BoM/TWS Message Forum

Okay, I don't say I have the problem completely licked -- Nostrum would be a better judge than me -- but after looking through wiktionary and testing out various possibilities, I think that:

Summa Libra Personae

might do the trick. Latin grammar is notoriously prey to ambiguity, but that construction I think might be reasonably interpreted as "The Total Measurements of Persons." This would be an accurate and plausible title while keeping "Libra" as an element.

Summa = complete summary, the totality of
Libra = either a scale or a level (horizontal rod), which can be taken metaphorically to refer to the instruments used to measure and describe.
Personae = the genitive case of persona.

Moreover, "Libra" does become the key concept in the title, especially if the idea of "weighing" persons in a scale -- a butcher's scale, perhaps -- is fully drawn out, the title might be understood as having the sense: Persons, Completely Dissected and Weighed in a Scale There is also a chance for a pun. If "libra" is taken as referring to the 12-oz. measure of weight, then Summa Libra Personae might be interpreted as "The Complete Twelve-Ounce Person" -- which is probably just about the weight of a mask.

If "Libra" is the key concept, then it would explain why it is commonly referred to in shorthand by that word by the Stellae and other scholars -- "Personae" is too generic (though it might sometimes be used), and "Summa" can refer to too many other famous old books. Undereducated high school students might latch onto "libra" because Google Translate translates "Summa Libra Personae" as "most personal book" and so they might take "libra" as meaning "book" in this context. (Yandex Translate translates it as "The Total Balance of the Person". See what I mean about Latin grammar being ambiguous?)