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Re: Octant Question
From: Brendan Kinch
Date: 2014 Mar 3, 15:09 +0300
From: Brendan Kinch
Date: 2014 Mar 3, 15:09 +0300
It may just be the word ' Maker'.......John, a photo (or photos) would be a great help.
Kinch.
On 3 March 2014 11:21, Luc Van den Borre <luc@nuclide.com> wrote:
On 2/03/2014 23:36, John Karl wrote: > On a frame's cross member (parallel to the arc and roughly half-way > between the arc and the index mirror) is printed . JOH NYMAN . on an > ivory inset. > > On the ivory arc scale at the 95 degree location is printed "Me fser" > and below that it says "LONDON" > > I'm not sure if I'm reading several letters right in the "Me fser". The > f, s, and r are hard to decipher. For example, the r actually look a lot > like a Greek gamma. I'm not even sure if there's meant to be the space > between these six letters... Could it say 'Me fecit', as in 'made me'? Often this 'signum magister' was carved in a medieval font that looks rather odd now, with a very round letter E that could look like an S when worn. The gamma would in fact be a T. For this to make sense there would need to be an I between the last two letters - or possibly the maker wrote 'me fect' and that was acceptable? Here are a few examples: http://elpasiego.foroactivo.com/t21-signum-magister In this case it would say 'Joh. Nyman made me'. Johan(nes) Nyman appears to be a Scandinavian name, possibly Finish. This is as far as my 25 year old Latin skills and Google have been able to take me. Luc