Lepidum

Lepidum Dyascorides quam multi gingion apppellant herba est omnibus nota et cetera, hec vocatur arabice sceitaragi sicut patet per Serapionem et Avicennam et infra in se Stephanus lepidion sitaragum pro sceitaragi.

Apparatus:

Lepidum ABC ep | Lepidon f | Lepidium j {initial faint} | lepidiu Diosc.Longob. | Lepiduʒ Dyasc.alphabet. | λεπίδιον /lepídion/ Graece
quam | quẽ f
gingion Diosc. Longob. | gĩgion Dyasc.alphabet. | γιγγίδιον /gingídion/ Graece
{appellant} etc. add. f
nota BC ejp | n͞o A | ?? f
hec AC | hʾ fp | he j | hoc ms. e | sed B
sceitaragi AC fp | scetaragi B | seitaragi j | sartaragi ms. e
{Avicennam} et | ut j
sce B efp | se AC j
lepidion (-diõ AC) ABC fjp | lepidon ms. e
sitaragum pro sceitaragi om. p followed by the text of the next entry, but without its headword Lepon: dya. ca^o d’ dristeroth sũt castanee.
sitaraguʒ (-gũ AC;-reg…?? j) AC fj | setaragum B | sticareguʒ ms. e
sceitaragi ABC ef | seitaragi etc. j

Translation:

Lepidum, according to Dyascorides is a plant that many people call gingion. It is a herb known to everybody etc. It is called sceitaragi in Arabic as is made clear in Serapio and Avicenna. Also see below under Sceitaragi. Stephanus correlates lepidion with sitaragum a {Latinised} form for Arabic sceitaragi.

Commentary:

Lepidium:
Simon’s witnesses have mostly Lepidum, the loss of 'i' in "-ium" occurring after Dioscorides Longobardus in the transmission chain; cf. Dyascorides alphabeticus: Lepiduʒ. The word is taken from Greek λεπίδιον /lepídion/, the diminutive of λεπίς /lepís/ "scale, flake" because the plant was thought to heal the scaly diseases of the skin (André 1985: 142, s.v. lepidium).

gingion:
For gingion see Gingion.

sceitaragi:
Arabic sceitaragi: cf. Siggel (1950: 47): ﺷﻴﺘﺮﺝ /šītarağ/ = ﺷﻴﻄﺮﺝ /šīṭarağ/.
Ibid. = ﺷﻴﻄﺮﺝ /šīṭarağ/ = ﺳﻴﻄﺮﺝ /sīṭarağ/ Lepidium latifolium (Crucif.), Kresse {i.e. "cress"}.
See also Simon’s entry Sceitaragi.

• Simon is referring to Dyascorides alphabeticus, Bodmer f 45r: Lepiduʒ [[1]], which is taken from Dioscorides Longobardus, 2, 160, ed. Stadler (1899: 241-2) De lepidiu.
  

The original Greek can be found in Wellmann, 2, 174, ed. Wellmann (1906-14: I.241-2); λεπίδιον /lepídion/.

• Serapio: Simon adds that its Arabic name is sceitaragi, as attested in [Goehl] Serapio: Scetarag. 355. (365.) Scitarag est hausab.
  

For hausab cf. Siggel (1950: 52): bb {= Berber} ﻋﺼﺎﺏ /ʕaṣṣāb/ = ﺷﻴﻄﺮﺝ /šīṭarağ/; Lepidium latifolium (Crucif.), Gartenkresse {lit. "garden cress"; however the German name "Gartenkresse" is usually reserved for L. sativum, and L. latifolium is more often called "Pfefferkraut" and other names}.
This text is also available online p. 248 DE SEITARAGI CCCLXII [[2]].

• Avicenna: Simon also refers to Avicenna's Canon [Goehl}, book II, Capitulum 666. De seitaragi {followed by id est lepidio (concerning seitaragi annotation: sitharegi)}.
  

This text is also available online p. 123: De seitaragi Cap. dclvi: [[[3]].

For the Arabic original p. 256: ﺷﻴﻄﺮﺝ /šīṭarağ/ see [[4]]

• Stephanus in his Breviarium writes: lepidiõ … sitaregũ [[5]]. Cf. Sitaregum

Botanical identification:

Most authors identify lepidium with Lepidium latifolium L. "pepperwort, dittander" [[6]], e.g. Sprengel p. 181 [[7]], LSJ, André 1985, p. 142, s.v. lepidium; Lily Y. Beck p. 16. Berendes, p. 251, suggests Lapidium sativum L. Gartenkresse {"garden cress"} [[8]], and he points out that Dioscorides calls it βοτάνιον /botánion/ "a little plant, whereas L. latifolium is the largest species of the cresses, at times reaching 2 meters in height. Other botanical descriptions in Dioscorides also do not match so that the identification of λεπίδιον /lepídion/ must await further discussion.

WilfGunther 17:59, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

See also: Gingion, Sceitaragi

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