Print

Print


medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Paul Chandler wrote:

Factoid: The Latin people in the Vatican have traditionally resisted leaving place names untranslated, though.

Perhaps it would be worth rehearsing how "Salisbury" came to be "Sarum" in Latin? (Most people will know this already, but Wikipedia has made a hash of the story.)

"Salisbury" (i.e. the deserted hill-fort now known as 'Old Sarum') was originally "Sarisbury". This was naturally Latinised as "Sarisburiensis". But scriveners were not paid by the letter until much later, so it was usually abbreviated to "Sar~". But palaeographers will tell you that "~" is the conventional contraction for the ending "-um", so it got re-expanded to "Sarum" rather than "Sarisburiensis"! (This applied to both Old Salisbury and New Salisbury.) It's the ms equivalent of a typo...

John Briggs

********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe 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: unsubscribe 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/medieval-religion