Decoding Latin inscriptions is a hard work for researchers due to their singular style, as can be appreciated in the work “Latin Epigraphy”, by Paul Corbier, which has just been published by the Publishing House of the University of Granada with the collaboration of Ancient History Professor Mauricio Pastor, author of the translation, together to a selection of Latin inscriptions found in Granada and added to this volume. This way, Professor Pastor closes the pages of this manual with a selection of Latin inscriptions found in Granada, such as the votive inscription dedicated to the Genius of the Municipality and others carried out in the old Iliberis of Granada.
These inscriptions are usually presented through a sequence of capital letters, with no more spaces than those dictated by aesthetics, and it all is more difficult by the frequent use of abbreviations which if unknown completely conceal the meaning of the text. After the reading, there must be a contextualization of the decoded text, classifying the sentence or the text within social, economic and cultural history.
Paul Corbier continues in “Latin Epigraphy” a tradition dating back to the High Roman Empire, a tradition of compilation and translation of Latin sources that remains throughout our history with classic texts such as that by Giussepe Giusto Scaligero, or the “Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum” by Todoro Mommsen.
Epigraphy is one of the sciences of history that studies the inscriptions carried out on any type of lasting material. It intends to establish methodologies to interpret them and draw the maximum possible information from the signs and inscriptions engraved on stone, wood, etc., to complete and understand aspects of history.
In this work, Paul Corbier focuses his epigraphic studies on the knowledge of Latin texts through a work structured as a manual r epigraphy lovers and Art or History students, due to its great teaching capacity and its constant references to works related to the subjects.
Corbier divides this manual into three sections. The first one, “Analysis and synthesis” is a whole of chapters centred on an approach to Latin epigraphic aesthetics and a profound analysis, based on theoretical and bibliographical basis, of the main Latin inscriptions historians and spectators may find as those related to the funeral world and especially those related to power structure, imperial titles, senators, territories´ designation and even those related to religious life. The author reveals the keys to appoint certain examples to their historic context thanks to the interpretation of abbreviations, bringing us closer to history through its vocabulary.
In the second section, “Documents and methods”, Corbier teachs us how to come closer to Latin inscriptions through examples of translations like “La gens de los Vetii” or the marble of Thorigny. Finally, in “Work symbols and tools”, the author offers us a wide list of abbreviations, an index of Roman emperors, legions, etc., to facilitate the access to epigraphy.
Reference:
Professor Mauricio Pastor Muñoz. Department of Ancient History. University of Granada.
Phone number: 958 243682 / 243679
E-mail: mpastor@platon.ugr.es
