Medieval Bestiary : Bibliography

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Incendula or monedula? An Enigmatic Bird Name in Medieval Latin-Written Sources

Hana Šedinová

Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi, 2016; Series: 74

Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum include a considerable number of terms for domestic, field, forest, and exotic animals. The main source of this Latin zoological terminology is the Glossary by the 14th-century lexicographer Bartholomaeus de Solencia also known as Claretus. The author collected the names of animals mainly from the encyclopaedia De natura rerum written by the 13th-century preacher Thomas of Cantimpré. Apart from more or less well-known names of animals, it is possible to find in Claretus and Thomas of Cantimpré other expressions that still lack a proper explanation of their etymology and meaning. One of these is the bird name incendula (incedula in Claretus) which Thomas found in a copy of Latin version of Aristotle's Historia animalium, translated by Michael Scotus around 1220 from Arabic. In the Arabic and Latin translation of Aristotle’s treatise, the original information about the bird – the crow or the rook – and about its antagonism with the eagle owl remained basically unchanged, but the original Greek name took a circuitous route to medieval Latin. - [Abstract]

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Last update December 27, 2022