medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
You should join my Serenissima list & post this question there.
DW
Chris Laning wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> My colleague Caitlin, who's not on this list, is trying to decipher an
> inscription from a photograph, but she isn't even sure whether it's
> Italian or Latin, to start with. Since it seems to be a fairly
> well-known landmark, I thought I'd ask here if anyone knows more about
> it. (Better photos would certainly help.)
>
> Caitlin writes:
>
>> I'm trying to guess at A/ what language and B/how it would have been
>> spelled for the following quote:
>>
>> "hope and love keeps us in this pleasant prison"
>>
>> This quote is from the arch of Santa Maria delle Vergini Convent in
>> Venice, dated May 2, 1557. The convent was demolished, but the arch
>> was saved then attached to the Arsenal. I have a photo of it, but not
>> enlarged enough to see the actual inscription. I can't locate a larger
>> photo of this detail in the arch, unfortunately.
>>
>> I did a translation in Italian and again in Latin (Intertran has Latin
>> now! yay!) and the few bits of words I could make out makes me think
>> it is Latin - which is logical for the time. What I have so far is:
>>
>> spes quod diligo servo nos huic voluptarius carcer
>>
>> I could pick out "carcer" without trouble from the photo, but the rest
>> is hard to make out. It looks like there could have been a shorter
>> word at the beginning rather than what I have. "Voluptarius" appears
>> to be altogether too long, but the discolouration and lack of detail
>> in the photo makes it impossible to tell.
>>
>> In Italian:
>> sperare e amore ricordo ci in questo piacevole prigione
>>
>> None of these words look as if they should fit.
>>
>> Before I pronounce this Latin text, I'd like to make certain the
>> translator did its job correctly, and hopefully someone can make
>> any needed corrections in this as well, or decipher the possibly
>> shortened word at the beginning. There are four lines of text, the
>> last one is the name of the convent:
>>
>> S-M-DELe VERzINE
>>
>> The lower case letters I am not completely certain about.
>> The four lines also include the date mentioned above.
>> Can anyone help me out with this?
>
>
> I'll be happy to pass on any suggestions. (I don't have her photo;
> it's not online.)
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