salvitas

Forms

salvitās f (genitive salvitātis); third declension^[1][2] Variant spellings are salvietas and salvetas.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is from Latin salvus + -tās, formed in Medieval Latin.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates its first record to a charter of 986.^[1] Its first sense is the inviolability of a place, its right of sanctuary.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is the protected status of a place, which no pursuer may violate: the right of asylum.^[2][3] Du Cange explains it as an immunity that rulers granted to a place, a church or a monastery.^[4] From this it came to name the protected place itself, which Niermeyer glosses with French sauveté.^[2]

British documents use it for a sanctuary area within fixed bounds, inside which no one fleeing there may be pursued.^[3] In the humanist period Coluccio Salutati still used it in a public letter of 1375 in the sense of immunity.^[5]

Timeline

• 986 – First recorded in a charter.^[1]
• 1027 – A grant to the church of the Holy Cross speaks of the salvitas of that place.^[3]
• 1375 – Coluccio Salutati uses it in a public letter for an immunity.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) The inviolability of a place; the right of sanctuary or asylum.^[2][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) An immunity granted to a place or religious house.^[4][5]
3. (Medieval Latin) A place that enjoys the right of sanctuary.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
5. ^ a b c Ramminger, Johann, Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, www.neulatein.de