Chronograms

Jan Morris in her book Oxford enjoyed the Greek lettering on the floor of the rotunda entrance to Rhodes House, Oxford. It seems to complement the Greek inscription on the roof and pious memorials on the walls. But literally translated, it means: ‘Let no smoke-bearing person enter.’ In other words: ‘No smoking.’

Could it have been the work of Alan Bell, the agreeable librarian there, and later at the London Library? I forget.

But there’s an older joke lost on most who stare at it (if that is amusing) on the facade of the Rhodes building of Oriel College in the High. Under the statue of the college benefactor, big letters read:

e Larga MVnIfICentIa CaeCILII rhoDes

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Alexander Larman

Beware the middle of Lidl

The bigger letters sticking up look outlandish, but this is a chronogram. Simply add them together as Roman numerals: L+M+V+I+I+C+I+ C+C+I+L+I+I+D= 1911.

A less controversial inscription above the entrance to St Edmund Hall used to annoy me as I cycled past:

sanCtVs edMVndVs hVIVs aVLae lvx

(St Edmund, light of this Hall).