Stick to Your Own Business

Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523), Letters of Obscure Men XV (tr. Francis Griffin Stokes): For every one should cleave to his own business, and none should put his sickle into another man's corn. Because a cobbler is a cobbler, and a tailor is a tailor, and a smith is a smith; and it would go ill with a tailor who tried to make shoes and slippers. Quia unusquisque debet manere in facultate sua, et non debet mittere falcem in messem alterius. Quia sutor est sutor et sartor est sartor, et faber est faber. Et non staret bene si unus sartor vellet facere calceos vel stamulta. This is the only passage cited for stamultum by Du Cange, who defines it as "calceamenti species." There is a discussion of the word in Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 18 (1983) 287, but I don't have access to it. Related posts: Outside My Area of Expertise Let the Cobbler Stick to His Last Sutor Ne Ultra Crepidam

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