6407B

The Vigilant Crane

Artist: Unidentified Neogranadine Artist
Title: The Vigilant Crane
Date: xxx
Medium: Wood lacquered with Pasto varnish (barniz de Pasto), i.e. wood coated with tinted membranes of mopa-mopa (Elaeagia pastoensis). Countertop ornament, Escritorillo de los Leones.
Location: Francisco Marcos Manzano Collection, Spain.
Photo Source: María Cecilia Álvarez-White
Correspondence Credit: Álvarez-White 2023, 15-153 and Almerindo Ojeda.
Note: The phylacterium in this work says ED ORATE instead of ET ORATE. This substitution cannot be explained graphically due to a confusion between the letters T and D. It can be explained, though, phonologically, as a common case of intervocalic voicing (like the one that accounts for VIGILAD, the Spanish fate of the Latin VIGILATE in the same phylacterium). This suggests that the phrase ED ORATE was taken from an oral rather than a written source. Thus, it might be unpromising to look for an engraved source with the phrase ET ORATE. It is true that one could look for a source with the inscription ED ORATE, but that would be improbable in as learned a source as a printer's device. In short, it seems that the source for this work will include neither ET ORATE nor ED ORATE.
Item: 6407B