Original French: & la diſoit eſtre ſemblable au Cheſne qui porte le Guy:
Modern French: & la disoit estre semblable au Chesne qui porte le Guy:
Addition de 1552.
Original French: Ne me cõparez icy celle arbre que Alexander Cornelius nommoit Eonem.
Modern French: Ne me comparez icy celle arbre que Alexander Cornelius nommoit Eonem.
Addition de 1552.
Agricola mentions Aexander Cornelius “among the names of writers whose works I have used, also writers whose works are not extant.”
Eonem est l’accusatif d’eone, qui est, selon Pline, le nom d’une sorte d’arbre qui porte de gui comme le chêne, et dont fut fait le navire Argo.
Alexander Cornelius arborem leonem appellavit ex qua facta esset similem robori viscum ferentem, quae neque aqua neque igni posset corrumpi, sicuti nec viscum, nulli alii cognitam, quod equidem sciam.
Alexander Cornelius mentions a tree called the lion-tree, the timber of which he says was used to build the Argo, which bears mistletoe resembling that on Valonia oak, which cannot be rotted by water or destroyed by fire, the same being the case with its mistletoe. This tree is, so far as I am aware, unknown to anyone else.
Rabelais emprunte ici étourdiment un accusatif de Pline! Eonem est l’accusatif d’eon nom d’un arbre inconnu, inattaquable par l’eau et le feu, cité par Pline, XIII, 39, d’après le naturaliste Alexander Cornelius: «Alexander Cornelius arborem eonem appellavit, ex qua facta esset Argo, similem robori viscum ferenti, quæ nec aqua nec igne possit corrumpi, sicuti nec viscum; nulli alii cognaitam quod equidem sciam.» (Paul Delaunay)
Tout cela est tiré de Pline, XIII, 39. Ce n’est pas par étourderie que Rabelais garde à accusatif le mot eon, c’est par pédantism. De même au Quart Livre, XXVIII, Rabelais écrira tantôt Thamous tantôt Thamoun, suivant que le mot est au nominatif ou à l’accusatif, etc. en français. Cf. plus bas, l 101.
Rabelais en 1552 ajoute une réference à l’eon et au chêne dont fut construite la célèbre nef Argo. Ces additions explicitent le dessein de Rabelais dans ce dernioer chapitre.
Il n’est pas impossible qu’eon doive être pris dans un sens symbolique. K. Baldinger, «Eon, plante énigmatique chez Rabelais, et le Pantagruélion», Études rabelaisiennes, XXIX, 1993, p. 139-144, a rapprochée le mot d’eon (chacune des puissances éternelles émanées de l’être suprême et par lesquelles s’exerce son action dans le monde, selon Balentin et les gnostiques [Trévous, 1721]) du grec αίών, «l’esprit du monde, l’éternité». Selon lui, p. 144, Rabelas devait rattacher le terme à aeon «d’autant plus que cette interprétation coïncidait parfaitement avec l’essence de sa pensée et le sens profond du pantagruélion.».
Accusatif d’eon, nom d’un arbre inattaquable par l’eau et par le feu (Pline XIII, xxxix, d’après le naturaliste Alexander Cornelius); addition de 1552 (var. b). La forme eonem est une tradition récente dans les manuscripts de Pline (Codex Vindobonensis du XIIe), la formne originelle étant leonem (voir L. Baldinger, «Eon […]», p. 143-144).
Pline, XIII, 22: «Alexander Cornelius a laissé par memoire que le navire de Jason et des autres Argonautes estoit fait du bois d’un arbre nommée Eon, qui ne pouvait estre consumé ne par eau ny par feu, non plus que le Guy : disant cest arbre semblable au Rouvre qui porte le Guy. Mais je crois que luy seul a eu la cognoissance de cest arbre, selon que je puis comprendre.» Selon l’usage de son temps Rabelais emploie l’accusatif eonem puisque ce mot est, dans sa phrase, attribut du complément d’object. Il serait hasardeux de chercher ici une allusion aux éons gnostiques.
Original French: ne la tour de boys en Pyrée,
Modern French: ne la tour de boys en Pyrée,
Various precautions were taken [by the ancients] to prevent deterioration with age and to allay the threat of disease. … Nor should I forget the story, which Gellius extracted from the annals of Quintus Claudius, of a wooden tower near the Prieaus, which Archelaus, an officer under Mithridates, had liberally coated with alum, and which therefore did not catch fire during Sulla’s attack.
Ville d’Attique
C’étoit le port d’Athènes.
Aul. Gell. xv. 1 §§ 4-7.
The great harbour complex of Athens, is a rocky limestone peninsula some 7 km. SW of Athens, which Themistocles began to fortify in 493/2 as a base for Athens’ rapidly expanding fleet in preference to the open roadstead of Phaleron. It has three harbours, Zea and Munichia on the east, used exclusively by naval shipping. Zea possessed 196 shipsheds and Philon’s Arsenal. The biggest harbour, Kantharos (Goblet) or Megas Limēn (Great Harbour), lies to the west and accommodated, in addition to warships, a thriving emporium (see emporion) on its north and east shoreline comprising ‘five stoas round about the harbour’, of which some traces remain. Its urban development dates to c.450 bc when Hippodamus of Miletus ‘cut up Piraeus’ by laying it out on an orthogonal plan. The presence of numerous metics led to the establishment of many foreign cults here, including the Thracian Great Goddess Bendis, Isis, and Mother of the Gods (see cybele). In 458/7 Piraeus was joined to Athens by Long Walls, and in c.446 the building of the Middle Wall eliminated Phaleron from the fortified area. In 429 moles were constructed on either side of each harbour’s mouth which could be closed by chains in time of war. The fortifications were destroyed by the Spartans in 404 but rebuilt by Conon (1) in 393. Though the port revived in the mid‐4th cent. bc, it never became more than the ghost of its former Periclean self.
