Scriptor scribebat et pulcram puellam in mente tenebat: la fin de l’inscription peinte de Dârjiu (1419)
Scriptor scribebat et pulcram puellam in mente tenebat: la fin de l’inscription peinte de Dârjiu (1419)

Summary/Abstract: The Dârjiu church (today in the Harghita County, Romania) was built in the thirteenth century, but most of the surviving structure dates from the fifteenth century. The extant fragments of the mural painting also date from the fifteenth century. The inscription painted in the church mentions the painter’s name and that of his patron, but it also conveys a profane message: the love of the anonymous scribe for a lovely girl (pulcra puella). Art historians advanced as an explanation for this, rather exotic inscription, the hypothetical influences of the Italian Trecento and Quattrocento. However, the present study suggests a fresh approach by comparing the ending of the Dârjiu inscription with similar formulas attested in manuscript colophons. Thus, the Dârjiu inscription seems related to some manuscript colophons, intensively used in the fifteenth century German lands, such as qui me scribebat… nomen habebat and detur pro penna scriptori pulchra puella. By demanding such real or imaginary rewards, the medieval scribes have left a clear trace of their own presence or personality. Therefore, the present study argues that the ending of the Dârjiu inscription was influenced by the analogue German formulas used in medieval colophons.

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