[DCRM-L] Odd [to me] text on a Latin-language thesis (Chromogram)

[Kathie Coblentz]

>
> From: Karen Nelson <karenjnelson at uvic.ca>
> To: "DCRM Users' Group" <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu>
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2019 22:17:39 +0000
> Subject: [DCRM-L] Odd [to me] text on a Latin-language thesis
> Forgive my ignorance.
> This sentence is the last line of the title page from an 18th century
> German thesis:
>
> *HoC anno* *IVbILeMVs* *Deo pro LVthero*.
>
> What is the meaning of the bolded/underlined text?
>
> Thanks, anyone who can help.
> Happy to hear offline, if this is too elementary to interest anyone else.
>
> Karen


Hi Karen, you probably already figured this out, but, as Jennifer explained:


You count all uppercase letters that can be Roman numerals (not just the
ones in the bolded word). And you perform a straight addition on them,
rather than sometimes subtracting as you do for conventional Roman numerals.


So you have C + I + V + I + L + M + V + D + L + V.


In arabic numerals: 100 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 50 + 1000 + 5 + 500 + 50 + 5 = *1717*.
This was the 200th anniversary of Luther's Reformation, and was celebrated
as a jubilee year in Protestant countries. Hence, the wording, which
translates roughly as "This year, let us rejoice unto God for Luther."


--

Kathie Coblentz
Rare Materials Cataloger

Special Collections/Special Formats Processing

The New York Public Library
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

476 Fifth Avenue, Rm. 313, New York, NY 10018
212.621.0227 | x40227

nypl.org
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