Damula
Damula animal simile capriolo minor tamen.
Apparatus:
Damula | Danula B
Ms. f combines this entry with the next: Damula al’ si͞le cap’olo minor tñ arabice dct͡m dhan.
Translation:
Damula is an animal similar to the capriolus {"wild goat, chamois, roebuck"}, but it is smaller.
Commentary:
It is difficult to determine which animal exactly Simon had in mind. Dama or damma in Latin is "a general name for beasts of the deer kind; a fallow-deer, buck, doe, antelope, chamois" according to Lewis & Short (1879); but Pliny, 79, ed. Rackham (1938-63: III.148-50), clearly says that capra {"goat"}, rupicapra {"chamois", lit. "rock-goat"} and ibex come from the Alps, the other goat-like animals he mentions, amongst them the dammae, are different in that: haec transmarini situs mittunt - "they send them from across the sea".
Dammula or damula is simply the diminutive form of damma/dama. The word occurs in the Vulgate, Isa.13,14: et erit quasi dammula fugiens … unusquisque - "each one of them … will be like the fleeing dammula", which is often translated with "roe" or "gazelle" or even "antelope".
WilfGunther 23/04/2013
