Chronogram

IN NUMBERS AND LETTERS

The habit of recording for posterity the year of foundation or the time of rebuilding has produced a multitude of dates in various versions. Sometimes, however, they are rather difficult to discover and have been artfully incorporated into chronograms.
The word chronogram comes from the Greek word 'chronos', which means time, and 'gramma', which means writing.
It is a text, usually in Latin, that lends itself very well to 'hiding' a year in it through the use of numerical letters. The letters M, D, C, L, X, V (or U) and I with a numerical value of, respectively, 1250, 500, 125, 50, 10, 5 and 1, are usually written extra large - often in different colours - and together indicate a Roman year. The arrangement of the numerical letters is not important.
It is a beautiful method of conveying a twofold message in word and time, and it is a way of expression that was very popular in the past when making dedication, celebration and commemoration texts. Pepople of any importance at the time also wrote chronograms. It was even a Baroque fad. At Latin schools, the making of chronograms was stimulated, so there must have been people in Maastricht who knew this art.
Compared to other places, Maastricht has a remarkable amount of such texts on gable stones. It is not plausible that the average stonemason or patron was able to put together something so complicated. Therefore, there must have been 'specialists' who were ultimately responsible for all those annual inscriptions on gable stones with often 'ordinary' images such as a weigh house or a Saint Martin. The addition of a chronogram was then a fashionable extra.
In Maastricht and its immediate surroundings, there are still about forty brick chronograms from before 1800, their designers unknown. There are also a number of contemporary, 20th century chronograms made by people like Antoine Minis, Ruud Mestrom and Bernard Grothues, who is an expert in composing chronograms in Dutch.
Indeed, anyone can make a poem, but composing a chronogram is a different matter. It is quite a job to choose the words in such a way that the result is a correct text that also shows the necessary year. Take this one for example: koM, treeD bInnen In dit tUIn' (=2008), a chronogram by sculptor Tycho Flore for the entrance to the sculpture garden in St. Geertruid.

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