CA4 Epitaph of Servanda

Description

Idno filename 22/01/0033
Type of inscription: Sepulcralis
Religion: Christian
Support: Tablet
Material: Marble Material Description: Tablet of white marble.
Conservation status: Although the right-hand side is not nearly so deep (4 cm at the top and 2 cm below), probably as a result of having been pulled out from its original position.
Dimensions height/width/depth (cm): 60/60/9
Epigraphic field:
- Layout: The difference between verse and prose is indicated graphically: the cutter has finished what he perhaps considered to be “authentic hexameters” with hederae, while ll. 11-14 finish with hederae mucronatae.
- Decoration: The inscription starts with a crux, crowned by a hedera with alpha and omega hanging from the arms so that it is reminiscent of an <H> with only one and a half strokes. Given that the first word of the inscription is uius, with a striking absence of initial h- since it is a deictic at the very head of the inscription, this initial cross-chrismon might be an ambivalent sign both denoting the Christian origin of the inscription and being used as an initial h-.
Preserved

Type of letters

Letter size:4 y 3,5 cm
Description of the letters:Letter height between 4 and 3.5 cm, fairly regular with no apparent guidelines..

Location

Place of discovery: The inscription was immured in the cloister of the Augustinian Sisters of Medina- Sidonia, where it was first copied by Velázquez (the first manuscript quoted in IHC), although its origin and first location are unknown. It is quite reasonable to think, given the status of the deceased, that the tablet may have been in the first monastery we know of in Medina-Sidonia, under the rule of San Leandro, which is mentioned in the Second Council of Seville (canon XI), presided over by Isidore of Seville, on 13 November 619. It was taken from that wall and given to Don José Pardo, who lived in the Palace of the Duque de Medina-Sidonia and when ROMERO DE TORRES 1934 wrote about it and photographed it, the tablet was still in the possession of his successor, Don Mariano Pardo de Figueroa.
Geolocation

Conservation location: The stone has always belonged to the family of Don Mariano, having been taken from Medina-Sidonia, first to Jerez de la Frontera, and then to Sevilla, to the Hacienda Santa Eufemia in the municipality of Tomares, the property of D. Pedro Ybarra (parish priest of Santa Cruz in Sevilla) and his sister Mª Josefa, inherited from their great-uncle D. Mariano Pardo de Figueroa. The tablet is still there.
Location with Modern Nomenclature España / Cádiz
Location with Old Nomenclature Hispania / Baetica / Hispalensis / Gades

Chronology

Inscription's dating: The year 649
Dating explanation: La inscripción se fecha por la era hispana: 19 de mayo de 649.

Type of verse

Type of verse: Hexameter
Verse/line correspondence: No
Prose/verse distinction: Yes

Edición epigráfica

⊂crux cum chrismo⊃

(H)uius namq(u)e tumulo procumbit Servand(a)e

post funere corpus ❦

parva dicata Deo permansit corpo-

5 re virgo ❦

astans c(o)enobio cum virgini

bus sacris nobile c(o)etu ❦

ter denis fuit annis vegetans

in corpore mundo ❦

10 hic sursum rapta c(a)elesti reg-

nat in aula

obiit Iunias decimoquartove (sic!)

calendas ⊂crux⊃

hic est qu(a)eru⁽li⁾s era de tempore

15 mortis DCLXXXVII ⊂crux⊃

Text divided into verses and metric signs

Huius namque tumulo procumbit Servandae post funere corpus. ll|lkkk|l/l|ll|ll|l/l|lkk|l~

Parva dicata Deo permansit corpore virgo, lkk|lkk|l/l|ll|lkk|l~

astans coenobio cum virginibus sacris nobile coetu. ll|lkk|l/l|lkk|l/kl|lkk|l~

Ter denis fuit annis vegetans in corpore mundo, ll|l/k|k/l|l/kk|ll|lkk|l~

5 hic sursum rapta caelesti regnat in aula. ll|l/l|k/l|ll|lkk|l~

Obiit Iunias decimo quartove calendas: kkl|lk|l/kk|l/l|lkk|l~

hic est quaerulis aera de tempore mortis. ll|lk|l/l|k/l|lkk|l~

Translation

“The body of Servanda lies in this tomb after her death. From her childhood, devoted to God, she kept her body virgin, living in a monastery, a noble retreat, with other consecrated virgins. She lived until thirty years in an immaculate body, snatched from here to above she reigns in a heavenly palace. She died on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of June. For those who wish to know the time of her death, here it is: era 687.”

Bibliography

Hübner, IHC 86 (inde CLE 722; Diehl, ILCV 1695; Vives, ICERV 286); id., IHC Suppl. 42; Gómez Pallarès – del Hoyo – Martín Camacho 2005, CA4; Gómez Pallarès in Fernández Martínez, CLEB, CA4, cum im. phot, qui in linguam Hispanicam vertit (inde HEp 2011,60). – Cf. Romero de Torres 1909, 94–96; id. 1934, 261–262; Mariner 1952, 15, 77, 83, 85, 87, 96, 99–100 et 101–102; Salvador 1998, 321; Castillo Maldonado 1999, 293; Menéndez Pidal 1976, 324.

Apparatus

9 Hi(n)c inepte ROMERO; eclesti ROMERO errore typographico.

Commentary

These hexameters are halfway between quantitative and stressed metre. L. 2 is quantitative; the rest have different errors in syllable count. All the clausulae are correct. Ll. 2, 5 and 7 present leonine rhyme between the penthemimers and the end of the verse; ll. 1, 3 and 4 have an extra foot. Mariner 1952, 15, also comments, with reference to l.5, híc sursúm raptá celésti régnat in áula, that the <a> of raptá could be lengthened in arsis before a caesura, or might be an echo of the adaptation of a man’s epitaph in which hypothetically raptús would be correct.

It is a dedicated poem contemplating the deceased’s sacrifice to God in the form of the preservation of her virginity. We can find no parallels, in connection with this idea, with the association between the “humility” of the nun and the great honour granted by God by admitting her to “his” convent. For a correct interpretation of the syntagma in corpore mundo, it is sufficient to refer to the texts of Ambr. exc. Sat. 1,52 and Aug., fid. et op., 10,15 Finally, for l.5, sursum rapta…regnat in aula, the underlying idea could be that expressed in Carm., adv. Marc., 1,239-242.

Linguistically, h is ommited; monophthonging of dipthongs. Servande for Servandae, cetu for coetu, querulis for quaerulis; confusion of prepositional regimes (post funere) or prepositional phrases which replace the value of some casual endings (de tempore for a genitive, already pointed out by Mariner, pp.99-100). In l. 9, hic could be there for hinc, for having forgotten the pneumatic abbreviation: or perhaps because of an eventual confusion of casual distinctions, which would have had an impact on the adverbs. En l. 11, quartoue for quartoque, because of an error of the cutter or, more probably (cf. Väänänen 1975, 250-251), because of the tendency of the enclectic –que to disappear from the colloquial use and, as a consequence, to gradually lose the value it had.

As for the onomastics, Servanda is a well known in the early Christian onomastics and both F. Salvador Ventura and P. Castillo Maldonado (above mentioned) document it well.

Images

Photo author: E. Sendra Fernández

Link to DB

Author

Author:J. Gómez Pallarès
Last Update2025-07-30 08:54:16
Autopsy date:2007

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