Notes

Bonosus

Cet empereur, qui étoit un grand buveur, et qui enivroit les ambassadeurs qu’on lui envoyoit pour en tirer la vérité, ayant été vaincu par Probus, finit sa vie en se pendant; ce qui fit dire plaisamment que c’étoit un tonneau de pendu, et non un homme.

Bonosus

Voy. Vopiscus, Vita Probi.

Flavius Vopiscus. Vita Firmi, Saturnini, Proculi et Bonosi

14. Bonosus domo Hispaniensi fuit, origine Brittannus, Galla tamen matre, ut ipse dicebat, rhetoris filius ut ab aliis comperi, paedagogi litterarii. parvulus patrem amisit atque a matre fortissima educatus litterarum, nihil didicit. militavit primum inter ordinarios, deinde inter equites; duxit ordines, tribunatus egit, dux limitis Raetici fuit, bibit, quantum hominum nemo. de hoc Aurelianus saepe dicebat: ‘non ut vivat, natus est, sed ut bibat.’ quem quidem diu in honore habuit causa militiae. nam si quando legati barbarorum undecumque gentium venissent, ipsi propinabantur, ut eos inebriaret atque ab his per vinum cuncta cognosceret. ipse quantumlibet bibisset, semper securus et sobrius et, ut Onesimus dicit scriptor vitae Probi, adhuc in vino prudentior. habuit praeterea rem mirabilem, ut quantum bibisset, tantum mingeret, neque umquam eius aut pectus aut venter aut vesica, gravaretur.

Bonosus

Bonosus, 3rd cent. A.D. Aurelian says of him that he was born to drink, not to live. He could remain sober though he drank a prodigious quantity, and he made foreign ambassadors drunk to get at their secrets. He hanged himself after being conquered by Probus, when it was said, “There hangs a cask, not a man” (Vopise. Bonosus, 14, 15).

Bonosus

Empereur romain (IIIe siècle après J.-C.) qui se pendit après qu’il eut été vaincu par Probis. Il pouvait boire prodigieusement, sans perdre son sang-froide. Voir Vopiscus, Bonosus, 14, 15.

Bonosus

Emperor of Rome, a prodigious drinker, who in despair at his defeat by Probus, chose this method of ending it all, earning for epitaph: “There hands a keg, not a man.”

Bonosus

Vopiscus, Bonosus, XIV; cet empereur romain (III^e siècle apr. J.-C.) se pendit après avoir été vaincu par Probus.

à l’exemple de

La liste suivante se trouve dans Ravisius Textor, Officina (rubriques Mortui suspendio et crice et Qui uariis modis mortem sibi consciuerunt). Paris, 1532 (voir Tiers livre, éd. Screech, n. 25, p. 339).

Notes

Hanging, Colombe, ca. 1480

Hanging detail, Colombe, ca. 1480

Hanged man

Hanged men

Car maints d’iceulx

Car plusieurs de ces larrons.

hault et court

De ces larrons

finer leur vie hault et court

La plupart de ces personnages ce sont pendus. Il se retrouvent tous dans l’Officinia de Ravisius Textor (rubruques, Mortui suspendio et cruce et Qui variis modis mortem sibi consciverunt), Paris, 1532, xxiii, et iii. C’est Pantagruel qui aurait inventé l’art de pendre les criminels !

par tel usaige

Le chanvre sert à faire des cordes pour pendre les larrons.

liste de pendus

Cette liste de pendus est presque tout entière dans Ravisius Textor, Officina, aux rubriques «Qui variis modis sibi consciuerunt» et «Cruce et suspendio mortui». In n’y manque que l’empereur Bonose (mais on le trouve à la rubrique «Vinolenti») et Léda. «Phæda, Leda» constitue une addition où le premier nom estropié (il s’agit de Phèdre) fait craindre que le second ne sout un coquille, car Léda n’a pas fini sa vie au bout d’une corde.

Notes

Oil to Trees

Pliny xviii. 24, § 37 (234).

oil to trees

Quae iniuria hominum constant secundum vim habent causas. pix, oleum, adeps inimica praecipue novellis.

Kinds of damage due to injury done by man have effects proportionate to their violence. Pitch, oil and grease are particularly detrimental to young trees.

l’huille, aux arbres

D’après Pline, XVII, 37: «Pix, oleum, adeps inimica præcipue novellis». (Paul Delaunay)

Nenuphar…

Encore une fois, la plupart de ces exemples se retrouvent dans le De latinis nominibus de Charles Estienne. Le nenufar et la semence de saule sont des antiaphrodisiaques. La ferula servait, dans l’Antiquité, à fustiger les écoliers (cf. Martial, X, 62-10).

l’Huille, aux Arbres

Pline, XVII, xxxvii, parle de la poix.

