"Cátedra" instead of "conferencia"?
I recently read and article from elmundo.com about an exposition on astronomy for an assignment in my Spanish class. The assignment is long since past, but I still have some questions. One of the sentences in the article, skipping parts not pertinent to my question, reads 'El maestro dio "cátedra" sobre los planetas, las galaxias y las estrellas.' (The quotes around cátedra are original to the article.)
With the aid of the translator and dictionary I would approximate this sentence to mean 'The professor gave a lecture on the planets, the galaxies, and the stars.' However, I still do not understand three things: 1) Why use cátedra instead of conferencia, which seems much closer to lecture than cátedra? The translator says that cátedra means lecture in this sentence, but I did not see that definition in the dictionary. 2) Why not say 'una cátedra', assuming cátedra can be used for lecture? 3) Why 'sobre los planetas, . . .' instead of 'de los planetas, . . .'? I have been taught that sobre only works for physical descriptions, such as 'El libro esta sobre la mesa.'
Obviously I am not understanding something here. I greatly appreciate any assistance that anyone is able to give me.
3 Answers
The correct translation is "lecture". Cátedra is typically a magisterial delivery with the to teach something; a lecture.
Conference, on the other hand, is defined as : a formal meeting for discussion.
Maybe someone makes an initial delivery, but in a conference you expect there to be some interaction and discussion, whereas in a lecture / cátedra, you just receive the teaching that is being communicated by the lecturer.
Lectures are (in Spanish at least) about a subject, therefore sobre los planetas.
(Sobre does not only mean on / over, it also means "about".)
This is what I got from the Spanishdict dictionary tool:
Cátedra feminine noun 1. chair (cargo) (en universidad); post of head of department (en instituto) 2. department (departamento) also: sentar cátedra -> to lay down the law
Seb79 quite rightly points out the etymologogical relation of the word to "chair". In Spanish speaking countries "catedrático" refers to a teacher/professor of elevated rank. Within the Catholic church a distinction is made between what the pope says (under general circumstances) and what he says when speaking "ex cathedra" (the latter applies to utterances made in his "official" role, as Pope (and the whole distinction turns on the notion of "papal infallibility").
All in all, dio "cátedra" sobre los planetas, las galaxias y las estrellas might be translated as "laid down the law" or "gave the official doctrine" about the planets ..."
