Ferir

Ferir. To bit, strike; wound, hurt.

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absconses

absconses: caché, retiré: Se mist en un lieu abscons (Aimé, Yst. de li Norm., VII, 22)

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Impermeables

C’est comme il faut lire, conformément à l’édition de 1547 aux trois de Lyon, & à celle de 1626. Incomprenables est une faute qui l’edition de 1553 s’est glissée dans celle de 1596 & de là dans les nouvelles.

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By means of it

Ozell’s note: “By the Help thereof.] This is in imitation of Agrippa, ch. lxxvii of his De vanitate scientiarum.”

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impermeable

Ozell’s note: “Impermeable. Impassible. I don’t explain this as if I thought the reader needed to be informed what Impermeable meant, but only for an Opportunity of letting such know, as are possest of the Editions of 1553, 1596, and all the later ones, that, instead of incomprenables (incomprehensible,) they must read it Impermeables, conformable to the Editions of 1547, the three Editions of Lyons, and that of 1626.

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impermeables

Cachées, inaccessibles. Rabelais, quoiqu’en général un peu trop hardi a fabriquer des terme nouveaux, rencontre quelquefois si heureusement, qu’on est tentée de regretter que plusieurs de ses expressions ne se soient point conservées. Il n’a point tenu à lui, ni à Amyot, que notre Langue ne fût beaucoup plus riche, plus variée en ses tours, & bien plis harmonieuse, qu’elle ne l’est aujourd’hui.

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impermeables

C’est comme il faut lire, conformément à l’édition de 1547, aux trois de Lyon (à celle de 1552), et à celle de 1626. Incomprenables est une faute qui l’edition de 1553 s’est glissée dans celle de 1596, et delà dans les nouvelles. (L.) — Cachées, inaccessibles. Rabelais, dit l’abbé de Marsy, quoiqu’en général un peu trop hardi à fabriquer des termes nouveaux, rencontre quelquefois si heureusement, qu’on est tenté de regretter que plusieurs de ses expressions ne se soient point conservées. Il n’a point tenu à lui ni à Amyot que notre langue ne fût beaucoup plus riche, plus variée en ses tours, et bien plus harmonieuse qu’elle ne l’est aujourd’hui.

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Notes

Salamandra

A salamander unharmed in the fire. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, KB, KA 16, Folio 126r

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Salamander

Nutrisco & extinguo. La Salemandre avec des flammes de feu, estoit la Devise du feu noble & manifique Roy François

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Salamander

Nutrisco et extinguo (I nourish and extinguish)
The salamander, device of François I.

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Salamander

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Salamander

The salamander, badge of Francis I of France, with his motto: “Nutrisco et extinguo” (“I nourish and extinguish”) – Azay-le-Rideau Castle – Loire Valley (Indre-et-Loire), France

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Salamandre

Anguem ex medulla hominis spinae gigni accepimus a multis. pleraque enim occulta et caeca origine proveniunt, etiam in quadripedum genere, sicut salamandrae, animal lacertae figura, stellatum, numquam nisi magnis imbribus proveniens et serenitate deficiens.1 huic tantus rigor ut ignem tactu restinguat non alio modo quam glacies. eiusdem sanie, quae lactea ore vomitur, quacumque parte corporis humani contacta toti defluunt pili, idque quod contactum est colorem in vitiliginem mutat.

We have it from many authorities that a snake may be born from the spinal marrow of a human being. For a number of animals spring from some hidden and secret source, even in the quadruped class, for instance salamanders, a creature shaped like a lizard, covered with spots, never appearing except in great rains and disappearing in fine weather. It is so chilly that it puts out fire by its contact, in the same way as ice does. It vomits from its mouth a milky slaver, one touch of which on any part of the human body causes all the hair to drop off, and the portion touched changes its colour and breaks out in a tetter.

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Salamander

16 Nutrisco & extinguo.

La Salemandre avec des flammes de feu, estoit la Devise du feu noble & manifique Roy François, & aussi au paravant de Charles Conte d’Angoulesme son pere. Pline dit que tell beste par la froidure esteint le feu comme glace, autres disent qu’elle peut vivre en icelui, et la commune voix qu’elle s’en paist. Tant y ha qu’il me souvient avoir vu une Medaille en bronze dudit feu Roy, peint en jeune adolescent, au revers de laquelle estoit cette Devise de la Salemandre enflammee, avec ce mot Italien: Nudrisco il buono, & spego il reo. Et davantage outre tant de lieus et Palais Royaus, ou pour le jourdhui est enlevee, je l’ay vuë aussi en riche tapisserie à Fonteinebleau, acompagnee de rel Distique:

Ursus astrox, Aquilæq; leves, & tortilis Anguis: Cesserunt flammæ iam Salamandra tuæ.

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Alcofribas

Alcofribas. A greedie gultton; a great devourer.
Alebrenne. A Salamander.
Alebromantic. Divination by barley meale mixed with wheat.

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salamandre

Comme la salamandre étoit la devise ou l’emblème de François I^er, il doit y avoir ici une allusion à ce prince.

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Salamander

Francis I. His well-known device was the salamander, surrounded by flames, with the motto, Nutrisco et extinguo, “I nourish and extinguish,” alluding to the belief current in the middle ages that the salamander had the faculty of living in fire; and also, according to Pliny, of extinguishing it. He says — “He is of so cold a complexion, that if hee doe but youch the fire, hee will quench it as presently as if yce were put into it (Book x., ch. 67).
This motto appears to be a somewhat obscure rendering of one on a medal of Francis, when Comte d’Angoulême, dated 1512: “Nutrisco el buono, stengo el reo,” meaning that a good prince protects the good and expels the bad. Some insist that it was the motto of his fatherl while Mézeerai tells us that it was his tutor, Gouffier, Marquis de Boisy, who, seeing the violent and ungovernable spirit of his pupil, not unmixed with good and useful impulses, selected the salamander for his device, with its appropriate motto. This device appears on all the palaces of Francis I. At Fontainebleau and the Châteaux of the Loire, it is everywhere to be seen; at Chambord, there are nearly four thousand. On the Château d’Azay the salamander is acccompanied by the motto, Ung seul desir; at the “Maison de François I,” at Orleans, built for the Demoiselle d’Heillie, afterwards Duchesse d’Etampes, we find it intermixed with F’s and H’s.
At the meeting of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the king’s guard at the tournament was clothed in blue and yellow, with the salamander embroidered thereon. In the already quoted inventory of the Castle of Edinburgh is —
“Ane moyane of fonte markit with the sallamandre;”
“Ane little gallay cannon of fonte markit with sallamandre;”
and many others.

