Dear Konrad,
Given that the response which your query received on our list was not
exactly profuse (not yet, but maybe others will still join in), I have
taken the liberty to forward your message to Laura Hodges
([log in to unmask]) who is an expert for medieval clothing (esp. in
England), and she -- after having consulted also an American-Italian
colleague -- came up with some suggestions which I add below. I also add a
few comments of my own, distinguishing Laura's and my own stuff by signing
them L.H. and O.L.
>"Io non vuo' far altra prova; perche' alla prova si scorticano gli asini e
>i cani"
O.L.: Without any context, this proverb seems difficult to understand.
Could you give us some of the context in your text?
>
>"saltimbarco", which is a cape used by 16th-century farmers (I think it's
>a heavy felt cape); is there an English equivalent?
L.H.: If you are correct that this is a cape, then I have some bits that
might
help. Felt, in English costume is dated about mid-15th c. "Cape" would
be an appropriate term for 15th-16th c. and it's described as a "short
shoulder-cloak" in Cunnington, C. Willett, Phillis Cunnington, and
Charles Beard, _A Dictionary of English Costume_ (London, 1960). Also
listed is "capa pluvialis, chape a pluie: Med. (F.) A large cloak,
generally hooded, to protect from the rain." Felt would fill that
requirement. Another term that would be timely is "cloak: Anglo Saxon
period on. (M. and F.) A loose outer garment of varying length falling
from the neck over the shoulders. Very manynamed styles..." And one
other possibility is "mantle: The word reintroduced from France in 12th
c. and used since to end of 19th c.," but this word seems to mean only a
ceremonial garment after the 14th c.
I know that in the 14th c. it was customary to wear cloaks of Irish
frieze in rough weather. This doesn't seem to be a garment for the
nobility, but rather for seamen and other kinds of workers who had to be
out of doors in their work. Frieze is a heavy woolen fabric with a nap
acquired by teasing up the fibers so that they look like hair.
(Laura also points out the etymology "salta in barco". Assuming that the
"barco" is a bark (and not a "barco"/"parco" for cattle) she suggests "a
garment 'worn in boats', like the modern rain slicker")
>
>"scamati", which are sticks used to beat the wool in the wool-making
>process
O.L.: it seems to me that "(s)camati" were used rather for working up wool
than for making it. My _Grande Dizionario Garzanti_ explains s.v.
_scamato_: "antiq. camato, s.m. bacchetta per battere la lana o gli abiti,
dal gr. ka/max -akos 'palo, pertica'"; cf. ibd. s.v. _scamatare_: "v.tr.
(non com.) battere i materassi, e anche gli abiti, con lo scamato".
I also checked the on-line version of the _Opera del Vocabolario
Italiano_ (actually 925 documents from the origins up to 1375). I found
"camati" listed together with weapons or military equipment in a Sienese
_Statuto della gabella e dei passaggi dalle porte della citta' di Siena e
Addizioni_ (from 1301-03, ed. in Statuti senesi scritti in volgare ne'
secoli XIII e XIV, vol. II, a cura di L. Banchi, Commissione per i testi di
lingua, Romagnoli, Bologna 1871, p.18, p.36). The word "camato" also occurs
in Franco Sacchetti (1351-1400), _Trecentonovelle_, nov. 33, in the
description of the bishop "che avea un buono camato in mano", which it is
not as the liturgical crosier, but can be associated both with the crosier
and with a cudgel. In his novella no. 64, Sacchetti also uses 'scamatare la
lana', in the story of the 70 years old Agnolo di ser Gherardo of Florence,
who is a "lavorante di lana" ("Non consideri tu, che tu se'lavorante di
lana, e altro non hai, se non quello che tu guadagni?") but wants to
participate in a jost at Peretola, and, after having been beaten up and
then drawn home by his bolting horse, is chided by his wife: "scamata la
lana, come tu se' uso, e lascia l'arte a quelli che la sanno fare".
