Note on two words in the Speculum stultorum of Nigellus

NOTE 01\ TWO WORD S

SPECULUM STULTORUM OF NIGELLU S

1 . Cirolus (Wright, Satirical Poets of l2th cent ., vol . I, p . 33 , last line but 2) .

Galienus the doctor is giving Burnellus the ass a mock recip e for getting his tail lengthened ; it runs thus :

Marmoris aruinam, forni septemplicis umbram ,

quod peperitmulo mula subacta suo ;

anseris et milui modicum delatte recenti ,

de lacis cursu deque timore lupi ;

de canis et leporis septenni foedere drachmam , oscula quae niso misit alauda suo ;

pauonisproprialibram de mice sonora ,

ante tarnen caudaquam sit adepta sibi ; de non contexta rubra sine stamine mappa ,

nam risus asini tu dabisipse tibi ;

allecis uel apum croceo de spermate libram , de ciroli iecore, sanguine siue pede ; Natalis Domini modicum de notte salubri ;

quae Minis est longa iure ualebit ad hoc . in reditu de monte louis, de uertice summo ,

accipies librar quattuor asse minus . alpibus in rnediis sancti de nocte Iohannis ,

de nice quae cecidit tu simul inde feras . serpentisque rubrae necnon et cauda colubra e

utilis est ualde, nee tarnen illud erne .

(I have corrected one or two of Wright ' s readings . )

It will be seen that most of the ingredients are impossibilities , though not all ; in the sanse couplet as that in which ` ciroli' oc-curs we find a pound of herring or of honey mentioned ; it is quite

NOTE ON TWO WORDS IN TßE (( SPECULUM STULTORUM )) 9 3 possible, therefore, that our word is the name of an animal pos-sessing liver, blood and feet .

There is no doubt of the reading ; of all the 29 MSS . I have exa-mined (either personally or through the kindness of Librarians ) only four have variants :

1. Trin . Coll . Dublin 440 silicis, obviously a conjecture . 2. Lincoln Cath . Chapt . Libr . 191 cirole, error of scribe . 3. Vienna nat . Bibl . 3529 cirob i

4. Copenhagen S . 1364 aroli (a = ci )

Of the printed editions, however, all except that of Leipzig , which omits the couplet, read gyroli, which must therefore be con-sidered as an emendation . This is made the more certain as th e editions of Utrecht and Paris, the earliest of the Incunabula, are . clearly derived from a MS at Rome (Reg . Lat . 1379), which read s ciroli here . Possibly the Editio Princeps (Utrecht) adopted gyroli and was then followed by the others .

The possible interpretations are as follows :

(I) Diminutive of sciurus a squirrel, but this would appear t o be not sciurulus or sciurolus, which might have been shortene d to scirolus, cirolus (cf . ciplzus = scyphus), but scurellus, as i n Alexander Neckam De Nonzinibus Utensiliunz (ed . J . A . Scheler , Lexicographie latine, p . 88) epenula mantelli sit ex cicinis sin e

scurellis' .

(II) The Greek z pu),os a halcyon, but the word is found nowher e else in its Latin form, and the quantity of the e is against it .

([II) Ceruleus uel geruleus is found in Diefenbach, Glossarium latino gernzanicunz, with the meaning `brachvogel' i . e . curlew , under the authority of Frischlin, Nonzenclator Trilinguis, Frank-furt 1603 . But geruleus also appears in the Glossarium as = ` charphe' i . e . carp, on the authority of a late 12th . cent . M S (cod . Vind . 804) at Vienna, which contains Latin-German glosses on f . 175-183, quoted by Hoffman von Fallersleben in Sanzerla-ten, 1834, p . 39, col . 1 . We notice the alternative c and g as ini-tial letter .

(IV) Diefenbach, both in his Glossarium and in his Novunz Glos-sarium, has evidence for sirolus, sirulus c carp, for which the earliest authority is a Latin-Low German Wordbook containe d in a MS of 1417 originally of Cologne ; also a Frankfurt MS of

94

J . II . MOZLa v

1429, other MSS of '1470 and 1476, a Vocabularies of 1515, ete . Here we have evidence contemporary with many of the MSS . o f our work, and a form that is so far the nearest we have had to cirolccs .

