medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
This text is obviously corrupt. Underlying _qui statim quod percutitur amictiti fortitudinem suam_, for example, is probably _qui statim cum percutitur amittit fortitudinem suam_. So _crepedo_ (or _crepetudo_) may also not be the form one should be looking if one's goal is to assign a plausible meaning to said term.
I would guess that underlying _crepedo_ is _torpedo_. This, after all, is a bottom fish (rather, a name for several bottom fishes and thus usually translated simply as "torpedo"). Its name comes from the same root as does "torpor" and its first meaning in Latin is in fact "a state of torpor" (compare _albedo_ from _albus_). From that it's only a short leap to the notion that if it's touched it loses rigor.
The notion is presumably ancient, as Pliny denies it (_N.H._ 9. 143): _novit torpedo vim suam ipsa non torpens, mersaque in limo se occultat, piscium qui securi supernatantes obtorpuere corripiens._ The late fifteenth-/early sixteenth-century Dalmatian humanist Marko Maruliæ has in his _Repertorium_ an instance of understanding of a torpedo as a fish that if touched _causes_ torpor (or numbness) in others: _Torpedo piscis, si attingatur, torpescere facit lacertos et pedes alligat._ See:
http://www.ffzg.hr/klafil/neven/rep1i3bez.htm
Since fish don't have feet, the presumption is that _lacertos_ are not those of the torpedo.
Where to look for torpedo as a fish that when touched _becomes_ torpid? I would start with Rabanus Maurus' _De rerum naturis_ and work forward through later Books of Nature. Happy fishing!
Best,
John Dillon
On Wednesday, July 2, 2008, at 10:14 am, cecilia gaposchkin wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I need some vocabulary help. A word is appearing in one of my texts
> (sermon) in two forms (two variants). The words are: crepedo and
> crepetudo.
>
> The passage is:
> Nota crepedo [crepetudo in the other ms] est quidam piscis qui statim
> quod percutitur amictiti fortitudinem suam. Sic multi quando
> percuciuntur verbo vel tactu inpudico.
>
> It appears in no dictionary that I have, except online with Ducange:
> Note:
> http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/ducange/bd1/jpg/s1381.html
>
> This seems to be some kind of bottom feeder of sorts. Can anyone help
> me? I am at a loss as to how to translate this word (kind of fish?)
>
> many thanks for helping with my little puzzle,
>
> cecilia
>
> p.s., I have more but I'm not there in the text yet.
>
> thanks
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