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Quatrain / Couplet of Basel: Example of a Plea for Gifts

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2013

Abstract

The article can be considered a continuity of research initiated by Diego Ardoino in 2012 as it expands the relationship between a colophon and a Prussian text in yet a different respect. The inscription in the Prussian language is understood as a piece of singing or recitative folklore (quatrain), which is very akin to Christmas carols (and other calendar pieces of the house-tohouse visiting ritual).

Both a figure of a bowing man (with a stretched hand) and a German note, which, together with the Prussian inscription, make a peculiar continuity of the colophon, can be associated with the context of Christmas carolling and pleading for gifts. It supports the previous assumption that the rewriter who transcribed the work by Nicola Oresme was Prussian.

The author proposes a slightly different linguistic interpretation of the Prussian text.