[Bell Historians] Re: Oldest Christian Bell

[Richard Smith]

Eddie Martin wrote:

> The ancient Romans used small bells or tintinnabula and 
> one may find references to what may have been gongs or 
> large cymbals (signa) used as time markers or warnings of 
> up-coming events, but they do not seem to have had any use 
> for what could be reasonably described as being large 
> bells.

How sure we can be that, in Classical times, 'signum' was 
specifically a gong or cymbal, rather than any instrument 
capable of giving a signal?  The word 'signum' appears in 
Anglo-Saxon sources, and typically gets translated as 
'bell'.  For example, in AD 750 when Egbert, Archbishop of 
York, directed priests to ring their church bells at 
appropriate times, the word he uses is 'signa'.  It seems 
likely it means a bell, rather than a cymbal or gong, though 
whether a cowbell or a cast bell, I don't think we can 
safely say.

> There is a tradition that large church bells were first 
> cast in Italy and that this process gradually spread 
> westward.

The earliest reference to this tradition that I've been able 
to trace is by Walahfrid Strabo in the 840s -- i.e. around 
the time of the earliest extant tower bells.

Strabo also mentions the tradition that larger bells were 
called 'campanae' after the province of Campania where they 
were first made.  (I don't necessarily believe this 
tradition.  Campania was famous for its bronzeware, so much 
so that in Classical times 'campanus' came to mean 
bronzeware.  It seems at least as plausible that bells were 
thus named because they were made from bronze, rather than 
that they were originally from Campania.)

> Without certain proof, this seems to be reasonable and to 
> fit such known facts that do exist; I would speculate that 
> this was possibly during the 5th and 6th centuries when 
> church buildings that were being erected began to include 
> a tower specifically intended to house large bells.

I can't claim to know much about Italy at this time, but it 
seems to me that the poltical and ecclesiastical changes 
resulting from the Gothic Wars of the mid 6th century may be 
relevant.  I know of no evidence, even circumstantial, for 
tower bells in Ostrogothic times.  The earliest I know of 
appears in the entry on Pope Stephen II (752-757) in Liber 
Pontificalis which records that Stephen built a belfry at St 
Peter's, Rome, and furnished it with three bells.  From what 
I've read it appears to be believe that this entry in Liber 
Pontificalis was written more-or-less contemporaneously.

> there is also a tradition that Pope Sabinian (604-606) may 
> have been the first to sanction the ringing of bells at 
> the canonical hours and during the celebration of the 
> Eucharist.

Wikipedia claims (on its article on Sabinian) that this 
tradition cannot be traced earlier than the 13th century.  I 
have not tried to verify this myself.

RAS