Expert: Maria - 11/26/2008

Question
Hello. I am in the violin business, and I've got an old French violin, circa 1850. It is supposed to be a reproduction of an Italian violin from around 1500.  It has the following inscription around the body:
MARC DEL COMAS DIE LACTYC FREJA GIO IVEBIS
Thanks for your help.

Answer
Hello,

Have you written correctly  such an inscription?

If so, I’m sorry, but it makes no sense at all since it is not in Ancient Greek nor in Latin as the only one word which could be Latin is DIE (ablative case of DIES, 5th.declension) meaning “day”.

In short, if I analyze each word of MARC DEL COMAS DIE LACTYC FREJA GIO IVEBIS I could say that:

-MARC could be the abbreviation of the name MARCUS in Latin or MARCO in Italian.

-DEL seems to be an Italian  preposition (meaning “of the”) which we often find in some Italian surnames.

-COMAS could be the abbreviation of the Italian adjective COMASCO meaning that MARCO is from the town of COMO, in Lombardy, or as a part of a surname. If so,  MARC DEL COMAS could be the name and the surname of the Italian owner of this violin, i.e. Marco del Comasco.

-DIE (ablative of DIES) could be the term meaning “day”.

-LACTYC  FREJA  GIO  IVEBIS. I really cannot formulate any  hypothesis to explain these four words which are not Latin/ancient Greek nor Italian, except GIO which could be the abbreviation of the Italian name GIOVANNI (John).


Finally I have to tell you that, while surfing on the net, I’ve found a quite similar  inscription, i.e. 'Marc del et Comis die Lactyc Freja Gio Ivebis',  related to  a  violin labelled Gaspard Duiffo Pruggar, Bononiensis anno 1527, that was the Italianized name of the instrument maker Kaspar Tieffenbrucker (born in Germany c.1514 and died 1571) who at the commencement of the sixteenth century lived just in Bologna, northern Italy, (Latin ‘Bononia’) and then was called “Bononiensis”.

Actual Duiffopruggar instruments are rare, but  there are many reproductions of his violins, most notably by Parisian violin-maker Jean Baptiste Vuillaume (1798 – 1875) though these instruments can be distinguished from the originals by discrepancies in the labels.

I’m sorry, but I cannot help you more.

Best regards,
Maria