Anyone want to play Guess the 18th C. Church Symbolism? [big pics]

[salvorhardin]

This is from 1730. Not speaking Latin or Catholic, I have no idea what this book is other than some kind of sacrament (I guess).

What caught my eye were the symbols in the etching on the title page. Would anyone know what these mean?

[CanuckAmok]

1. I don't know, but I can see her boob.

n/t

[salvorhardin]

2. Actually that was the first thing that crossed my mind

The second thing was Ashcroft would not approve.

[beam me up scottie]

3. Quick! Get a burka!

:rofl:

[bananas]

13. It was a wardrobe malfunction. nt

[beam me up scottie]

14. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[laheina]

4. The symbols are masonic.

But my latin isn't that good. :(

[salvorhardin]

5. I kind of figured that

Something about a Roman sacrament in 5 volumes.

What's with the mirror reflecting the beehive and that broken piece of wood? How about that interesting building in the background (and reflected in the mirror).

I really like the book with dagger symbolism. Also, there's a hand mirror there too.

Why is she weighing the holy grail against the crown?

I should also say that this is American. It belonged to the great-great(-great?) grandfather of an older friend of mine.

How about the Latin phrase in the mirror? Mens Omnibus QNA?

[laheina]

15. Mens omnibus una

I'm probably off, but my translation would be something like: Minds together as one.

Freemasonry used to be a bigger deal in that time period. One book on the subject that I have read is "The Secret Architecture of our Nation's Capital." It needs a snooze warning though.

I've always found the symbolism interesting. I wish that I knew more about it.

[undergroundpanther]

6. Symbols

Justice scales with a crown balancing a chalice,
Crown a reward Chalice of poison,punishment
reward and punishment.As justice
That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury, stay the hand of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law is one of the most significant tributes that power has ever paid to reason.... To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our own lips as well.
http://www.fathom.com/feature/35373/

A beehive:

The bee and the hive have long been symbols of industry and regeneration, wisdom and obedience, with a place in Egyption, Roman and Christian symbolism. The hive is often seen in Masonic illustrations of the 18th and 19th century and both Clovis and Napoleon adopted the bee as their symbol. Although "the bee was among the Egyptians the symbol of an obedient people, because, says Horapollo, 'of all insects, the bee alone had a king.'1, its use in Freemasonry was secondary to any number of other symbols based on the working tools of a stone mason.
"Looking at the regulated labor of these insects when congregated in their hive, it is not surprising that a beehive should have been deemed an appropriate emblem of systematized industry.

http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/symbolism/bees.html


Those "tools" on the ground are mason tools a square compass ect. Tools of the"divine architect" Reason thrown down in favor of faith..Or the tools of the grande archon,maker of"systems" unused because of faith or religion,wisdom denied(my interpretation)Interesting they are all scattered on the ground.)

[beam me up scottie]

11. Wow, leave it to UP!

:applause:

Got any more info on the Masons?

[FM Arouet666]

7. Dammit man, are you out of your mind?

You have shown an image depicting the female breast!!!!! Quick, get the children, the dog, run for your lives. The evil breast is bare. ;)

Oh, and as for the original question. I don't speak Latin or Catholic either, probably my greatest failing. :evilgrin:

[beam me up scottie]

8. And you call yourself a doctor?

I suppose people can read your handwriting, too.

[FM Arouet666]

10. Actually not, I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. ;)

[salvorhardin]

9. Dan Brown would probably have a field day with this

I was just struck by the interesting juxtaposition of symbols. And it's a rather pretty etching. Here's another from the same volume. I assume the dude is Pope Benedict?

[FM Arouet666]

12. NAMBLA might as well?

Damn that was offensive, I will probably get deleted. Sorry Catholic folks.

[laheina]

17. Ewwww! nt

[beam me up scottie]

19. You're in fine form tonight.

Good day at the mines?

[Lexingtonian]

16. it's a Church book

on edit: could be Masonic, that's true. Read "Mason" where I put "Christian" below.

roughly-

Holy Roman (something like councils)
Recent Decisions
compended and redacted
in five volumes
Milanese and Athenian Associates,
Distributors

Fourth (volume)

Mediolanum is the Latin name of Milano/Milan/Mailand, the city in the Po Valley.

