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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

boites à chefs

English translation:

skull coffins

Added to glossary by Miranda Joubioux (X)
Jul 28, 2008 10:06
15 yrs ago
French term

boites à chefs

French to English Art/Literary History
Text relating to a church dating from the 16th c. and restored in the 18th c.

Elle renferme des trésors : autels du 18ème siècle dont un finement sculpté ; des statues anciennes, des tombes de templiers incrustées dans le dallage de la nef, et un ensemble de boites à chefs, reliquaires en bois situés sous le porche sud.

There is no further context or information.
This is for a "heritage" database for a tourist board.
Proposed translations (English)
4 +2 skull coffins
3 +2 reliquary boxes (containing skulls)
4 +1 reliquary chests
2 +2 head reliquaries

Discussion

Miranda Joubioux (X) (asker) Aug 4, 2008:
Hi Martin, I live in Morbihan and It would have been fun to see you, but I probably won't be here when you are!
Helen Shiner Jul 29, 2008:
Boys, boys!! All I know is this question is providing me with more laughs than I've had in a while in the translation world. Thank you all for that, and I hope the bonces in question don't take it as deeply disrespectful!
Martin Cassell Jul 29, 2008:
I'll happily defer to you on that, Christopher!
Christopher Crockett Jul 29, 2008:
Being severely Britishaically Challenged, I just assumed you had made a typo --"bonces" for "bones" and responded with my own Southern Indianer typo. Nonetheless, I still think that my typos are better than your typos.
Martin Cassell Jul 29, 2008:
Christopher, mea culpa there, my fault for being a little facetious and using a highly-British "localism": to clarify, "bonce" = "nut" = «caboche, chou, nénette» = «tête» (or indeed, in this context, «chef»).
Christopher Crockett Jul 29, 2008:
Hey, man, don't blame me. You started it --I just figured you knew what these damned things really were and was just following your lead.
Martin Cassell Jul 29, 2008:
Hmmm ... I do hope the bonces in question don't start to bounce ! ;-)
Christopher Crockett Jul 29, 2008:
Yes, this peculiar regional custom (which I've never heard of before) does seem to have been a question of "reliques" broadly defined to include the bounces of pious locals deserving of reverance. All "saints" cults were, in the M.A., notoriously "local."
Martin Cassell Jul 28, 2008:
Christopher, I share your thought about the strict use of the term reliquary, but it seems to be used in the source text. Perhaps these "capita fidelium defunctorum", the bonces of the faithful departed, are local "demi-saints", pour ainsi dire ?

Proposed translations

+2
7 hrs
Selected

skull coffins

Rummaging on a few word-combinations in Google Books brought me to this passage in a C19 travel book: "The small town of St. Pol de Leon boasts of one of the largest cathedrals in Brittany ; where also Mr. Weld observed the
skulls of many of the old bishops, in their strange-looking skull coffins, ranged on the ledges and cornices of the altars in tbe small chapels around the church."

Having now seen the phrase, I'm almost tempted to say "il fallait y penser" ... but that was another question.

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Note added at 7 days (2008-08-04 10:19:43 GMT) Post-grading
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Thanks Miranda! I'll look to see if there are any such boîtes to be found on the other side of Brittany (Morbihan) later this month.
Reference:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FAq7Fa22SB8C&pg=RA1-PA604&lpg=RA1-PA604&dq=brittany+church+skull

Peer comment(s):
agree Helen Shiner : Having agreed with with all suggestions, can I say I agree with this one even more. Very evocative, even if one of the first things I found when checking up was this:http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/sugarskullsdecorating.htm !!
6 mins
thanks (again) Helen. I know, some of the gHits are really lurid !!
agree Christopher Crockett : This might work, if it were in quotes and accompanied by an explanation --it's not a commonly seen term, needless to say.
18 hrs
thanks Christopher. Not sure Miranda's clients would want, or have space for, the full academic footnote treatment, though: but a little succinct exegesis might arguably be apposite [it might be worth adding a quick explanation ;-) ]
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "I like this answer, because it says what it is, so the tourist knows what to expect. However, I would like to thank Christopher for all his references and such constructive remarks. I have explained this term pretty much on the lines of your last suggestion. Thanks to everyone - Nice to see this kind of well argued, constructive Kudoz answer!"
+2
19 mins

reliquary boxes (containing skulls)

This is chef=tête (latin caput).

There might possibly be a more specific EN term for these boxes but I haven't come across it ...

"Dans le déambulatoire, à droite, derrière une grille, un ensemble de 34 boîtes à chef en bois, contenant le crane de défunts"

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Note added at 22 mins (2008-07-28 10:28:42 GMT)
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I think it's "chiefly" a Breton thing.

