medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Richard,
Thank you for cutting the Gordian knot so sensibly.
GHB
On May 7, 2010, at 8:19 PM, Richard Kay wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> The commonsense way out of your quandry would be to consider that
> the asterisk in this context has become a conventional sign
> signifying "died." In another context, it signifies a marginal note
> bearing the same sign. If the reader choses to read some
> nonconventional significance into it, he/she should not be offended
> by his/her singularity. To avoid misunderstanding, the conventions
> used should be specified in a "List of Abbreviations."
> Otherwise, one might expect a similar objection to the plus sign
> (+) and a movement to prohibit its use, at least in public schools
> in the USA, where separation of church and state is an obsession for
> some.
> But to respond to your call for medieval examples, I would cite
> the use of a cross (+) as the "signum" of those lacking a seal in
> the subscription of documents, first in Roman Law, and commonly also
> in the Middle Ages. Today in the USA a variant cross (X) is used.
> St. Benedict followed the Roman usage in his Rule (ch. 58),
> specifying that the illiterate should sign his profession with a
> "signum." At St. Gall in the 9-10th centuries, every entry in the
> book of professions is preceded by a cross (+), as can be seen in
> the facsimile edition by Paul M. Krieg, *Das Professbuch der Abtei
> St. Gallen* (1931). Some of the signatories were literate and
> proceeded to write out their names, while others were not and only
> made their mark. Evidently the + mark had become the general
> substitute for a seal. It was thus a conventional sign.
> With best wishes,
> Richard Kay
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]
> >
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 3:49 PM
> Subject: [M-R] TAN: star and cross as shorthand symbols for "born"
> and "dead"
>
>
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
> Dear list members
>
> This is only very remotely related to the purpose of this list, but
> maybe you
> can help me to get a better understanding and more background
> knowledge about
> the following issue:
>
> The German Wikipedia is currently discussing the question whether
> they should
> maintain or change their use of an asterisc (*) and a cross or
> "dagger" (†) as a
> standard for abbreviating the terms "born" and "died" at the
> beginning of each
> biographical articles, as for instance in:
>
> - Ambrosius von Mailand (* 339 in Trier; † 4. April 397 in Mailand)
> - Jehuda ha-Levi (* um 1075 in Tudela; † 1141)
> - Mohammed (* ca. 570 in Mekka; † 8. Juni 632 in Medina)
>
> In Germany, the use of these symbols is quite common on gravestones
> and in
> obituary notices, at least during the last hundred or so years, and
> in this
> context it is sometimes interpreted as symbolising the Star of
> Bethlehem (or
> Mary) and the Cross of Christ as the beginning and end of human life
> in Christ.
>
> They are also part of the so called "genealogical symbols", together
> with a
> symbol of water for "baptised", the two rings or lemniscate for
> "married" and a
> small square symbolizing a grave for "buried", and a few more
> specific symbols
> of this kind.
>
> And, needless to tell you, as asteriscus (origianlly a cussed cross
> with four
> dots in its ankles) and obel(isc)us (originally a horizonal line or
> arrowlike
> sign) they are of course originally part of the set of ancient
> grammatical notae
> criticae that were later used also as reference signs for
> referencing marginal
> notes or footnotes, or as paragraph signs, or as a sort of
> interpunctuation for
> marking a prosodical pause.
>
> Now the questions that I have are the following:
>
> 1) Do you happen to know more about the "sepulcral" use of this pair
> of symbols,
> namely about its age, and/or about its presence in non-German
> countries?
>
> 2) Leaving aside the asterisc and focussing on the cross, do you
> recall the
> cross in its connection with the name of a deceased person or even
> with the date
> of this person's death in medieval or earlier inscriptions, or in
> manuscripts? I
> am generally aware of the Chi-Rho-monogramm and of Crosses in
> sepulcral
> contexts, and also roughly familiar with small crosses marking the
> beginning and
> sometimes also other intersections of an epitaph or other
> inscription, maybe
> with mostly ornamental function, or maybe for indicating -- as in
> liturgical
> books -- where the reader is supposed to sign himself with a cross
> and thus
> highlighting the character of the text as a prayer (especially if
> closed with
> "Amen"). Yet I don't think I have seen a medieval epitaph or other
> text where a
> cross is used as a shorthand for "deceased". The closest that I can
> remember are
> small crosses on late medieval paintings, where a cross is placed
> above the head
> of a person for marking this person as deceased (e.g. on paintings
> where the
> donator is depicted together with deceased members of his family).
> But I am not
> familiar with premodern parish registers, monastic registers,
> memorial lists, or
> other texts where persons might be rated as "dead" by using a a cross.
>
> 3) Are you familiar, in your own countries and in prints of your own
> languages,
> with the secular use of asterisc and cross as a typographic
> shorthand for "born"
> and "died" in genealogy and lexicography or other writings? I have
> found, on my
> own shelves, a few rare examples in French and Italian books, and a
> few more
> examples in English books, yet the English examples are only English
> language
> publications by German publishers or in one case an English
> translation of an
> Italian book.
>
> 4) Would you say that this "secular" typographic use especially of
> the cross (or
> "dagger" or obelisc) is appropriate also for marking the death of
> non-Christians, and especially of Jews or Moslems? Or would you
> rather avoid it
> in order to avoid religious offence? This is the question currently
> debated by
> German Wikipedians, and I have found only very few explicit
> statements in
> published sources criticizing this conventional use (more precisely,
> I have
> found two short statements in jewish publications declaring it as
> inappropriate,
> one of them by a Christian author explaining why he is avoiding the
> cross symbol
> in a memorial list of Jewish victims of the holocaust)
>
> As regards my own position in the current Wikipedia debate, I am one
> of those
> objecting to the current usage of these symbols and demanding them
> to be
> replaced by more neutral abbreviations. There is even a poll going
> on -- the
> third one since 2005 --, and the current state is 202:64 votes
> against replacing
> these symbols. Personally, I think that it actually is an issue, but
> I am not
> sure how this German habit (at least I take it to be mostly German) of
> "daggering" dead Jews and Moslems is received by the rest of the
> world.
>
> If you want to respond, please feel free to send your answer off the
> list! Any
> feedback will be appreciated!
>
> Otfried Lieberknecht
> D-40477 Duesseldorf
> Klever Strasse 37
> Tel. +49 (0) 172 407 6073
> mailto:[log in to unmask]
>
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Prof. Em. George Hardin Brown, FMAA, FSA
Department of English, Bldg. 460
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2087
tel: 650 269-9898
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