Chronogram¶
chronogram · letter · validated
A phrase in which the letters that are also Roman numerals, read in order, sum to a significant date.
Provenance¶
- Source: Traditional; widespread in Latin inscriptions from the 15th century
- Attribution:
traditional— classical or folk; no single origin to name - Checkability:
self— decidable from the text and its parameters alone - Attested:
codified— formulated as a rule by a tradition rather than declared by an author
Details¶
- Kind: restrictive
- Languages: en
- Requires:
tokens,fold_diacritics - Deterministic: yes
- In other languages: Chronogramm (de), Chronogramme (fr)
Prompt hint¶
Write a phrase whose Roman-numeral letters add up to the target year.
Parameters¶
| Name | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
fold_diacritics |
boolean | True |
Treat accented letters as their base letter, and ß as ss. |
year |
integer | — |
The date the numeral letters must total. |
Examples¶
numerals-total-the-year¶
en — this text satisfies the procedure.
LVX
Parameters: year=65
Source: constructed example; the form is described in the catalogue entry
wrong-total¶
en — this text does not satisfy the procedure.
LVX
Parameters: year=100
Source: constructed counterexample
chronogram-my-day-closed¶
en — this text does not satisfy the procedure.
My Day Closed Is In Immortality
Parameters: fold_diacritics=True, year=1603
Source: 'My Day Closed Is In Immortality' (on the death of Queen Elizabeth I, 1603); attested in James Hilton, Chronograms, 5000 and More in Number (London, 1882) and in Enquire Within Upon Everything (Victorian eds.). Rejected: wrong_total. The Roman-numeral letters read in order sum to 4204, not the 1603 the chronogram claims; the line is a chronogram by intent and does not compute as one under this reading.