Questions & Answers about Nullus in bibliotheca manet.
In this sentence, nullus is being used substantively, which means an adjective is standing in for a noun.
Normally, nullus means no or not any and modifies a noun, as in:
- nullus vir = no man
- nulla femina = no woman
But Latin often lets the noun be understood from context. So nullus by itself can mean no one, nobody, or not a single person.
Here, nullus is masculine nominative singular, with an understood noun like homo or quisquam in sense. So the idea is simply no one.
Latin commonly expresses no one / nobody with a singular form. English does the same:
- Nobody is here
- not usually Nobody are here
So nullus is singular because it means not a single person. The verb therefore is singular too: manet.
If Latin wanted to emphasize no people as a plural idea, it could use other wording, but nullus ... manet is perfectly normal for no one remains/is staying.