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.)
--
____________________________________________________________
O Chris Laning <[log in to unmask]> - Davis, California
+ http://paternoster-row.org - http://paternosters.blogspot.com
____________________________________________________________
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