Notes

Juniperus

Plate 75

Taxus

Taxus
Taxus baccata L.
Ancient Greek: smilax
Modern French: if

the shade of yew

Pliny xvi. 10, § 25 [?]; Plut. Symp. iii. f 44 [?]

the shade of yew

Similis his etiamnunc aspectu est, ne quid praetereatur, taxus minime virens gracilisque et tristis ac dira, nullo suco, ex omnibus sola bacifera. mas noxio fructu, letale quippe bacis in Hispania praecipue venenum inest: vasa etiam viatoria ex ea vinis in Gallia facta mortifera fuisse conpertum est. hanc Sextius milacem a Graecis vocari dicit, et esse in Arcadia tam praesentis veneni ut qui obdormiant sub ea cibumve capiant moriantur. sunt qui et taxica hinc appellata dicant venena quae nunc toxica dicimus, quibus sagittae tinguantur. reperio innoxiam fieri si in ipsam arborem clavus aereus adigatur.

Moreover, not to pass over any variety, resembling these trees in appearance is the yew, hardly green at all in colour and slender in form, with a gloomy, terrifying appearance; it has no sap, and is the only tree of all the class that bears berries. The fruit of the male yew is harmful — in fact its berries, particularly in Spain, contain a deadly poison; even wine-flasks for travellers made of its wood in Gaul are known to have caused death. Sextius says that the Greek name for this tree is milax, and that in Arcadia its poison is so active that people who go to sleep or picnic beneath a yew-tree die. Some people also say that this is why poisons were called ‘taxic,’ which we now pronounce ‘toxic’ [Taxica from taxus, a yew; toxica from τόξον, a bow]. meaning ‘used for poisoning arrows.’ I find it stated that a yew becomes harmless if a copper nail is driven into the actual tree.

l’umbre de if, aux dormans dessoubs

If, Taxus baccata, L. (Junipéracée) — L’ombrage de l’if est dangereux, dit Dioscoride, surtout quand il est en fleur, ajoute Plutarque: «Ut qui obdormaint sum ea cibumve capiant moriantur», enchérit Pline, XVI, 20. Mais Pena et Dalechamps assurent le contraire, et avec raison. Les observations d’éruption miliaire rapportées en 1789 par Harmand de Montgarni ne semblent pas relever de cette cause. L’if renferme un alcaloïde, la taxine de Marmé, et un glucoside, la taxicatine de Lefebvre. Mail ils ne sont pas volatils; on n’a observé d’empoisonnements que par ingestion de druples chez les enfants ou de feuillage chez les équidés. (Paul Delaunay)

Nenuphar…

Encore une fois, la plupart de ces exemples se retrouvent dans le De latinis nominibus de Charles Estienne. Le nenufar et la semence de saule sont des antiaphrodisiaques. La ferula servait, dans l’Antiquité, à fustiger les écoliers (cf. Martial, X, 62-10).

shade of the ash tree

folia earum iumentis mortifera, ceteris ruminantium innocua Graeci prodidere; in Italia nec iumentis nocent. contra serpentes vero suco expresso ad potum et imposita ulceri opifera ut nihil aeque reperiuntur; tantaque est vis ut ne matutinas quidem occidentesve umbras, cum sunt longissimae, serpens arboris eius adtingat, adeo ipsam procul fugiat. experti prodimus, si fronde ea circumcludantur ignis et serpens, in ignes potius quam in fraxinum fugere serpentem. mira naturae benignitas prius quam hae prodeant florere fraxinum nec ante conditas folia demittere.

Greek writers have stated that the leaves of the ash are poisonous to beasts of burden, though doing no harm to all the other kinds of ruminants; but in Italy they are harmless to beasts of burden also. Indeed, they are found to be serviceable as an exceptionally effective antidote for snake-bites, if the juice is squeezed out to make a potion and the leaves are applied to the wound as a poultice; and they are so potent that a snake will not come in contact with the shadow of the tree even in the morning or at sunset when it is at its longest, so wide a berth does it give to the tree itself. We can state from actual experiment that if a ring of ash-leaves is put round a fire and a snake, the snake will rather escape into the fire than into the ash-leaves. By a marvellous provision of Nature’s kindness the ash flowers before the snakes come out and does not shed its leaves before they have gone into hibernation.

Notes

la graine de Fougere, aux femmes enceintes

«Si [filix fœmina] mulieribus gravidis detur, abortum facere, si ceteris, steriles in totum reddere aiunt» (Théophraste, H.P., IX, 20, according to Delaunay.)

