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Anthův střet s koněm a jeho odraz ve středověkých encyklopediích a glosářích

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Šedinová H.

Listy filologické (Folia philologica)

2014

vol. 137

issue 1-2

7-39

Aggressive and defensive behaviour of birds takes various forms and has multiple causes. Besides intraspecies and interspecies aggressivity that comes through in skirmishes taking place during wooing, defending one’s territory and food source, the attack or defence of a bird is also caused by efforts to protect its progeny or the whole community from an imminent danger. For this purpose, the birds use in particular wide array of acoustic and optical signals, partly to warn other members of the flock, partly to distract the enemy or to intimidate and chase away the intruder. Some of these aspects of birds’ behaviour were already noticed by authors of antiquity and Middle Ages; descriptions of conflicts between various bird species and of their defence against each other or against the raptors and predators from other animal classes can be found in Latin sources of the Czech Middle Ages too. In these texts, many descriptions of birds are connected with Latin names known from the works of Roman natural philosophers and encyclopaedists, and their origin and meaning were explored and ascertained satisfactorily. Other terms, however, have been not deciphered yet, and the often sketchy descriptions of the appearance and behaviour of these birds – together with sometimes obscure equivalents in the Old Czech – don’t make the identification of these Latin words any easier. The names of birds achantis and ibos, featuring in the Glossary of the 14th century lexicographer Bartholomaeus de Solencia called Claretus, in the 15th century encyclopaedia Liber viginti arcium by Pavel Žídek, and in the 15th/16th century Vocabularius dictus Lactifer by a Franciscan preacher Iohannes Aquensis, have so far belonged to similarly unclear words. Whereas the term achantis has been described and determined to a degree in the Dictionary of Medieval Latin in Czech Lands, the word ibos has still been lacking any explanation whatsoever. During a closer examination of these terms it turned out that both have a rich history: they got to the medieval works by different ways from ancient treatises where they denote one and the same bird that was called ανθος in Greek. The name of this bird is preserved in two works of antiquity: in the Metamorphoses written by a mythographer Antoninus Liberalis, and in the zoological treatise Historia animalium written by Aristotle. In both of these tracts, the main topic is the hostility between the bird ανθος and the horse, resulting either in chasing away of one or another from the meadow they both feed on, or in a death of one or another. From Aristotle, this name made its way to Middle Ages through two different ways and in two completely different forms. The first way led through the Plinius Maior who latinised the term into anthus. Plinius’s work was a source for a medieval encyclopaedist Thomas of Cantimpré who, however, mistakenly connected the description of this bird with the name of acanthis denoting the goldfinch. The other way led through the translation of Aristotle’s treatise from Greek to Arabic, and then from Arabic into Latin by Michael Scotus. Here the name of the bird appears in the form of ibos and iboz that originated possibly during the transcription of the Greek term into Arabic and then into Latin. The purpose of this paper is not only to search for the origin of the word iboz but also to identify the bird who was called ανθος and iboz. Besides the traditional determination of the Greek name as the Cattle Egret or the Yellow Wagtail, the paper proposes a third possible identification – the Lapwing. Nevertheless, mediaeval authors surely didn’t know which birds were denoted by Latin variants achantis and iboz. The uncertainty of the Czech lexicographers is evidenced by the Czech equivalent konystrass (“horse-intimidator”), obscure Czech word komur (or konur) and a loan word ybozek that were used to translate the Latin names.

Ze Slovníku středověké latiny: fatator a fetix

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Šedinová H.

Listy filologické (Folia philologica)

2012

vol. 135

issue 3-4

405-413

The main aim of this article is to identify origin and meaning of two Latin names of birds, fatator (probably the blackbird) and fetix (probably the swallow), in the works of Thomas of Cantimpré and Czech medieval lexicographer Bartholomaeus de Solencia dictus Claretus. Both works employ names of animals that are extremely difficult to interpret either semantically or linguistically and whose Greek or Latin origin is not immediately clear. Most of them are attached to animals the description of which Thomas claims to be derived from Aristotle. Thomas used the Latin translation from Arabic made by Michael Scotus. Due to phonetical differencies between these languages as well as inaccuracies and mistakes in both translations, the text of Aristotle and the forms of the original Greek names were variously modified.

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2 Listy filologické (Folia philologica)

1 2014

1 2012

2 Šedinová H.

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Anthův střet s koněm a jeho odraz ve středověkých encyklopediích a glosářích

Ze Slovníku středověké latiny: fatator a fetix