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Salamandre

“Une bieste i r’a Salamandre
Qui en feu vist et si s’en paist,
De cete bieste laine si nast
Dont on fait chaintures et dras
Qu’ai feu durent et n’ardent pas.”
— Gauthier de Metz, L’Image du Monde (1245)
Hence it appears, according to this notice, that asbestos cloth was derived from the salamander.

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Salamander

“Huic tantus rigor ut ignem tactu extinguat non alio modo qual glacies” (Pliny x. 67, § 86).

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salamander

Salamandra maculosa Laur. (Batraciens Anoures). La légende antique prétendait que la salamandre peut braver les flammes et les éteindre. «Huic tantus rigor, ut ignem restinguat non alio modo qual glacies». (Pline, X, 86.) Dioscoride s’était déjà prononcé contre cette fable: «Salamandra lacertæ genus est, iners, varium, quod frustra creditum est ignibus non uri». (L. II, ch. 54.) Albert le Grand, plus tard, et Rabelais seront de son avis. (Paul Delaunay)

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Salamandre

Selon la légende antique, la salamandre peur braver les flammes et les éteindre. François I^er en avait fait son emblème.

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Salamandre

Elle passait pour éteindre le feu (Pline, X, 67); légende extrêmement répandue.

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Salamander

When I was about five years of age, my father, happening to be in a little room in which they had been washing, and where there was a good fire of oak burning, looked into the flames and saw a little animal resembling a lizard, which could live in the hottest part of that element. Instantly perceiving what it was, he called for my sister and me, and after he had shown us the creature, he gave me a box on the ear. I fell a-crying while he, soothing me with caresses, spoke these words: ‘My dear child, I do not give you that blow for any fault you have committed, but that you may recollect that the little creature you see in the fire is a salamander; such a one as never was beheld before to my knowledge.’ So saying he embraced me, and gave me some money. — Benvenuto Cellini

The salamander (the name possibly coming from the Greek salambe meaning ‘fireplace’) was often visualized as a small dragon or lizard. But, what set the salamander apart from other lizards or serpents was the fact that it was a fire elemental. According to Aristotle and Pliny, the salamander not only resisted fire, but could extinguish it and would charge any flame that it saw as if it were an enemy. Some thought that the reason the salamander was able to withstand and extinguish fire, was that it was incredibly cold, and it would put out fire on contact. The salamander was also considered to be very poisonous, so much so, that a person would die from eating the fruit form a tree around which a salamander had entwined itself.
The foundation of its fire-resistant powers may be based on the fact that the real salamander secretes milky juice form the pores of its body when its irritated. This would doubtless defend the animal for a few moments from fire. Salamanders also are hibernating creatures who often retire to hollow trees or other cavities in the winter, where it coils himself up and remains in a torpid state until the spring. It was therefore sometimes carried in with the fuel to the fire, and the salamander would wake up with only enough time to put for all of its faculties for its defense.

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Salamander

Early in the 19th century one key idea was introduced [in the building of safes], the double skin. It was realised that 100mm of insulation between the outer wall and the inner wall would provide great thermal insulation and protect the contents if caught in a fire. The most common insulation used was sawdust, though even greater protection came from filling the gap with water, an idea patented by Thomas Milner in 1830 (Milner is to this day one of the main British safe companies). The name ‘safe’ came from these new fireproof cabinets. At the time it was seen as astonishing that the contents of these safes could survive the heat of a fire (they were sometimes called Salamanders) and safe companies often staged public demonstrations, mounting their safes on large bonfires. Strauss was actually commissioned to write some music for one of these events, he called it the ‘Feufest Polka’.

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salamander

salamander. Also salamandre [adopted from French salamandre (12th century), adaptation of Latin salamandra, adopted from Greek salamandra.]

A lizard-like animal supposed to live in, or to be able to endure, fire. Now only allusive.

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1525. La Grande Maîtress

p 28. Il est probable que la Grande Maîtresse a subi un radoub, peut-être entre la fin 1529 et 1531. Le carénage précédent a eu lieu en 1525 et Jerôme Doria fait état d’une périodicité de quatre ans pour les carénages. Un document mon daté de la Bibliothèque Impériale de Vienne confirme l’opération: «Lettres permettant à frère Claude d’Ancienville, chevalier de Sant-Jean de Jerusalem, commandeur a’Auxerre, capitaine de la nef la Grande-Maîtresse, d’acheter en Dauphiné et en Provence les bois et cordages nécessaires au radoub de ladite nef, et de les faire mener à Marseille par l’Isère, le Rhône et la Durance sans payer de droits.»

p. 10. Ce fut une grande perte, car cette nef étrait grosse comme une caraque, bien garnie en artillerie au point qu’il n’existait pas à Gênes de semblable caraque.

Le nom de Grande Maîtresse, ou plus préciseément cette appellation, indique que le bâtiment appartenait, ou, plus exactement, avait appartenu, au Grand Maître de France. Il est mentionnée pour des opérations que se déroulent en Méditerranée en 1520, 1525, 1526, 1528 et 1529.

