The Roman Map of
Britain Medieval Latin Orthography and Errors
in Transmission
with heavy reliance on the works of Bischoff
, Sidwell , and Schnetz
See also W. M. Lindsay, An
Introduction to Latin Textual Emendation
and Stephen R. Reimer, Course
Notes, Manuscript Studies - Medieval and Early Modern
Medieval Latin Orthography
e for ae
and oe
Cesaromago for Caesaromago
i is written for e and vice versa.
o is written for u and vice versa.
y is written for i
and vice versa.
Pilais for Pylais
ci for ti and vice versa
b and u(v)
are confused.
Bindogladia
for Vindocladia
Boluelaunio for Ueluelannio
di (or ti)
before a following vowel or diphthong is written z .
Canza for Cantia
Melezo for Meletio
nct is written nt [and an editorial correction of Punctuobice for Pontibus?]
x (and cx, cxs,
xs) is written s and vice versa.
Deva Victris
for Deva Victrix
g is written for c
and vice versa.
Bindogladia
for Vindocladia
t is written d
and vice versa.
Stadio
for Statio
ct is written for th.
h is omitted or inserted at the beginning of words.
False aspiration : h has c added to it (ch).
Gemination and Simplification: single consonants are often doubled, and doubled consonants are often made single.
Errors in transmission
Text dividers (more properly virgulae
Lat. 'little twigs')
Until the 12th century word division was often haphazard
or entirely lacking. I believe dividers ( | ) were added to
prepare an early example of the Ravenna Cosmography for copying, or were
used in place of the more familiar stops ( : and . and ·). A later
copyist, while aware that dividers were employed, might not recognize all as
such and occasionally take one to be a letter such as i, l, long s,
etc. Conversely, a letter resembling a divider might be taken as such, i.e. an l
taken as /, creating
a wrong division. Further, the copyist may have decided that a letter resembling a
divider was wrongly placed and ignored it altogether, i.e. Ventaslurum for Venta
Silurum, a conflation.
PNRB p.187
chooses Staurinis for Taurinis Turin to illustrate an imagined
fault of the cosmographer. Staurinis is simply /taurinus where the
text divider has been transmitted as a long s. Schnetz, the most recent
editor of the Cosmography felt the S- came from the last letter of
the previous entry Fines.
A text divider may also interact with an adjacent letter. Manulodulo
for Camuloduno can be explained as /C read as M,
or better as //C read as M.
For more on text dividers, see what it the most
comprehensive work on the subject of punctuation, M.B.Parkes Pause and
Effect: An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West (1993).
Wrong division
Camulo dono for Camuloduno
Scadu namorum for Isca
Dumnnoniorum
Conflation : the combining of
two words into one.
Ventaslurum for Venta
Silurum
Metathesis : transposition of
letters, sounds or syllables of a word.
Durbis for Dubris
Condecor for Conderco
Dittography: repeating a syllable within a word.
Durnonovaria for Durnovaria?
Haplography : procope, syncope,
and apocope (respectively, the loss of initial, medial, and final syllable).
Fanocodi for Fanococidi?
Assimilation : the transformation of a spelling to a
more familiar form.
Lectoceto for Letoceto
(L. lectus, It. letto 'bed')
Recognition errors : confusing a letter or letters, for another letter or letters.
Aggregation: consolidating two
letters into one letter.
devionisso statio for clevionisso
statio
Disaggregation: breaking a
letter into two other letters.
Daroecla for Daroeda (for Doerada)
Misread Abbreviations
lm for r (Iacio
Dulma) superscript r broken into l ~ (~ =
m or n)
a or o from û (-um)
canted ~ for l, Manulodulo
for Camuloduno
Absence of context and unfamiliar
names : Context often allows the intended meaning and/or spelling of a word
to be discerned by its relationship to the remainder of the text. Continental
scribes were unfamiliar with the vast majority of the place-names recorded for
Britain. Manulodulo colonia (R&C
99) is recognized as Camuloduno colonia because we are familiar
with both the correct form and the presumed geographical context.
The transition between narrative text and place names in the Ravenna
Cosmography is not always clear. There appear to be instances where a
portion of the narration has been mistaken for a place name and vice versa.
Overall the transcription of the Ravenna Cosmography
must have been a fairly mind-numbing experience for the scribe. Seemingly
endless lists of unfamiliar place names compounded by at best haphazard word
division have taken their toll on the surviving manuscripts.