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The 17c inscription we see here, on an interior wall of the church of SS. Antonius and Antoninus of Gualdo Cattaneo, is a handsome object: and that's very likely as far as many of us who look at it will go; Latin, abbreviated, with a variety of odd squiggles — at first glance, quite opaque. But a stone so carefully carved surely means something, and is worth trying to read, as intended by those who set it up; all the more so that, as we will see, this plaque replaces another that was nearly four centuries older, that must have got damaged. If people living twelve generations after the event it records thought it good to preserve the information; another twelve generations, and why shouldn't I share it in turn with you?
As it turns out, most inscriptions after the Middle Ages aren't so hard to read; it's just a question of getting the hang of them: after a while even the casual tourist will be used to the standard abbreviations and the often repetitive phrases, and here we have an opportunity to learn a number of them, all nicely collected on one tablet, well preserved, clearly readable and comfortably out of the sun or rain. After looking at it carefully — a bare transcription first, with the ligatures marked, then a disabbreviated version, and finally my translation — we'll be rewarded with a glimpse of life in medieval Umbria.
Consecratio hvivs
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Consecratio huius
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The consecration of this church was effected in the time of Urban IV, A.D. 1262, on the Lord's day September 2d.a Among the officiants, Fr. Bartolomeo bishop of Spoleto and Br. Niccolò bishop of Assisi, who each promulgated an indulgence for those coming in person or by proxy on that day and during the entire octave, of eleven years and eleven forty-day periods; and the bishop of Gubbio, the bishop of Foligno, the bishop of Nocera, and the bishop of Terni who each promulgated an indulgence of 150 years; and the bishop of the people of Todi 130; and the same every year. In honor of God and of the Blessed Mary Ever Virgin and of Saints Antonius and Antoninus martyrs, whose bodies rest here, and of the body of the Blessed Ugolino. This inscription restored thru the kind offices of the Hospital, 1635. |
A few easy principles of reading old inscriptions can all be applied here:
As with us, a period (sometimes raised, sometimes not) often marks an abbreviation.
A bar over a vowel usually means a missing letter, and very very often, an m or an n.
Bars over consonants, or over more than one letter, also mean missing letters, although many more possibilities. In practice, mind you, common words get common abbreviations: eps = episcopus, bishop.
Expect Latin, of course — but not very hard Latin, and even sometimes not very good Latin.
Most inscriptions are about commemorating people, places, dates: if you learn to recognize dates and if you have a good stockpot of Latin placenames, especially those in the surrounding area, you'll get the gist of what's being communicated. Here, some placenames don't even need that: Assisi and Spoleto will be guessed by anyone (and they're about 19 km and 24 km away respectively); the others may require you to do your homework before your trip — but a list of no more than about twenty names will cover all the main places in Umbria; with the resources now available online, how much work is that?
So now you can tear yourself away from all this Latin — yours is not much worse than the 17c carver's (who wasn't too sure how to spell Nucerinensis, and had an outright bout of dyslexia with the rare and pedantic xenodochii, spelling it at first *xedonochii) — close your eyes, and imagine what a grand event it must have been for the little village of Gualdo in the late summer of 1262: no bishop of their own, but they borrowed seven of them, from Gubbio and Assisi, from Nocera and Foligno, from Spoleto, Terni, and Todi, to consecrate their brand-new church. Travel was slow, so the prelates must have stayed in town at least two nights: maybe some social jostling to see who would host each of them; which monastery, which influential family? The bishops of Perugia and Orvieto didn't attend: but those were more important church dignitaries, and must have sent their regrets that their presence was unfortunately required elsewhere; we've all received letters like that.
On the day itself, already a Sunday but surely made an even more festive holiday by the occasion, there would have been High Mass and a procession, singing and the signing of registers; and probably a good meal for the clerics and even tables set up in the streets for the rest of us plain Joes. I'd guess there even was a little play in honor of the good saints (Big Tony and Little Tony) and the Blessed Ugolinus, a local boy. I hope the weather was good.
a September 2, 1262 was a Saturday, not a Sunday. Two solutions present themselves.
1. The church was in fact consecrated on Sunday July 2, and that the people who wrote up the 17c inscription carelessly turned something like mensis VII in the original inscription into 7bris.
2. The church was in fact consecrated on Sunday September 3, and the carver omitted a downstroke. (NB: The mistake wasn't made by the person who lined out the inscription with the red paint; a close look shows no third downstroke.)
The second solution is to me the much likelier, since the patronal feast of Gualdo, as celebrated today at any rate, is September 3. The heat of summer is already also winding down; our bishops would have had more agreeable travel.
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Page updated: 26 Oct 18