At 1:09 pm 21/1/97 +0000, Paul Diffley wrote:
>Forwarded Message:
>From: Paul Diffley <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 22:54:37 GMT
>Subject: ONIONS
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>Dear Colleagues,
>
>Does anyone have any information on the significance (symbolic or medicinal or
>religious or herbal, or otherwise) of onions (cipolle) in the time up to and
>of
>Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75)? I am working on the Fra Cipolla story from
>Decameron and would much appreciate absolutely any hints or clues from the
>growing number of medievalists on our Mailbase.
>
>I'll keep you informed of my progress, and acknowledge any helpful in the
>proper way. Thanks in advance.
>
>Paul Diffley (e-mail [log in to unmask]) Professor of Italian, Exeter
>University, UK.
If unto Choller men be much inclin'd
'Tis thought that Onyons are not good for those
But if a man be flegmatique (by kind)
It does his stomack good, as some suppose:
For Oyntment iuyce of Onyons is assign'd,
To heads whose haire fals faster than it growes:
If Onyons cannot help in such mishap,
A man must get him a Gregorian cap.
And if your hound by hap should bite his master,
With Hony, Rew, and Onyons make a plaster.
These prescriptions come from Sir John Harington's translation of the
Regimen Sanitatis Salerni (London 1607), as reprinted in 1959 by the Ente
Provinciale per il Turismo, Salerno, and distributed free of charge to
Irish Italianists ten years ago for some odd reason.The Latin text may date
from the 11th to 13th centuries; the Ente Provinciale is not very explicit
about that. (No guarantee is offered as to the accuracy of my
transcription!)
The book also contains other onion references, which don't look
particularly helpful for Frate Cipolla. Perhaps a medieval cookbook would
provide further suggestions? More directly relevant would be story XXXIX of
the Novellino, in which a friar "mangiava una cipolla molto savorosmente e
con fine appetito", thereby exciting the envy of a bishop whose digestion
is more delicate.
Modesty forbids me to mention Chapter 6, "Cipolla's Sermon", in my book,
Religion and the Clergy in Boccaccio's Decameron (Rome 1984).
Cormac O Cuilleanain
[log in to unmask]
work telephone Dublin 6081527
home telephone Dublin 2831393
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