The figure represents Justice, weighing the power and interests of the communion chalice (i.e. the best/most vital of Christianity) against more worldly things and powers- crowns (i.e. feudal political interests then) and the instruments of intellectuals, soldiers, etc. The background is the remains of the Roman Empire either coopted or lying in ruins- Christianity triumphant. The polished shield has 'Mens omnibus una', i.e. 'the Mind of all (people and beings) is One'...probably an adage of the Church courts or Church decision-making bodies. There's also the image of the beehive there, a symbol of highly productive activity by a large number of individually almost powerless beings working together, a symbol of the Church itself.

[laheina]

18. You're good. :)

So why the mason's tools?

[salvorhardin]

20. Wow! Thanks!

Just to be clear, this belonged to a Catholic Priest. That's why I found the masonic imagery in a Catholic book.

What about the dagger and the book?

[Lexingtonian]

21. hmmm.

I lean toward it being a Church book with that additional information.

The symbols- each the characteristic tool of a craft- go back to the Renaissance and late Roman Empire times. Most people of the day were illiterate, so there was a need for religious art to spell out stuff in very obvious visual terms.

Freemasonry proper starts around 1600. Its central teachings are highly allegorical, so there's a whole industry of symbolism to it. Adherents of it have popularized a rather too symbolic analysis of the world and believe their symbolisms are authoritative.

I think that dagger is a sword. The book is a little fuzzy (it probably represents academia). There are several tools there of geometers and surveyers and mathematicians.

Traditional monarchies consist of three basic functions, and that's why there is a traditional threesome of crown jewels, each representing one of these functions. In general, the crown represents the judicial authority, the sword the executive authority, and the sceptre the legislative authority.

[Bear down under]

22. 18th Century Latin doesn't always follow classical rules,

and my Latin dictionary has just been given a beating: but I read the title as:

The Most Recent Decisions of the Sacred Roman Rota,
reduced to abstracts
indexed by topic and discussion
in five volumes
with additional material(?) with commentary (?) ("nonnullius" is literally "with some")

distributed by the Athenian Society (Brotherhood?) of Milan

(Volume) Four

N.O.P.Q.R simply indicates that the contents are those from N to R. They are obviously arranged alphabetically.

(Interesting that this is on a stuck-on piece of paper. Presumably that was cheaper than engraving a fresh title page for each volume.)

Below the picture is:

(published at) Milan, AD 1730
by (literally at the house of) Carl Joesph Gallus

with the permission of (the, his) superiors and with privileges

The motto on the lady's shield actually reads:
One mind in all things

From Wikpedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacra_Rota

"The Sacra Rota Romana or Sacred Roman Rota is the normal appellate tribunal of the Holy See and the second highest ecclesiastical court in the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church has a complete legal system which is the oldest and one of the most advanced legal systems still in use today. The court is named Rota (wheel) because the judges, called auditors, rotate between cases: while three auditors hear a case normally, there are many more auditors on the Rota, who are assigned to each case like a queue." (Much more about the Court and its jurisdiction at the link.)

So the book is a digest of recent cases decided by a high Vatican court, but somehow it doesn't look like an official Church publication; I think if it were it would have had an inscription specifically indicating that it had been published by order of the court and given the name of the bishop having jurisdiction over such publications, not just the unspecified "superiors". Unless of course Mr Gallus was the Court's contracted publisher, which might be suggested by "with privileges". That the Court would have sat in Rome and the book was published in Milan is probably not important: Mr Gallus may simply have put in the lowest tender for the job.

If we knew more about the Athenian Society of Milan that might tell us. Were they a legal fraternity, publishing the book for the use of their fellow lawyers?

The imagery is interesting, and I agree with the previous posters that the lady represents Justice; or maybe she is a personification of the Sacred Rota itself -- in which case the motto and bees on her shield would be quite appropriate. The building in the background looks vaguely like the Vatican Palace; but why she should be sitting in front of a ruin is not clear, nor why there is a mitre on the ground or the architect's instruments at her feet. They might indicate some involvement by the Masons in the publication; but equally they might merely suggest that "Justice builds the church" (or some idea like that) or maybe even refer to some particularly important case included in the book.

