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The botanical lexicon of the Old English Herbarium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Maria Amalia D'Aronco
Maria Amalia D'Aronco
Affiliation:
The University of Udine
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Extract

Recent research has established beyond question that, in the study of medicine at least, Anglo-Saxon England was far from being ‘a backwater in which superstition flourished until the mainstream of more rational and advanced Salernitan practices flowed into the country in late medieval times’. On the contrary, Anglo-Saxon medicine was at least at the same level as that of contemporary European schools. In ninth-century England the medical works inherited by ‘post-classical Latin medical literature (which included translations and epitomes of Greek and Byzantine medical authorities)’ were not only well known, but served as the basis for original reworking and compilation, as the example of the Læceboc shows. More important, it was in pre-Conquest England that, for the first time in Europe, medical treatises were either compiled in or translated into a vernacular language rather than being composed in Latin or Greek. Ancient medicine made substantial use of drugs obtained from plants; and therefore, since the sources of Anglo-Saxon medical lore were in Latin (or in Greek: but invariably known through the medium of Latin), it is not surprising that most medicinal herbs used in the preparation of Old English prescriptions were not indigenous to England or even to continental Germany. And since such medicinal herbs were not indigenous to northern Europe, it is evident that, in using them, speakers of vernacular languages were obliged to create a vocabulary appropriate to denote them.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 17 , December 1988 , pp. 15 - 33
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

1 Cameron, M. L., ‘The Sources of Medical Knowledge in Anglo-Saxon England’, ASE 11 (1983), 135–55, at 135.Google Scholar

2 Cameron, M. L., ‘Bald's Leechbook: its Sources and their Use in its Compilation’, ASE 12 (1983), 153—82, at 177. On the conditions of medical knowledge in Anglo-Saxon England see the recent and excellent studies byGoogle ScholarTalbot, C. H., ‘Some Notes on Anglo-Saxon Medicine’, Medical Hist. 9 (1965), 156–69;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMedVoigts, L. E. ‘Anglo-Saxon Plant Remedies and the Anglo-Saxons’, Isis 70 (1979), 250–68; Cameron, ‘The Sources of Medical Knowledge’; andGoogle ScholarPubMedMeaney, A. L. ‘Variant Versions of Old English Medical Remedies and the Compilation of Bald's Leechbook’, ASE 13 (1984), 235–68.Google Scholar

3 As Talbot and Cameron have shown, among the classical and post-classical sources used by the compiler of the Læceboc are two treatises, the Passionarius Caleni and the Practica Petrocelli Salernitani, both traditionally attributed to Salernitan physicians of the eleventh century, Gariopontus and Petrocellus respectively. But since copies of the second work are known to have existed already in the ninth century, the traditional attribution is evidently to be disregarded; cf. Talbot, ‘Some Notes’, p. 168, and Cameron, ‘The Sources of Medical Knowledge’, p. 143 and ‘Bald's Leechbook’, pp. 162–4. The latter suggests the possibility of an English origin for the Petrocellus: ‘The more I use the Petrocellus and Leechbook, the more I am struck by their similar forms, suggesting a common tradition in the making of medical books, and a possible English origin for the Petrocellus’ (‘Bald's Leechbook’, p. 164).

4 Ptd Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England, ed. Cockayne, O., 3 vols. (London, 1864–1866) II, 2–299; Kleinere angelsächsischen Denkmaäler, I. 1. Das Læceboc. 2. Die Lacnunga. J. Der Lorica-Hymnus. 4. Das Lorica-Gebet,Google Scholared.Leonhardi, G., Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa 6 (Hamburg, 1905), 1—109.Google ScholarFor the identification of the plants see Bierbaumer, P., Der botanische Wortschatz des Altenglischen: I. Das Læceboc, Grazer Beiträge zur englischen Philologie 1 (Bern and Frankfurt-am-Main, 1975) (hereafter referred to as BW1).Google Scholar

5 Ptd Leechdoms, ed. Cockayne, III, 1–80; Kleinere angelsächsischen Denkmäler, ed. Leonhardi, pp. 121—55; J. H. G. Grattan and Singer, C., Anglo-Saxon Magic and Medicine. Illustrated Specially from the Semi-Pagan Text ‘Lacnunga’ (London, 1952), pp. 96–205. For analysis of the botanical lexicon of this text,Google Scholarsee Bierbaumer, P., Der botanische Wortschatz des Altenglischen: II. Lacnunga, Herbarium Apuleii, Peri Didaxeon, Grazer Beiträge zur englischen Philologie 2 (Bern, Frankfurt-am-Main and Munich, 1976) (hereafter referred to as BW2).Google Scholar