Les inventaires effectués au moment de la vente montrent que la nef était équipée d’une puissante artillerie de bronze, dont plusieurs pièces sont ornées de la salamandre, par exemple: Plus troys couleuvrines bastardes à la samalandre, poysans iii milliers ou environ chacun… Plus deux coulouvrines moyeners à la salamandre, pesans chacune xii quintaulx ou environ.

p. 172. Ancienville, Claude d’ — seigneur de Villiers. Chevalier et commandeur de l’ordre de Saint Jean de Jérusalem, fils de Claude d’Ancienville et d’Andrée de Saint-Benôit, frère d’Antoine et de Jacques d’Ancienville.

Il quitte Rhodes assiégée à bord de son brigantin le 18 juin 1522, apportant à François I^er un message du grand-maitre Villiers de l’Isle Adam qui demande des secours d’urgence.…. En juillet 1527, il est commandant de la Grand Maîtress, qui est à Toulon…. En 1530, des lettres royales l’autorisent à acheter en Dauphiné et en Provence les bois et cordages nécessaires au radoub de la nef et de les faire mener à Marseille.

p. 175. Ancienville, Jacques d’, seigneur de Révillon. Il reçoit, en juin 1537, la permission de faire conduire de Lyon à Marseille sans payer aucun droit de travers, péage et autres, pour l’armement des galères dont il a la charge, 250 quintaux de fer… 500 quintaux de cordages or chanvre….

[Historiquement, le quintal équivalait généralement à 100 livres. Le quintal français ancien valait 100 livres anciennes, donc environ 48,951 kilogrammes. Il faut toutefois noter que le quintal était encore utilisé au début des années 1960 à Strasbourg (67) pour mesurer 50 kg de charbon acheté en sacs.

Les poids de marc constituent un système d’unités de masse utilisé depuis le milieu du xive siècle et sous l’Ancien Régime français. Les poids de marc moyens sont organisés par la pile dite de Charlemagne, un ensemble de pierres de balance en godets s’empilant l’une dans l’autre d’un poids total de 50 marcs, soit environ 12¼ kilogrammes.

La livre des poids de marc ou livre de Troyes, attestée depuis le début du xiiie siècle, valut dans tout le royaume à partir de 1266. La livre de Troyes est en principe douze dixièmes de la livre carolingienne. Cette dernière fut instaurée en 793 par Charlemagne.]

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Salamandre

La salamandre, baffie ou lebraude est un amphibien légendaire qui était réputé pour vivre dans le feu et s’y baigner, et ne mourir que lorsque celui-ci s’éteignait. Mentionnée pour la première fois par Pline l’Ancien, la salamandre devint une créature importante des bestiaires médiévaux ainsi qu’un symbole alchimique et héraldique auquel une profonde symbolique est attachée. Ainsi, Paracelse (1493-1541) en faisait l’esprit élémentaire du feu, sous l’apparence d’une belle jeune femme vivant dans les brasiers. D’autres légendes plus tardives en font un animal extrêmement venimeux, capable d’empoisonner l’eau des puits et les fruits des arbres par sa seule présence.

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Funeral pyre

Quenching the Funeral pyre.
South Italian Vase-painting.
Pertains to Iliad, 23.250

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bust

Bûcher. Néologisme; du lat. bustum, même sens.

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bustuary

[Latin bustuarius. Pertaining to the burning or the funeral-pyre] Of or belonging to the funeral pile; funereal.

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Notes

Toutes les arbres lanificques des Seres,

116. divisae arboribus patriae. sola India nigrum
fert hebenum, solis est turea virga Sabaeis.
quid tibi odorato referam sudantia ligno
balsamaque et bacas semper frondentis acanthi?
quid nemora Aethiopum molli canentia lana,
velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres?

trees have their allotted climes. India alone bears black ebony; to the Sabaeans alone belongs the frankincense bough. Why should I tell you of the balsams that drip from the fragrant wood, or of the pods of the ever blooming acanthus? Why tell of the Ethiopian groves, all white with downy wool [molli lana, i.e. cotton], or how the Seres comb from leaves their fine fleeces [In Virgil’s time the Romans, knowing nothing of the silkworm, supposed that the silk they imported from the East grew on the leaves of trees] ?

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Toutes les arbres lanificques des Seres,

primi sunt hominum qui vocantur Seres, lanicio silvarum nobiles, perfusam aqua depectentes frondium canitiem, unde geminus feminis nostris labos redordiendi fila rursusque texendi: tam multiplici opere, tam longinquo orbe petitur ut in publico matrona traluceat.

The first human occupants are the people called the Chinese, who are famous for the woollen substance [The substance referred to, though confused with silk, is probably cotton made into calico or muslin. For silk see XI. 76] obtained from their forests; after a soaking in water they comb off the white down of the leaves, and so supply our women with the double task of unravelling the threads and weaving them together again; so manifold is the labour employed, and so distant is the region of the globe drawn upon, to enable the Roman matron to flaunt transparent raiment in public.

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Attire so many people

eiusdem insulae excelsiore suggestu lanigerae arbores alio modo quam Serum; his folia infecunda quae, ni minora essent, vitium poterant videri. ferunt mali cotonei amplitudine cucurbitas quae maturitate ruptae ostendunt lanuginis pilas ex quibus vestes pretioso linteo faciunt.

XXII. arborem vocant gossypinum, fertiliore etiam Tyro minore, quae distat x͞ p. Iuba circa fruticem lanugines esse tradit, linteaque ea Indicis praestantiora, Arabiae autem arborem ex qua vestes faciant cynas vocari, folio palmae simili. sic Indos suae arbores vestiunt.

XXI. In the same gulf is the island of Tyros [now Bahrein, cf. VI. 148]… On a more elevated plateau in the same island there are tree [cotton-trees] that bear wool, but in a different manner to those [serica, silk] of the Chinese, as the leaves of these trees have no growth on them, and might be thought to be vine-leaves were it not that they are smaller; but they bear gourds of the size of a quince, which when they ripen burst open and disclose balls of down from which an expensive linen for clothing is made.