(V) Under gervccli in Ducange we find a reference to a MS . i n Paris (Bibl . nat . 6838, f . 29) of the '16th cent . This is a Tractatu s de Piscibus in which occurs the following passage : ` smaris gnen i Plinies et Martialis appellant gerres ut ex uersibus citatis supe-ries capere liquet . Venetiis hoclie giroli et gerruli . In Gallia ros-tra et Hispania picarel, ob id fortasse quod salitis et fumo siecati s linguam pungent quadam acrimonia et mordent' . Here we hav e the word practically as it appears in the Incunabula, but with a quite different meaning from ` sirolus' and with one described a s being confined to Venice .

(VI) The reference in Diefenbach (Gloss .) to Mai, Class . Awl . IV under sirolus is erroneous, as the word in Mai is silurus (whic h has the first u long), a very different fish .

(VII) The word chirogryllus has various spellings (see Ducange ) e . g . cirogulus which might have become cirolccs . The meaning o f this word appears to be really ` marmot ' , see Liddell and Scott s . v . y,,otpoïpaato ;, but in its Latin form it is used for rabbit, hedg e hog and apparently squirrel, see the quotation in Ducange fro m Ps . Ovid, De Vetula .

I. have not been able to find any reference to animals believe d to be without either liver or blood, such as would give point t o the line, as referring to impossibilia . There might be some poin t in choosing a very small fish, such as the picarel, where the jecu r and sanguis, both very small substances, would be capped by th e slue pede, something non-existent . Against giroli is its apparen t confinement to Venice, but the editor of, at any rate, the Utrech t edition must have known the word, as its use by him seems a de -liberate correction of the MSS, although sirolus was frequent i n the word-books of the time . I do not know of any other alterna-tion of ci-, gi- (but see Edward Schröder, Die Deutschen Person-ennanaen in Ekkehards LValth.arius, p . 147, of Studien zur latein-ischen Dichtung des MAs, Dresden, 1931, the name `Kimo d . i . Gimo ' , where Kimo appears in the Latin) ; Diefenhach' s geruleus , cerulcus is comparatively late, but geruleus itself is the only wor d contemporary with Nigel . The evidence is too confused to admit

NOTE ON TWO WORDS IN THE (( SPECULUM STULTORUM » 9 5

of decision, though on the whole I am inclined to favour girolu s as against sirolus, and the meaning 'picarel' against carp .

2 . Profinellus (Wright, op . cit .,

p .

Burnellus, describing the 1-Iospitallers, says, if he joins them : cum lacrimis pergam, scutica cedente trinodi ,

et center uacuus et prosinellus erit . There are more variants her e

1. . Bodl . 761 et prophinellu s 2. Cotton Titus A xx et prosinellu s 3. Digby 27 et prosinellu s 4. Bodl . 780 et prosinellu s 5. B . M . Additional 38665 at prosoletus(ero)

6. Trin . Coll . Dublin 440 et prope nullu s 7. Vienna, Bibl . nat . 3283

atque famellu s 8. 3467 . . et famelite r 9. 3487 . . et famellicu s 10. 3529 . . et profunellu s 11. 12531 atque famellu s 12. Vat . Reg . lat . 1379 et quasi uellu s

13. Breslau IV Q 126 et fatigatu s 1.4 . Utrecht Printed edition et quasi uellu s

15. Paris . et quasi uellu s 16. Leipzig . famelicus e t 17. Cologne . famelicus e t As there is no trace in Glossaries or Vocabularies of any wor d remotely resembling pro/ïnellus, I conclude that we have here a scribal error, and that the Trinity College MS . has by a conjectur e arrived at the true reading, from which palaeographically ou r word is not far removed . The other readings are either variation s of spelling or else words expressive of hunger or fatigue, clearl y conjectural . Here too Utrecht and Paris follow the Vatican MS i n the meaningless quasi uellus . Nigel in writing prope nullus may have had in mind Ovid, Met ., 8 . 805 `uentris era', pro centre lo-cus' . Profinellus then appears to be a `vox nihili', and we must , however regretfully, let it go as such .