6 Ptd Leechdoms, ed. Cockayne, III, 82–145; Peri Didaxeon, ed. Löweneck, M., Erlangen Beiträge 12 (Erlangen, 1896). Analysis of the botanical terminology is found in BW2.Google Scholar

7 Ptd Leechdoms, ed. Cockayne, I, 1–325; The Old English Herbarium and Medicina de quadrupedibus, ed. De Vriend, H. J., EETS os 286 (London, 1984). For analysis of its botanical lexicon, see BW2.Google Scholar

8 The botanical lexicon of these texts has been analyzed by Bierbaumer, P., Der botanische Wortschatz des Altenglischen: III. Der botanische Wortschatz in altenglischen Glossen, Grazer Beiträge zur englischen Philologie 3 (Frankfurt-am-Main, Bern and Las Vegas, 1979) (hereafter referred to as BW3).Google Scholar

9 Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, p. 48: ‘The herb that is called symphoniacam and with another name belone, and also some people call it henbane.’

10 Ibid., p. 80: ‘Take that herb that is called centauria maior in Greek, curmelle in English and which, by some people, is also called earthgall.’

11 Pedanii Dioscoridis Anazarbei De materia medica libri quinque, ed. Sprengel, C., Medicorum Graecorum Opera quae extant 25 (Leipzig, 1829);Google ScholarPedanii Dioscuridis Anazarbei De materia medica libri V, ed. Wellmann, M., 3 vols. (Berlin, 1906—1914).Google Scholar

12 Antonii Musae De herba vettonica liber, Pseudo-Apulei Herbarius, Anonymi De taxone liber, Sexti Placiti Liber medicinae ex animalibus, etc., ed. Howald, E. and Sigerist, H. E., Corpus Medicorum Latinorum 4 (Leipzig, 1927), 13–225.Google Scholar

13 See Pseudo-Apulei Herbarius, ed. Howald and Sigerist, p. xix.

14 For discussion of the manuscripts, see Ibid. pp. v—xiv, and the subsequent articles by Sigerist, H. E., ‘Zum Herbarius Pseudo-Apulei’, Archiv für Ceschichte der Medizin 23 (1930), 197—204;Google Scholar‘The Medical Literature of the Early Middle Ages’, Bull. Hist. Medicine 2 (1934), 26–52;Google Scholar‘Materia Medica in the Middle Ages’, Bull. Hist. Medicine 7 (1939), 417–23. Howald and Sigerist list some forty-seven manuscripts and fragments, while Beccaria lists twenty-five manuscripts earlier than the twelfth century;Google Scholarsee Beccaria, A., I codici di medicina del periodo presalernitano, Edizione di storia e letteratura 53 (Rome, 1956).Google Scholar

15 Singer, C., ‘The Herbal in Antiquity and its Transmission to Later Ages’, Jnl of Hellenic Stud. 47 (1927), 1–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 According to Singer (‘The Herbal in Antiquity’, p. 37) it was composed in Greek; however there is no linguistic evidence to support his opinion. For a complete bibliography on this question, see Voigts, L. E., ‘The Significance of the Name “Apuleius” to the Herbarium Apulei’, Bull. Hist. Medicine 52 (1978), 215–27, at 215, n. 8.Google ScholarPubMed

17 Pseudo-Apulei Herbarius, ed. Howald and Sigerist, p. xx.

18 CfSimonini, R., Medicinae varia in un codice dell'viii secolo conservato nell' archivio capitolare della Metropolitana di Modena, Apulei Liber (Modena 1929), pp. 24–6;Google ScholarTalbot, C. H., ‘Medico-Historical Introduction’, Medicina Antiqua. Facsimile Vol. XXVII: Codex Vindobonensis 93 der österreichischen Nationalbibliothek (Graz, 1972), Kommentarband, p. 30.Google ScholarAccording to Hunger(Tie Herbal of Pseudo-Apuleius from the Ninth Century MS. in the Abbey of Monte Cassino — Codex Casinensis 97 — Together with the first printed Edition of Joh. Phil. de Lignamine — Editio princeps Romae 1481 — both in Facsimile, ed. Hunger, F. W. T. (Leiden, 1935), p. xviii), the nature of the author's Latin, some plant names and the descriptions of two identifiable reptiles point to an African origin for the author.Google Scholar

19 ‘HERBARIUS APULEI PLATONICI quern accepit a Cirone centauro, magistro Achillis, et ab Aesculapio’, (Pseudo-Apulei Herbarius, ed. Howald and Sigerist, p. 15). In the eleventh-century illustrated manuscript containing the Old English translation of the pseudo-Apuleius herbal (London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius C. iii), the rubric runs as follows: ‘(H)ERBARIU(M) APUL(EI P)LAT(ONIC)I QUOD AC(CE)PIT AB ESCOLAPIO ET (A) CH(I)RONE CENTAURO MACISRO ACHILLIS’ (19V); see Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, p. xiii.

