Epigraphy

Chapter 10: Epigraphy

What is the meaning of the latin inscriptions?

text
Roll over the inscriptions to read them

Table n° 1 English translation:

Table n°2 Text as it is written:

Table n° 3 Latin normalized text: (1)

Normalized text

The chevrons < > mark added letters which are missed or erased. The brackets [ ] mean letters that must be withdrawn.

TWELVE LEONINE VERSES

All the inscriptions (except Gospel quotes) are written in remarkable leonine verses. This type of versification is based on internal rhyme, was commonly used in Latin verse during Middle Ages. Acordding to the belgian Philologist, François De Coster, these verses are of great virtuosity with a perfect metric.

The 12 leonine verses

Internal rhymes are undescored, feet are separated by a slash (/) , the caesura is marked by a vertical bar (I)

The text is graved on limestone bands which separate the three registers. Excepted for thoose told by Christ (Gospel of St. Matthew quote), the words are not the speach of the Characters : there are not exactly bubbles like in comics trips. But, they make sense and light the scenes. They were read out of loud by the performing monks for Pilgrims. Voice, gestures and pictures : this is the birth of liturgical Drama, of religious Theatre, i.e. the medieval Mystery plays.
Monks have got humour. There are several wordplays. : for instance they add or withdraw just one letter to make a pun. For example, the word HOMNES can stand for HOMINES (HOM<I>NES = Men) or OMNES ([H]OMNES = all). So it means as well OMNES HOMINES (all men).

SO ALL THE PERVERSES ARE PLUNGED IN THE TARTARUS

[H]OMNES PERVERSI

Descover all the secrets of Perse tympanum (in french)

(1) Special thanks to our friend François De Coster. This Philologist's works are about the latin scansion. He shows that here, at Conques, there is an alternation between hexameters and pentameters. The main point is the rythmic structure of the verses, with series of syllables of different lengths, acording their level of stress. The long syllables (stressed syllables) are noted (), short one (unstressed) are noted ().
A spondee is a metrical foot consisting of 2 long syllables ().
A dactyl is a foot with a long syllable followed by two short syllables ().
A trochee has a long and a short syllables ().

At Conques, the verses are mostly hexameters with spondees. For example:

Casti

But Fraçois De Coster notices thant the first and the last verses are ending with a trochee:
Hexametre

and

At last, he notices two elegiac distics, a couple of verses linked by the meaning, combining a hexameter with a pentameter:

distique

elegy

See: François De Coster, "Pour une relecture des inscriptions du tympan de l'abbatiale de Conques", Etudes aveyronnaises 2010, p. 325-327 (Back)

Descover all the secrets of Perse tympanum (in french)

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Last update : 29/06/2019