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From: Rafal Prinke< >
Subject: numbering people
Date: 1 Feb 1999 14:54:18 -0800


"John Yohalem" <> wrote:

>Kings didn't have numbers until recent times, either. They had nicknames.
>Louis the Fat (or the Wide-Awake), succeeded his father Philip the Fat,
and
>was succeeded in turn by his son, Louis the Young. Like that. Numbers
only
>came in with literate culture, which is to say, after the Renaissance and
>the invention of printing.

Not quite true - at least in Polish sources kings and dukes were assigned
numbers quite early in the contemporary Annals and Chronicles. These
were either Roman numerals or Latin phrases used with the name. Just as
an example, the Annals of the Cathedral Chapter in Cracow say under 1125:

Hinricus imperator obiit. Lottarius succedit. Boleslaus IV natus est.

The earliest Polish ruler with a repeated name - Mieszko II -
was also recorded in one of the annals as "secundus Mescho".

It would be interesting to find out when and where this practice of
numbering people with the same name started.

Best regards,

Rafal

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