20 Among the different opinions as to why the name of Apuleius came to be associated with this work, the most plausible one seems to be that suggested by L. E. Voigts who, assuming from the evidence of Apuleius's works that he ‘associated himself with the god of medicine’, suggests that ‘it may well be this association with Aesculapius which links the Madauran to the Herbarium’ (‘The Significance of the Name “Apuleius”’, p. 223). She concludes: ‘It is plausible then that a factor or perhaps the factor in the decision of the fourth-century herbalist to appropriate the name of Apuleius of Madaura was the wish to declare that the ultimate source of the Herbarium was the god of medicine’ (Ibid. p. 227).

21 See Pseudo-Apulei Herbarius, ed. Howald and Sigerist, p. xvii.

22 Ibid. pp. xxi–xxii. These treatises are printed at pp. 1–11, 227–32 and 233–86 respectively. It has not been possible to identify Sextus Placitus. Perhaps it is best to accept the opinion of Cockayne (Leechdoms, p. lxxxix), according to whom Sextus Placitus is a ‘nominis umbra’ – just like ‘that other creature of imagination, Idpartus in the Liber de taxone’ (De Vriend, Old English Herbarium, pp. lxvi—lxvii). The text of the Liber medicinae ex animalibus is found in two different versions, a short one (the A-version, also called α-version), and a long one or B-version (β-version). These recensions are so different that Howald and Sigerist print them (pp. 227–32) in two parallel columns; cf. also Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, pp. lxiv–lxvi.

23 Ptd Kästner, H. F., ‘Pseudo-Dioscoridis de herbis femininis’, Hermes 31 (1896), 578–636; 32 (1897), 160. Cf. also Pseudo-Apulei Herbarius, ed. Howald and Sigerist, p. xvii, andGoogle ScholarRiddle, J. M., ‘Pseudo-Dioscorides’ Ex herbis femininis and Early Medieval Medical Botany’, Jnl of the Hist. of Biology 14 (1981), 43–81; andGoogle ScholarPubMed‘Dioscorides’, Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum, ed. Cranz, F.E. and Kristeller, P. O., 4 vols. (Washington DC, 1980) IV, 1–143.Google Scholar

24 The earliest codex which contains this text is Lucca, Biblioteca Governativa, 296 (northern Italy, s. viii/ix: see Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, p. xlvii); the treatise on the mulberry is at 18r–v, and precedes the A-version of Sextus Placitus, Liber medicinae ex animalibus (18v–26V) and the pseudo-Dioscorides, Liber medicinae ex herbis femininis (26V–45V). There are strong affinities between this manuscript and a later illustrated codex, London, Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 573 (s.xiii2 or xiiimed?); cf. Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, p. xlix.

25 See Cameron, ‘The Sources of Medical Knowledge’, p. 149 and n. 47.

26 For the description and illustration of the manuscript cf. Beccaria, Codici, pp. 208–13 (no. 55), and Sudhoff, K., ‘Codex Medicus Hertensis (nr. 192)’, Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin 10 (1917), 265–313.Google Scholar

27 Cf. Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, p. xlii.

28 The manuscripts are: London, BL, Cotton Vitellius C. iii (s. xi); Harley 585 (s. x/xi); Harley 6258B (S. xii2); Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 76 (s. xi). Cotton Vitellius C. iii is illustrated throughout with coloured drawings of plants and animals. In Harley 6258B, the plants from the original three texts are arranged in alphabetical order according to their Latin names (α-order). Because of its late date, this manuscript was not included by Wanley, Beccaria and Kerin their catalogues. Nevertheless there is abundant evidence that its language is late Old English and not Middle English. For descriptions of the manuscripts, lists of their contents, their interrelationships and their relationship to the Latin source, see Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, pp. xi-lv.

