Tombstone Inscription (Oria, Italy)

Unknown

Second Half of the 8th Century

Photo of a weathered square stone slab inscribed with six lines of Latin. — This tombstone bears both a Latin inscription (“[H]ic requiescit d[omi]na [nomine] e[s]t Anna fil[i]a R Guliu etate LVI anni LVI”; Here lies the mistress Anna, daughter of R. Julius, aged 56 years) and a Hebrew one (for a translation of the rhymed Hebrew text, see Documents and Inscriptions).

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Upright stone slab engraved with ten rows of vowelless Hebrew roughly inscribed and separated by lines. — This tombstone bears both a Latin inscription (“[H]ic requiescit d[omi]na [nomine] e[s]t Anna fil[i]a R Guliu etate LVI anni LVI”; Here lies the mistress Anna, daughter of R. Julius, aged 56 years) and a Hebrew one (for a translation of the rhymed Hebrew text, see Documents and Inscriptions).

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Upright stone slab engraved with a simple relief of a horn. — This tombstone bears both a Latin inscription (“[H]ic requiescit d[omi]na [nomine] e[s]t Anna fil[i]a R Guliu etate LVI anni LVI”; Here lies the mistress Anna, daughter of R. Julius, aged 56 years) and a Hebrew one (for a translation of the rhymed Hebrew text, see Documents and Inscriptions).

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This tombstone for a woman named Hannah (Anna in the vernacular), the daughter of R. Julius, was found in Oria, a town in southern Italy. The text presents her as both Hannah (her Hebrew name) and Anna (the Latin or vernacular equivalent). The Hebrew text, written in six rhyming lines, speaks of Hannah’s steadfast observance of the commandments, while the shorter Latin inscription simply gives her name. The top face of the stone has the Latin text (see “Tombstone [Oria, Italy]” in Visual and Material Culture). Three sides of the limestone pedestal are decorated with two menorahs and a shofar, and the fourth has the Hebrew epitaph, composed by someone called Samuel (this is known from an acrostic). It is evident from the angle of the carvings that the artisan was more comfortable with Hebrew than Latin; for example, he seems to have written from right to left even when inscribing the Latin, which also has orthographical mistakes.

Latin:

Here rests Lady Anna, daughter of Rabbi Julius, age 56 years.

Hebrew:

Here lies a prudent woman, ready in all the precepts of the faith. May she find the benevolent face of God upon the reawakening; who can count [the progeny of Jacob]? She who died is Hannah, age 56 years.

Translated by Linda Safran.

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Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

Credits

Courtesy Biblioteca De Pace-Lombardi from Oria in Brindisi, Italy. Photo by Antonio Carone.
Courtesy Biblioteca De Pace-Lombardi from Oria in Brindisi, Italy. Photo by Antonio Carone.
Courtesy Biblioteca De Pace-Lombardi from Oria in Brindisi, Italy. Photo by Antonio Carone.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.