Zu den lateinischen Inschriften der Kirchenglocken in Siebenbürgen (I)
Some Remarks about the Latin Inscriptions on the Bells of Transylvanian Churches (I)

Summary/Abstract: A corpus of 544 bell inscriptions, mostly collected from bibliographical sources (Friedrich Müller, R. Theil, G. D. Teutsch, Friedrich Philippi, Hellmut Klima – for Saxon churches, and Orbán Balázs, Patay Pál, Benkő Elek – for Hungarian ones) are examined from a lexical point of view in order to highlight the relationship between formulae typology and Church history. The text is divided into two kinds of fixed and repeatable formulae items: (A) religious formulae, beginning with the oldest and the most spread, O rex gloriae ueni cum pace, with its variants and combinations; other formulae about Jesus Christ, God the Father, the Holy Trinity, the Virgin and the saints; biblical and liturgical quotations etc; (B) formulae which give information about the casting or recasting year, the caster’s, and later the donor’s, name. The inventory of formulae and the analysis of the terminology referring to casting work are also an attempt to elaborate a tentative chronology by identifying the recurrent elements which may indicate the stages of evolution in the use of formulae. (Part II of the present study in the next issue: Forschungen..., 52/2009).

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