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(crux) Quisquis hunc tabule

l[ustra]ris titulum huius

[cern]e locum respice situm

[p(er)spice vic]inum malui abere

[locum sa]c[r]um (vac.)

[sac(er?) ipse m(i)n(is)]ter annis sexsa

[ginta p]eregi tempora

[vite]

(vac.)

[ ..? fun]ere perfunctum s(an)c(t)is

[co]mmendo tuendum

[ut cum] flamma vorax ve

[n]iet conburere terras

cet[i]bus s(an)c(t)orum merito

sociatus resurgam

hic vite curso anno finito

Crispinus pr(e)sb(i)t(er) peccator

in Xp(ist)i pace quiesco era DCC

(vac.) XXXI

(Hispania Epigraphica 397)

(cross) Whoever surveys this inscription of this tablet, look at the place, take note of the site, perceive the neighbour I have chosen to have is a holy place. I myself the holy minister lived through sixty years in my life... after my funeral, I commend (myself) to the saints for protection, so that when the devouring fire comes to burn up the lands, in the company of the deserving saints I shall rise up, having completed my life's course of years, Crispinus, presbyter, sinner, in a peace of Christ I am at rest. Year 731 of the era [= 693 A.D.].

(trans. Cooley 2012: 237)

Discussion:

The date on the inscription is given according to the Spanish Era which began in 38 BC.

The text of the epitaph includes a passage that is a quote from Carmen 26 of Eugenius of Toledo (the epitaph for the queen Recciberga): (Hinc ego te, couniux, quia vincere fata nequivi / funere perfunctam sanctis commendo tunedam, / ut cum flamma vorax veniet comburere terras, / coetibus ipsorum merito sociata resurgas.) See Velázquez 2001: 340-346; Farmhouse Alberto 2010: 99.

Place of event:

Region

Iberian Peninsula

City

Guadamur

About the source:

Origin: Guadamur (Iberian Peninsula)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

The inscription of the Presbyter Crispinus was found on a tomb located near the church in Gaudamur near Toledo (Iberian Peninsula). It was the place where the famous treasure of Guarazzar was found between 1858 and 1861. The inscription is now in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain in Madrid.

The inscription has been published many times in the past and the full bibliography and the variant readings are given in the record no. 397 in the Hispania Epigraphica Online Database.

Edition:

Hispania Epigraphica 397

E.W.E. Hübner, Inscriptiones Hispaniae christianae, Berlin 1871, np. 158 (illustration)

I. Velázquez, Isabel, ''Las inscripciones del tesoro de Guarrazar'', in: A. Perea, El tesoro visigodo de Guarrazar, Madrid 2001, 340-346.

J. Vives, Inscripciones cristianas de la España romana y visigoda, Barcelona 1942, 293.

Translation:

Cooley, A.E. The Cambridge Manual of Latin Epigraphy. Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Bibliography:

P. Farmhouse Alberto, "Epigrafia medieval y poesia visigótica: el caso de Eugenio de Toledo", Sylloge Epigraphica Barcinonensis 8 (2010), 97-108.

J.A. de los Ríos, El Arte latino-bizantino en España y las coronas visigodas de Guarrazar: ensayo histórico-crítico, Madrid 1861.

I. Velazquez, "Las inscripciones del tesoro de Guarrazar", in: A. Perea, El tesoro visigodo de Guarrazar, Madrid 2001, 321-346.

Categories:

Burial/Funerary inscription

PR54.

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

PR54.

Age

PR54.

Further ecclesiastical career - None

PR54.

Devotion - Veneration of saints and relics

PR54.

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER34, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=34