So it seems that "(s)camato" and "scamatare" already in the 14th century
were not only technical terms associated with maufacturing/working up wool,
but also more or less habitually associated with beating the human body.
Maybe this could help some native speaker of English to find an equivalent
with more or less the same de- and connotations.
>
>"terracrei" or "terracrepoli", which is a wild grass that grows on walls
>and is good in salads
O.L.: Given that "terracrepoli" seems to derive from "terra" and
"crepolare", the English equivalent could be stonebreak (saxifrage). But
this is only a wild guess, because I have no idea how either plant looks
and never consciously tried to eat one of them.
>
>"macerone" (Latin, Smyrnium), also a salad plant
O.L.: The _GDG_ explains s.v. _macerone_: "s.m. pianta erbacea perenne con
foglie pennate e fiori gialli; i rami giovani sono commestibili (fam.
Ombrellifere). [Etym.:] Lat. _macedonicu(m)_ '(prezzemolo) della
Macedonia', con influsso di _maceria_, perche' cresce tra i ruderi."
Maybe the English name is _black lovage_, because for _smyrnium_ I found
the following entry at http://www.botanical.com/:
Lovage, Black Botanical: Smyrnium Olisatrum (LINN.)
---Synonyms---Alexanders. Alisanders. Black Pot-herb.
---Part Used---Herb.
Black Lovage is in leaf and flower not unlike an Angelica, and amateur
collectors have sometimes mistaken it for Wild Angelica. Alexanders, to use
its more common name, is a large perennial herb, growing 3 or 4 feet in
height,
with very large leaves, doubly and triply divided into three (ternate),
with broad leaflets; the sheaths of the footstalks are very broad and
membraneous in texture. The yellowish-green flowers are produced in
numerous close, rounded umbels without involucres (the little leaves that
are placed often at the spot where the various rays of the umbel spring).
The whole herb is of a yellowish-green tint. The fruit is formed of two,
nearly globular halves, with prominent ridges. When ripe, it is almost
black, whence the plant received from the old herbalists the name of 'Black
Pot-herb,' the specific name signifying the same. (Olus, a pot-herb, and
atrum, black.)
>
>"sciugatoio", which my dictionary gives me as a towel, or bath towel, but
>which a maid in my play puts on her head nicely before going out of the
>house, which to me indicates it is not a towel but some sort of headgear
>used by 15th-cent. maids
L.H.: Your description makes me think of "turban" but my dictionary [cited
above] says that turbans came into style in the 1760's and went out of
style in the 1850's in England. They are described as a headdress made
by wrapping a piece of fabric around the head several times in such a way
as to make attractive folds. The loose end is tucked under the edge.
O.L.: George Ferzoco had suggested that it might be something to carry
heavy weights on ones head, but I fail to see a close connection. In any
case a "sciugatoio (da capo)" is a head-dress, normally (though not
exclusively) worn by women, and the name is apparently derived from its
soaking in human sweat. The OVI gives the following occurences, which may
or may not be of help to find an appropriate English equivalent:
(a) Niccolo' da Poggibonsi (Libro d' oltramare , 1345, vol. 2, cap. 256,
a cura di A. Bacchi Della Lega, voll. 2, Scelta di curiosita' letterarie
182 e 183, Romagnoli, Bologna 1881, p.207s., uses it for a liturgical
garment, a sort of veil or head-dress worn by Jacobite diacons and
subdiacons in Alexandria: "E li loro diaconi e sodiaconi non sono parati a
nostro modo, ma levansi la benda che portano in testa, e pongonsi uno
sciugatoio; e l'una parte si mette in testa, e l'altra parte si manda di
rietro alle spalle, che giugne in fino a terra."
(b) A document from Arezzo (1349-60, L. Serianni, Ricerche sul dialetto
aretino nei secoli XIII e XIV, in SFI, XXX (1972), pp. 59-191, p.174) has
entries for "XIJ sciugatoi d'accia, apicchati, sutili / IJ sciugatoi
larghi, apicchati, sutili; / VJ sciugatoi apiccati, roggi", which indicates
that in some cases the textile was a sort of linnen or hemp-yarn (GDG s.v.