29 Cf. Cameron, ‘The Sources of Medical Knowledge’, pp. 175–7.

30 The same treatment of the Herbarium-complex translation is found for the three other treatises which belong to the textual tradition of the pseudo-Apuleius Herbarium. They too are merged into a continuous text known (since Cockayne used the term in 1864) as Medicina de quadrupedibus (cf. Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, p. lxii), where De taxone liber comes first and is followed by the treatise on the healing properties of the mulberry and, finally, by the short (or A-) version of the Liber medicinae ex animalibus

31 Montecassino, Archivio della Badia, v. 97, contains (at pp. 476a–476b and 523a–532b) forty-three chapters; Lucca, Biblioteca Governativa, 296, 26V–45V, contains forty-two chapters; see Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, pp. xlv and xlvii–xlviii. Cameron (‘The Sources of Medical Knowledge’, p. 149) suggests that the source of this section of the Old English Herbarium could be another treatise, also attributed to Dioscorides, namely the Curae herbarum.

32 Cf. Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, pp. 174–233.

33 Cf. chs. cli, clviii, clxiii and clxiv.

34 Cf. Hofstetter, W., ‘Zur lateinischen Quelle des altenglischen pseudo-Dioskurides’, Anglia 101 (1983), 315–60.Google Scholar

35 Pseudo-Apulei Herbarius, ed. Howald and Sigerist, pp. 16–20.

36 Læceboc, ed. Leonhardi, 1, xix: ‘The herb lactuca silvatica, that is, wood lettuce. 1. For soreness of the eyes. 2. Again, for dimness of eyes.’

37 Voigts, ‘Anglo-Saxon Plant Remedies’, pp. 255–9. According to B. Lawn, although early medieval medicine was pragmatic and empirical, it had a theoretical base; it did not inquire into the causes of diseases but concentrated on the observation of the symptoms and therapeutics: The Salernitan Questions (Oxford, 1963), pp. 1–15 and 20–1. See also Talbot, C. H., Medicine in Medieval England (London, 1967), pp. 18–20, andGoogle ScholarMajno, G., The Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World (Cambridge, Mass., 1975); for the study of the efficacy of various treatments used by Greek and Roman medicine, see pp. 313—422.Google Scholar

38 As cited above, nn. 4, 5 and 8.

39 Hoops, J., Über die altenglischen Pflanzennamen (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1889).Google Scholar

40 BW1, p. v.

41 Besides the editions already mentioned (for which see above, nn. 4, 5 and 7), there is the recent discovery of a fragment containing some recipes (Louvain-la-Neuve, Centre Général de Documentation, Fragments H. Omont 3, s. ixmed), ptd B. Schaumann and A. Cameron, ‘A Newly-Found Leaf of Old English from Louvain’, Anglia 95 (1977), 289—312; described by Ker, N. R., ‘A Supplement to Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon’, ASE 5 (1976), 121–31, at 128 (no. 417). The main Latin—Old English glossaries are: Epinal—Erfurt glossary (Epinal, Bibliothèque Municipale, 72 (s. viiiin) and Erfurt, Wissenschaftliche Allgemeinbibliothek, Amplonianus f. 42 (s. ix1),Google Scholarptd Old English Glosses in the Epinal-Erfurt Glossary, ed. Pheifer, J.D. (Oxford, 1974); Corpus Glossary (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 144 (s. viii/ix)),Google Scholarptd An Eighth-Century Latin—Anglo-Saxon Glossary, ed. Hessels, J. H. (Cambridge, 1890), andGoogle ScholarThe Corpus Glossary, ed. Lindsay, W. M. (Cambridge, 1921); the Cleopatra Glossaries (London, British Library, Cotton Cleopatra, A. iii (s. xmed)),Google Scholarptd Wright, T. and Wülcker, R. P., Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies, 2 vols. (London, 1884), (hereafter referred to as WW), nos. 11, 8, and 12;Google ScholarStryker, W. G. ‘The Latin-Old English Glossary in Ms Cotton Cleopatra A. iii’ (unpubl. Ph. D. dissertation Stanford Univ., 1952), andGoogle ScholarQuinn, J. J., ‘The Minor Latin—Old English Glossaries in Ms Cotton Cleopatra A. iii’(unpubl. Ph. D. dissertation Stanford Univ., 1956); the Antwerp Glossary (Antwerp, Plantin-Moretus Museum, 47 + London, British Library, Add. 32246 (s. xi1)),Google Scholarptd Förster, M., ‘Die altenglische Glossenhandschrift Plantinus 32 (Antwerpen) und Additional 32246 (London)’, Anglia 41 (1917), 94–161, andGoogle ScholarKindschi, L., ‘The Latin-Old English Glossaries in Plantin-Moretus MS 32 and British Museum MS Additional 32246’ (unpubl. Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford Univ., 1955); the Brussels Glossary (Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, 1828–30 (s. xiin)), ptd WW no. 9, with corrections byGoogle ScholarLogeman, H., ‘Zu Wright-Wülker 1, 204–303’, Anglia, 85 (1890), 316–18; the Harley Glossary (London, BL, Harley 3376 (s. x/xi)), ptd WW, no. 6, andGoogle ScholarOliphant, R. T., The Harley Latin–Old English Glossary, Janua Linguarum, Series Practica, 20 (The Hague, 1966); the Durham Glossary (Durham, Cathedral Library, Hunter 100, s. xiiin),Google Scholarptd Das Durhamer Pflanzenglossar, Lateinisch und Altenglisch, ed. von Lindheim, B., Beiträge zur englische Philologie 35 (Bochum-Langendreer, 1941); the Laud Glossary (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 567 (s. xii)),Google Scholarptd The Laud Herbal Glossary, ed. by Stracke, J. R. (Amsterdam, 1974).Google ScholarFor Ælfric's Glossary the standard edition is Ælfrics Grammatik und Glossar, ed. Zupitza, J., Sammlung englischer Denkmäler 1 (Berlin, 1880; reptd with introduction by H. Gneuss, Berlin, Zürich and Dublin, 1966). For information on scattered botanical glosses, see BW3, pp. viii-xli.Google Scholar

