The Commodilla catacomb inscription is found on the

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

of a

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plast ...

in the tomb of the Christian martyrs

Felix and Adauctus Felix and Adauctus ( 303) were according to tradition, Christian martyrs who were said to have suffered during the Great Persecution during the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian. The ''Acts'', first published in Ado's ''Martyrology'', r ...

, located in the catacombs of Commodilla in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. The graffito has an important place in the history of Italian, as it represents a form of language intermediate between

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

and

Old Italian Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about ...

Text

The inscription is spread over six lines: This may be divided into words as ''non dicere ille secrita a bboce'' ('don't say the secrets aloud'), referring to Christian ''mysteria'' or secret prayers to be recited under one's breath.

Date

The inscription has to post-date the fresco on which it is written, which can itself be dated to the 6th or 7th century on stylistic grounds (thus establishing the ''terminus post quem''). The ''terminus ante quem'' can be estimated on the following grounds: *

Palaeographic Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...

: the type of

uncial script Uncial is a majuscule Glaister, Geoffrey Ashall. (1996) ''Encyclopedia of the Book''. 2nd edn. New Castle, DE, and London: Oak Knoll Press & The British Library, p. 494. script (written entirely in capital letters) commonly used from the 4th t ...

used may be dated between the 8th and 10th centuries, perhaps the 9th. *

Liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

: the practice of pronouncing prayers quietly under one's breath was introduced in the beginning of the

Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippi ...

era, between the 8th and 9th centuries *

Historical History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

: in the early 9th century, due to continuous raids in the district of St. Paul outside the walls of Rome, the

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

s of Felix and Adauctus were moved out of the tomb, which was then left abandoned. Presumably the inscription pre-dates the abandonment. Altogether these point to a date around the beginning of the 9th century.

Analysis

The language used is a sort of late '

Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...

', more archaic than

and closer to

. The word ''ille'', from Latin ''illae'' or ''illās'' ("those", feminine

plural The plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the ...

), does not conserve its original

demonstrative Demonstratives ( abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular fram ...

meaning but is used as a feminine plural

definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" a ...

instead. In the word ''secrita'', ⟨i⟩ is used to represent (and not ), as was common practice in the pre-Carolingian writing of Italy and elsewhere.Tiburzi & Cacchioli, p. 321 The spelling ''bboce'' is of special interest. At first the word had been written ''boce'', but afterwards, either the same writer or another felt that the spelling did not reflect his pronunciation closely enough, and so he inserted an additional ⟨b⟩ in superscript. This hints at the pronunciation of the Roman dialect at the time, characterized on the one hand by

syntactic doubling Syntactic gemination, or syntactic doubling, is an external sandhi phenomenon in Italian, other Romance languages spoken in Italy, and Finnish. It consists in the lengthening (gemination) of the initial consonant in certain contexts. It may also ...

(still typical in the area today) and on the other hand by

betacism In historical linguistics, betacism (, ) is a sound change in which (the voiced bilabial plosive, as in ''bane'') and (the voiced labiodental fricative , as in ''vane'') are confused. The final result of the process can be either /b/ → or ...

or the merger of Latin /b/ and /w/ (thus Latin ''vōcem'' resulted in vernacular ''boce'').

References

{{reflist

Bibliography

* Marazzini, Claudio (2002). ''La lingua italiana. Profilo storico''. Bologna: Il Mulino. * Serianni, Luca (1988). ''Lezioni di grammatica storica italiana''. Rome: Bulzoni. * Sabatini, Francesco (1966). ''Un'iscrizione volgare romana della prima metà del secolo IX''. Studi linguistici italiani. VI: 49–80. *Tiburzi, Alessandra; Cacchioli, Luna (2014). ''Lingua e forme dell’epigrafia in volgare (secc. IX-XV).'' Studi Romanzi. X: 311–352.

External links