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rolig commented on the word aspergent
In commemoration of the Doge's triumphant expedition to Dalmatia in 1000, in which he asserted Venice's de facto supremacy over the Dalmatian coast, thereafter every year on Ascension Day a ceremony was held that came to be known as the Sposalizio del Mar ("the Marriage to the Sea"), in which the Doge sailed out into the open sea and cast a propitiatory golden ring into the waves. Before this, however, the Doge would be sprinkled with holy water as a choir sang, "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean" (Psalm 51). In a footnote to his History of Venice, John Julius Norwich explains the meaning of this verse: "The text is not quite as surprising as it may appear at first sight. In the Latin Vulgate, the first word is more accurately translated by aspergere – 'sprinkle' – as it is in the New English Bible. Hyssop branches were used as an aspergent rather than an aperient" (p. 55).
July 29, 2008