Christian monumental inscription

Description

Idno filename 22/01/0088
Type of inscription: Operis Christ.
Material Description: Block of greyish sandstone
Conservation status: Broken below and on the right-hand side, affecting the last letters of each line; 8 cm may have been lost. Lowered at the back, perhaps designed to support a beam. It must have been used as the capitel of a pillar at the entrance of an early Christian baptistry in Tucci. It was coated in lime, and the surface was damaged when it was scraped off, making it difficult to read.
Dimensions height/width/depth (cm): 37/79/26.55
Epigraphic field:
- Layout: Careful "Ordinatio". "Scriptio continua".
- Epigraphic field dimensions hieght/weight (cm): 16/74
- Decoration: Five deep grooves as guidelines to frame a frieze with geometric decoration, with S shapes and three lines of text. Under this, there are two listels with double cymatium, the lower one decorated with curves. In the lower part, in the space framed by two inverted scotia, a series of stylised geometric motifs framed in six cubes of different sizes. The left side is decorated with cut grooves.
Preserved

Lyrics

Font:Capital rústica
Letter size:2,5/3,5 cm

Location

Place of discovery: Found in 1893 in Martos (Jaén) “en el corral que precede al molino del Rey” (“in the yard before the King’s mill”) Gómez Moreno 1949: 404. Moved to the calle Puerta Jaén in Martos, and built into one of the houses.
Geolocation

Conservation location: Since 1984, it has been in the Colección Arqueológica of the Colegio San Antonio de Padua (Martos).
Location with Modern Nomenclature España / Jaén / Martos
Location with Old Nomenclature Hispania / Baetica / Astigitanus / Tucci

Chronology

Inscription's dating: Between year 500 and year 600
Dating explanation: 6th c. from the archeological context and form of the lettering.

Type of verse

Type of verse: Dactílico (hexámetro)
Verse/line correspondence: Si
Prose/verse distinction: No

Epigraphic edition

Panditur introitus, sacrata limina C(h)r[isti]

currite certatim, gentes populiq(ue) ▴ ve[nite],

et, donante Deo, sitientes sumite vi[tam].

Text divided into verses and metric signs

Panditur introitus, sacrata <ad> limina Chr[isti] lkk|lkk|l/l|ll|lkk|l[~]

currite certatim, gentes populique ve[nite], lkk|ll|l/l|l/kk|lkk|[l~]

et, donante Deo, sitientes sumite vi[tam]. ll|lkk|l/kk|ll|lkk|l[~]

Translation

"The entrance is opened: to the sacred thresholds of Christ run eagerly, nations and peoples, come. And, it is God who gives it, take, ye thirsty, life."

Bibliography

Gómez-Moreno 1897, 7–9 (cum im. del.) (= id. 1949, 404–408); ex eo Hübner, IHC 371 (Bücheler, CLE 1918, cuius exemplum in linguam Hispanicam vertit Fernández Martínez 1998-99; Férotin 1904, cols. 19–20; Thouvenot 1940, 656; Cabezón 1962, 9; de Palol 1967, 177; Iturgáiz 1967, 47, 89–92 et 106–108; Vives, ICERV 338; Sanders 1982, 392); Recio 1989, 837–858 (HEp 1994, 483); González Román – Mangas, CILA III, 524 (tab. 349 phot. inversa); Sanders 1991, 253 adn. 95; González Román – Stylow, II2/5, 155 (Schmidt 1996, 245-–247); del Hoyo 2005b, 74; (id, in Fernández Martínez, CLEB, J14 cum im. phot.); Rodríguez-Pantoja 2009, 298; Gimeno 2009, 41-42 (HEp 2009, 169) – Cf. Mariner 1952, 134. 157–159. 179. 188; Escolà – Martínez Gázquez 2002, 232; Cugusi 2007, 139.

Apparatus

1-3 Cr[isto], ven[ite], vi[tam] Hübner et inde Bücheler. – 1 sacrata Schmidt; cr[epant] Gómez-Moreno; cr[epan] González Román – Mangas. – 3 vi[num] Gómez-Moreno, González Román – Stylow, Schmidt.

Comentary

Three correct hexameters, with penthemimeral caesura and a single error in prosody in the first hexameter (sacrata), which attempts were made to solve with the addition of ad (Schmidt) or with -que —sacrataq(ue)— (Hübner) in order to resolve the syntactic problem (introitus sacrata limina). Schmidt attempted to solve it by making it depend on currite (l.2).

The reconstruction of the end of l. 3 is dependent on considering the building as a baptistry, vi[tam] (Hübner, Bücheler, Vives, González Fernández -Mangas, Recio), or basilica, vi[num] (Gómez Moreno, Schmidt), with a Eucharistic significance. Schmidt notes that in this inscription almost all the <T>s (et at the beginning of l. 3 is an exception) are summae and the arm overhangs the adjoining letters. This does not occur at the end of l. 3, so that vi[tam] can be ruled out. However, not all the interliteral spaces are the same, so that <T>summa could have been displaced to the left. Sitientes and sumite appear to agree better with vinum, but only apparently (cf. Vvlg. Ion. 4,14). Moreover, symbolic mention of the Eucharist usually refers to bread and not to wine, since it was already termed “the breaking of bread” from the time of the apostles (Vulg. Acts 2,42). In addition, the faithful only used to take bread for communion, since it is also identified with Christ and with life: ego sum panis vitae (Jn 6,35).

Line 3 evokes Isaias, omnes sitientes venite ad aquas (Vulg. Is. 55,1), a prefiguration of the water of eternal life symbolising Christ (cf. Vulg. Matth. 11,28) maybe following Vulg. apoc. (21,6). Gentes et populi (l. 2) is common in the Bible to refer to the universal nature of the Christian message (Vulg. Gen. 35,11; Vulg. Psalm. 2,1). Gentes, therefore, is in the Pauline sense of peoples who do not know Christ and whom he invites to enter into the Church through baptism.

Images

Photo author: P. Witte

Link to DB

Author

Author:J. Del Hoyo Calleja
Last Update2024-02-17 18:11:44
Autopsy date:2000

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