medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Phyllis Jestice <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>The hagiographer of Peter Damian finds it necessary to explain why his
saint has something as outlandish as a second name.
that's interesting.
and, what is that explanation?
>>Surnames do seem to be coming in.
there have been, over the last two years or so, a couple of discussions of
"surnames" and cognomenae (cognomens?) over on the mediev-l list, perhaps
findable in the list archives under the subject string "cognomen."
and, this list hosted an interesting discussion of the cognomen "Paganus" some
time ago, i believe.
what looks like a "surname" can be a modern English corruption of a (perhaps)
misunderstood Latin "nickname" or toponym. i assume that "Becket" is a case
in point.
every region was --or could be-- different. in the Chartrain, cognomenae and
toponyms are present pretty much from the time we first start to
get significant numbers of surviving documents --about the middle of the 11th
c.-- and there certainly are instances of a cognomen being carried
on from one generation to the next, and the next.
it seems to me that this was most often the case, as one would expect, when
the cognomen is not specific to the particular fellow's physiognomy ("niger,"
"rufus" --unless it was an inherited trait)-- or his character ("flagellus" "X
qui verberat ad panem"), etc.
there *does* seem to be a tendancy towards cognomenae becomming "true" family
names, however: there are a group of "Papillons" who appear over generations,
and some "Chenards" (_canardus/chenardus_), the latter refering perhaps, not
to ducks, but to an heraldic plant device. this family was seated in two
villages of the plein Beauce, now known as Louville-la-Chenard and
Leveville-la-Chenard but they rarely appear in
the documents with these toponyms, preferring to use the heraldic (if that's
what it was) cognomen, which was also used by younger brothers of the reigning
head of the family.
otOh, curiously perhaps, the toponym, while it was certainly passed on from
generation to generation *among the male heirs* of a place, the cadets would
take on the name of a new place, if they were installed therein.
thus, the LePuisets (Lords of that place in the Beauce and Viscounts of
Chartres, themselves originally from Breteuil in the Beauvaisis) had a main
line carrying that name ("of Le Puiset") and cadet branches from various
places their spawn laid down new roots: "of Méréville", "of Villepreux", of
Jaffa", etc., and it's not at all clear, from the
"surname" that these guys are all part of the same family --the genealogy has
to be tediously worked out by looking at a number of charters which might
mention relationships between folks.
and, of course, guys could be styled "of LePuiset" who just happened to hail
from there and had no (discernable) "right" to the name as a member of the
ruling family.
best from here,
christopher
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|