medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Eliana,
Yes, that is possible. There is a Roman cognomen Petro (gen.:
Petronis), from a word of unknown origin, signifying "Rustic". It's
first attested from 46 BCE. Of the five instances cited by Iiro
Kajanto, _The Latin Cognomina_ (Helsinki, 1965), p. 310, one was borne
by a freedman and another by a slave. I haven't looked them up but
would guess that these two, at least, are latinizations of the Greek
name Petron (the 'o' is omega). Another of Kajanto's instances is in
fact that Greek name, written by itself in Greek characters as a
Pompeian wall inscription (CIL IV. 2064).
According to P.M. Fraser and E. Matthews, edd., _A Lexicon of Greek
Personal Names_ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), Greek Petron occurs as
early as the fifth or fourth century BCE. Fraser and Matthews, whose
survey is arranged geographically, cite one or more instances in each
of their four volumes thus far published. Petron also occurs as
Petronas (with omicron as well as omega).
Still undetermined, but returning us to things medieval, is the
background of the name of the second founder of Montecassino, Petronax
of Brescia. As a guess, I would say that that's Latin Petro, -onis
plus the Celtish suffix -acus common in northern Italy (as well as in
France, where it's most noticeable in all those southern toponyms
formed in -ac and deriving from the names of ancient Roman estates).
Best again,
John Dillon
On Friday, March 11, 2005, at 6:28 am, Eliana Corbari wrote (quoting
me):
> > So possibly the martyr Petronella was the daughter of
> > someone named Petronianus.
>
> Dear John
>
> is it conceivable that Petronilla was the daughter of someone named
> Petro-(onis) ?
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