Hello
On the outside wall of St Andrew's church at Presteigne in Powys, Wales is this carved stone with lettering saying MPL 1244. the MPL is thought to be latin for
'Mortimer is pleased to have made me' referring to the chancel. Could this carving date from the 13th century or is it clearly much later? All thoughts welcome.
Hugh
Comments
But this inscription uses the modern, not medieval, form of 4 (see http://www.skypoint.com/members/waltzmn/Mathematics.html). I don’t think this form of 4 was used in Europe until the fifteenth century, prior to that Europeans used the Devanagari form of 4. The arc atop 2 is also atypical for medieval numerals, if this was from 1244 it would look more like 7. I think you’ll have to find a specialist paleographer to get a decent date on this.