medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dave Postles will put me right on this, but I assume that the English have their own saint of this name in Ragener of Northampton, a supposed nephew of (St) Edmund, king of East Anglia killed in the Danish regime change of c. 870.
TASC faces this problem of what version of a saint's name to use in an international reference resource. The use of Latin versions is inappropriate for most saints of Eastern churches, saints with names in local vernaculars, and post-Reformation saints. It was agreed at our second colloquium that English was a reasonable, lingua franca compromise. That's OK for Mary, Michael, Peter. But somehow, substituting anything for 'Ranieri' doesn't seem quite right. I nearly wrote 'anything non-Italian', which I suspect is a howler for the twelfth century, even disregarding the choice of the saints' parents of a Germanic (?Lombard) name. Ranieri is one of the most important saints of Tuscany, so my own preference would be to follow local and regional usage.
Since I hope it may be possible to make a start soon on a TASC coverage of Tuscany, I'd be interested to know what others think about this general principle.
Best wishes
Graham
****************************************
Dr Graham Jones
Lecturer in English Topography
University of Leicester
Centre for English Local History
Marc Fitch Historical Institute
5 Salisbury Road
Leicester LE1 7QR
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)116 252 2764
Fax: +44 (0)116 252 5769
e-Mail: [log in to unmask]
Web pages: http://www.le.ac.uk/elh/grj1
-----Original Message-----
From: John Dillon [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 17 June 2003 05:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] saints of the day 17. June
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Mon, 16 Jun 2003 18:18:53 -0700
Phyllis wrote:
>Today (17. June) is the feast day of:
>Rainier of Pisa (d. 1161) Rainier was the son of a wealthy merchant
>family of Pisa. As a young man he gave up worldly indulgence, becoming a
>pilgrim to the Holy Land (staying there for over a decade as a hermit).
>After his return, R. became a monk. He was famous for his conversions and
>miraculous healings.
Finding an English-language version of R.'s name that doesn't mislead by sounding francophone is not easy. Faced with that small problem a couple of years ago I chose "Rayner". Other suggestions?
Ordinarily I think of him in Italian, as "Ranieri di Pisa". One of the new breed of Italian lay saints prominent in his century, he eventually became Pisa's patron saint (but it seems we don't know exactly when). His lengthy, also twelfth-century Vita by his contemporary Benincasa was edited by Reginald Gregoire, _San Ranieri di Pisa (1117-1160) in un ritratto agiografico inedito del secolo XIII [sic]_, Biblioteca del "Bollettino storico pisano". Collana storica, vol. 36 (Pisa: Pacini, 1990) and is worth reading from a variety of perspectives.
Best,
John Dillon
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|