42 Healey, A. diPaolo and Venezky, R., A Microfiche Concordance to Old English (Toronto, 1980).Google Scholar

43 Not all Latin plant names have a corresponding vernacular name; cf., for example, ch. xliv: ‘Ðeos wyrt ðe Grecas cotiledon 7 Romane umbilicum ueneris nemnað,’ and ch. lviii: ‘Ðeos wyrt þe man polion 7 oðrum naman […] nemneð‘(Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, at pp. 90 and 102 respectively).

44 Among the botanical terms Bierbaumer lists also the following words: cyn, ‘kind’, ‘species’; stenc, ‘smell’ and swæcc, ‘taste’, ‘flavour’ (BW2, pp. 31, 110 and 115).

45 The terminology I use for the categories of lexical interference in language is that suggested by Gneuss, H., ‘Linguistic Borrowing and Old English Lexicography: Old English Terms for the Books of Liturgy’, Problems of Old English Lexicography. Studies in Memory of Angus Cameron, ed. Bammesberger, A. (Regensburg, 1985), pp. 107–29. Accordingly, a ‘loan-formation’ is ‘a word consisting wholly or partly of native elements and newly formed in order to translate a foreign word’ (p. 117). In this category there are three sub-categories: loan translations (‘each element of the model must be reproduced by a semantically correspondent element in the borrowing language’), loan renditions (not all their elements correspond to the foreign model, ‘but at least one semantically equivalent element is required in them’) and loan creations (‘none of the elements of a newly formed word corresponds to those of the word translated’Google Scholar: Ibid. p. 119). Gneuss's terminology is substantially based on that of Werner Betz and the English designations suggested by Einar Haugen and Uriel Weinreich, for which see Schottmann, H., ‘Die Beschreibung der Interferenz’, Sprachliche Interferez. Festschrift für Werner Betz Zum 65 Geburtstag, ed. Kolb, H. and Lauffer, H. (Tübingen, 1977), pp. 13–55; D. Duckworth, ‘Zur terminologischen und systematischen Grundlage der Forschung auf dem Gebiet der englisch-deutschen Interferenz’Google Scholar, Ibid. pp. 36–56; Toth, K., Der Lehnwortschatz der althochdeutschen Tatian-Übersetzung (Würzburg, 1980), ch. 1;Google ScholarGusmani, R., Saggi sull' interferenza linguistica, 2 vols. (Florence, 1981–1983).Google Scholar

46 There is little information on plants known in ancient times by the Germanic populations. Fundamental in this field are the following: Hoops, J., Waldbäume und Kulturpflanzen (Strassburg, 1905);CrossRefGoogle ScholarMarzell, H., Wörterbuch der deutschen Pflanzennamen, 5 vols. (Leipzig, 1943); andGoogle ScholarBjörkman, E., ‘Die Pflanzennamen der althochdeutschen Glossen’, Zeitschrift für deutsche Wortforschung 2 (1901), 202–33, 3 (1902)’ 263–307 and 6 (1904–5), 174–98.Google Scholar

