[Ansteorra] hiding mundane
Michael Silverhands
silverhands at sbcglobal.net
Wed Jun 13 09:04:54 PDT 2007
On Jun 13, 2007, at 10:34 AM, sam cooper wrote:
> I'll have to go do some research as to how a ship's captain, a siege
> engineer, lawyers, ranked officers of military forces, sergeants,
> quartermasters, and Ministers of government and guilds gave signal
> of their
> expertise without using titles. It will make for an interesting
> subject;
> thank you for instigating the idea in my head.
>
> Beir bua agus beannacht,
> Si'le
I'll brave the perilous waters (discussing documented period
practices while Robin is en garde) long enough to throw in my two
cents. ;-)
I'll start by making a giant blimp-sized assumption that we're
talking about how you would introduce someone in a very formal
setting (e.g. Court), using their most formal and appropriate manner
of address.
A ship's captain might be introduced as "Captain So-and-so",
especially if he was a "ranked officer of military forces". Captain
of a private or merchant vessel, I'm less sure of. Probably not.
A "ranked officer of military forces" would probably be introduced
using their rank, but in those cases it would be easy to tell that
you should because they'd be wearing their military dress uniform. If
they're in their "civies", you probably wouldn't use their rank
unless the introduction was being made to another military person in
an informal setting. But that's not the setting we're discussing, so
that's not terribly relevant. ;-)
Ministers of government (e.g. Minister of Defense) don't usually go
around being introduced as "Minister of Defense So-and-so" today, and
I suspect they wouldn't be in court, either. If they had a noble
title, such as "Lord So-and-so" in addition to their post within the
government, then that title would be used. I.e., they'd be introduced
as "Lord So-and-so". Or if for some reason you wanted those present
to know that they were Minister of Defense (e.g. a public speaking
engagement), you might throw that in, e.g. "Lord So-and-so, the
Minister of Defense".
My two cents. Your mileage may (and probably will) vary. Remember
that these practices varied widely from place to place and century to
century, and our time and place of interest (generally speaking,
Western Europe from roughly 6th-16th century) covers a *lot* of
ground. Also bear in mind that modern SCA traditions often have
*little* to do with historical precedent (but that's a whole 'nuther
thread).
There's an interesting article here:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Style_(manner_of_address)>.
Michael
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