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 Replies: 11 / Views: 2,031 |
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Moderator
 United States
34419 Posts |
Hi. I learned something today while studying some coins of medieval Italy and the Byzantine Empire and thought it was interesting enough to share. A few coins seem to have numbers put into the inscriptions, which seemed quite odd to me. They definitely aren't dates nor do they seem to relate to the specific ruler's name. My initial assumption was that they were shorthand for letters and as I dug into this a little bit, I discovered Latin scribal abbreviation (AKA "sigla"). Here is a link to the wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribal_abbreviationBriefly, scribes used certain shortcuts when writing Latin and a few of those seem to have made it onto coins. For example, here is a 13th Century Grosso from the Italian Republic of Venice. According to Biaggi (#2783), the obv inscription is IA.9TARIN.S.M.VENETI. The Doge at this time was Jacob Contarini, and as it turns out the siglum that is shaped like a number 9 is shorthand for "CON".   Now I just need to figure out what a siglum shaped like a number 3 means...  "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1568 Posts |
That's some interesting reading Spence. Not something I have ever looked at twice really so thanks for posting!
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Moderator
United States
23731 Posts |
Didn't know that, learned something new today. Thanks Dave.
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Moderator
 United States
34419 Posts |
Quote:
learned something new today. Yes! "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7948 Posts |
Very helpful post. How do you think it applies (or not) to the characters I had assumed were just the letters R on this coin (i.e. I had thought just LOTHOR and BAR)  Edited by tdziemia
04/20/2020 10:00 am
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Pillar of the Community
Sweden
2124 Posts |
Intriguing and educational thread, indeed!
That character looking a bit like a "4" would be a siglum for "rum" according to the wikipedia page that Spence referred to. So does LOTHORUM ET BARUM DUX make sense? I get hits on LOTHORUM ET BARRI DUX, and I think by Barri could be meant Bari, Italy (and the Latin name for Bari is Barum...). There seems to be some historical connection between the duchies of Lorraine and Bari, that I haven't grasped completely.
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Moderator
United States
34419 Posts |
Yes I think that you are exactly right @erafjel! For those of you who really want to get into the weeds, here is a link to Capelli's book, "The Elements of Abbreviation in Medieval Latin Paleography". There may be better books that others here can recommend, but for me, this one has been really helpful. https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitst...cappelli.pdf"If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
Sweden
2124 Posts |
That is an excellent source, @Spence! I find this kind of knowledge sources irresistible, despite (or thanks to?) their somewhat limited applicability to everyday life  . Browsed it already, and then searched for and found online versions of the original work that the book refers to. If you really really want to go deep, that one has an additional 14,000 abbreviations... https://archive.org/details/Lexicon...rum/mode/2upIt is in German, which doesn't matter much for the abbreviation list. The introductory German text is the one that is translated to English in Spence's link (and that book is included as an appendix in the link above). (There is also an Italian version available in the same online library, in case you prefer that.) |
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Moderator
United States
34419 Posts |
Yes good point @erafjel, I should have mentioned that my link was for an English translation of the original work. My German is slow and plodding while my Italian is almost non-existent.  "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7948 Posts |
Good to be back online again! Bar is the duchy adjacent to Lorraine to the west. It was a separate principality until 1480 when I think it was ceded to Lorraine after a dynastic succession issue. So in this case, the legend meanns Antoine, Duke of Lorraine and Bar. The Sicily connection arose because the Dukes of Lorraine were from House of Anjou from 1431-1473 (when I think this house ruled the Kingdom of Naples/Sicily), and continued to lay claim to this area even later. There are Lorraine coins from the reign of Duke Rene II with the legend "RENATVS D G R SICILL" never even mentioning Lorraine in the legends! I had thought this unusual character on the testons (and their fractions) was a quirk of the engraver in Nancy during the reign of Antoine, but now I will go take a closer look at my earlier coins of Lorraine that are large enough to have a long legend like this (and will also look in my copy of de Saulcy to see if he says anything about this character). I think that normally the longer latin form was Lotharingia or Lothoringia rather than Lothorum. But I know little about Latin  Edited by tdziemia
04/23/2020 1:48 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Sweden
2124 Posts |
Ok, Bari in Italy was apparently a red herring!  Bar near Lorraine does make more sense. Applying the Latin suffix -rum to Lothor and Bar, like Lothorum et Barum, would change the meaning to "of the Lothors" and "of the Bars", that is, of the peoples of Lothor and Bar. So Lothorum et Barum Dux means "Duke of the Lothors and Bars". (A parallel from my area of French royals is Francorum Rex, "King of the Franks.") When I looked at this, I got most hits on Lothorum et Barri Dux. Bar with suffix -i/-ri would mean "of Bar" rather than "of the people of Bar". So a bit inconsistent, but that would be an explanation for that. And why Lothor instead of Lotharingia? Lotharingiarum Dux, "Duke of the Lotharingians" would also work. My guess is that Lotharingiarum became a bit awkward both to spell as well as pronounce, so the simpler form Lothorum was used instead. Plus it fits the limited space on the coin better. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7948 Posts |
@erafjel, I agree that if -orum means "the people of" you have probably nailed it for my Lorraine coin. (Edit: And I did find in de Saulcy a large silver coin in the previous reign, Rene II with the motto RENATVS DVX LOTHORINGORUM). Now this thread has got me noticing the use of these sigla in more and more places. I recently won this nice Silesia coin (momentarily embargoed in Warsaw), and was surprised to see the use of the same mark as started this thread, so late (1674). Here, it is used at the end of the monarch's latinized first name, Sylvi(us), in the obverse legend, and has the second meaning (per the Wiki article) of US rather than CON  Edited by tdziemia
04/28/2020 6:15 pm
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Posted 04/19/2020 4:29 pm
