Medieval Latin inscription with puzzling shorthand?
November 24, 2010 8:26 AM   Subscribe

Interesting Latin inscription on medieval cross: CNA ZARENUS REXIVDEOX - anyone know some shorthand?

This is the inscription:

IH CNA
ZARENUS
REXIVDEOX

I believe this is:
Jesus Christ
[unsure]
King [?] God.

My Latin, however, is not terribly good. Any more educated opinions would be most gratefully accepted.
posted by RedReplicant to Writing & Language (11 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
My feeling is that Zarenus = Nazarene
posted by DrGirlfriend at 8:31 AM on November 24, 2010


It's an abbreviation of:
IESVS·NAZARENVS·REX·IVDÆORVM
Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.
John 19:19, written on a piece of wood and nailed above Jesus at the Crucifixion.
posted by hydatius at 8:33 AM on November 24, 2010


Having looked at this Wikipedia article, it might be a different version of:
IESVS·NAZARENVS·REX·IVDÆORVM (Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum), which translates to English as "Jesus the Nazarene (Galilean), King of the Jews (Judeans)".
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:34 AM on November 24, 2010


Best answer: IHS NA
ZARENUS
REX IUDEOS

JESUS NA-
ZARENE
KING OF THE JEWS
posted by zamboni at 8:34 AM on November 24, 2010


Dunno whaddafuck that h-bar is doing there (some sort of letter thorn?) but it's a run-on:
Ih Jesus
C Christos
NA-ZARENUS....duh
etc.
posted by notsnot at 8:34 AM on November 24, 2010


IHC NAZARENVS REX IVDEOR[UM], i.e. 'Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews', the inscription supposedly placed over Jesus at his crucifixion (INRI for short).
posted by verstegan at 8:34 AM on November 24, 2010


To clarify: the final word is not 'IUDEOS' but 'IUDEORUM' ('of the Jews'); the final symbol that looks like an X is actually a brevigraph, short for -rum. This symbol is sometimes said to be the origin of the 'Rx' (short for 'recipe') on medical prescriptions, though more fanciful theories link this to religious or occult symbolism.
posted by verstegan at 8:54 AM on November 24, 2010


Best answer: yep, it's an abbreviation- I realised as soon as I hit submit. For more on this little guy, see 3.6 on p17 of this translation of Cappelli.
The sixth sign is somewhat similar to the fifth. It
also resembles an arabic 2, but with an oblique line through
the tail. Almost always on the line and at the end of the
word, most commonly it is used to indicate the syllable
-rum.
posted by zamboni at 9:10 AM on November 24, 2010 [1 favorite]


Also, I believe the IHC with the little crossbar is a Christogram.
posted by zamboni at 9:15 AM on November 24, 2010


IHC would be an abbreviation of IHΣOYΣ, the Greek spelling of IESVS (Jesus), with C as a variant of Σ.
posted by nangar at 9:17 AM on November 24, 2010


Hey, I didn't know Cappelli was available as a free PDF -- thanks, zamboni! (or rather: thãks, zãbõi!)
posted by verstegan at 9:29 AM on November 24, 2010


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