XXII. Their name for this tree is the gossypinus; it also grows in greater abundance on the smaller island of Tyros, which is ten miles distant from the other. Juba says that this shrub has a woolly down growing round it, the fabric made from which is superior to the linen of India. He also says that there is an Arabian tree called the cynas [prhaps Bombas ceiba] from which cloth is made, which has foliage resembling a palm-leaf.

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the silk-moth

XXV. Among these is a fourth genus, the silk-moth, which occurs in Assyria; it is larger than the kinds mentioned above. Silk-moths make their nests of mud like a sort of salt; they are attached to a stone, and are so hard that they can scarcely be pierced with javelins. In these nests they make combs on a larger scale than bees do, and then produce a bigger grub.
XXVI. These creatures are also produced in another way. A specially large grub changes into a caterpillar with two projecting horns of a peculiar kind, and then into what is called a cocoon, and this turns into a chrysalis and this in six months into a silk-moth. They weave webs like spiders, producing a luxurious material for women’s dresses, called silk. The process of unravelling these and weaving the thread again was first invented in Cos by a woman named Pamphile, daughter of Plateas, who has the undeniable distinction of having devised a plan to reduce women’s clothing to nakedness.
XXVII. Silk-moths are also reported to be born in the island of Cos, where vapour out of the ground creates life in the blossom of the cypress, terebinth, ash and oak that has been stripped off by rain. First however, it is said, small butterflies are produced that are bare of down, and then as they cannot endure the cold they grow shaggy tufts of hair and equip themselves with thick jackets against winter, scraping together the down of leaves with the roughness of their feet; this is compressed by them into fleeces and worked over by carding with their claws, and then drawn out into woof-threads, and thinned out as if with a comb, and afterwards taken hold of and wrapped round their body in a coiled nest. Then (they say) they are taken away by a man, put in earthenware vessels and reared with warmth and a diet of bran, and so a peculiar kind of feathers sprout out, clad with which they are sent out to other tasks; but tufts of wool plucked off are softened with moisture and then thinned out into threads with a rush spindle. Nor have even men been ashamed to make use of these dresses, because of their lightness in summer: so far have our habits departed from wearing a leather cuirass that even a robe is considered a burden! All the same we so far leave the Assyrian silk-moth to women.

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Toutes les arbres lanificques des Seres,

XXI. Tyros (Tylos) insula in eodem sinu est, repleta silvis qua spectat orientem quaque et ipsa aestu maris perfunditur. magnitudo singulis arboribus fici, flos suavitate inenarrabili, pomum lupino simile, propter asperitatem intactum omnibus animalibus. eiusdem insulae excelsiore suggestu lanigerae arbores alio modo quam Serum; his folia infecunda quae, ni minora essent, vitium poterant videri. ferunt mali cotonei amplitudine cucurbitas quae maturitate ruptae ostendunt lanuginis pilas ex quibus vestes pretioso linteo faciunt.
XXII. arborem vocant gossypinum, fertiliore etiam Tyro minore, quae distat x͞ p. Iuba circa fruticem lanugines esse tradit, linteaque ea Indicis praestantiora, Arabiae autem arborem ex qua vestes faciant cynas vocari, folio palmae simili. sic Indos suae arbores vestiunt. in Tyris autem et alia arbor floret albae violae specie, sed magnitudine quadruplici, sine odore, quod miremur in eo tractu.

XXI. In the same gulf is the island of Tyros [now Bahrein, cf. VI. 148.], which is covered with forests in the part facing east, where it also is flooded by the sea at high tide. Each of the trees is the size of a fig-tree; they have a flower with an indescribably sweet scent and the fruit resembles a lupine, and is so prickly that no animal can touch it. On a more elevated plateau in the same island there are trees [Cotton-trees] that bear wool, but in a different manner to those [Serica, silk] of the Chinese, as the leaves of these trees have no growth on them, and might be thought to be vine-leaves were it not that they are smaller; but they bear gourds of the size of a quince, which when they ripen burst open and disclose balls of down from which an expensive linen for clothing is made.
XXII. Their name for this tree is the gossypinus; it also grows in greater abundance on the smaller island of Tyros, which is ten miles distant from the other. Juba says that this shrub has a woolly down growing round it, the fabric made from which is superior to the linen of India. He also says that there is an Arabian tree called the cynasc from which cloth is made, which has foliage resembling a palm-leaf. Similarly the natives of India are provided with clothes by their own trees. But in the Tyros islands there is also another tree [Tamarind] with a blossom like a white violet but four times as large; it has no scent, which may well surprise us in that region of the world.

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Toutes les arbres lanificques des Seres,

Lanigeras Serum in mentione gentis eius narravimus, item Indiae arborum magnitudinem. unam e peculiaribus Indiae Vergilius celebravit hebenum, nusquam alibi nasci professus.
We have already described the wool-bearing trees of the Chinese in making mention of that race, and we have spoken of the large size of the trees in India. One of those peculiar to India, the ebony, is spoken of in glowing terms by Virgil, who states that it does not grow in any other country.

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in the land of the Seres

Now while hemp and flax, both the ordinary and the fine variety, are sown by those whose soil is suited to grow it, the threads from which the Seres make the dresses are produced from no bark, but in a different way as follows. There is in the land of the Seres an insect which the Greeks call ser, though the Seres themselves give it another name. Its size is twice that of the largest beetle, but in other respects it is like the spiders that spin under trees, and furthermore it has, like the spider, eight feet. These creatures are reared by the Seres, who build them houses adapted for winter and for summer. The product of the creatures, a clue of fine thread, is found rolled round their feet. They keep them for four years, feeding them on millet, but in the fifth year, knowing that they have no longer to live, they give them green reed to eat. This of all foods the creature likes best; so it stuffs itself with the reed till it bursts with surfeit, and after it has thus died they find inside it the greater part of the thread. Seria is known to be an island lying in a recess of the Red Sea. But I have heard that it is not the Red Sea, but a river called Ser, that makes this island, just as in Egypt the Delta is surrounded by the Nile and by no sea. Such another island is Seria said to be. These Seres themselves are of Aethiopian race, as are the inhabitants of the neighbouring islands, Abasa and Sacaea. Some say, however, that they are not Aethiopians but a mongrel race of Scythians and Indians.

