NOTE 01\ TWO WORD S
IN TII ß
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 peperit mulo mula subacta suo ;
anseris et milui modicum de latte recenti ,
de lacis cursu deque timore lupi ;
de canis et leporis septenni foedere drachmam ,
oscula quae niso misit alauda suo ;
pauonis propria libram de mice sonora ,
ante tarnen cauda quam sit adepta sibi ;
de non contexta rubra sine stamine mappa ,
nam risus asini tu dabis ipse 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' occurs we find a pound of herring or of honey mentioned ; it is quite
NOTE ON TWO WORDS IN TßE (( SPECULUM STULTORUM ))
93
possible, therefore, that our word is the name of an animal possessing liver, blood and feet .
There is no doubt of the reading ; of all the 29 MSS . I have examined (either personally or through the kindness of Librarians )
only four have variants :
1.
2.
3.
4.
Trin . Coll . Dublin 440 silicis, obviously a conjecture .
Lincoln Cath . Chapt . Libr . 191 cirole, error of scribe .
Vienna nat . Bibl. 3529 cirob i
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 considered 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, Frankfurt 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 glosse s
on f . 175-183, quoted by Hoffman von Fallersleben in Sanzerlaten, 1834, p . 39, col . 1 . We notice the alternative c and g as initial letter .
(IV) Diefenbach, both in his Glossarium and in his Novunz Glossarium, 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 superies capere liquet . Venetiis hoclie giroli et gerruli . In Gallia rostra 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 alternation of ci-, gi- (but see Edward Schröder, Die Deutschen Personennanaen in Ekkehards LValth.arius, p . 147, of Studien zur lateinischen 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
» 95
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 . 82 last line) .
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
et prosinellu s
4. Bodl . 780
at prosoletus (ero)
5. B . M . Additional 38665
6. Trin . Coll . Dublin 440
et prope nullu s
atque famellu s
7. Vienna, Bibl . nat . 3283
.
et
famelite r
8.
3467 .
3487 .
. et famellicu s
9.
3529 .
. et profunellu s
10.
atque famellu s
12531
11.
et quasi uellu s
12. Vat . Reg . lat . 1379
et fatigatu s
13. Breslau IV Q 126
et quasi uellu s
1.4 . Utrecht Printed edition
. et quasi uellu s
15. Paris
. famelicus e t
16. Leipzig
. famelicus e t
17. Cologne
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 locus' . Profinellus then appears to be a `vox nihili', and we must ,
however regretfully, let it go as such .
J . IT . MozLrY .