“If [fern female] given to pregnant women, performing an abortion if the other, they are the barren, they say that on the whole to render ” (Google translate)

I can’t find this reference in Theophrastus.

fougere

Filicis duo genera. nec florem habent nec semen. pterim vocant Graeci, alii blachnon, cuius ex una radice conplures exeunt filices bina etiam cubita excedentes longitudine, non graves odore. hanc marem existimant. alterum genus thelypterim Graeci vocant, alii nymphaeam pterim, est autem singularis atque non fruticosa, brevior molliorque et densior, foliis ad radicem canaliculata. utriusque radice sues pinguescunt, folia utriusque lateribus pinnata, unde nomen Graeci inposuere. radices utriusque longae in oblicum, nigrae, praecipue cum inaruere. siccari autem eas sole oportet. nascuntur ubique, sed maxime frigido solo. effodi debent vergiliis occidentibus. usus radicis in trimatu tantum, neque ante nec postea. pellunt interaneorum animalia, ex his taenias cum melle, cetera ex vino dulci triduo potae, utraque stomacho inutilissima. alvum solvit primo bilem trahens, mox aquam, melius taenias cum scamonii pari pondere. radix eius pondere duum obolorum ex aqua post unius diei abstinentiam bibitur, melle praegustato, contra rheumatismos. neutra danda mulieribus, quoniam gravidis abortum, ceteris sterilitatem facit. farina earum ulceribus taetris inspergitur, iumentorum quoque in cervicibus. folia cimicem necant, serpentem non recipiunt, ideo substerni utile est in locis suspectis, Usta etiam fugant nidore. fecere medici huius quoque herbae discrimen, optima Macedonica est, secunda Cassiopica.

Ferns are of two kinds, neither having blossom or seed. Some Greeks call pteris, others blachnon, the kind from the sole root of which shoot out several other ferns exceeding even two cubits in length, with a not unpleasant smell. This is considered male. The other kind the Greeks call thelypteris, some nymphaea pteris. It has only one stem, and is not bushy, but shorter, softer and more compact than the other, and channelled with leaves at the root. The root of both kinds fattens pigs. In both kinds the leaves are pinnate on either side, whence the Greeks have named them “pteris” [The Greek πτερόν means “feather”]. The roots of both are long, slanting, and blackish, especially when they have lost moisture; they should, however, be dried in the sun. Ferns grow everywhere, but especially in a cold soil. They ought to be dug up at the setting of the Pleiades. The root must be used only at the end of three years, neither earlier nor later. Ferns expel intestinal worms, tapeworms when taken with honey, but for other worms they must be taken in sweet wine on three consecutive days; both kinds are very injurious to the stomach. Fern opens the bowels, bringing away first bile, then fluid, tapeworms better with an equal weight of scammony. To treat catarrhal fluxes two oboli by weight of the root are taken in water after fasting for one day, with a taste of honey beforehand. Neither fern should be given to women, since either causes a miscarriage when they are pregnant, and barrenness when they are not. Reduced to powder they are sprinkled over foul ulcers as well as on the necks of draught animals. The leaves kill lice and will not harbour snakes, so that it is well to spread them in suspected places; by the smell too when burnt they drive away these creatures. Among ferns also physicians have their preference; the Macedonian is the best, the next best comes from Cassiope [A town in Corcyra].

Fern-seed to Women with Child

Pliny xxvii. 9, § 55 (80).

la graine de Fougere, aux femmes enceintes

«Si [filix fœmina] mulieribus gravidis detur, abortum facere, si ceteris, steriles in totum reddere aiunt» (Théophraste, H.P., IX, 20). «Neutra [filix] danda mulieribus, quoniam gravidis abortum, cæteris sterilitatem facit» (Pline, XXVII, 55). — Le πτερὶζ de Dioscoride et Théophraste, blechnon ou Fougére mâle de Pline, est pour Fée notre Polypodium [Polystichum] filix mas, L. Le Θηλνπτερίζ de Théophraste et Dioscoride, Nymphæa pteris ou filix femina de Pline est pour Fée notre Polypodium [asplenium] filix femina, L. La fougère mâle passait jadis pour abortive. On ne lui reconnaît plus que des vertus tænifuges, encore que les propriétés toxiques de la filicine en rendent l’emploi peu recommendable pour la femme enciente. (Paul Delaunay.)

Nenuphar…

Encore une fois, la plupart de ces exemples se retrouvent dans le De latinis nominibus de Charles Estienne. Le nenufar et la semence de saule sont des antiaphrodisiaques. La ferula servait, dans l’Antiquité, à fustiger les écoliers (cf. Martial, X, 62-10).

la graine de Fougère, aux femmes enceintes

Considérée comme abortive.

Notes

Boulas

Dans un autre manuscrit du treizième siècle, les enfants paresseux sont représentés sous forme de singes étudiant en classe, pendant que le magister lève un gros paquet de verges sur le plus indiscipliné de la bande. D’après le manuscrit n° 95 de la Bibliothèque nationale. [verge:‪ bâton, stick, baguette,‬ ‪bouleau, bois de bouleau, fouet]

Boulas

Le maître d’école fessant avec une ardeur toute scolastique son élève récalcitrant. Fac-simile d’un dessin d’Holbein.

boulas

Bouleau.

Nenuphar…

Encore une fois, la plupart de ces exemples se retrouvent dans le De latinis nominibus de Charles Estienne. Le nenufar et la semence de saule sont des antiaphrodisiaques. La ferula servait, dans l’Antiquité, à fustiger les écoliers (cf. Martial, X, 62-10).