Veronese Riddle


The Veronese Riddle is a riddle written in either Medieval Latin or early Romance on the Verona Orational, probably in the 8th or early 9th century, by a Christian monk from Verona, in northern Italy. It is an example of a writing-riddle, a popular genre in the Middle Ages and still in circulation in recent times. Discovered by Luigi Schiaparelli in 1924, it may be the earliest extant example of Romance writing in Italy.

Text, translation and interpretation

The riddle is written in two lines without word divisions. A semi-diplomatic transcription is as follows:
Monteverdi 1937 argues that the riddle is structured as two poetic lines of rhythmic hexameter.
A literal translation reads:
The subject of the sentence, which is left implicit, is generally assumed to be a ploughman. The solution of the riddle then consists of identifying this ploughman with the writer or scribe himself: the oxen are a metaphor for his fingers, which draw a feather across the page, leaving a trail of ink.
There are a few complications to the interpretation of the first clause. The translation above is based on assuming that is a form of the verb parare 'lead' and is a reflexive pronoun. instead takes the verb as a form of parere 'seem', and accordingly translates "se pareba boves" as "it seemed like oxen".
The placement of the word at the start of the sentence violates an observed generalization about the position of proclitic pronouns in medieval Romance languages, called the Tobler-Mussafia law. Instead of a pronoun, has sometimes been read as an adverb derived from Latin sic, or as a prefix forming a word like. However, concludes the word is most likely a pronoun, but one that functions grammatically as a weak tonic form rather than a proclitic.
In his biography of Charlemagne, Johannes Fried states that the first two lines refer specifically to stretching the vellum and coating it with chalk in preparation for writing.

History of the manuscript

The Riddle was written in Verona at the end of the eighth century or beginning of the ninth on a page of a preexisting liturgical text, the Verona Orational. The parchment is a Mozarabic oration by the Spanish Christian Church, probably written in Toledo. The book was brought from there to Cagliari and then to Pisa before reaching the Chapter of Verona.
The riddle was probably written by a scribe as a probatio pennae. It was discovered by Schiapparelli in 1924.
Beneath the riddle, the page contains another line, unquestionably in Latin, which reads "✝ gratias tibi agimus omnips sempiterne ds". Based on the handwriting, interprets this as a second note written by a separate scribe.

Linguistic traits

The text diverges from Classical Latin in the following traits, which can be considered vernacular features.
  • Phonetic differences:
  • * Omission of final -t in the verbs pareba, araba, teneba, seminaba
  • * Use of -e- in place of Classical Latin short -i- in the first syllable of negro
  • * Use of -o in place of Classical Latin -um at the end of the words albo, versorio and negro
  • Differences in vocabulary:
  • * Use of the term versorio for "plough" ; this can be found in today's Veronese dialect
  • * Use of the term pratalia for "fields", also a Veronese lexeme
  • * Use of the verb parar for 'push on', 'drive', 'lead'. The form shows replacement of the first-conjugation vowel -a- with the second-/third-conjugation vowel -e-, a change that is attested occasionally in imperfect verb forms in some Romance dialects.
On the other hand, in a few aspects the text appears to share features with Classical Latin as opposed to vernacular speech:
  • Use of -b- instead of -v- in the imperfect verbs pareb'a, araba, teneba, seminaba. This is presumably a historical spelling of the sound.
  • Use of final -n in semen
Some features of the text are shared with Classical Latin, but can also be found to some extent in vernacular languages of Italy:
  • The noun boves is identical to the Latin accusative masculine plural form, rather than displaying a vocalic plural ending. Michele A. Cortelazzo and Ivano Paccagnella say that the plural -es of boves may well be considered Ladin and therefore a genuine Romance plural rather than a Latinism.
  • As in Latin, the neuter plural ending -a is found on both the noun and adjective in alba pratali'a. Remnants of -a as a neuter plural adjective ending are attested in some early vernacular Italo-Romance texts, although in Old Veronese such forms are rare and mostly restricted to phrases where a unit of measure was combined with a numeral.
  • The adjective albo 'white' is not necessarily a Latinism. It corresponds to the Classical Latin lexeme albus, but is also attested in Old Italian, in competition with the Germanic bianco which eventually ousted it from its place in everyday speech in most of Italy.

    Identity of its language

There has been debate over what language the riddle is written in and to what extent the author intended to represent a language distinct from Latin. It has been variously argued to be a Latin text with vernacular influence, a conscious representation of a Veronese "volgare", or a Latin-Romance hybrid.
Though initially hailed as the earliest document in a vernacular of Italy in the first years following Schiapparelli's discovery, today the record has been disputed by many scholars from Bruno Migliorini to Cesare Segre and Francesco Bruni, who have placed it at the latest stage of Vulgar Latin, though this very term is far from being clear-cut, and Migliorini himself considers it dilapidated. At present, the Placito Capuano is considered to be the oldest undisputed example of Romance writing in Italy.