The picture of the cherubs: they are holding the tiara and keys of the papacy, so presumably the fellow in the oval portrait is the Pope. He looks like Clement XII, who was elected 12 July 1730.


edited for spelling

[laheina]

23. Hi Bear down under!!

Awesome post. Welcome to DU!!! :hi:

[salvorhardin]

24. Thank you!

Awesome post.

[Bear down under]

26. Thank you for the welcome

Much appreciated! actually I've been lurking here for ages and this was one of the first threads where I thought I might have something to contribute.

On a second look, I fear I went a bit astray with the last part of the title. (A nonnullis/ Mediolanensis Athenaei sociis/ distributae)

I think it is more correctly rendered as "distributae by some (nonnuilis) members (sociis) of the Athenaeum of Milan".

The adjective "distributae" is the tricky word here. It *can* mean 'distributed', as in English, but it can also mean "sorted or classified". (Think of someone distributing stuff into different filing cabinets or pigeonholes.) As it is in the nominative plural, the only thing it can refer to is the "decisiones", not the book itself. So the best translation is probably "compiled". And in the line above, tractatus (discussed, read about) evidently refers to Index, so that line can be rendered as "indexed by topic or subject and with commentary".

Which gives us the title:

The Most Recent Decisions of the Sacred Roman Rota,
reduced to abstracts
indexed by topic, with commentary
in five volumes
compiled by members of the Athenaeum of Milan

(Can we render "nonnullis sociis" as "certain members" or even "leading members"?)

Now, who or what was this Milan Athenaeum? Athenaeum (the place of Athena) has long been a popular title for a learned society (ie one dedicated to the promulgation of wisdom of which Athena aka Minerva was patron). A well-known example is the Boston Athenaeum, but there is also one in the Vatican, the Athenaeum Pontificium Regina Apostolorum (the Papal Athenaeum of the Queen of the Apostles, ie the BVM) which is a training college for priests which was in the news a little while ago for offering courses in the history of satanism. ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4272689.stm )

I discover (thanks to the wonders of google!)that the Milan Athenaeum still exists as a branch of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, its buildings being located near the Basilica of San Ambrogio, though in its present incarnation it appearently only dates from 1810. What its affiliations were in 1730 I haven't been able to find out; but if we had Volume One it would no doubt contain a preface explaining all. But I think we will find it was a secular body (at least as secular as such could be in Italy in those days) publishing independently of the papal authorities, as indicated by the absence of any imprimatur from them on the title page. (I suppose the Sacred Rota itself published/publishes its decisions in a regular gazette of some kind.)

If that is so, then the text accompanying the imprint of Mr Carl Joseph Gallus (or Gallo, as he most likely called himself) makes more sense. "With the permission of the superiors" simply means that the book has been passed by the (Milanese) government censors, and "with privileges" indicates that he had what we would now describe as a license, again from the Milanese government, to print and publish books.

So what we have is a reference book compiled by a learned society for the convenience of lawyers and students, and standing in the same relationship to Canon Law as a similar digest (with commentary) of recent decisions of the US Supreme Court compiled by, say, Harvard University would to the US Constitution and Acts of Congress. It isn't actually a book of Canon Law as such; and don't forget that back then the Pope was also the secular ruler of the Papal States, so many of the cases decided by the Rota would have dealt with purely secular matters like property disputes. That might account for Justice having a chalice -- not poisoned, or it wouldn't be haloed -- and a crown in her scales, indicating that in this case she is concerned with both sacred and secular law.

As for her bare boob -- an early example of the iconography that so shocked poor Mr Ashcroft -- that apparently suggests that Justice has nothing to hide, or words to that effect. It's her left boob, the side where her heart is... This picture isn't Great Art, remember; it's only a decorative illustration in a book, by a hack artist who would have worked from pattern books that gave standard iconography for artists to use when they had to depict abstractions like "Justice" or "Religion" or "Liberty" etc etc. He's transformed her (rather clumsily) into "Catholic Justice" by dumping a mitre and biretta on the ground next to her and giving her a chalice, and he may well have simply taken over the architect's instruments etc from some pattern book without giving them much thought.

[salvorhardin]

27. Incredible

Thanks again. You display an impressive knowledge of history.

[rug]

25. It's a collection of recent (circa 1730) decisions of the Vatican.

The various departments form the governing body of the Vatican and they issued rulings on current controversies that become binding on the entire church. "One Mind for All".

It's basically a Canon Law book.