Eneafilon

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Eneafilon Plinius longa folia novena habet caustice nature imponitur lana circundata ne urat latius continuo pustulas excitat.


Apparatus:

Eneafilon AC | Encafilon {'e' misread as 'c'} | Eneasilon {'f' misread as "long s"}

nouena ABC e | nouẽ f

lana AC f | sana B e {'l' misread as "long s"}

urat (vrat A) AC | adurat B | adurat~ e | adhurat ~ f

latius AC | locus B f | locis e

& c. add. B


Translation:

Eneafilon, Pliny says, has nine long leaves; it is of a caustic nature, and it is laid on wrapped in wool, so that it cannot burn badly fir it immediately provokes blistering.


Commentary:

Enneaphyllon, which is only attested in Pliny, is clearly Greek ἐννεάφυλλον /enneáphyllon/. The word is a compound consisting of ἐννέα /ennéa/ {"nine"} + φύλλον /phýllon/ {"leaf"}, i.e. "nineleaf herb".

Simon's form shows typical late Greek and medieval sound changes: the loss of pronouncing geminate consonants, i.e. /nn/ > /n/ and /ll/ > /l/; also υ {pronounced like French "u", German "ü"} > /i/.

Simon's entry is a near verbatim excerpt from Pliny, 27, 54, 77, ed. Rackham (1938-63: VII.434).


Botanical identification:

Enneaphyllon, was identified by Sprengel (1807) [[1]] as Dentaria enneaphylla L., syn. Cardamine enneaphyllos (L.) Cranz [[2]], [[3]], [[4]], but this identification is uncertain. Cf. André (1985: 94).

WilfGunther 19/02/14


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