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Article THE ROMAN COLLEGIA. ← Page 3 of 4 →
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The Roman Collegia.
long account of it was given at the time by Roger Gale , Esq . — ' Phil . Trans ., ' vol . xxxii ., No . 379 . " The very important question comes in here : Do the words Fabri or Fabricenses mean Masons , or what do they mean ? It would seem from what Facciolati , and Musgrave , and DodweYl ,
and others say , that Faber had come to signify , ( whatever its original meaning ) , in common use a Mason , in a generic sense of a handycraftsman ; and that when any specific form of work was intended a qualifying adjective was introduced . So that Praafectus Fabrum , Prsefectus Fabricensium , meant the Prasfect of the Masons or builders
to whose care and reparation all the public buildings were committed . There are several laws as regards the Fabricenses , Dodwell and Musgrave tell us , and to them the special care of the braidings on Mons Palatinus was given . It is undoubtedly the case that if this be not so we can find no mention of the Masons , at all .
We find , indeed , Fabri Naviles , Fabri Ferrarii , Fabri Tignararii or Carpentaria Fabri Navicular !! , Coriariorum , Sagariorum , Balistarum , Fabricenses Machinarum Bellicarum , Lignarii , and many more , just as we find Fabrica Armorum , Fabrica Monetae , and many other Fabricae . We also meet with this inscription : Collegium
Fabrorum Tignariorum Romanensium . But when we meet such inscriptions as Aurelius Bassus , Proc , Aug . Prasf . Fabr ., Prref . Fabrum Leg ., we understand the " Prsefect of the Masons , " or as Plutarch says " Eparchos Ton Tekniton , "
Probus , indeed , talks of " artifices et Lithotomos , " but the word does not seem to have been in general use . We find Lautomos from " Lautumise" stone quairies , and Lapicida , and Caementai'ius , and Marmorarius ; but we have no specific word like our Mason , which comes from Macon in Norman French , and some think from the Latin
"Maceria . ' The mediaeval use of Latomus comes from Lithotomus , or Lithotomos in Greek . And therefore . I venture to think those writei's are correct who contend and understand that Faber used singly or Fabricenses meant the " genus , " while the species always took a qualification of some kind , as Faber Aurarius , Faber . ZErarius , Faber
Tignarius , Faber Navalis , Faber Ferrarius . Faber , from facio , meant originally , as I have taken occasion previously to say , simply , any one who worked in stone , wood , iron , brass , marble , or some hard material : And as Pliny , for instance , uses the word more than once , if without qualification , we understand him to
allude to Masons . For what I'eason does not appear , classical writei's seem to describe Masons , when they use simply Faber , Fabri , or Collegium Fabrorum , as whenever they talk of other mechanical or artistic artificers , they say , Collegium Fabrorum NaValium , Collegium Fabrorium iErariorum Collegium Pistorum , and the like .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Roman Collegia.
long account of it was given at the time by Roger Gale , Esq . — ' Phil . Trans ., ' vol . xxxii ., No . 379 . " The very important question comes in here : Do the words Fabri or Fabricenses mean Masons , or what do they mean ? It would seem from what Facciolati , and Musgrave , and DodweYl ,
and others say , that Faber had come to signify , ( whatever its original meaning ) , in common use a Mason , in a generic sense of a handycraftsman ; and that when any specific form of work was intended a qualifying adjective was introduced . So that Praafectus Fabrum , Prsefectus Fabricensium , meant the Prasfect of the Masons or builders
to whose care and reparation all the public buildings were committed . There are several laws as regards the Fabricenses , Dodwell and Musgrave tell us , and to them the special care of the braidings on Mons Palatinus was given . It is undoubtedly the case that if this be not so we can find no mention of the Masons , at all .
We find , indeed , Fabri Naviles , Fabri Ferrarii , Fabri Tignararii or Carpentaria Fabri Navicular !! , Coriariorum , Sagariorum , Balistarum , Fabricenses Machinarum Bellicarum , Lignarii , and many more , just as we find Fabrica Armorum , Fabrica Monetae , and many other Fabricae . We also meet with this inscription : Collegium
Fabrorum Tignariorum Romanensium . But when we meet such inscriptions as Aurelius Bassus , Proc , Aug . Prasf . Fabr ., Prref . Fabrum Leg ., we understand the " Prsefect of the Masons , " or as Plutarch says " Eparchos Ton Tekniton , "
Probus , indeed , talks of " artifices et Lithotomos , " but the word does not seem to have been in general use . We find Lautomos from " Lautumise" stone quairies , and Lapicida , and Caementai'ius , and Marmorarius ; but we have no specific word like our Mason , which comes from Macon in Norman French , and some think from the Latin
"Maceria . ' The mediaeval use of Latomus comes from Lithotomus , or Lithotomos in Greek . And therefore . I venture to think those writei's are correct who contend and understand that Faber used singly or Fabricenses meant the " genus , " while the species always took a qualification of some kind , as Faber Aurarius , Faber . ZErarius , Faber
Tignarius , Faber Navalis , Faber Ferrarius . Faber , from facio , meant originally , as I have taken occasion previously to say , simply , any one who worked in stone , wood , iron , brass , marble , or some hard material : And as Pliny , for instance , uses the word more than once , if without qualification , we understand him to
allude to Masons . For what I'eason does not appear , classical writei's seem to describe Masons , when they use simply Faber , Fabri , or Collegium Fabrorum , as whenever they talk of other mechanical or artistic artificers , they say , Collegium Fabrorum NaValium , Collegium Fabrorium iErariorum Collegium Pistorum , and the like .