INDIGITAMENTA. - From the Latin a(g)io, aio ("I say, I beseech, I invoke"), these are lists of deities of an animistic type who are invoked ("indigitate") with an epithet that signifies the action they can perform for the benefit of the one invoking them.
About 150 of them are listed, for the most part relating to the individual acts or needs of human life, of agriculture and of the household. Thus, with reference to human life, Levana protects the act of lifting the newborn from the ground after it has been set down immediately after birth; Cunina protects the infant in the cradle, Rumina nursing, Fabulinus the first babblings, Stabilinus the first steps. In the various operations of agriculture, Sterculinus watches over manuring, Redator ploughing, Sarritor hoeing, Messor reaping. And, in the household, Cardea has charge of the hinges of the door, Forculus of the door-leaves, Limentinus of the threshold, Arculus of the kneading-trough.
The deities of the i. were not invoked in public worship; but although they belonged above all to private worship, the College of Pontiffs had drawn up the list of them, which Varro reported in books 14, 15, 16 of the Antiquitates divinae, now lost, placing these gods in the category of the di certi, inasmuch as it is known from their name when they must be invoked. Varro's work was summarized by St. Augustine in book VII of the De civitate Dei.
Bibliography4 worksR. Peter, Indigitamenta, in W. Roscher, Lexicon, II, col. 129 ff.; H. Usener, Götternamen, Bonn 1896, p. 75 ff. (cf. the 3rd ed. edited by M
BIBL.: R. Peter, Indigitamenta, in W. Roscher, Lexicon, II, col. 129 ff.; H. Usener, Götternamen, Bonn 1896, p. 75 ff. (cf. the 3rd ed. edited by M. Nilsson, ibid. 1949); G. Appel, De Romanorum precationibus, Giessen 1909; G. Wissowa, Die varronistica Di certi und incerti, in Hermes, 36 (1921), p. 113.
Turchi, Nicola. “Indigitamenta.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI, coll. 1833–1834. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951. https://azioneromana.com/article/indigitamenta.
MLA
Turchi, Nicola. “Indigitamenta.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VI, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1951, coll. 1833–1834. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/indigitamenta.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec6_indigitamenta,
author = {Turchi, Nicola},
title = {Indigitamenta},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {VI},
pages = {1833--1834},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1951},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/indigitamenta}
}
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