Text: lux et veritas

Translation: light and truth

Location: Phelps Hall, 344 College Street (Department of Classics)

Commentary:

Above the gate of Phelps Hall, the monumental entrance to Old Campus from the New Haven Green, is Yale’s motto: Lux et Veritas, “light and truth.” The phrase has adorned the seal of Yale University since 1736 and often accompanies the Hebrew phrase, אורים וְתּמִים (Urim v’Thummim), “lights and perfections.” The relationship between the two phrases remains unclear, but surely the Latin is meant to be a translation of the Hebrew, reinterpreted in a distinctly Christian context fitting for Yale in 18th century New England. In an illuminating article in the Yale Alumni Magazine, Dan A. Oren supposes that “light” refers to liberal education and “truth” to religious tradition.

Yale is not the only institution to use the phrase Lux et Veritas as a motto. Indiana University and the University of Montana do as well. Some believe that Yale stole Harvard’s motto, simply Veritas (“truth”). As Oren notes, however, Harvard did not use Veritas on its seal until 1843, more than a century after Yale adopted Lux et Veritas.

Phelps Hall was designed by Charles C. Haight and built in 1895, helping to replace Yale’s original brick buildings that faced New Haven Green. The gate resembles a Roman triumphal arch that, with its proclamation of “light and truth,” wishes to sever Yale further from the town that hosts it.

Phelps Hall, 344 College Street (arrow points to “Lux et Veritas”)

the so-called Arch of Trajan, Timgad, Algeria, built ca. 200 CE