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Lanifique

Lanifique. Wooll-breeding.

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Seres

Voiez Pline, l. 6 chap 17 & son abbréviateur Solin, chap. 53.

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lanific

Urquhart translates lanificques as “lunific,” which Ozell corrects to “lanific.”

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Seres

Anciens peuples de l’Asie Orientale, qui poirroient bien être les Chinois. Leur pays produisoit beaucoup de soye.

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arbres lanificque des seres

[Addendum to Le Duchat] — Anciens peuples de l’Asie orientale, qui pourroient bien être les Chinois. Leur pays produisoit beaucoup de soie.

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arbres lanificques

Qui produisent de la laine.

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les arbres lanificques des Seres

Sères, peuple de la Sérique, contrée sise au nord de l’Inde (Thibet? et régions voisines) dont parle Pline: «Seres, lanicio silvarum nobiles. perfusam aqua depectentes frondium canitiem: unde geminus feminis nostris labor redordiendi fila, rursumque texendi.» (VI, 20.) Pline cite ailleurs «Langieras Serum.» (XII, 8.) «Velleraque ut foliis depectant folia Seres», dit aussi Virgile, Géorg., l. II, v. 121.
Les arbres des forêts à laine de Sères — si arbre il y a — étaient sans doute de cotonniers. Cependant Gossellin a prétendu que cette laine si renommée était tiré des chèvres de Thibet. D’autres enfin estiment qu’il s’agit de la soie, produit du Bombyx du mûrier, dont on ne connut que plus tard la véritable origine. (Paul Delaunay)

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Tylos

Tylos, île d’Arabie, dont parle Théophraste (H.P., l. IV, ch 9). — «Tylos insula in eodem sinu [Persico] est… ejusdem insulæ excelsiore suggestu lanigeræ arbores alio modo quam Serum… Ferunt cotonei mali amplitudine cucurbitas, quæ maturitate ruptæ ostendunt laanuginis pilas ex quibus vestes pretioso linteo faciunt. Arbores vocant gossympinos.» (Pline, XII, 21.) Lémery a cru retrouver dans le Gossampinus Plinii, le Fromager (Bombax ceyba, L.). Mais la brièveté des fibres du duvet de son fruit (Kapok) l’a rendu (sauf depuis ces derniers temps) impropre à tout usage textile. Mieux vaunt y voir un cotonnier soit Gossypium arboreum, L., avec Fée, soit plutôt, avec de Candolle, G. herbaceum, L. (Paul Delaunay)

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arbres lanificques, gossampines, cynes, les vignes de Malthe

Il s’agit de la soie et du coton (Pline, XII, 21 et 22). Les gossampines (gossypion) sont assimilées au lin par Pline, XIX, 2. Le coton de Malthe était très réputé dans l’Antiquité, d’où la « Linigera Melite » de Scyllius, cité par Textor, Officina, lxxvi v. Cf Polydore Vergile, De Inventoribus rerum, III,vi ; Servius, Comment. in Georg., II, 121 (voir plus bas, LII, 146, note).

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Sères

Peuple de la Sérique, au nord de l’Inde; les arbres à laine sont vraisemblablement des cotonniers.

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Seres

Seres [Latin Seres whence sericum silk]

The name of a people anciently inhabiting some part of Eastern Asia (prob. China), whose country was believed to be the original home of silk. Hence, the Seres wool, silk.

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lanific

lanific, rare. [adaptation of Latin la¯nific-us, formed on la¯na wool + -ficus making]

Wool-bearing. Busied in spinning wool.

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Notes

cannabis

Cannabis sativa
Zamer Hanff

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pantagruelion masle et femelle

Rabelais commet ici une confusion grave : le Cannabis sativa est une plante dioïque, à pieds mâle et femelles distincts ; le fruit, fécondé par le pollen des fleures mâles, ne peut éviedmment naître que du pied femelle. Mais l’erreur popilaire, partagée par Gesner, Fuchs, Dalechamps, Dodoens, Lonicer, considérait comme mâle la plante porte-graine, plus luxuriante ; comme femelle la plante plus grêle à fleurs pistillées, non suivies de fruits, et qui dépérit la première. (Paul Delaunay)

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mercury [male and female]

[Regarding the former designation of male and female plants by their robustness and not their seed production]

The euphorbiaceous plant Mercurialis annua. Also baron’s, boy’s, French, garden, girl’s, maiden mercury. According to Britten and Holland, the baron’s or boy’s is the female and the girl’s the male mercury.

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Notes

peony

paeonia foemina

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pæone

Plante ainsi nommée en souvenir de Pœon, lequel s’en servit pour guérir Pluton blessé par Hercule (Homère, Il., ch. 5). On reléve les formes pœonia (Pline) peone (XIIIe siècle), peon (P. Belon, XVIe siècle) — Dioscoride (III, 157), reconnait deux sortes de pivoine, l’une mâle et l’autre femelle : c’est à la seconde que l’on rapporte la pivoine de Pline (XXV, 10), qui est notre Pæonia officinalis L. La première, [greek], serait notre P. corallina L. (Fée). Saint-Lager dit que le P. mas se rapporte à nos P. peregrina et P. officinalis, et la P. fœmina à P. corallina. (Paul Delaunay)

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pivoine

Vetustissima inventu paeonia est, nomenque auctoris retinet, quam quidam pentorobon appellant, alii glycysidem. nam haec quoque difficultas est quod eadem aliter alibi nuncupatur. nascitur opacis montibus caule inter folia digitorum quattuor ferente in cacumine veluti Graecas nuces quattuor aut quinque. inest his semen copiosum, rubrum nigrumque. haec medetur et Faunorum in quiete ludibriis. praecipiunt eruere noctu, quoniam si picus Martius videat tuendo1 in oculos impetum faciat.

