DFYNG/1

Corpus Refs:Macalister/1945:328
Nash-Williams/1950:44
Site:DFYNG
Discovery:first mentioned, 1853 inc
History:Rhys/1873, 10: `Sept. 4. -- This morning, owing to illness at home, I was obliged to return to North Wales without going, as I intended, to Devynock'.
Geology:Macalister/1945, 317: `red sandstone'.
Dimensions:1.68 x 0.25 x 0.15 (converted from Macalister/1945)
Setting:in struct
Location:earliest
Macalister/1945, 317: `built in, beneath a string course, on the external face of the church tower, at the S.W. angle, and 9' 6" from the ground'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 71: `Built into external SW angle of church tower.'

Form:cross-marked
Nash-Williams/1950, 69, 71: `Roughly quadrangular pillar-stone...later reset in the ground head downwards'.
Condition:incomplete , some
Macalister/1945, 317: `The stone has been trimmed by masons, and is so placed that the lettering of the Roman inscription is upside-down'.
Folklore:none
Crosses:1: equal-armed; outline; straight; plain; circular; circular; outer curv; none; plain
Decorations:geometric other

Westwood/1876, 66: `The ornamental details represent two crosses with equal-sized limbs, both of rather elegant design, although it is to be regretted that the mason, in order to fit the stone for its required position, has chiselled off part of the patterns on one side. This however is not to be wondered at in a district where the mutilation of sepulchral slabs was in times past carried on to such a disgraceful extent as I have nowhere else witnessed'.

Macalister/1945, 318: `At one end of the stone there is a cross in a circle and a square ornament. Near the other end there is a groove crossing the exposed face of the stone, possibly as a guide to indicate the ground-line, to those who set the stone in position. This groove was cut before the inscription, for the A in the first line has been bent to avoid running into it. The cross and the inscriptions cannot be contemporary, for when the former was exposed the latter was buried and vice versa: the groove belongs, therefore, to the cross, and the cross is earlier than the inscriptions'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 71: `The stone was later reset in the ground head downwards and the (original) butt-end decorated with a lightly carved double-beaded quadruple triangular panel above an incised outline ring-cross (Fig. 5, 36). A chisel-picked line cut transversely through the inscription (at the level of the left-hand strokes of the A in l.1 and the first N in l.2) probably marked the limit of the new butt'.

References


Inscriptions


DFYNG/1/1     Pictures

Readings

Macalister, R.A.S. (1945):--][T][--][Q][--][D][--
Expansion:
[RUGNIA]T[IA] [MA]Q[I] [VEN]D[ONI]
Macalister/1945 317--318 concise discussion
Nash-Williams, V.E. (1950):n/a
Expansion:
n/a
Nash-Williams/1950 69 listing

Notes

Orientation:vertical indeterminate
Position:n/a ; arris ; beside cross ; undivided
On the left arris as one looks at the stone with the cross uppermost.

Nash-Williams/1950, 69: `Possible vestiges of Ogams appear on the r. angle of the face'.

Incision:inc
Date:None published
Language:Indeterminate (ogham)
Ling. Notes:none
Palaeography:Macalister/1945, 318: `Ogham, almost all of which was trimmed away by the masons. Only the tips of three letters lying upon the H-surface remain: the interspaces indicate that the Ogham was exactly equivalent to the Latin (substituting A for the final O of the first word). This is shown by a diagram'.
Legibility:poor
Illegible.
Lines:1
Carving errors:n
Doubtful:yes

Names

References


DFYNG/1/2     Pictures

Readings

Macalister, R.A.S. (1945):RVGNIATIO | --]LIVENDONI
Expansion:
RVGINATIO [FI]LI VENDONI
Macalister/1945 317--318 concise discussion
Nash-Williams, V.E. (1950):RVGNIATIO | [--FI]LI VENDONI
Expansion:
RUGNIATIO(S) [--FI]LI UENDONI
Translation:
(The stone) of Rugniatis (PN), son of Vendonius (PN).
Nash-Williams/1950 69 reading only

Notes

Orientation:vertical down
Position:n/a ; broad ; n/a ; undecorated
Nash-Williams/1950, 69: `The Latin inscription is in two lines reading (originally) vertically downwards'.
Incision:inc
Nash-Williams/1950, 69: `lightly picked'.
Date:400 - 533 (Nash-Williams/1950)
Nash-Williams/1950, 69: `5th-early 6th century AD'.
Language:Latin (rcaps)
Ling. Notes:none
Palaeography:Westwood/1876, 65--66: `In my description of the stone (Arch. Camb., 1858, p. 164) I stated that I could only satisfactorily make out the letters V G N I A in the upper line, the first of which was preceded by a letter which in my figure I delineated as a P, the A being followed by strokes which appeared to me to be intended for C I O, which were however nearly effaced. The second line is clearly LIVENDONI.

The letters are for the most part tolerably good Roman capitals. The G in the top line is however of the uncial form, and the L at the beginning of the second line is unusual, from having the bottom angle rounded so as to resemble an upright minuscule l.

It has subsequently suggested itself to my mind that the commencement of the second line has, like part of the ornamental work, been chiselled away, and that the LI are portions of the word FILI, leaving the remainder, VENDONI, as the proper name of the father of the person commemorated. A repeated examination of my rubbings (confirmed by a visit to the stone in July, 1877) shows an oblique stroke on the right side of the first letter of the upper line, which I had thought might be a P, making it a R, as has been suggested by Prof. Rhys (Arch. Camb., 1874, p. 332), who further suggests that the first name seems to be RUGNIAVTO, with the top of the T very faint, but he does not think it can be Rugniavio. The stone is however so imperfect in this part that only guesses can be made as to its true reading. I cannot however believe the two marks following the A (the second of which is upright) to be intended for u, because that letter is clearly made of the v form in both rows of letters'.

Macalister/1945, 318: `Roman letters'.

Nash-Williams/1950, 69: `Roman capitals'.

Legibility:some
Lines:2
Carving errors:n
Doubtful:no

Names

References