LGADW/1

Corpus Refs:Macalister/1949:970
Nash-Williams/1950:13
Site:LGADW
Discovery:first mentioned, 1700 Lhuyd, E.
History:First mentioned by Edward Lhuyd in Lhuyd/1700, 22, 790.

Jones/1846b, 165, 'On the lintel of the southern doorway in the nave'.

Still said to be there by Westwood/1879, 190.

Macalister/1945, 129, 'It is now built into the inner face of the N. wall of the nave, where it is set so that the writing runs horizontally.'

Nash-Williams/1950, 57, 'Inside church, built into N. wall of nave near built-up N. door'.

National Museum of Wales cast No. 02.160.

Geology:
Dimensions:1.23 x 0.51 x 0.01 (converted from Macalister/1949)
Setting:in struct
Location:on site
Nash-Williams/1950, 57: `Inside church, built into N wall of nave near built-up N door.'
Form:cross-marked
Condition:incomplete , good
Folklore:none
Crosses:1: latin; linear; straight; expanded; square; none; none; other; n/a
Decorations:no other decoration

References


Inscriptions


LGADW/1/1     Pictures

Readings

Macalister, R.A.S. (1949):CATAMANUS | REXSAPIENTISI | MUSOPINATISIM |US OMNIUMREG | UM
Expansion:
CATAMANUS REX SAPIENTISSIMUS OPINATISIMUS OMNIUM REGUM
Macalister/1949 129 reading only
Nash-Williams, V.E. (1950):CATAMANUS | REXSAPIENTISI | MUSOPINATISIM |US OMNIUMREG | UM
Expansion:
CATAMANUS REX SAPIENTISSIMUS OPINATISSIMUS OMNIUM REGUM
Translation:
King Catamanus (PN), wisest (and) most renowned of all kings (lies here).

Notes

Orientation:vertical down
Position:n/a ; broad ; below cross ; undivided
The top of the stone is the cross, which would have been upright when the stone was vertical. Below this lies the five lines of text which take up most of the face of the stone, but leaving a 'margin' at the bottom of the stone.
Incision:inc
Macalister/1949, 129, 'lettering cut and rubbed in very broad lines, roughly and irregularly drawn'.
Nash-Williams/1950, 57, 'coarsely picked'.
Date:625 - 625 (Radford/1937b)
Radford/1937b, cvi: ` Cadfan died about 625, which is approximately the date of the stone'.
625 - 625 (Nash-Williams/1950)

625 - 625 (Nash-Williams/1938)

600 - 625 (Macalister/1949)

625 - 625 (Edwards/1986)

625 - 660 (Alcock/1989)
Alcock/1989, 244, 'it is possible that the memorial was not actually set up until Cadfan's grandson Cadwaladr founded the church at Llangadwaladr late in his reign'.
660 - 660 (Redknap/1991)

766 - 799 (Stein/1980)
Stein/1980, 11, 149, note 27, 'a memorial to a long-dead king, erected after Wales had been influenced by Anglo-Saxon forms in the late eighth century'. She also argues that o date it to the time of Cadfan's death 'is to give Wales priority over both Ireland and Northumbria in the invention of the Insular majuscule hand'.
600 - 699 (Jenkins/Owen/1983)

650 - 650 (Jackson/1953)
Jackson/1953, 161, 'it may even be doubtful whether the Catamanus stone was actually erected on the death of Cadfan. The church where it stands was founded by his grand-son Cadwaladr, who dies in 664; and it is quite conceivable that the memorial was raised at the same time, say about 650, as part of the ceremony'.
625 - 625 (Bischoff/1990)

600 - 633 (Davies/1982)
Language:Latin (rbook)
Ling. Notes:RCAHMW/1937, cv-cvi, 'the spelling sapientisimus and opinatisimus is characteristic in Insular script in the 7th and 8th centuries'. The classical spelling would be with 'ss'.

Macalister/1930, 465, argues that the repetition of 'rex' and 'regum' is 'an awkward tautology in Latin', but that this repitition is 'quite in order in a Celtic sentence'.

For the name Catamanus itself see the Name memo.

Palaeography:Nash-Williams/1950, 57 '...mixed Roman capitals (C, I, N, O, X) and half-uncials'. Although his assignment of the letters I, O, and X to capitals rather than to half-uncial should be seen as uncertain.

Bischoff/1990, 89, 'shows a mixture of half-uncial with forms of a and m that reappear in the Irish-Northumbrian decorative capitals.'

Redknap/1991, 53, 'a mixture of Roman capitals and half-uncial letter forms'.

RCAHMW/1937, civ, cvi, 'The A is a more ornate form of that noted at Heneglwys. The N with the cross-bar near the centre of the uprights and the square U occur in Gallic inscriptions after about 450; the second M in line 4 in the first half of the 6th century. For the E see Heneglwys. The H G, R, S and T are derived from the half-uncial book hand used in Gaul during the sixth century. The M in the 1st, 3rd and 5th lines is copied from the N...the lettering is the latest in the series in Anglesey'.

Jackson/1953, 160--161, 'almost pure MS half-uncials...Typologically it is the latest of all the inscriptions of the early group'.

For earlier palaeographic discussion see Westwood and Brash in Jones/1846b, 165-167, Westwood in Jones/1846c, 302-305, and Hughes/1924, 49-57.

It seems that the spread of the 'A' in the third line into the 4th line meant that the letters 'um' of regum had to be pushed onto a fifth line. The first four lines are all the same width, while the first two lines have larger letters than the next three.

Legibility:good
Macalister/1949, 129, 'condition good and reading certain'.
Lines:5
Carving errors:1
Doubtful:no

Names

References