John H. Arnold wrote:
> I'm dealing with an inquisitorial deposition from the later
> thirteenth century, wherein a deponent is shown by an inquisitor what
> purports to be a letter from a previous inquisitor sentencing
> the deponent.
> The penance was to pay some alms to the poor and to make 'unam
> quadragesimane Romae'. Any ideas what that might be? From context, one's
> either guessing at a kind of Lenten fast, or perhaps a scribal
> mistake for a
> pilgrimage to Rome (the manuscript, btw, is from the Doat
> collection, which
> is a C17 copy of lost medieval texts, hence there's plenty of margin for
> scribal error).
> Many thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions!
> cheers
> john
>
Dear John
My Latin will be much worse than yours, so I probaly can't help you with my
language
knowledge. :-) I indicate though that the term "quadragne(n)sima" was used
for the
40-day-period of fasting before Easter. (E.Habel / F. Groebel.
Mittellateinisches
Glossar. Schöningh Paderborn 1989 (1959).
But even if not the time before Easter should have been meant, a period of
20, 30 of 40 days of fasting was very common as inquisitiorial punishment.
(see FLADE, PAUL. Das roemische Inquisitionsverfahren in Deutschland.
Leipzip 1902,
p. 116 ff.)
If the sentence could be conntected with a pilgrimage to Rome depends on the
the circumstances of the trial. Even if pilgrimages were quite common as
additional
punishment besides donations to the Church or, as in this case, to the poor,
the
distance of the journey - as the amount of money - depended on the guilt of
the
accused and penitent heretic. In "normal" cases, the pilgrimage was only to
an nearby
religious centre.
So we mainly have to ask where the trial took place? If far away from Rome,
the case of
your heretic must have been extremely serious to force him to an pilgrimage
there.
(Indication for this would be the amount of money he had to give to the
poor. Is it
known?)
If the trial was in Italy, the most probable correct version of the passage
would be
"unum quadragesimale (ieiunium) Romae": "a 40-day-fasting in Rome", but the
scribal's mistakes would be legion in this case....
Or the scribal omitted more than just one word and Romae refers to
expression quite other
than "ieiunium"... Hmmm .....
Does any of these suggestions make sense?
Anyway, best wishes
Nik
---------------------
lic. phil. Niklaus Schatzmann-Jenny
Tel. und Fax: +41/ (01) 364 12 55
email: [log in to unmask]
email: [log in to unmask] (Unversität Zürich)
>
> Dear All
> I wonder if I could beg your indulgence to ask advice on a tiny
> bit of Latin
> translation? I'm dealing with an inquisitorial deposition from the later
> thirteenth century, wherein a deponent is shown by an inquisitor what
> purports to be a letter from a previous inquisitor sentencing
> the deponent.
> The penance was to pay some alms to the poor and to make 'unam
> quadragesimane Romae'. Any ideas what that might be? From context, one's
> either guessing at a kind of Lenten fast, or perhaps a scribal
> mistake for a
> pilgrimage to Rome (the manuscript, btw, is from the Doat
> collection, which
> is a C17 copy of lost medieval texts, hence there's plenty of margin for
> scribal error).
> Many thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions!
> cheers
> john
>
>
> Dr John H. Arnold
> School of History
> University of East Anglia
> Norwich NR4 7TJ
>
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