The Saint Clement and Sisinnius inscription (it|Iscrizione di San Clemente e Sisinnio), written around the end of the 11th century AD, is located in the subterranean chapel of the Basilica of San Clemente al Laterano in Rome. It is the very first known example of the Italian language used in a work of art.[1]
The inscription consists of the dialogue of the characters depicted on the fresco. In a scene taken from the Latin: Passio Sancti Clementis ("Martyrdom of Saint Clement"), a certain Sisinnius (implied to be a corrupt master or boss) is instructing his servants to drag Saint Clement off to prison, unaware that the latter has escaped and that what they are dragging along is really a stone column.
The dialogue is as follows:
Or in English:
This is an early example of dialogue written next to the characters who speak it, a phenomenon that would later become common in comics.[2]
Sisinnius and his workmen speak in an early form of Romanesco, whilst Saint Clement expresses himself in Medieval Latin. This juxtaposition of the 'rude' vernacular with the 'holy' liturgical language is deliberate and meant to reflect the different moral standings of the characters involved. A rough modern equivalent might be the master speaking in a rustic New York accent, while the saint speaks in King James English.
Nevertheless, St. Clement's dialogue contains a number of mistakes, which was common for the time. Latin: Duritiam, the accusative, is written instead of the ablative Latin: duritia; the form Latin: vestris is a mistake for Latin: vestri, likely by contamination with the ending of the preceding Latin: cordis; and finally, the letter h (which was already oft-unpronounced from Early Vulgar Latin) is missing from Latin: trahere.
The expression Romance languages: falite is composed of Romance languages: fa 'do.IMP', Romance languages: li 'him.DAT' and Romance languages: te 'you.ACC', an order that follows the so-called Tobler-Mussafia Law.
The name Romance languages: Carvoncelle, ultimately derived from Latin Latin: carbonem 'charcoal', shows the passage of /rb/ to /rv/, a change characteristic of Romanesco as well as other Central Italian dialects.[3]