11th-century manuscript (M) — literal translation and adapted line-by-line variant
| Literal translation | Adapted version (same punctuation & format) |
|---|
| M. | M. |
| Since concerning the city of both. | Since concerning the district of both. |
| namely the earthly and the heavenly, | namely the urban and the rural, |
| with due limits; henceforth I see that I must dispute, and first must be explained as far as the nature of finishing this work permits, | with proper boundaries; henceforth I see that I must argue, and first must be explained as far as completing this report allows, |
| the arguments of morta lium. | the proposals arti-sans. |
| by which they themselves endeavored to make beatitude for themselves in the unhappiness of this life, | by which the craftsmen strove to create comfort for themselves in the workshop's misfortune, |
| so that from their vain possessions our hope may differ in what way from what God gave us. | so that from their broken wares our hope might differ in any way from what the guild granted us. |
| & the thing itself, this is the true beatitude which it will give not only by divine authority. | & the matter itself, this is genuine contentment which it will bestow not only by official sanction. |
| but also with reason applied, of the sort which on account of unbelievers we can apply, let it be made clear. | but also with reason applied, of the kind we can use because of skeptics, let it be clarified. |
14th-century manuscript (N) — literal translation and adapted line-by-line variant
| Literal translation | Adapted version (same punctuation & format) |
|---|
| N. | N. |
| Since concerning the city of both namely the earthly and the heavenly. | Since concerning the district of both namely the rural and the urban. |
| with due bounds; henceforth I see that I must debate, and first must be explained as far as the nature of finishing this work allows . | with assigned limits; henceforth I see that I must discuss, and first must be exposed as far as the completion of this project allows . |
| the arguments of morta lium, | the theories of obser- vers, |
| by which they themselves strove to make beatitude in the unhappiness of this life • | by which the members themselves attempted to create solace in the misfortune of this workshop • |
| so that from their vain goods our hope might differ in what way / | so that from their useless tools our hope might differ in what way / |
| than what God gave us and the thing itself / | than what the patron granted us and the object itself / |
| this is the true beatitude / | this is the genuine contentment / |
| which it will give / | which it will afford / |
| not only by divine authority • | not only by official mandate • |
| but with reason also applied / | but with judgment also applied / |
| of the sort which, on account of unbelievers, we can (apply) let it be made clear- | of the kind which, because of skeptics, we can (employ) let it be clarified- |
Notes on approach: The left column gives a faithful, readable English rendering of each punctuated segment of the two witnesses. The right column provides an adapted English line for each corresponding segment that uses different nouns and a different immediate context while preserving exactly the manuscript punctuation and formatting tokens shown (periods, commas, bullets, slashes, parentheses, hyphens and general segmentation). If you want the adapted column to preserve hyphenation at precisely the same character breaks, or to mirror capitalization more strictly, I can tighten those correspondences further.