... has shown us the fine picture of S Gregory which he has in his parochial school. The Saint is holding a scroll inscribed with the Angli/Angeli pun recounted in S Bede.
Interestingly, the sentence ends with a good example of cursus; the use of certain end-of-sentence rhythms employed by Cicero and then in the Papal Chancery from around 350ish until just after S Gregory's time (vide G G Willis Essays 1964): "esse consortes" is a neat planus. I must have a look and see whether S Bede himself was a cursus man. If he wasn't, this bit might indeed go back to S Gregory himself.
What other treasures has Fr Tim unearthed in Marvellous Margate which he will gradually reveal to us?
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Might it once have been above an altar? Is there any evidence of the identity of the artist?
A pity St. Gregory has so far forgotten his Latin grammar as to make 'facies' masculine.
ReplyDeleteA search on Google Books of “habent faciem et tales” demonstrates that the editions have “angelicam” rather than “angelicum”. Apparently, “angelicum” is a typo that made it into the artist’s document of his Requirements, and is not attributable to the doctor.
ReplyDeleteSplendid, Figule. I had not noticed that. I have now turned up the narrative in S Bede and found that the phrase ends " ....esse coheredes", not "consortes". I have a hypothesis: the unfortunate artist was let down by a priest upon whom he relied. This priest quoted from memory. And his memory let him down with regard to the gender of "faciem" . It also let him down with regard to the last two words. You see, "esse consortes" is a very common liturgical phrase: it occurs in the prayer every priest says every morning as he mingles water into the wine of the chalice. So this was a very easy slip for him to make.
ReplyDeleteThis is rather interesting. It is an example of the sort of thing that happened more often in a basically oral society in which people relied more upon their memories than on the written word.
Actually, Father, I was using irony, a trait of the English to which you are frequently drawing the attention of 'foreign' readers.
ReplyDeleteHe's got a lovely church in Margate, and the micropub scene in Thanet is second to none.
ReplyDeleteI do wish he'd change the Monday EF mass to suit my personal schedule, though. I can't do Mondays.