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Date: |
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Description: | Portion of an inscription from a monumental brass of the early fifteenth century. The preserved fragment contains part of the date in gothic numeral letters, and is from the bottom line of a square or rectangular panelled inscription which would have been inset into the matrix beneath single or paired figures of the deceased. The form of the lettering is typical of inscriptions following the formula 'Hic jacet [Joe Bloggs] ... qui obijt ** die mensis ***** anno m cccc **** et [Josephine Bloggs] uxor eius qui obijt ** die mensis ***** anno m cccc **** cuius animarum propicietur deus amen.' The straight edge of the metal beneath the date is part of the original edge of the inscription plate, and two ornamental annulets shown near this edge are also characteristic of this type of inscription. This date shows the lower half of the letters c xx vij, and just the very tail of a preceding c. The tail of the second 'i' is extended to a 'j' and there is a space after, showing that the complete date is therefore [mccc]cxxvii, i.e. 1427. Since this is inscribed on the last line of the plate, and has been entered fully (they were sometimes left blank when the monument was prepared during the lifetime of the subject), it must have been engraved in or soon after 1427 as part of a completed commission for a dead person. It is however noticeable that the two cross-members of the letters x are outlined by chisel-cuts but not deeply excised like the other letters: they may be unfinished. The evidence of fracture and re-use is multiple. A diagonal cut at 45 degrees has been made on the right side of the object, apparently so as to leave the date inscription complete deliberately as an ornamental feature of the plate. The lower right acute angle created by this cut has been snapped off. This cut was also made before a fracture to the upper part of the date inscription, a coarse break which is indented in the upper part of the V with a semicircular recess suggesting half a rivet-hole for the fixing of the original brass inscription-plate to its matrix. This fracture has spread across the two x numerals and the c, but has been tidied by filing towards the left-hand end of the object. Since the back of the plate is plain, the recutting of the plate is not for reuse of the metal as a palimpsest brass in the original latten workshop. A more probable explanation is that the diagonal recut represents the rising fore-edge of a gnomon for a sundial, on which the date has been reserved for ornamental purposes, and that the upper arm of the gnomon has since been broken off at the point of weakness created by the rivet hole. An alternative speculation may revolve upon the fracture adjacent to the rivet-hole having been caused by the plate's removal from its stone matrix in a church setting. The final prayer on these inscriptions was especially repugnant to the iconoclasts of Dowsing's time (1640s-1650s) and on occasion the prayer formula was deleted without other damage to a brass. It is therefore possible that this was broken during an act of iconoclasm, and afterwards reshaped for some secondary purpose.
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
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