47 Pseudo-Apulei Herbarius, ed. Howald and Sigerist, p. 25 (ch. i).

48 Cf. André, L., Lexique des termes de botanique en latin (Paris, 1956), p. 254 (plantago).Google Scholar

49 Cf. Hoops, Waldbäume und Kulturpflanzen, pp. 591–5.

50 Cf. BW2, p. 92.

51 Cf. Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, p. 232 (ch. clxxxv): ‘Wið innodes astrynge genim þyses wæstmes hnescnysse innewearde butan þam cyrnlun’ (‘For motion of the bowels, take the soft part of the interior of this fruit without the kernel’) and the corresponding Latin passage: ‘Huius intestina mollities a semine separate …’

52 Cf. Bosworth, J. and Toller, T. N.An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Oxford, 1898) and Supplement, by T.N. Toller (Oxford, 1921), ss. vv.Google Scholar

53 For the verb see Old English Herbarium, ch. ii: ‘hnescaþ hyt sona’ (‘it softens it soon’); ch. iv: ‘lege to þære wunde swa oþþæt ða corn purh bone waetan gehnehsode syn 7 swa toðundene’ (‘place it on the wound until the humour softens and swells the grains’); for the adjective, see ch. ii: ‘Wring on hnesce wulle’ (‘wring up in soft wool’); ch. vi: ‘Heo bið hnesceum leafum’ (‘it has soft leaves’); and ch. xv: ‘Heo ys hnesce on æthrine’ (‘it is soft to touch’).

54 Cf. Campbell, A., Old English Grammar (Oxford, 1959), pp. 218–19.Google Scholar

55 Cf. Hoops, Waldbäume, p. 601.

56 Cf. ibid. pp. 602–3.

57 Cf. ibid. p. 615.

58 Cf. Campbell, Old English Grammar, pp. 218–19.

59 The Latin term vinum passed into all Germanic languages. In English the loan win appears in approximately fifty compounds; see Fell, C. E., ‘Old English Beor’, Leeds Stud, in English ns 8 (1975), 76–95. For a list of medieval English vineyards,Google Scholarsee Younger, W., Men and Wine (London, 1966), pp. 466–8.Google Scholar

60 For a history of cultivation of olive trees, see Hoops, J., Geschichte des Ölbaums (Heidelberg, 1944).Google Scholar

61 Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, p. 148: ‘Take the plant that is called sage…Take the same plant sage.’

62 Ibid. p. 58: ‘Boil them well in almond oil.’ Amigdal is recorded only twice in the Old English Herbarium and once in Peri Didaxeon; cf. BW2, p. 2.

63 Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, p. 110: ‘The herb that is called peristereon and, by another name, berbenam. It is so familiar to pigeons, that some people call it columbinam.’

64 Ibid. p. 152: ‘The herb that is called titymallos calatites and, by another name, lacteridam.’ Bierbaumer reads lacteridan instead of lacteridam: BW2, p. 74.

65 Funke, O., Die gelehrten lateinischen Lehn- und Fremdwörter in der altenglischen Literatur (Halle, 1914).Google Scholar Funke's system is based on the knowledge of the inflexional paradigm of the loanword. Accordingly a ‘learned loan word’ appears with flexional Old English suffixes, while a ‘foreign word’ keeps its original Latin suffix. A third category, according to Funke, includes those loanwords which in the nominative singular keep the Latin ending, while in the oblique cases take Old English endings (Ibid. p. 42). H. Gneuss stresses instead the importance of the speaker's usage in the classification of loan words (Lehnbildungen und Lehnbedeutungen im Altenglischen (Berlin, 1955), p. 19). There are in fact differences between ‘a borrowed word that had become current in everyday English, or in some particular level or register of speech, and an apparent borrowing which turns out to be a scholar's whim or a translator's unsuccessful attempt at introducing a new term’ (Gneuss, H., ‘Some Problems and Principles of the Lexicography of Old English’, Festschrift für Karl Schneider, ed. Dick, E. S. and Jankowsky, K. R. (Amsterdam and Philadelphia, 1982), pp. 152–68, at 154).Google Scholar

66 See in particular Robinson, F., ‘Latin for Old English in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts’, Language Form and Linguistic Variation. Papers Dedicated to Angus McIntosh, ed. Anderson, J. (Amsterdam, 1982), pp. 395–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

67 Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, pp. 136 and 138: ‘The herb called pollegium and, by another name, pennyroyal…For abdominal pain take the same wort pollegium… Afterwards, for pain in the stomach, take the same wort pollegium.’

