Truth Bureau

Okay, it is not the truth bureau, but the company whose logo I noticed at the bottom of a link sent to me is named Bureau Veritas. The company is located in France, where a bureau is a desk or a department. Veritas is the Latin word for truth; its full dictionary entry is veritas, veritatis f. truth. As far as I can tell, Bureau Veritas is a company that likes to find out and verify the truthfulness of other companies and products. The company won an award for a promotional video that explains their mission. Can you tell what the logo represents? Here's the answer from the website: The original insignia of 1829 was designed by Achille Deveria and engraved by Jacques-Jean Barre. It represented the female figure of Truth emerging naked from a well. The founders explained their reasoning in a letter that was distributed with each Register. Their aim was clearly stated: “to seek the truth and tell it without fear or favor." Isn't it also wonderful that the designer of the insignia has a classical name? Achilles, son of Zeus and the sea-nymph Thetis, was the greatest Greek warrior.

TINY PRINT

This past Sunday I was reading through the New York Times Magazine section, and I noticed an ad for Northeastern University, which was graced by a small rendering of the university's seal next to the name at the bottom of the page. Clearly legible on a tiny scroll in the seal were the words LUX VERITAS VIRTUS, and on a ribbon below the scroll, harder to see, were the words FOUNDED A.D. 1898. The Latin word lūx, lūcis f. means light; the Latin word vēritās, vēritātis f. means truth; and the Latin word virtūs, virtūtis f. ranges in meaning from manliness to courage to moral excellence. I had discussed the mottoes of Harvard (VERITAS) and Yale (LUX ET VERITAS) in my classes last week, and I was interested to learn Northeastern's motto and to see the addition of the powerful word virtūs. I also found this article about the evolution of the current seal interesting.