Veronese Riddle Explained

Veronese Riddle
Full Title:Indovinello Veronese (Italian)
Language:Medieval Latin / Early Romance
Date:8th or early 9th century
Provenance:Verona, Italy
Genre:Riddle

The Veronese Riddle (it|Indovinello veronese) is a riddle written in either Medieval Latin or early Romance on the Verona Orational, probably in the 8th or early 9th century, by a Christian monk from Verona, in northern Italy. It is an example of a writing-riddle, a popular genre in the Middle Ages and still in circulation in recent times. Discovered by Luigi Schiaparelli in 1924, it may be the earliest extant example of Romance writing in Italy.[1]

Text and translation

The text, with a literal translation, runs:

There are a few complications to the interpretation of the first line. The translation above is based on assuming that is a form of the verb Latin: parare 'lead', is a reflexive pronoun (corresponding to Classical Latin Latin: sibi), and the subject of the sentence (which is left implicit) is the writer or scribe. instead takes the verb as a form of Latin: parere 'seem', reading the line as "it (the hand) seemed like oxen".

The placement of the word at the start of the sentence violates an observed generalization about the position of proclitic pronouns in medieval Romance languages, called the Tobler-Mussafia law. Instead of a pronoun, has sometimes been read as an adverb derived from Latin Latin: sic, or as a prefix forming a word like . However, concludes the word is most likely a pronoun, but one that functions grammatically as a weak tonic form rather than a proclitic.

Explanation

The subject of the riddle is the writer himself: the oxen are his fingers which draw a feather (the white plow) across the page (the white field), leaving a trail of ink (the black seed).

History of the manuscript

The Riddle was written in Verona at the end of the eighth century or beginning of the ninth on a page of a preexisting liturgical text, the Verona Orational (codex LXXXIX (89) of the Biblioteca Capitolare di Verona). The parchment is a Mozarabic (i.e. Visigothic) oration by the Spanish Christian Church, probably written in Toledo. The book was brought from there to Cagliari and then to Pisa before reaching the Chapter of Verona.

The riddle was probably written by a scribe as a probatio pennae (a test to check that a pen was writing well). It was discovered by Schiapparelli in 1924.

Beneath the riddle, the page contains a second added note, unquestionably in Latin, which reads "+ gratias tibi agimus omnip[oten]s sempiterne d[eu]s"; based on the handwriting, indicates this note was the work of a separate author.

Linguistic traits

The text diverges from Classical Latin in the following traits, which can be considered vernacular features.

On the other other hand, in a few aspects the text appears to share features with Classical Latin as opposed to vernacular speech:

Some features of the text are shared with Classical Latin, but can also be found to some extent in vernacular languages of Italy:

Identity of its language

There has been debate over what language the riddle is written in and to what extent the author intended to represent a language distinct from Latin. It has been variously argued to be a Latin text with vernacular influence, a conscious representation of a Veronese "volgare", or a Latin-Romance hybrid (that is, a text written in a style that may have intentionally simplified or modified the conventions of written Latin to bring it closer to the spoken vernacular language).

Though initially hailed as the earliest document in a vernacular of Italy in the first years following Schiapparelli's discovery, today the record has been disputed by many scholars from Bruno Migliorini to Cesare Segre and Francesco Bruni, who have placed it at the latest stage of Vulgar Latin, though this very term is far from being clear-cut, and Migliorini himself considers it dilapidated. At present, the Placito Capuano (960 AD; the first in a series of four documents dated 960-963 AD issued by a Capuan court) is considered to be the oldest undisputed example of Romance writing in Italy.

See also

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Le origini della lingua italiana. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20060507235754/http://www.multimediadidattica.it/dm/origini/origini.htm. May 7, 2006. April 18, 2007.