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

[Karen Nelson]

Dear Kathie and everyone else who replied!

Thanks so much from a newcomer to your list.
And I second Deborah’s comment, by the way.

Everyone is so generous with their expertise and time. Why am I not surprised.

Karen

From: Kathie Coblentz <kathiecoblentz at nypl.org>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2019 9:01 AM
To: dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu
Cc: Karen Nelson <karenjnelson at uvic.ca>
Subject: Odd [to me] text on a Latin-language thesis (Chromogram)

From: Karen Nelson <karenjnelson at uvic.ca<mailto:karenjnelson at uvic.ca>>
To: "DCRM Users' Group" <dcrm-l at lib.byu.edu<mailto: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<http://nypl.org>


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