Iohannes fac totum

"Iohannes fac totum" est locutio saeculo XVI usitatum ad hominem describendum qui multa munera vel officia efficit, nullo profunde cognito. Taliter comoedus Robertus Greene, duarum universitatum alumnus, Gulielmum Shakesperium anno 1592 descripsit^[1] qui, modestius eruditus, ludos scaenicos meliori successu docebat.

Locutio anno 1618 Anglice verbis Jack of all trades versa est in opere Galfridi Minshull (... some broken cittizen, who hath plaid Iack of all trades)^[2] et saepe repetita, e.g. anno 1687 (Your writings are like a Jack of all trades shop, they have variety, but nothing of value).^[3] Postea additum est responsum ... and master of none, e.g. anno 1878: It would be unfair to say of Lord Brougham that he was "Jack of all trades and master of none".^[4]

Notae

↑ Robertus Greene, Greene's Groat's Worth of Wit (1592)
↑ Galfridus Minshull, Essays and Characters of a Prison (1618) p. 24 (apud OED)
↑ M. Clifford, Notes Dryden (1687) vol. 1 p. 3 (apud OED)
↑ S. Walpole, History of England (1878) vol. 1 p. 311 (apud OED)

Bibliographia

"Factotum" et "Jack n. 1" in The Oxford English Dictionary (Oxonii: Clarendon Press, 1989. 20 voll.)

[1] Robertus Greene, Greene's Groat's Worth of Wit (1592)

[2] Galfridus Minshull, Essays and Characters of a Prison (1618) p. 24 (apud OED)

[3] M. Clifford, Notes Dryden (1687) vol. 1 p. 3 (apud OED)

[4] S. Walpole, History of England (1878) vol. 1 p. 311 (apud OED)

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