_accia_: filo greggio in matassa, spec. di lino o canapa)
(c) A Pistoian testament of the same time (Vesti ed altre suppellettili
di Tessina Ricciardi vedova di Francesco dei Lazzāri , 1350, in L.
Chiappelli, La donna pistoiese del tempo antico, Officina Tipografica
Cooperativa, Pistoia 1914, pp. 63-64) lists "8 sciugatoi da capo" and "IIII
sciugatoi da chapo, di quelli di messer Rustichello", which might indicate
that "sciugatoi da capo" were also worn or at least owned by men.
(d) In one of Sacchetti's Trecentonovelle (sorry, I forgot to verify the
number), a woman wears (or maybe only uses to wipe her hands and mouth) a
"sciugatino" at meal and uses it to veil her face: "E andata alla cucina,
come il prete la invioe, ceno' con la sua fanciulla, spesso adoprando lo
sciugatoio al viso per celare la faccia" (ed. Pernicone, p.63)
(e) In his aforementioned novella 33, there is a passage where the sense
is not clear to me (about the protagonist Dolcibene, who had beaten the
bishop and therefor was "rimbucato" by his noble supporter): "E in fine il
signore diede ad intendere al vescovo che gli avea fatto dare tanta colla,
che forse
mai non serebbe sano delle braccia; e feceli mettere uno sciugatoio al
collo, e allenzare il braccio; e 'l vescovo per questo parea tutto
aumiliato". Does this refer to a "sciugatoio" as an instrument of torture?
(f) In another one of his Trecentonovelle (again I did not verify the
number), a "sciugatoio grande" or 'other linnen' is used by a painter to
protect his unfinished paintings: "e aveane sempre in casa tra compiuti e
tra mani, quando quattro e quando sei; e teneagli, com'e' d'usanza
de'dipintori, in su una tavola, o desco lunghissimo, in una sua bottega
appoggiati al muro l'uno allato all'altro, coperti ciascuno con uno
sciugatoio grande" (ed. Pernicone, p.187), "e li due erano piani dipinti, e
tutti erano in su uno desco alto due braccia, appoggiati l'uno allato
all'altro al muro, e ciascuno era coperto con gran sciugatoi, o con altro
panno lino" (ibd.), "Costui, come quello che non sapea dove s'era, sale sul
desco e leva lo sciugatoio, e in sul crocifisso piano si concia proprio,
come uno de'crocifissi scolpiti; e la donna piglia el panno lino e
cuoprelo" (ibd.)
(g) The _Capitoli dei Disciplinati di Sant' Antonio di Cittā di Castello
e Riformagioni_ (1366, ed. F. Agostini, in Testi trecenteschi di citta' di
Castello e del contado, Accademia della Crusca, Firenze 1978, pp. 120-31),
mention "sciugatoia" (pl. n.) together with other items of household stuff
which are prohibited to be lent to other persons within or outside the
order: "Ancho dicemo, stantiamo e ordenamo che neuno priore, sopriore,
conselieri ne' camorlenghi, (e) generalmente veruno de loro, no(n) possano
prestare a veruna persona de compania ne' fore de compania, cioe' calcina,
matoni, lastre, sciugatoia, tovallie ne' libra, et generalmente onni altra
maseria dela compania"
>
>"lucco", which is some sort of man's clothing
O.L.: GDG s.v. _lucco_: "s.m. [pl. -chi] veste maschile lunga fino ai piedi
e accollata, in uso a Firenze nel medioevo; riservata dapprima a medici,
magistrati e sim., divenne poi indumento comune. Etimo incerto, forse dal
germ. _huik_, sorta di mantello."
That's all I could do without a library and with my little daughter sitting
at my feet and doing nasty medieval things to my toes because I refuse to
let her play with the keyboard,
Otfried
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Otfried Lieberknecht, Schoeneberger Str. 11, D-12163 Berlin
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