68 Gneuss, ‘Linguistic Borrowing’, p. 118.

69 Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, p. 156: ‘The herb called lactucam leporinam and, by another name, similarly, lactucam.’

70 BW2, p. 75.

71 Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, p. 162: ‘Take the juice of the herb that people call mentam or, with the same name, mint.’

72 Cf. Funke, Die gelehrten lateinischen Lehn-und Fremdwörter, pp. 66—7, 109, 116, 140, 159 and 169.

73 ‘Lactucas, þæt is leahtric’; ‘him is to sellanne lactucas…‘ and ’mid lactucan’ (Læceboc, ed. Leonhardi, 1, xvi; xxiii and xxxvi).

74 ‘Mid feldlicere lactucan’; ‘mid…feldlicum lactucum’; and ‘lactuca hatte seo wyrt þe hi etan sceoldon’ (The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church. The First Part, Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of Ælfric, ed. Thorpe, B., 2 vols. (London, 1843–1846) n, 264 and 278). According to Funke (Die gelehrten lateinischen Lehn- und Fremdwörter, p. 67) the source is the Vulgate Exodus XII.9: ‘cum lactucis agrestibus’.Google Scholar

75 Stryker, ‘The Latin-Old English Glossary in Ms Cotton Cloepatra A. iii’, L 70; WW1 432, 7.

76 For the occurrences, see BW1, p. 95.

77 ‘Ðeos wyrt þe man lactucan silfaticam 7 oðrum naman wudulectric nemneð’ (Old English Herbarium, ch. xxxi, ed. De Vriend, p. 76: ‘The herb called lactucan silfaticam or, by another name, wood lettuce’).

78 For similar cases, in another semantic field, cf. Gneuss, ‘Linguistic Borrowing’, p. 118.

79 ‘Ðeos wyrt þe man confirmam 7 oðrum naman galluc nemneð’ (Old English Herbarium, ch. lx, ed. De Vriend, p. 102: ‘The herb called confirmam or, by another name, comfrey’).

80 ‘Galla: galluc’ (Old English Glosses in the Epinal—Erfurt Glossary, ed. Pheifer, line 466); ‘galla: galluc’ (The Corpus Glossary, ed. Lindsay, line 969 (G 7)).

81 Cf. Krahe, H. and Meid, W., Germanische Sprachwissenschaft, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1967) III, 211–12. On morphological integration of loan words, see Gusmani, Saggi sull'interferenza linguistica 1, 29–71.Google Scholar

82 ‘Sinfitum: gallac’ (Brussells Glossary: WW 1, 299, 20); ‘confirma: galloc’ and ‘sumphitum:galluc’ (Durham Glossary: Das Durhamer Pflanzenglossar, ed. von Lindheim, nn. 129 and 313, respectively); ‘adriaca. i. confirma uel galloc’ and ‘confirma: galluc’ (Laud Glossary: The Laud Herbal Glossary, ed. Stracke, nn. 162 and 345 respectively); ‘confirie. i. galluc’ (Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Dc. 187+160+186+185, ptd Meritt, H. D. ‘Old English Glosses, Mostly Dry Point’, JEGP 60 (1961), 441–50, at p. 73a, 4: ‘cumfiria. i. galloc’); see also WW 1, 555, 4.Google Scholar

83 Cf. Förster, ‘Die altenglische Glossenhandschrift Plantinus 32 (Antwerpen) und Additional 32246 (London)’, p. 126 (n. 176); Holthausen, F., Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (Heidelberg, 1934), p. 125 (s. v. gealloc).Google Scholar

84 André, Lexique des termes de botanique en latin, p. 99 (s. vv. conserua, confirma and consol(i)da).

85 Cf. Læceboc 1, lxxxviii: ‘Gif hors geallede sie, nim æþelferdingwyrt 7 gotwoþan 7 mageþan, gecnua wel, do buteran to, wring wætende þurh clað, do hwit sealt on, hrer swiþe, lacna þone geallan mid. Wiþ horses geallan nim æscþrotan 7 gotwoþan uferwearde 7 bogen eac swa, cnua tosomne, wyl on rysle 7 on buteran, aseoh þurh clað, swire mid’ (Læceboc, ed. Leonhardi, p. 47: ‘If a horse be galled, take æþelferdingwyrt and gotwoþe and camomile, pound well, add butter, when still wet wring it through a cloth, add white salt, shake thoroughly, cure the gall with it. For horse galls. Take æscþrotan and the upper part of gotwoþe. and rosemary in equal quantities, pound together, boil in fat and in butter, strain through a cloth, anoint with it’).

