Habent sua fata libelli

Habent sua fata libelli is a Latin proverb. It comes from an incomplete traditional didactic poem of ancient grammarian Terentianus Maurus, who probably looked towards the end of the second century AD. The poem De litteris, de syllabis, de metris is written in various ancient poetic meters. The line (v. 1286), which contains the now famous words, is a hexameter. It reads in full

Usually the phrase is used in this sense: A text can only convey so much meaning or statement prepared as of the respective reader to grasp at all, or is capable of. Also conceivable is the same: Depending on time and circumstances books are ' read ' differently, that is understood and orchestrated.

The dictum can also be understood as follows: The book itself (not just its contents gedeuteter ) has an exciting destiny - it is either displayed in whose hands up. Umberto Eco interpreted the sentence in his novel The Name of the Rose in this literal sense. The book shares the fate of its owners.

In a similar sense used also the author humanistic formed Richard Wilhelm in his preface to his standard translation of the I Ching the quote: The book share the fate of [ only ] of the one who understands it.

James Joyce used in A letter from Mr. Joyce to the Publisher the quote: " [ ... ] HOWEVER, theyhave givenName my book in print a life of its own. Habent sua fata libelli " The fate of a book begins when an author has done his work and the book gets ' into the world '.

Sigmund Freud mentioned in his book Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, the corruption of the quotation to " habent sua fata morgana " by the Wippchen figure of the journalist Julius Stettenheim.

Ernst Jünger quoted in the story Storm of Steel to him operating Surgeon, who philosophized in the removal of shrapnel about the happy flight path of the bullet: " sua fata habent libelli et ballistic. "

Another perspective is to consider the books as social constructs (as well as theories, ideologies or religions are ) who develop a life of their own, which goes beyond the intentions of the author: the reception of a book from the public and posterity can but be influenced by the original intention of the author differ. The idea that the " externalization " of an idea creates new independent entities that are part of the " social construction of reality," was worked out The Social Construction of Reality by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann in their work. A recent application of this approach is given by Vittorio Ferretti.