen Mittelalters. 1928 (= Beihefte zur ZRPh, 77)

Also, I would still love to learn from Tom how canonists dealt with this
term :-)

Best regards,

  Otfried

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