At 11:37 19.03.99 +1100, you wrote:
>Could somebody tell me what "caratte" are?
>
>I am editing a play of St George from fifteenth-century
>Florence. Emperor Daziano has sent for his necromancer:
>
>Vien, Simon mago, insino a Daziano
>con tuo caratte, sigilli e quaderno.
>
>Later on, as he is examining the future, the magus says:
>
>Se mi diranno il vero queste mie carte,
>sigilli e caratte e argumenti,
>tu vedra’ oggi...
>
>Are carob seeds used in augury?
>
>Nerida
Dear Nerida,
The etymon is Latin _character_, in Old French _charai_, _-oi, _-et_,
_-ait_, -act_ and fem. _-oie_, _-aude_, Occitan _caracta_ (fem.). The
earliest Italian attestation of your form _caratte_ in the OVI database is
"signata del ... caratte de l'antiquo serpente" in Jacopone da Todi,
referring to the sign of the beast in the Apocalypse. The term was common
in contexts of sorcery and augury where amulets, magic letters or signs and
symbols were used, not only in Latin and Old French, but also in Italian,
see the occurences of _carattere_ and _caratteri_ in the OVI database:
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/ARTFL/projects/OVI/#search
Yours,
Otfried
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