Author: Biccus

Authority: Roger Tomlin

Publications: Britannia 19 (1988) 485-6, no 2

Keywords:

Description:

Rounded oblong cut from sheet lead, measuring 66 x 124mm, folded. Published in Britannia 19 (1988) 485-6, no 2. Inscribed short-axis with sixteen lines of ‘rustic capitals’, lines 1-12 with a blunt point (W profile), lines 12-16 (from ne) with a sharp point (V profile), by the same hand throughout. There are patches of corrosion, especially at the edges, but the text is well preserved.

The text is full of half-understood formulas (noted below), as might be expected from all the evidence of faulty transcription. There are three copying mistakes, pe(r)d(id)it (line 3), maiet (line 4), nessa (lines 9-10); and the use of quidquid (line 2) may be due to mechanical copying of a formulary. Ne taceat may have been omitted after ne loquatur; there is certainly an omission after de (line 13), and probably of habeat in line 9 and of a subject (the thief) for the string of verbs. The formula si vir si mascel (lines 3-4) is confused, and like the malapropism co(n)scientia (lines 12-13) raises the question of whether the scribe understood what he was writing. Yet his hand is practised and implies a good standard of literacy. His language also contains traces of the Vulgar, spoken Latin, in nessi (lines 9-10, 14), co(n)scientia (lines 12-13), and in the inept use of in (line 10) and de (line 13). By implication, therefore, he was familiar with Latin both written and spoken; but he was handling formulas he only half understood, or which perhaps were too familiar to retain much meaning.