Nabokov certainly had to know some Latin in order
to pursue his interests in lepidopterology and certainly seems to have read St
Augustine (there are several references to the Confessions in Pale Fire
and possibly the Solliloquies and I don't think VN would make an allusion
to something he had not read). There is also a Latin phrase in Pale Fire "C.X.K.
teste J.S.B" (if memory serves, I can't locate it just now) which I would
appreciate help with translating. My own Latin is very primitive. Does it mean
that C.X.K. testifies for/against J.S.B.? testifies in his place? My guess is
that it's meaning must be ambiguous since the initials have no
case.