Crisantemon
Crisantemon est dictu grece aureus flos apud kiranidam flos eius est aureus et ut calix in medio floris velut formice nigre parvas alas habentes, hec vocatur sanguis mundanus.
Apparatus:
dictu ABC e | dc͡m fjp
kiranidam A | kiranidan f | kiranidã BC jp | kyranidam ms. e
calix | cal… {illegible} ms. e
velut | uelud B e | ut f
{formice} parue add. B efjp
parvas alas habentes | p. h. a. ms. p
alas B ep | allas f | alias AC | alIas j
habentes | h͠͠ns j {= habens}
sanguis | saguis j
mundanus | mundans f | mondanus B | humanus Kyranides
et cetera add. B p
Translation:
Crisantemon is Greek for Latin aureus flos {“golden flower”} mentioned in the Kyranides; its flower is golden-coloured and there is something like a calix {'seed vessel'} in the middle of the flower resembling small, black, winged ants. It is called “worldly {Kyranides: ‘human’} blood”.
Commentary:
Simon’s entry is a near verbatim quote from the Kyranides Book I, (Elementum XVII x), available online in the Franfurt edition (1681: 73) [[1]]:
Χρυσάνθεμον {/Khrysánthemon/}, i. aureus flos, herba est omnibus nota.
Flos ergo Chrysanthemi est aurizans, & ut calyx in medio floris ceu formicae parvae et nigrae alas habentes. Hic vocatur sanguis humanus. - "Χρυσάνθεμον /Khrysánthemon/, this means “golden flower”, is a herb known to all. Consequently the flower of chrysanthemum is of the colour of true gold, with a seed-vessel in the middle of the flower like small, black ants that have wings. The latter is called “human blood”.
Crisantemon:
.
Greek χρυσάνθεμον /khrysánthemon/ is a compound noun consisting of χρυσ- /khrys-/ {“gold”} + ἄνθεμον /ánthemon/ {“flower”} as correctly analysed in the Kyranides text.
Simon’s transcription shows the late Greek sound change of υ /y/ > ι /i/ and Simon – or at least most of his copyists – as speaker(s) of Romance languages would find difficulty in pronouncing Greek “χ” = /kh/ in our transcription - the sound in Scottish “loch” - which they would routinely replace by /k/; and they would also find it difficult to pronounce Greek “θ” – in our transcription /th/ - the sound in English “thorn” which they routinely replace by /t/. The sound change /y/ > /i/ and these substitutions lead to a pronunciation /krisántemon/ which is the one portrayed by Simon.
sanguis mundanus:
lit. "wordly blood"; mundanus is due to a copying error; the Kyranides text speaks of sanguis humanus "human blood". Since the Kyranides is concerned with magic it is conceivable that Simon himself changed humanus into the less magical mundanus. The plant names sanguis humanus or sanguis mundanus are not mentioned anywhere else in the literature consulted.
Botanical identification:
The description of Χρυσάνθεμον /Khrysánthemon/ is reminiscent of a member of the Asteraceae or Compositae or Daisy Family, where “small, black ants that have wings” can be seen as a description of an inflorescence surrounded by a “calyx”, which perhaps describes involucral bracts, and the genera Anthemis, Chrysanthemum and Glebionis come to mind.
André (1985: 63), s.v. chrӯsanthemum suggests Anthemis tinctoria L {syn. Cota tinctoria (L.) Gay ex Guss.} “oxeye chamomile” [[2]]. The adjective nigre, “black” or at least “dark” in colour refers to the description of the ants and does not shed any light on the colour of the inflorescence.
However, since many Asteraceae species have yellow flowers and little additional information is supplied concerning the plant, the botanical identification of Crisantemon must remain problematic.
WilfGunther (talk) 17:46, 11 December 2015 (GMT)
