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Rejsek nebo hranostaj? Nový význam Aristotelova termínu mygalé ve středověku

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Šedinová H.

Listy filologické (Folia philologica)

2015

vol. 138

issue 1-2

119-146

In the Czech Medieval sources we can find different Latin variants of originally Greek noun μυγαλη, denoting some smaller representative of the family Soricidae from the order Insectivora. Czech glosses attached to the Latin variants migale, micale, mitale, merhale, iugale and others testify, however, that the Czech lexicographers and authors of various scientific treatises did not connect this word with the shrew but with some significantly bigger animal – probably with the ermine (family Mustelidae, order Carnivora). This paper tries to illuminate how and when did this change happen: whether it was caused by a mistake, originating sometimes during the two thousand years when the Greek word μυγαλη found its way from the ancient treatises into the Czech Medieval works, or whether it was motivated by a mistaken interpretation of the Czech authors. The word μυγαλη spread into the Middle Ages from two very different texts: from Aristotle’s treatise Historia animalium, and from the Bible (Lev 11,29–31) where the shrew belongs – together with the mouse, weasel and other beasts – to the ritually impure animals that are forbidden to eat. As it seems, the Medieval encyclopedists, who combined the scientific knowledge of Aristotle with the colourful narrative of biblical exegesis in their descriptions, found the meaning of this word not clear enough and so they likened this animal to the chameleon, or often considered it unidentifiable. The Medieval illuminators, in their turn, depicted this animal as a smaller beast of prey resembling the weasel. However, the animal called gali was depicted in a similar way. This word comes from Aristotle’s Historia animalium where it denotes indeed the weasel or other weasel-like beast of prey, and it occurs for the first time in the Middle Ages in the 13th century, in the Latin translation of Aristotle’s zoological treatise translated from Arabic by Michael Scotus. The word gali itself remained obscure for the Medieval encyclopedists and they were unable to identify the respective animal – this is best exemplified by the suggestion of Albert the Great who considered the gali to be the fox. It comes as no surprise, then, that Bartholomaeus Anglicus put the description of both animals together into a single passage. The names gali and mygale thus multiplicate the many nouns available in the Middle Ages for the weasel-like beasts of prey (mustela, putorius, furunculus, erminium and others), and the word mygale is almost exclusively used to denote the ermine in the 14th and 15th centuries.

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1 Listy filologické (Folia philologica)

1 Šedinová H.

1 2015

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Rejsek nebo hranostaj? Nový význam Aristotelova termínu mygalé ve středověku