Fibula prenestina

The fibula prenestina

The Fibula Praenestina , also called Manios clasp , is a golden fibula that was found in the central Italian town of Palestrina (the ancient Praeneste ) and dates back to the 7th century BC. Is dated. It is now in the Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico "Luigi Pigorini" in Rome .

The fibula is named after the place where it was found or after the creator Manios named in the inscription on it . The inscription is considered to be the oldest evidence of Latin .

Fibula and inscription

Inscription of the fibula prenestina

The 10.7 centimeter long fibula belongs to the so-called dragofibles (a drago) . On the outside of its needle holder is what is probably the oldest known inscription in early Latin . The inscription is left-handed and reads:

MANIOS: MED: FHE: FHAKED: NVMASIOI

In classical Latin the text would read as follows:

Manius me fecit Numerio ("Manius made me for Numerius")

Noteworthy are the otherwise unoccupied Reduplikationsperfekt fhefhaked instead fecit to facere and the name of the fricative [⁠ f ⁠] by a character combination of Digamma (?) which as a single point for a [⁠ w ⁠] was -sound, with followed by Heta (?, H), which is otherwise only to be found in early Greek, Etruscan and Venetian inscriptions. While the spelling of the sound was later simplified to ? in Etruscan, it was shortened to F in Latin.

The question of authenticity

The authenticity of the inscription (not the fibula) has been controversial in recent research for over a century, as the exact circumstances of the find have not been clarified. The primer was first presented to the public in 1887 by the archaeologist Wolfgang Helbig , without explaining its origin or acquisition at the time. Even Helbig himself was suspected of being a forgery. While the authenticity of the fibula had long been considered certain, the authenticity of the inscription remained controversial. Graphological studies could at least confirm that Helbig was not the author of the inscription. The dispute has been considered to have been finally decided in favor of authenticity since 2011, based on the detailed investigations by Edilberto Formigli and Daniela Ferro, which also date the first half of the 7th century BC. Delivered. For example, Formigli, who also restored Riace's bronze figure A , was able to detect crystal structures of gold in some cracks in the letters, which took a very long time to form.

literature

Bullettino di Paletnologia Italiana. Volume 99, 2011-2014: La Fibula Prenestina. Espera, Rome 2015.
Franz Wieacker : The Manios inscription from Präneste. On an exemplary controversy. In: News from the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen. Philological-historical class. Year 1984, pp. 373-399.
Edilberto Formigli: Indagini archeometriche sull'autenticità della Fibula Praenestina. In: Roman communications . Volume 99, 1992, pp. 329-343.
Markus Hartmann: The early Latin inscriptions and their dating. A linguistic-archaeological-paleographic investigation . Hempen, Bremen 2005, ISBN 978-3-934106-47-5 , pp. 67-106 ( review ).
Karin Geppert: Manios. In: Rainer Vollkommer (Hrsg.): Künstlerlexikon der Antike . Volume 1: A-K. Saur, Munich / Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-598-11413-3 , pp. 486-487.
Carlo De Simone : Ancora sulla Fibula Praenestina (e fine). In: Simo Örmä, Kaj Sandberg (ed.): Wolfgang Helbig e la scienza dell'antichità del suo tempo. Atti del Convegno internazionale in occasione del 170 ° compleanno di Wolfgang Helbig (= Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae . Volume 37). Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, Rome 2011, pp. 229-235.

Web links

Commons : Fibula Praenestinae - collection of images, videos and audio files

Illustration of the fibula prenestina

Individual evidence

↑ Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 1², 3 = CIL 14, 4123.1.
^ Hermann Röhl: Inscriptiones Graecae antiquissimae. Reimer, Berlin 1882, p. 46 No. 131 from Tanagra ( digitized version ).
^ Michel Lejeune : Notes de linguistique italique, XX: Notes sur la ponctuation syllabique de vénète et de l'étrusque méridional. In: Revue des Études Latines. Volume 43, 1965, pp. 164-180, here pp. 170 f.
^ Arnoldo Momigliano: The Origin of Rome: III Settlement, Society and Culture in Latium and at Rome . In: IES Edwards (ed.): The Cambridge Ancient History VII. Part 2: The Rise of Rome to 220 BC . 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1989, ISBN 978-0-521-23446-7 , pp. 73-74 .
^ Daniele F. Maras: Scientists declare the Fibula Prenestina and its inscription to be genuine "beyond any reasonable doubt." In: Etruscan News. Number 14/2, 2012, p. 1. 20 ( online ).
↑ Maria-Aurora von Hase Salto: On the authenticity of the Praenestiner Maniosfibel and its inscription. In: Ancient World . Number 6/2011, pp. 82-85.

[1] Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 1², 3 = CIL 14, 4123.1.

[2] Hermann Röhl: Inscriptiones Graecae antiquissimae. Reimer, Berlin 1882, p. 46 No. 131 from Tanagra ( digitized version ).

[3] Michel Lejeune : Notes de linguistique italique, XX: Notes sur la ponctuation syllabique de vénète et de l'étrusque méridional. In: Revue des Études Latines. Volume 43, 1965, pp. 164-180, here pp. 170 f.

[4] Arnoldo Momigliano: The Origin of Rome: III Settlement, Society and Culture in Latium and at Rome . In: IES Edwards (ed.): The Cambridge Ancient History VII. Part 2: The Rise of Rome to 220 BC . 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1989, ISBN 978-0-521-23446-7 , pp. 73-74 .

[5] Daniele F. Maras: Scientists declare the Fibula Prenestina and its inscription to be genuine "beyond any reasonable doubt." In: Etruscan News. Number 14/2, 2012, p. 1. 20 ( online ).

[6] Maria-Aurora von Hase Salto: On the authenticity of the Praenestiner Maniosfibel and its inscription. In: Ancient World . Number 6/2011, pp. 82-85.