Latin inscription recording the consecration of three churches: of Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030) by Bishop Paul of Acci in 594; of *John the Baptist (S00020) at an unspecified date; and of *Vincent/Vincentius (deacon of Zaragoza and martyr of Valencia, S00290) by Bishop Lilliolus of Acci in 607. The church of Stephen, and probably also the other two, were in 'Nativola', an unidentified place, presumably in the diocese of Acci (modern Guadix, southern Hispania). Said to have been found in Granada.
Evidence ID
E07397
Type of Evidence
Inscriptions - Formal inscriptions (stone, mosaic, etc.)
1 [In nomin]e D(e)i n(o)s(tr)i I(es)u (Christ)i consacrata est
[e]clesia S(an)c(t)i Stefani primi martyris
in locum Nativola a s(an)c(t)o Paulo Accitano pont(i)f(i)c(e)
die <vac. 10> an(no) <vac. 1-2> d(omi)ni n(o)s(tr)i VVittirici reg(i)s
5 er(a) DCXLV <hedera> item consacrata est eclesia
S(an)c(t)i Iohann(is) Baptiste <vac. c. 15?>
<vac. 1 whole line>
item consacrata est eclesia S(an)c(t)i Vicentii
martyris Valentin(i) a S(an)c(t)o Lilliolo Accitano pont(i)f(i)c(e)
[d(ie) -1-2-] Kal(endas) Febr(uarias) an(no) VIII gl(oriosissimi) d(omi)ni Reccaredi reg(i)s er(a) DCXXXII.
10 H(a)ec s(an)c(t)a tria tabernacula in gloriam Trinitatis [s(an)c(t)]i(ssi)mae
cohoperantib(us) s(an)c(t)is aedificata sunt ab inl(ustri) Gudiliv[-8?-]
cum operarios uernolos et sumptu proprio [-8?-]
'In the name of our God Jesus Christ, the church of saint Stephen the First Martyr was consecrated in the place called Nativola by the holy pontiff Paul of Acci on the day ... in the year ... of our lord king Witteric, in the year 645 of the Era [=AD 607]. also the church of John the Baptist was consecrated ... Also the church of saint Vincent, martyr of Valencia was consecrated by the holy pontiff Liliolus of Acci on the 11th day before the Kalends of February in the 8th year of the most glorious lord king Reccared in the year 632 of the Era [=AD 594]. These three holy tabernacles were built to the glory of the most holy Trinity with the co-operation of the saints by Gudiliv[...] by his own slaves and at his own expense.'
Text: Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum vol. II2, part 5, no. 652
Translation: M. Szada
Liturgical Activities
Ceremony of dedication
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Places Named after SaintChurch
Non Liturgical ActivityConstruction of cult buildings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesAristocrats
Source
The inscription is a white marble slab with its lower right corner cut away and missing, indicating reuse, probably as a pavement slab (Gimeno Pascual and Carbonell i Manlis 2010, 84). According to 17th-century sources, it was discovered in Granada in the 1570s on the site of the newly built church of the Virgin Mary in Alhambra (the earliest reference is in a work by Luis de la Cueva 'Diálogos de las cosas notables de Granada' from 1603). Currently in the Museo Nacional Hispano Musulmán de Granada.Discussion
The interpretation of the inscription has triggered much debate among scholars. According to Francisco Bermudez de Pedraza, writing in 1638, the inscription was unearthed at the site where the church of the Virgin Mary was built (earlier information from 1608, however, states that the inscription was found somewhere in the palace of Alhambra). This was accepted by the editors of CIL and by Hübner, but raised a problem: why was there an inscription in Granada recording the dedication of churches in Nativola, an unidentified place that was presumably in the diocese of Acci (modern Guadix), a neighbouring city and bishopric to Granada, but over forty kilometres away? Scholars of the 17th century argued that 'Nativola' was an ancient name of Alhambra, but this was based on a rather creative interpretation of the ancient sources (see Gimeno Pasucal and Carbonell i Manlis 2010, 79-83). Duval 1991 argued that the inscription was moved from its original location to Granada when it was reused. Gimeno Pascual and Carbonell i Manlis 2010, 75-79 argued instead that the inscription's discovery in Granada was invented in the 17th century to reinforce a narrative of Christian and Roman antiquity in the city, which was still heavily marked by its relatively recent Muslim past. Both proposals solve the problem of the two different sites: 'Nativola' (which was surely in the diocese of Acci), where the dedications recorded in the inscription took place; and Granada, where the inscription was supposedly found. Velázquez (2007, 262; AETHAM 360) notes, however, that the language of the inscription (naming the place where the three churches were consecrated, rather than omitting the place-name or simply saying 'hic (here)') could indicate that it was set up somewhere other than in Nativola, and so perhaps in Granada; this suggestion, though attractive, raises the question of why a record of distant dedications was made.The gaps in the inscription in the place of the dates are also puzzling: short, and regarding detail, in the case of the church of Stephen; long, leaving even the year and the consecrating bishop unrecorded, in the case of that of the Baptist. They are not erasures, but were left by the original makers of the inscription (see the photograph). Duval 1991, 813-14 surmised that the date of the consecration of the church of the Baptist is missing because the inscription was placed before the event actually happened: it announced something that was to take place in the future. However, if this were true, it would be strange that the text about this unfinished church was inserted between the notice about two churches that had already been built and consecrated; it would make sense to place its consecration between 594 and 607. Furthermore, Gimeno Pascual and Carbonell i Manlis 2010, 86 suggest that the qualification of the two bishops as sancti indicates that both were dead at the time the inscription was written.
