medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear John!
Thanks for having given such a cluster of meanings of "ferculum", throughout
the ages, from the object to be carried = "epulae" to much subtilized
carrying vehicles like a "charrette." Now we know: Everything was possible,
nothing was impossible. I'd really like to know what "fercula" meant in
early medieval Paris, substantially .
Best, WR
ps1: John, Christopher, I admire your treasure of NET-pictures about useful
household and garden articles. Very instructive in regard of the topic.
ps2: The permanent stalls (in the meaning of kiosks), located on the bridges
of 12th c. Paris, were called "fenestrae."
ps3: In this connection, does anybody in this list know, how the
hand-barrows for carrying relics and religious statues, used in processions
etc, were called in medieval Latin? "Ferculum" once more?
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Dillon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 6:32 AM
Subject: Re: [M-R] "statio...fercula" [<Abelard, another point of view]
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> On Sun, 19 Jan 2003 12:27:19 -0700
> Christopher wrote:
>
> >how about this :
> >
> >*originally* what was meant --and what gave the name to whatever was
referred
> >to in the 12th c.-- was (John again) a "bier with handles",
>
> No, a "bier with handles" was Werner. John had suggested an original (and
much earlier) donation of goodies on a platter or tray. That donation,
called a "ferculum" after the tray carrying it, would on this view have
metamorphosed into the practice Werner describes, with the word "ferculum"
having become the designation for a base unit of the now much larger
donations (which latter were now being passed out in multiples of four or
five). It is an alternative hypothesis to Werner's, which derives the term
from an object thought likely to have been used, in the later 11th and 12th
centuries, to transport the donations to their appointed stationes. Both
hypotheses are quite conjectural.
>
>
> something that
> >looked like this :
> >
>
>http://www.gent.be/gent/english/tourism/museums/finearts/collec/fbreug1.htm
> >
> >http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/art/b/bruegel/pieter_e/painting/wedding.jpg
> >
> >just a "bier" (in this case, a small door, apparently) for carrying the
food,
>
> Or perhaps like this:
> http://www.wzshop.com/c0102/c0102_pi86.htm
> though without the cute legend "garden". That is, with the long axis of
the bed or carrying frame the same as that of the poles and possibly also
with a low railing (as shown) to keep the contents from falling off.
Another term for this besides "bier" is "hand-barrow", though the latter has
also been used in recent centuries for forms of wheeled barrow, such as
this:
> http://www.salvodata.net/dealers/conbuiprods/images/M206big.jpg
> or even this:
> http://www.adas.co.uk/horticulture/GOVREPORTS/baumschultechnik/Baum/21.jpg
>
> >(Werner's statio = stand is certainly one meaning, but, John, couldn't
> >"statio" also refer to a specific, customarily established "location", as
> >well/in addition ?)
>
> Yes, it could.
>
> >(but they weren't *called* "stalls" because, originally, they weren't
"stalls"
> >but simple "stations" --locations/"stands"-- and they kept the
> >terminology/nomenclature of their origins, just as John's "traditional"
> >definition of "fercula" rather clearly had nothing to do with what they
> >"literally" might have looked like in the 12th c. --they could have been
> >"cartloads" at that time, after all)
>
> Quelle surprise! For someone who's hitherto been blissfully unaware of
"ferculum", Christopher, you're astoundingly prescient. By the late twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, when we begin to get more lexicographical
evidence, "ferculum" had come to have many meanings, one of which is
"[wheeled] carriage" or "cart". Here's Eberhard of Bethune in point
(_Grecismus_, ed. Wrobel, XI, 74): "Fercula sunt epulae uariae, sunt fercula
currus:" ("'Fercula' are meals of varied courses [this is one of the ancient
meanings], 'fercula' are carts"). Keeping the diminutive, we could
translate "ferculum" as "charrette". Anybody seen a chevalier about?
>
> Another meaning, BTW, is "enclosed chair", presumably of the portable
variety, though my Parisian witness, John of Garland, doesn't mention this
feature: "In hospitio probi hominis debent esse ista: ... sponde et fercula
facta de lingnis levigatis,..." (_Dictionarius_, ed. Wright, p. 132; Wright
notes ad loc. that such chairs, "which open and shut," are common in MS.
illuminations).
>
> Best,
> John Dillon
>
> "Von der Wiege bis zur Bahre,
> Formulare, Formulare!!"
>
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