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Note added at 8 hrs (2008-07-28 18:19:33 GMT)
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Hmmm. First time I've ever overridden myself with a new answer!
Reference:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cath%C3%A9drale_Saint-Paul-Aur%C3%A9lien_de_Saint-Pol-de-L%C3%A9on

Peer comment(s):
agree Melzie : http://www.chez.com/t3m/tab-guerchin-et-in-arcadia-ego.htm http://www.genealogie22.org/fr/2005-Promenade-en-Goelo-de-Pl... - head reliquary was the nearest I could think of. A 'couvre chef' for the great and good.
13 mins
thanks Melzie. From what I recall from visits, they're generally relatively small, being for skull only, which is why I went for 'box' rather than 'chest'.
agree Helen Shiner : Likewise
6 hrs
thanks Helen // except that now I've suggested a different answer!
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+1
32 mins

reliquary chests

This what sprang to my mind. I presume that in this case, it contains the bones/heads [skulls] of eminent people. I don't find any reference to this elsewhere on the net, so perhaps a regional thing or even just related to the church in question.

"Among the numerous objects of interest preserved here, notice a wooden reliquary chest decorated in colour..."
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tR8gKJdBXA8C&pg=PA506&lpg...

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Note added at 33 mins (2008-07-28 10:40:16 GMT)
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Ok, saw Martin's suggestion after posting mine - great minds and all that!

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Note added at 8 hrs (2008-07-28 18:22:48 GMT)
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A general explanation of the various kinds of reliquary can be found at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliquary

...if there is any need to add any further information....
Peer comment(s):
agree Martin Cassell : ... se rencontrent, indeed.
6 hrs
Thanks, Martin; I guess we're all right really, it's just the fine-tuning now
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+2
2 hrs

head reliquaries

Normally, reliquaries which contain a specific body part can be called by that part --there are arm reliquaries, hand reliquaries, foot reliquaries, head reliquaries, and they are usually in the form of the anatomical member they enclose. The most spectacular of those have a wood core which is covered with silver or gold:

http://www.clevelandart.org/exhibcef/ConsExhib/html/wotar.ht...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/testpatern/70916129/

http://www.mondes-normands.caen.fr/angleterre/archeo/Italie/...

http://www.metmuseum.org/special/basel_cathedral/10.r.htm

http://www.metmuseum.org/special/basel_cathedral/10.r.htm


http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Head_reliquary_Marti...

http://flickr.com/photos/xtinalamb/2314389864/

http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/bevans/Art101/Art101B-8...

http://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/surveys/charlotte/byartist/d... --upper left image

http://dollybellespeepshow.typepad.com/dollybelles_peepshow/...

etc.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="head reliquary"

though a "head reliquary" doesn't have to be in the form of a head:

http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/zzdeco/1gold/12c/14g_1...


but the pic of one of these Breton ones from Melzie's site

http://www.genealogie22.org/fr/IMG/jpg/Redimensionnement_de_...

shows that, in this region (and peculiar to it, as far as I am aware), the custom is to place the skull relic in, literally, a box.

So using "head reliquary," while literally true, might be somewhat confusing.

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Note added at 2 hrs (2008-07-28 13:01:28 GMT)
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It seems to me that, strictly speaking, "reliquary" applies to containers for the remains of *saints*, and are, typically, place on altars (or, sometimes, built into them).

However, these Breton ones seem to be repositories for the head(s) (only) of revered personages who are not saints --local fellows of notable piety, perhaps-- and are much more informally "situés sous le porche sud."

"A collection of small wooden caskets containing skulls, situated under the south porch" perhaps.

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Note added at 1 day2 hrs (2008-07-29 13:05:55 GMT)
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Since "head reliquary" invokes a certain [cranialical] form which the reliquary itself takes, Martin's second suggestion, "skull coffins," would be preferable, *provided* this obscure term (who's every seen it before??) is accompanied by an explanation: "small wooden caskets containing skulls, peculiar to the region" or somesuchlike expansion.

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Note added at 1 day3 hrs (2008-07-29 13:22:09 GMT)
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Re Martin's point about the appropriatness of "the full academic footnote treatment," I agree. But the true "heritage" of any given region is nothing if not *made up* of curious customs and artifacts peculiar to that region (and, therefore, unknown to tourists alien to it).

For "...et un ensemble de boites à chefs, reliquaires en bois situés sous le porche sud" how about:

"...and, under the south porch, a collection of what we might call 'skull coffins,' curious wooden 'reliquaries' containing the skulls of revered local personages."

?
Peer comment(s):
agree Yolanda Broad
10 mins
Thanks, Yolanda.
agree Helen Shiner : Convincingly argued - you're the man to know
4 hrs
Thanks, Helen. But Martin might be on to something.
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