[Bell Historians] Re: Oldest Christian Bell

[nitramwe]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, Richard Smith <richard at ...> wrote:
>
> Anne Willis wrote:
> > Large bells in towers must have been around by the 7th 
> > century as the Venerable Bede heard the bells tolling at 
> > Whitby for Abbess Hilda on her death in 680.
> 
> I don't think you can infer that.  For a start, it wasn't 
> Bede who heard the bell.  Bede reported that a nun named 
> Begu heard it.  The Oxford World Classics edition of 
> 'Historia Ecclesiastica' translates Bede's text as follows:
> 
>    As she was resting in the sisters' dormitory, she suddenly
>    heard in the air the well-known sound of the bell with
>    which they used to be aroused to their prayers or called
>    together when one of them had be summoned from the world.
> 
> To me that doesn't necessarily imply to me a large bell in a 
> tower that could be heard over long distances.  It could 
> have been no more than a door bell in the dormitory.  

Bede was talking about an incident involving two religeous houses 13 miles apart and that the Abbess died at the one and the bell rung at that place was heard by a nun living at the other.
As you say, it could have been a titchy little bell - miracles do happen - & perhaps it was miraculously heard by the nun, but I'm not so sure.The miracle that Bede related was the vision that the nun saw.

I believe that the only word for `bell' in classical Latin (as used pre-Christian times) is `tintinnabulum' probably onomatopoeic as in `ping-ping' or `ting-ting' and if so, refers to very small bells, probably similar to crotals. Another word of that period `signum' simply = signal or sign & really gives us no idea of the size of the bell, or if indeed it referred to a bell at all. However, in medieval (Christian) writings one comes across the additional & increasing use of the word `campana'. 
The Latin used by Bede (Hæc tunc in dormitorio sororum pausans audivit subito in aere notum campanæ sonum,) uses the word based on `campana'. Had he been referring to crotals or door-bells, why not use the established words `tintinnabula' or `signa'? but no, he uses the new word `campana'
Not much of an argument I suppose but it suggests to me that Bede was referring to a bell that was audible 13 miles away and as such was not a miraculous part of the miraculous vision.

Somewhere he is said to have imported a bell from Italy but I can't find the ref at present.
All very interesting (to me at any rate)

Eddie