The first plant to be discovered was the peony, which still retains the name of the discoverer; it is called by some pentorobon, by others glycyside, for an added difficulty in botany is the variety of names given to the same plant in different districts. It grows on shaded mountains, having a stem among the leaves about four fingers high, which bears on its top four or five growths like almonds, in them being a large amount of seed, red and black. This plant also prevents the mocking delusions that the Fauns bring on us in our sleep. They recommend us to uproot it at night-time, because the woodpecker of Mars, should he see the act, will attack the eyes in its defence.

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peony

peony. Forms: peonie, pyone, (pioine), piane, pione, pyon, -oun, -an, (pyione). pyonie, -ony, -onye, pionye, pyany, -ye, pionee, pionie, peionie, peonie, piony, peiony, pæonie, pioney, peony, pæony. [In OE., peonie, adaptation of late Latin peonia, Latin pæonia (Pliny); in Middle English, pione, adopted from northern French (Norman and Picard) pione =Old French peone, peoine, pioine, modern French pivoine; in 15th century, pyonie, piony, peony, pæony, conformed to Latin pæonia, adopted from Greek paiwnia the peony, formed on Paiwn, Pæon, the name of the physician of the gods, a physician; compare paiwnioj healing, medicinal.]

A plant (or flower) of the genus Pæonia (N.O. Ranunculaceæ), comprising stout herbs, or rarely shrubs, with large handsome globular flowers of various shades of red and white, often becoming double under cultivation; esp. the commonly cultivated P. officinalis, a native of central Asia and southern Europe, with flowers usually dark red. The root, flowers, and seeds were formerly used in medicine, and the seeds also as a spice (quots. 1299, 1362, etc.).

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Notes

pouliot

Pulegium Poley

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pouliot

Pline, XX, 54, distingue le pouliot mâle du pouliot remelle : «Femina pulegii… est autem haec flore purpureo, mas candidum habet. » Les mots mâle et femelle ne traduisent ici que des variations de coloris; et in n;y a qu’un pouliot, hermaphrodite comme les autres Labiées : Mentha pulegium L. (Paul Delaunay)

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pouliot

Magna societas cum hac ad recreandos defectos animo puleio cum surculis suis in ampullas vitreas aceti utrisque deiectis. qua de causa dignior e puleio corona Varroni quam e rosa cubiculis nostris pronuntiata est, nam et capitis dolores inposita dicitur levare, quin et olfactu capita tueri contra frigorum aestusque iniuriam et ab siti traditur, neque aestuare eos qui duos e puleio surculos inpositos auribus in sole habeant. inlinitur etiam in doloribus cum polenta et aceto. femina efficacior. est autem haec flore purpureo. mas candidum habet. nausia cum sale et polenta in frigida aqua pota inhibet, sic et pectoris dolorem, stomachi autem ex aqua. item rosiones sistit et vomitiones cum aceto et polenta, alvum solvit ex sale et aceto et polenta. intestinorum vitia melle decocta et nitro sanat, urinam pellit ex vino et, si Amineum sit, et calculos et interiores omnes dolores. ex melle et aceto sedat menstrua et secundas, vulvas conversas corrigit defunctos partus eicit. semen obmutescentibus olfactu admovetur, comitialibus in aceto cyathi mensura datur. si aquae insalubres bibendae sint, tritum aspergitur. lassitudines corporis, si cum vino datur, minuit, nervorum causa et in contractione cum sale et aceto, et melle infricatur in opisthotono. bibitur ad serpentium ictus decoctum, ad scorpionum in vino tritum, maxime quod in siccis nascitur. ad oris exulcerationes, ad tussim efficax habetur. flos recentis incensus pulices necat odore. Xenocrates pulei ramum lana involutum in tertianis ante accessionem olfactandum dari aut stragulis subici et ita collocari aegrum inter remedia tradit.

Pennyroyal and mint are strong allies in reviving people who have fainted, both being put, in whole sprays, into glass bottles full of vinegar. For this reason Varro declared that a garland of pennyroyal was more suited to our bedrooms than one of roses, for an application is said to relieve headache; moreover, its very smell protects the head, so it is reported, against injury from cold or heat, and from thirst, nor do they suffer from the heat who carry when they are in the sun two sprays of pennyroyal behind their ears. It is also applied with pearl barley and vinegar for pains. The female plant is the more efficacious. This has a mauve flower, but the male a white one. Taken in cold water with salt and pearl barley it checks nausea; in this form pains in the chest also, and in water by itself pains in the stomach. Likewise it checks gnawings and vomiting if taken with vinegar and pearl barley; in salt, vinegar and pearl barley it loosens the bowels. Boiled with honey and soda it cures complaints of the intestines; in wine it is diuretic, and if the wine be Aminean it disperses both stone and all internal pains. In honey and vinegar it relieves menstruation and the after-birth, replaces displaced uterus and expels the dead foetus. Its seed is given to smell in cases of aphasia; to epileptics it is administered with vinegar in doses of one cyathus. If unwholesome water has to be drunk, pounded pennyroyal is sprinkled on it. It relieves physical tiredness if taken in wine; it is rubbed with salt and vinegar on the sinews, and when these are contracted, and with honey for opisthotonic tetanus. A decoction is drunk for serpent bites; pounded it is taken in wine for stings of scorpions, especially if the pennyroyal be grown on dry soil. It is supposed to be good for ulcerations of the mouth, and for cough. The flower of the freshly gathered plant, when burnt, kills fleas by its smell. Xenocrates includes in his prescriptions the administering of a sprig of pennyroyal wrapped in wool to be smelt by sufferers from tertian ague before an attack of fever, or its being placed under the bedclothes for the patient to lie on.

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pouliot

Pouiot. m. Penniroyall, Pulial’royall, pudding-grasse, Lurkydish.

