Encolpismus

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Encolpismus grece Cassius felix capitulo de precadente matrice, iniectio in matricem encolpizare medicamen in matricem iniicere quasi insinuare .i. in sinum immittere nam colpos grece sinus encolpizo.


Apparatus:

Encolpismus | Encholpismus ms. e
capitulo om. B
precadente | recadẽte A {printer's error}
{precadente} matrice | in (ĩ A) matricẽ AC
{iniectio in} matrice AC e| matriceʒ (-cẽ B j) B fj
encolpizare AB ef | encolpiczare C | encolpicare j
{medicamen in} matricem AB efj | matrice C
inicere C ej | iniicere AB f
{insinuare} et add. j
in sinum B p | sinuʒ f | sucum (-cuʒ A) AC | uisu cũ? j | om. e
immitere | mittere f
colpos | copos e | culpos j
{sinus} ms. p adds an attempt to write colpizo?- mostly illegibly - in Greek script
encolpizo AC ep | encolpico j | om. B f


Translation:

Encolpismus is Greek; according to Cassius Felix in his chapter De precadente matrice {"On prolapse of the womb"} it means 'injection in the womb’; encolpizare means 'to inject a medicine into the womb’, almost as if to say in Latin insinuare'’, that is to say 'inserting into the sinus’ {cf. the multiple meanings of this word in the Commentary below}, because Greek colpos means sinus in Latin; encolpizo {1st person sg. pres, indic.}.


Commentary:

Simon is alluding to Cassius Felix De medicina, 78: Ad procidentem matricem {"On prolapse of the womb"}. In 78, 7, ed. Fraisse (2001: 213), where Cassius describes the preparation of a vaginal douche/clyster: Encolpismi confection ad siccitatem et relaxandam constrictionem et ad duritiam matrices … - "Preparing a vaginal douche/ clyster for dryness of the womb, for loosening its constriction and its lack of sensitivity" ... .

But Simon restricts himself to the philological aspects of translating and explaining the words.

Encolpismus:
Greek κόλπος /kólpos/ means "bosom; but also vagina, womb, lap" and then "any bosom-like hollow" as e.g. "a bay" or "a gulf".

ἐγκολπισμός /enkolpismós/ consist of ἐν- /en-/ (which before -κ /-k/ is written as ἐγ- "in(to)") + -κολπ- {"bosom; lap"} + -ισμός /-ismós/ nominal ending, therefore lit. "into the womb", i.e. "a vaginal douche or clyster".

encolpizare:
The Greek verbal form ἐγκολπίζω /enkolpízō/ has two meanings: "to go into or follow a bay" but also "to inject into the vagina". The latter meaning is taken over and the word is Latinized into encolpizare, with encolpizo being the 1st sg.pres.indic.

Simon translates κόλπος /kólpos/ with Latin sinus, which covers a similar semantic field, meaning "bent surface, curve, hollow; bosom; cavity, lap; (fig.) intimacy".

Simon now gives an element by element translation of en-colp-izare, i.e. in Latin in-sinu-are. Any Latin speaker would of course be aware that here insinuare is not used in its usual Latin meaning, which is "to introduce something/ someone not in a straight (forward) but a curvy or winding (i.e. stealthy) way", {cf. English "insinuate"} but is meant to convey the meaning "introduce into the womb".


WilfGunther (talk) 17:55, 26 March 2016 (GMT)


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