Hampshire churches contain many treasures. Solve the Chronogram in the church of St Peter & St Paul Exton

Chronogram on Dean Young’s Memorial

Hampshire churches contain many small treasures, some of them architectural some historical. In the case of the Hampshire church of St Peter and St Paul in Exton, a cryptic message has been created on a monumental inscription.

JohnYoung, Dean of Winchester 1616 – 1645, wrote his own epitaph, ten years before he died. Amongst all the eloquent English and Latin prose, he also included a chronogram, in which the date of the epitaph is hidden.

 ‘VenI VenI MI lesV IVDeX VenI CIto’

The word chronogram is derived from the Greek ‘ypovo’ meaning time and ‘fpdfifm’ meaning writing and is an inscription in which a certain date is expressed by Roman numeral letters.

Hence, take the capital letters from the sentence and work out the date.

Veni Cito is latin for come quickly.

Find out more about Dean Young, the work he did at Winchester Cathedral and his fascinating diary.

The history of Hampshire churches is amongst the most fascinating in the country but it is the little, often missed pieces of treasure, that make the journey to visit them so worthwhile. Many Hampshire churches contain architectural oddities, extraordinary artwork, strange monuments and inscriptions, the list is endless.

Use our posts on Hampshire churches and their treasures to explore more of Hampshire’s often understated historical gems.