Another difficulty concerns the churches listed. There are three churches dedicated to saints - one to Stephen, one to John the Baptist and one to Vincent. It is uncertain in which of these churches the inscription was placed and what kind of relationship existed between these three buildings (perhaps the church of the Baptist was a baptistery of a church complex? see Duval 1991, 815n21; Gimeno Pascual and Carbonell i Manlis 2010, 87). It is also unclear what is meant by the 'three tabernacles'. It has usually been assumed that it refers to the three churches mentioned in the upper part of the inscription (Duval 1991, 815). However, the term tabernaculum is rare in epigraphy in relation to churches (Duval 1991, 815 n18 refers to a parallel from Africa and suggests that this may be an allusion to the 'three tabernacles' of Matthew 17:4). Gimeno Pascual and Carbonell i Manlis 2010, 88-92 suggested instead - also citing epigraphic parallels - that tabernacula here means 'chapels' built privately by the Gudiliv[...] mentioned at the end of the inscription, and that they were probably different from the churches mentioned above.
The oddity of the inscription - the combination of several sacred buildings in one inscription; the division into two parts by a blank line; the missing date in the text referring to the church of John the Baptist - led Gimeno Pascual and Carbonell i Manlis 2010, 94-96 to theorise that the inscription was copied from the manuscript tradition into stone, although the original inscriptions are not preserved, similar to what may have happened in the case of the inscription in San Juan de Baños E07416.
Bibliography
Editions:Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum II2/5, 652
E. Diehl, Inscriptiones Latinae Christianae Veteres, Berlin 1925-1931, no. 1815
M. Pastor Muñoz, Á. Mendoza Eguaras, Inscripciones latinas de la provincia de Granada, Granada, 1987, no. 152
E. Hübner, Inscriptiones Hispaniae Christianae, Berlín, 1871, no. 115
Online:
Hispania Epigraphica online, no. 2590, https://eda-bea.es/
Archivo Epigráfico de Hispania Tardoantigua y Medieval (AEHTAM), no. 360, http://hesperia.ucm.es/consulta_aehtam/ (with further bibliography)
Further reading:
Gimeno Pascual, Helena and Joan Carbonell i Manlis, "A vueltas con la placa de Nativola (CIL II5/5, 652). Nuevos elementos para la reflexión", Sylloge Epigraphica Barcinonensis 8 (2010), 73–96
A. Canto, "Inscripcion commemorativa de tres iglesias", [in:] Arte islámico en Granada. Propuesta para un Museo de la Alhambra, Granada 1995, 343-346
Duval, Yvette, "Nativola-les-trois-églises (évêché d’Acci, 594-607) d’après Vives, ICERV, 303", Mélanges de l’école française de Rome 103, no. 2 (1991), 807–20
Velázquez, Isabel, "Baselicas multas miro opere construxit (VSPE 5.1.1). El valor de las fuentes literarias y epigráficas sobre la edilicia religiosa en la Hispania Visigoda", Hortus Artium Medievalium 13, no. 2 (2007), 261–69
Images
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A. Canto, 1995, p. 343
Record Created By
Marta Szada
Date of Entry
04/08/2024
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | Iohannes Babtista | Certain | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Stefanus primus martyr | Certain | S00290 | Vincentius/Vincent, deacon of Zaragoza and martyr of Valencia | Vincentius martyr Valentinus | Certain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Marta Szada, Cult of Saints, E07397 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07397