[AZTLAN]more on reverse scripts

[Sam Edgerton]

Listeros:  Here's an interesting addenda to our "reverse glyphs" 
thread.  On the porteria wall of the Augustinian convento in Metztitlan, 
Hidalgo, there's a mural painted, ca. 1570, now unfortunately much abraded 
but originally depicting a giant Christ figure crucified above a baptismal 
font into which his blood and water drip (URL 1 below). Surrounding the 
font against a cityscape backdrop are a number of small figures including 
Indians and friars (URL 2). The painting, by the way, was certainly done by 
an Indian trained in the current European Renaissance chiaroscuro style. At 
the lower far right a group of friars are shown before whom a speech scroll 
unfolds. bearing a string of Latin letters upside down. They spell in 
reverse order the words "MISERENE NOS TRIDOMINE" (URL 3) which translated 
means "Have pity on us Oh Trinitarian Lord."   This inscription is 
obviously a prayer offered to Jesus on the Cross and was therefore intended 
to be "read" by him from his higher position in the picture. I doubt that 
there is any direct connection between this curious incidence and the 
"reverse glyphs" we've been observing on ancient Maya monuments, but it 
does indicate a parallel thought process regarding how sacred inscriptions 
should function in such holy contexts, in painted pictures at least if not 
carved in sculpture or on buildings, shared by Christianized Indians as 
well as medieval Europeans in that most spiritually minded age.
Sam Edgerton

http://lanfiles.williams.edu/~sedgerto/METZTITLAN1.jpg
http://lanfiles.williams.edu/~sedgerto/METZTITLAN2.jpg
http://lanfiles.williams.edu/~sedgerto/METZTITLAN3.jpg