ISic001647: Funerary epitaph for a wife

Apparatus criticus

• Text after ILipara (in turn mostly following Manganaro), controlled against photograph; interpuncts are omitted in I.Lipara.;
• 1: ILipara: [Greg]oriae † <p>iae
  
• 7: ILipara: [---]GVS

Physical description

Support

Description

A rectangular marble plaque, broken into multiple fragments, of which five survive and join. The upper left corner and the left side are missing.

Object type

plaque

Material

marble

Condition

fragments, contiguous

Dimensions

height: 34.6 cm, width: 33.5 cm, depth: 3 cm

Inscription

Layout

The text is laid out over seven lines, somehwat unevenly spaced and sized, largest in lines 3-5, smallest in the final line, with some use of interpuncts.

Text condition

incomplete

Lettering

Letter heights

Line 1: 26-29mm

Line 2: 31-32mm

Line 3: 32-37mm

Line 4: 30-35mm

Line 5: 30-40mm

Line 6: 22-30mm

Line 7: 10-17mm

Interlinear heights

Interlineation line 1 to 2: mm

Provenance

Place of origin

Lipara

Provenance found

Found in Contrada Ponte (prop. Palamara) in unknown circumstances in 1949

Map

Current location

Place

Lipari, Italy

Repository

Museo Archeologico Regionale Eoliano "Luigi Bernab� Brea" , 143

Autopsy

Seen on display in Lipara museum 2023-07-28 (Prag)

Map

Date

Evidence

lettering, textual-context

Text type

funerary

commentary

The readings of lines 1 and 2 are far from certain. In line 1, the fifth character is uncertain, read by some as a cross, by others as an E (a vertical, with a clear foot, and then crossed by a diagonal stroke halfway up); The sixth letter is variously read as an E, an F or an unclear P. It is difficult to read the fifth as a cross, and the sixth seems to be a P. But the alternative reading of e.g. Ferrua, of [Bonae memo]riae ..., where the name stands across the end of line 1 and into line 2 seems very plausible. The second character of line 2 is also unclear, two strong straight diagonal strokes, forming a backward C. Manganaro and others read NDE (presumably in ligature), as presented here, but this is also far from certain. A backwards C would permit the abbreviation for e.g. G(aiae), (as suggested by Calderone, Agnello and Bernarbo Brea), but the following letter is clearly E (or F), not L. The name of the commemorating husband at the start of line 7 seems clearly to end in -gus, not -cus (comparison with the other Cs in lines 2 and 5 seems clear); Manganaro suggested Mergus.

Bibliography

Digital editions

• TM: 494045
• EDR: -
• EDH: -
• EDCS: 12700076
• PHI: 334900

Printed editions

• S. Calderone, «Analecta epigraphica liparensia», Epigraphica 11 (1949): 49–60, at 58-59 ph
• S.L. Agnello, Silloge di iscrizioni paleocristiane della Sicilia (Rome, 1953), at no.86
• Antonio Ferrua, Note e giunte alle iscrizioni cristiane antiche della Sicilia (Vatican, 1989), at no.532
• Giacomo Manganaro, «Greco nei pagi e latino nelle città della Sicilia romana tra I e VI sec. d.C.», in l’epigrafia del villaggio, a c. di A. Calbi, A. Donati, e G. Poma (Faenza, 1993), 543–94, at 591-592 fig.34-35
• L. Bernabò Brea, M. Cavalier, e L. Campagna, Meligunìs Lipára. XII. Le iscrizioni lapidarie greche e latine delle isole eolie (Palermo: Mario Grispo Editore, 2003), at 792

Citation and editorial status

Editor

Jonathan Prag

Principal contributor

Jonathan Prag

Contributors

• Jonathan Prag
• James Cummings
• James Chartrand
• Valeria Vitale
• Michael Metcalfe
• Simona Stoyanova
• system

Last revision

4/9/2025