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Notes

Cyperus

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Cyperus

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Cyperus (text)

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Cyprus

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Cyprus (text)

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cypres

Pline, XVI, 60, décrit deux espèces de Cyprès : « Meta in fastigium convoluta, quæ et femina appellatur ; mas spargit extra se ramos. » Le C. femina est notre Cupressus fastigiata D. C.; le C. mas, notre C. horizontalis Mill., mais ces espèces sont toutes deux monïques. (Paul Delaunay)

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cypres

Cupressus advena et difficillime nascentium fuit, ut de qua verbosius saepiusque quam de omnibus aliis prodiderit Cato, satu morosa, fructu supervacua, bacis torva, folio amara, odore violenta ac ne umbra quidem gratiosa, materie rara, ut paene fruticosi generis, Diti sacra et ideo funebri signo ad domos posita. femina sterilis. diu metae demum aspectu non repudiata distinguendis tantum vinearum ordinibus, nunc vero tonsilis facta in densitatem parietum coercitaque gracilitate perpetuo teres trahitur etiam in picturas operis topiarii, venatus classesve et imagines rerum
duo genera earum: meta in fastigium convoluta, quae et femina appellatur; mas spargit extra se ramos deputaturque et accipit vitem. utraque autem immittitur in perticas asseresve amputatione ramorum, qui xiii anno denariis singulis veneunt, quaestuosissima in satus ratione silva; vulgoque dotem filiae antiqui plantaria ea appellabant. huic patria insula Creta, quamquam Cato Tarentinam eam appellat, credo, quod primum eo venerit. et in Aenaria succisa regerminat; sed in Creta quocumque in loco terram moverit quispiam, nisu1 naturali haec gignitur protinusque emicat, illa vero etiam non appellato solo ac sponte, maximeque in Idaeis montibus et quos Albos vocant summisque in iis unde numquam nives absunt plurima, quod miremur, alibi non nisi in tepore proveniens et nivem magno opere fastidiens.

The cypress is an exotic, and has been one of the most difficult trees to rear, seeing that Catoa has written about it at greater length and more often than about all the other trees, as stubborn to grow, of no use for fruit, with berries that cause a wry face, a bitter leaf, and a pungent smell: not even its shade agreeable and its timber scanty, so that it almost belongs to the class of shrubs; consecrated to Dis, and consequently placed at the doors of houses as a sign of mourning. The female bears seed but the male is sterile [‘The female is sterile’; Mayhoff, comparing XVII. 73, marks a lacuna, and from § 247 conjectures the above insertion] . For a long time past merely owing to its pyramidal appearance it was not rejected just for the purpose of marking the rows in vineyards, but nowadays it is clipped and made into thick walls or evenly rounded off with trim slenderness, and it is even made to provide the representations of the landscape gardener’s work, arraying hunting scenes or fleets of ships and imitations of real objects with its narrow, short, evergreen leaf. There are two kinds of cypress: the pyramid, tapering upward in a spiral, which is also called the female cypress, and the male cypress which spreads its branches outward from itself, and is pruned and used as a prop for a vine. Both the male and the female are allowed to grow up so as by having their branches lopped off to form poles or props, which after twelve years’ growth sell for a denarius apiece, a grove of cypresses being a most profitable item in one’s plantation account; and people in old days used commonly to call cypress nurseries a dowry for a daughter. The native country of this tree is the island of Crete, although Cato calls it Taranto cypress, no doubt because that place was where it was first imported. In the island of Ischia also, if cut down, it will shoot up again; but in Crete this tree is produced by spontaneous generation wherever anybody stirs the earth, and shoots out at once, in this case in fact even without any demand being made of the soil and of its own accord, and especially in the mountains of Ida and those called the White Mountains, and in the greatest number on the very summits of the peaks that are never free from snow, which may well surprise us, as the tree does not occur elsewhere except in a warm climate and has a great dislike for snow.

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cypress

cypress. Forms: ciprese, cypris, sypres,cipris, cipres, cypres, cipriss, -ys, cyprys, syprees, -ese, cupresse, cipresse, cypresse, cipreis, cyparesse, syprys, cypers, cipress, cypress. [Middle English cipres, cypres, etc., adopted from Old French ciprès (12th century), cypres, adaptation of late Latin cypressus (Vulgate, Isidore, etc.), adaptation of Greek kuparissoj cypress. The earlier Latin adaptation of the word was cupressus; the later cypressus and rare cyparissus were refashioned after Greek.]

A well-known coniferous tree, Cupressus sempervirens, a native of Persia and the Levant, extensively cultivated in Western Asia and Southern Europe, with hard durable wood and dense dark foliage; often regarded as symbolic of mourning (see c). Hence, the English name of the genus.

The wood of this tree.

The branches or sprigs of the tree, used at funerals, or as a symbol of mourning. Also figurative.

Of cypress or cypress-wood. Resembling the foliage or shade of a cypress; cypress-like; dark, gloomy, funereal.

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Notes

Mandragora

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Mandragora

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Mandragora femine

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Mandragore

Mandragores mâle et femelle (Greek ΜΑΝΔΡΑΓΟΡΑ). Folio 90 from the Naples Dioscurides, a 7th century manuscript of Dioscurides’ De Materia Medica (Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, Cod. Gr. 1).

