Thursday, November 22, 2007

But what does it mean?

Imagine my surprise when I found this image on this BibliOdyssey post today. Even though my first initial and last name appears at the end, I promise I didn't write it. I don't even know what it means! Can anyone translate it?

Posted by at

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's a rebus (from Latin "with things") in which objects take the place of their names, or sound-alike words, to form a meaningful sentence. My Italian is limited--I don't know the words for "helmet" or "fish-hook" and I have no idea what that scrap of musical notation is doing there--but the second and third lines translate to "Sole Padre, Sole Un Figlio, Sole Una Spirita/ Sole a Padre il Cuore si Dona"; there's a pun on "sole" with the sun (il sole) used to mean only "sole." So the lines mean, more or less, Only the Father, Only One Son, Only One [Holy] Spirit, Only to the Father is the Heart Given." And "E Fine" means "and The End."

22/11/07 7:59 PM
Anonymous said...

I took a closer look and the full Italian text is printed at the bottom:

[illegible] nova per pasar al tempo
Sol iddio sol un alma sol una morte
sol a dio il cor si dona
amo dio vera speranza
Ove la pace e dio
Chi alla virtu alla fortuna in pugni
La carita e la vera e star in pace
Fa carita che mai dove verai
La morte al mondo e fine.

Now you need somebody who knows Italian. I get the music notation (it's "la," the definite article) and the eggs ("uove," a pun for "ove" meaning "where") but I leave full translation to someone better-equipped.

22/11/07 11:36 PM
peacay said...

You can see the [illegible] word better with the large version - it's Vintarola. As I recall, there was another very similar rebus by Mitelli in the database.

23/11/07 1:02 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)