Original French: & le maintient Dioſcorides lib. 2.
Modern French: & le maintient Dioscorides lib. 2.
The Salamander is a kinde of Lizard, lazie, diversely spotted, in vaine thought that it will not burne. It hath a Septicall, exulcerating, calfactorie power. It is mixed in Septicall and Lepricall Medicines as also Cantharides are, & it is layd up in store after the like manner. Being moystned with oyle it doth doe away the haire. But being unbowelled, the head & ye feet taken away, it is preserved in Hony for the selfsame use.
Galien, De temperamentis, III, iv; Dioscoride, II, lxvii (addition de 1552, var. a).
Original French: Galen l’auoit long temps a confermé & demonſtré lib. 3. de temperamentis
Modern French: Galen l’avoit long temps a confermé & demonstré li. 3. de temperamentis
Rabelais, doctor in medicine, was familiar with the works of the Greek physician Galen.
Of temperaments (On Mixtures): Περί κράσεων (peri kraseon); De Temperamentis (Temp.); book III was also translated as De Complexionibus (On the Complexions) [Not in the Loeb Classical Library].
Comment Pantagruel estant à Paris receupt lettres de son pere Gargantua, et la copie d’icelles.
Et quant à la congnoissance des faitz de nature, Ie veulx que tu t’y adonne curieusement, qu’il n’y ait mer, ryviere, ny fontaine, dont tu ne congnoisse les poissons, tous les oyseaulx de l’air, tous les arbres arbustes & fructices des forestz, toutes les herbes de la terre, tous les metaulx cachez au ventre des abysmes, les pierreries de tout orient & midy, riens ne te soit incongneu. Puis songneusement revisite les livres des medecins, Grecs, Arabes, & Latins, sans contemner les Thalmudistes & Cabalistes, & par frequentes anatomyes acquiers toy parfaicte congnoissance de l’aultre monde, qui est l’homme. Et par quelques heures du iour comme à visiter les sainctes lettres. Premierement en Grec le nouveau testament et Epistres des apostres, & puis en Hebrieu le vieulx testament.
…
Galen only says [greek] and wants [greek].
Smith’s reference to Galen’s comment on the salamander
«Sicut enim Salamandra ad certum usque terminum ab igne nihil partitur, uritur autem si longiore spatio igne sit admota». Galen, de Temperamentis, l. III, ch. 4.
Google translation: “As far as there is nothing for a specific time limit set by the fire, for it is shared by the Salamander the stone, just as he is on fire, however, if the fire be conveniently placed by a distance greater.”
Galien, De temperamentis, III, 4. Déjà dans l’Antiquité Dioscoride (II, 54) s’était prononcé contre cette superstition (EC).
1520 Rabelais is known at this date to have been a monk at the Franciscan priory of Le Puy-Saint-Martin, at Fontenay- le-Comte. He studies Greek with his fellow priest, Pierre Lamy (or Amy), and moves in the humanist circles of André Tiraqueau (1480–1558).
1521 Rabelais sends a letter to Guillaume Budé́ (1468–1540), the leading French humanist of his day. Although the letter is in Latin, it contains much Greek and shows Rabelais’s commitment to the “New Learning.”
1523 The Greek books of Rabelais and Lamy are confiscated by their religious superiors, only to be returned a year later.
However, Lamy leaves the monastery.
1530 François I founds the Royal College, later to become the Collège de France. It is headed by Guillaume Budé. Rabelais registers as a student in the Faculty of Medicine at Montpellier. He attends an anatomy lesson given by Rondelet and gains his Bachelor of Medicine degree in November of the same year.
1531 He lectures at Montpellier on Hippocrates and Galen.
1532 In June, he publishes the second volume of Manardi’s Medical Letters, with a dedicatory letter to Tiraqueau. In August, he follows this up with publications of Latin translations of treatises by Hippocrates and Galen, with a dedication of one major treatise to Geoffroy d’Estissac.
Original French: Nous en auons veu l’experience.
Modern French: Nous en avons veu l’experience.
Original French: Ie confeſſe bien que petit feu de paille la vegète & reſiouiſt.
Modern French: Je confesse bien que petit feu de paille la vegète & resiouist.
Vegerer. To quicken, refresh, give life, groweth, or increase unto; also, to grow, bud, or put forth, as plants.
Rendre vigoureux; du lat. scolasatique vegetare, même sens.
Original French: Ne me parragonnez poinct icy
Modern French: Ne me parragonnez poinct icy
Paragonner. To paragon; equall, match, or compare with; also, to examine, or try the goodness of a thing, by comparing it with other (excellent) things.
Comparez.
Original French: vous en aurez faict l’experience.
Modern French: vous en aurez faict l’experience.
