medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
At 10:49 PM 1/10/2003 +0100, Frank Gayte wrote:
>
>> When St. Martin (315? - 397?) divided his military cloak (cappa) and
>> gave half to the beggar at
>> the gate of Amiens, he wrapped the other half round his shoulders, thus
>> making of
>> it a cape (capella).
<deletion>
>>The Latin word "cappa" definitely means "capuche" or "capuchon" in
>>French, "cappucino" in Italian and "hood" in English. It definitely does
>>not mean "cloak".
<deletion>
>>There seems to be a confusion between "capa" and "cappa".
>
Now I'm confused. According to the first of these statements, a 'cappa'
can be a kind of cloak; according to the second it does NOT mean
'cloak'. If 'capa' definitely does not mean 'cloak', to what sort of
garment does Isidore of Seville refer when he says (Etym. 19. 31), "Capam
dictam quia quasi totum capiat hominem? Clarification would be welcome.
As to the third statement, about 'capa' vs. 'cappa', the traditional view
(cf., e.g., Favre's Du Cange, III, 110-113, and Niermeyer, Mediae
latinitatis lexicon minus, 129, both s.v. "capa, cappa") is that these are
two spellings for the same word , which latter (spelled either way) has
more than one significance. The form in 'pp' presumably reflects an oral
gemination akin to those observed in such pairs as 'bufo'/'buffo' and
'capo'/'cappo' [sb.] and would seem in the later Middle Ages, at least, to
have become dominant. I can imagine a secondary semantic difference
arising out that development but I don't see how that would affect things here.
Best,
John Dillon
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John B. Dillon TEL: 608-262-0342
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