86 ‘A Graecis dicitur sinfitum, alii confirma, alii conserua, alii pecte, alii alum Gallicum’ (Pseudo-Apulei Herbarius, ed. Howald and Sigerist, p. 113); see also André, Lexique, p. 25 (s. v. alum).

87 For a full discussion see D'Aronco, M. A., ‘Inglese antico galluc’, AIUON 28–9 (1985–1986), 83–100 and, for another plant name, elehbtre, ‘Divergenze e convergenze lessicali in inglese antico: il caso di elehtre’, Romanobarbarica 10 (1987–8), forthcoming.Google Scholar

88 Gneuss, ‘Some Problems and Principles of the Lexicography of Old English ’, p. 155.

89 Codd survives in modern English in the dialectal word peascod, ‘pea-shell’.

90 Cfvon Erhardt-Siebold, E., ‘The Hellebore in Anglo-Saxon Pharmacy’, Englische Studien 71 (1936–1937). 161–70.Google Scholar

91 Singer, C., ‘Introduction’ to the reprint of Cockayne's Leecbdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft of Early England (London, 1961) 1, i–xlvii, at xlvii.Google Scholar

92 See above, nn. 1, 2 and 37.

93 Voigts, ‘Anglo-Saxon Plant Remedies’, p. 259.

94 Although we do not have records of the herb-gardens of English monasteries, the so-called St Gallen plan can by analogy give some idea of monastic organization for the cure of the sick. As it appears in the plan, the medical garden (herbularius) lies in the north-east corner of the monastic site, and is adjacent to the domus medicorum, the house of the physicians. It is a small garden, surrounded by a wall or fence, divided into sixteen plots, each distinguished by the name of a medical plant: see Horn, W. and Jones, C. W., The Plan of St. Gall, 3 vols. (Berkeley and London, 1979) II, 175–84. On the plan of St Gall which, according toGoogle ScholarBischoff, B. (Mittelalterlichen Studien, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, 1966–1981) 1, 41–9) was copied at Reichenau,Google Scholarsee also Horn, W., ‘On the Origins of the Medieval Cloister’, Gesta 12 (1973), 13–53;CrossRefGoogle ScholarJung, P., ‘Das Infirmarium im Bauriss des Klosters von St. Gallen vom Jahre 820’, Gesnerus 6 (1949), 1–8, figs. 1–2;Google ScholarNoll, G., ‘The Origin of the so-called Plan of St. Gall’, JMH 8 (1982), 191–240.Google Scholar

95 Described by Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957), no. 302. For the facsimile,Google Scholarsee The Herbal of Apuleius Barbarus from the Early Twelfth-Century Manuscript formerly in the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds (MS. Bodley 130), ed. Gunther, R. T. Roxburghe Club Publ. 182 (London, 1925).Google Scholar

96 Cf. André, Lexique, pp. 112 (s.v. cynoglossum) and 188 (s. v. lingua canis).

97 Old English Herbarium, ed. De Vriend, p. 88: ‘The herb that the Greeks call buglossam, the Romans lingua bubula, and the English call glofwyrt or, by another name, dog's tongue.’

98 Cf. Gneuss, H., ‘The Origin of Standard Old English and Æthelwold's School at Winchester’, ASE 1 (1972), 63–83, esp. 74–9;Google ScholarGretsch, M., ‘Æthelwold's Translation of the Regula Sancti Benedicti and Its Latin Exemplar’, ASE 3 (1974), 125–51, and Die ‘Regula Sancti Benedicti' in England und ihre altengliscbe Übersetzung (Munich, 1973), pp. 235–306, for a discussion of Æthelwold's technique of translation.Google Scholar

99 Cf. Old English Glosses in the Epinal-Erfurt Glossary, ed. Pheifer, pp. xliv–xlv.

100 Cf. BW2.

101 The same name could also denote Ranunculus bulbosus Linn., ‘bulbous buttercup’, cf. BW2, p. 25

102 This research was made possible by grants from the Ministero Pubblica Istruzione, Italy. I should like to express my gratitude to Michael Lapidge who kindly helped me far beyond his editorial duties.