As we both know trying to correct ocr, h and li are often confused by machines:
by humans too it appears!
It seems clear to me that it is lialmente - to you it appears as halmente -
If lets say we were trying to decipher some English instead of archaic Italian word, and we tried to read a script which we weren't sure was
liable or
hable - we would know it is 99-99% liable - for the simple fact liable is an actual common english word
In the same way the form liamente was a common form in the 15th century (we can evidence it in poems and novellos - including one from which shakespeare got his Romeo and Juliet) - halmente on the other hand, well -- do you have examples of halmente? What does halmente mean? Anything you want it to possibly, on the basis it actually means nothing, and as such can be manipulated to mean anything you want it to -- a mystagogues or occultists dream --
A major skill in deciphering archaic orthography surely must lay in being able to distinguish actual words from nonsense 'words' ?
I think any North italian person of the time (not necessarily a modern Italian, who may not recognize archaic forms*) seeing this would read liamente, not halmente, for the simple reason liamente was an actual word a literate person would have recognized, but halmente? (You tell me)
To insist on Halmente seems to me nothing more than mystagogie, which answers nothing - the simple and clear answer, and one quite consistent with context, is that it is lialmente - loyally
mikeh wrote:
I have no idea what the connection between "Halmente" and Beatrice di Tenda might be.
Me neither, it appears far-fetched to me -- also, it is the Queen's maid that has the 'liamente' (loyally) inscription, not the Queen herself --
SteveM
*I posed this question elsewhere and had Italians adamant it (lialmente) was not an Italian word -- until I posted period pieces and they realized it was an archaic form of lealmente --