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IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 1222: Watch Your Language: Palindromes, Etymology, and Inscriptions

Wednesday 7 July 2021, 14.15-15.45

Moderator/Chair:Marco Mostert, Onderzoekinstituut voor Geschiedenis en Kunstgeschiedenis, Universiteit Utrecht
Paper 1222-a'Arte mala mere vidi vere mala metra': The Tradition of Palindromes in Latin
(Language: English)
Mark Saltveit, Palindromist Magazine, Middlebury, Vermont
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Mentalities, Rhetoric
Paper 1222-bThe World (De-)Constructed: Etymological Discourse in Early Medieval Ireland and How It Structures Reality
(Language: English)
Viktoriia Krivoshchekova, Department of Early Irish Maynooth University
Index terms: Language and Literature - Celtic, Language and Literature - Latin, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Mentalities
Paper 1222-cMonumental Brasses and Language Choice before and after the Reformation
(Language: English)
Lena Wahlgren-Smith, Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Culture, University of Southampton
Index terms: Epigraphy, Language and Literature - Latin, Lay Piety, Literacy and Orality
Abstract

Paper -a:
This paper catalogues the known examples of Latin palindromes (versus recurrentes, cancrinus, retrogradi) in manuscripts and books from late antiquity through 1600. It identifies this body of work as an internally consistent and self-referential tradition or genre, though its presentation ranges from the literally marginal to the celebrated, as in Hrabanus Maurus' De Laudibus Sanctae Crucis (805 CE). The colorful array of authors (where identified) and the varying uses of the form (from veneration to pedagogy) are discussed.

Paper -b:
The understanding of language and the practice of etymology deeply affected the early medieval view of the world. After Isidore of Seville, the etymological method was most fruitfully practiced by Irish scholars in their grammatical writings of the 7th-9th century. By promoting the connection between linguistic structures and the world of objects, etymology reconfigures the relationships between parts of the physical environment and imbues them with new meanings based on phonetic, semantic or pragmatic aspects of language. The proposed paper will explore the insights of Irish grammarians on etymology and its power to affect the perception of the physical space.

Paper -c:
Studies on monumental brasses have often tended to centre on material and/or pictorial aspects. The present paper is an attempt to focus on the actual inscriptions as textual documents, and in particular on the subject of language choice. With a choice between Latin and vernacular, who gets which language? Does the choice depend on factors such as status, profession or gender? Does it influence the nature of the text? What is the effect of the Reformation on language choice and how does this relate to textual content?