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mandragore

Aliqui et mandragora utebantur; postea abdicatus est in hac curatione. epiphoris, quod certum est, medetur et oculorum dolori radix tusa cum rosaceo et vino. nam sucus multis oculorum medicamentis miscetur. mandragoran alii circaeon vocant. duo eius genera; candidus qui et mas, niger qui femina existimatur, angustioribus quam lactucae foliis, hirsutis et caulibus, radicibus binis ternisve rufulis, intus albis, carnosis tenerisque, paene cubitalibus. ferunt mala abellanarum nucum magnitudine et in his semen ceu pirorum. hoc albo alii arsena, alii morion, alii hippophlomon vocant. huius folia alba, alterius latiora ut lapathi sativae. effossuri cavent contrarium ventum et tribus circulis ante gladio circumscribunt, postea fodiunt ad occasum spectantes. sucus fit et e malis et caule deciso cacumine et e radice punctis aperta aut decocta. utilis haec vel surculo. concisa quoque in orbiculos servatur in vino. sucus non ubique invenitur sed, ubi potest, circa vindemias quaeritur. odor gravis ei, set radicis et mali gravior ex albo. mala matura in umbra siccantur. sucus ex his sole densatur, item radicis tusae vel in vino nigro ad tertias decoctae. folia servantur in muria, efficacius albi. rore tactorum sucus pestis est. sic quoque noxiae vires. gravedinem adferunt etiam olfactu, quamquam mala in aliquis terris manduntur, nimio tamen odore obmutescunt ignari, potu quidem largiore etiam moriuntur. vis somnifica pro viribus bibentium. media potio cyathi unius. bibitur et contra serpentes et ante sectiones punctionesque, ne sentiantur. ob haec satis est aliquis somnum odore quaesisse. bibitur et pro helleboro duobus obolis in mulso—efficacius helleborum—ad vomitiones et ad bilem nigram extrahendam.

Some physicians used to employ theMandrake for the eyes, etc. mandrake also; afterwards it was discarded as a medicine for the eyes. What is certain is that the pounded root, with rose oil and wine, cures fluxes and pain in the eyes. But the juice is used as an ingredient in many eye remedies. Some give the name circaeon to the mandrake. There are two kinds of it: the white, which is also considered male, and the black, considered female. The leaves are narrower than those of lettuce, the stems hairy, and the roots, two or three in number, reddish [he nigris foris, “black outside,” of Hermolaus Barbarus, was suggested by Dioscorides IV. 75, μέλαιναι κατὰ τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν, ἔνδοθεν δὲ λευκαί. But even if foris can represent τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν, nigris foris was most unlikely to be corrupted to rufulis. The word μέλας often means “of the colour of port wine,” and rufulus is not very far away from that], white inside, fleshy and tender, and almost a cubit in length. They bear fruit of the size of filberts, and in these are seeds like the pips of pears. When the seed is white the plant is called by some arsen [“Male,” Greek ἄρσην. Fée thinks that the morion was not the mandrake but Atropa belladonna], by others morion, and by others hippophlomos. The leaves of this mandrake are whitish, broader than those of the other, and like those of cultivated lapathum. The diggers avoid facing the wind, first trace round the plant three circles with a sword, and then do their digging while facing the west. The juice can also be obtained from the fruit, from the stem, after cutting off the top, and from the root, which is opened by pricks or boiled down to a decoction. Even the shoot of its root can be used, and the root is also cut into round slices and kept in wine. The juice is not found everywhere, but where it can be found it is looked [Dioscorides, IV. 75 (Wellmann) has: ἔστι δὲ ἐνεργέστερος τοῦ ὀποῦ ὁ χυλός. οὐκ ἐν παντὶ δὲ τόπῳ φέρουσιν ὀπὸν αἱ ῥίζαι ὑποδείκνυσι δὲ τὸ τοιοῦτον ἡ πεῖρα. Our two authorities differ here; there seems nothing in Pliny to correspond to ἡ πεῖρα] for about vintage time. It has a strong smell, but stronger when the juice comes from the root or fruit of the white mandrake. The ripe fruit is dried in the shade. The fruit juice is thickened in the sun, and so is that of the root, which is crushed or boiled down to one third in dark wine. The leaves are kept in brine, more effectively those of the white kind. The juice of leaves that have been touched by dew are deadly. Even when kept in brine they retain harmful properties. The mere smell brings heaviness of the head and—although in certain countries the fruit is eaten—those who in ignorance smell too much are struck dumb, while too copious a draught even brings death. When the mandrake is used as a sleeping draught the quantity administered should be proportioned to the strength of the patient a moderate dose being one cyathus. It is also taken in drink for snake bite, and before surgical operations and punctures to produce anaesthesia. For this purpose some find it enough to put themselves to sleep by the smell. A dose of two oboli of mandrake is also taken in honey wine instead of hellebore—but hellebore is more efficacious—as an emetic and to purge away black bile.

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mandragore

Hermaphrodite, comme les autres Solanées. Les vieux auteurs prétendaient retrouver dans la bizzare conformation de la racine ne sorte d’ébauche humaine, tantôt mâle, tantôt femelle. (Cf. H. Leclerc, La mandragore, Presse médicale, no. 102, 23 décembre 1922, p. 2138-2140, et J. Avalon, La mandragore, son histoire, sa légend, Æsculape, 13e année, nos. 10 et 12, octobre et décember 1923, p. 223-337, 271-275). Pline décrit 2 esp. de Mandragore : « Candidus qui est mas, niger qui femina existimatur. » (XXV, 94). La mandragore femelle de Pline est pour Fée Mandragora autumnalis Bert., la mâle, M. vernalis Bert. Linnée n’en fait qu’une espèce, M. officinarum L. (Paul Delaunay)

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mandrake

mandrake. Forms: mandragge, mandrage, mandrag, mendrage, mandrake, mondrake, mandrak [Middle English mandrag(g)e, a shortening of mandragora; the form mandrake (mondrake), though recorded earlier than -drage, is prob. due to association with drake.]

Any plant of the genus Mandragora, native to Southern Europe and the East, and characterized by very short stems, thick, fleshy, often forked, roots, and fetid lance-shaped leaves. The mandrake is poisonous, having emetic and narcotic properties, and was formerly used medicinally. The forked root is thought to resemble the human form, and was fabled to utter a deadly shriek when plucked up from the ground. The notion indicated in the narrative of Genesis xxx, that the fruit when eaten by women promotes conception, is said still to survive in Palestine.

In allusive and fig. uses: (a) as a term of abuse; (b) a narcotic; (c) a noisome growth.

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