Mum

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Mum apud Avicennam est cera verum cera arabice vocatur xamacha et mum ut patet per Serapionem est sordities quedam domorum apum quod Avicenna vocat mum nigrum et grece vocatur propolis vel cera propoleos ut supra in melle est calidius cera et fortiter attractum.


Apparatus:

Whole entry om. f

Mum ep | Mũ AC | Mumy B | Mura j {anticipation of Mura, the headword of the subsequent entry replacing the headword Mum. However then the correct text for the entry Mum follows, at the end of which the text of the entry Mura is added on seamlessly}
verum cera om. j
xamaha | xamacha AC
mum B j | mũ AC p | vruɱ ms. e {‘m' misread as ‘vr'}
sordities A jp | sordicies B e | sordies C
apũ ABC | apiuʒ (apiũ ep) ejp
{apum} quam | quod AC
{vocat} mum B e | mũ AC p | mumi j
propolis AC ep | propoleos B | propoli j
{cera} propoleos | popoleos j
melle | mele B
calidius B ep | calius (-us A) AC | callius j
attractuʒ (-tũ A; -tɱ̄ e) AC e | atractiuũ B p | attratiuũ j
al͠n {= aliquando} in antiquis libris pro mirra reperitur add. j, {text of subsequent entry Mura.}


Translation:

Mum in Avicenna's Canon is cera {"wax"}, but wax in Arabic is called xamacha, and mum - as Serapion explains - is a certain waste from the bees' hives, what Avicenna calls black mum, and in Greek it is called propolis or cera propoleos as mentioned in the entry Cera propolis above. It is hotter than wax and strongly adhesive.


Commentary:

Wehr (1976): ﺷﻤﻊ /šamʕ, šamaʕ/ (coll.; n.un. ﺓ) "wax; (wax) candles"; ﺷﻤﻌﺔ /šamʕa, šamaʕa/ "wax (candle)".

Wehr (1976): ﻣﻮﻡ /mūm/ "wax". Siggel (1950: 69): ﻣﻮﻡ /mūm/ = ﺷﻤﻊ /šamʕ/

ﻣﻮﻡ /mūm/, a word of Persian origin, cf. Steingass (1892: 1348): ﻣﻮﻡ /mūm, mom/ "wax(candle)" - is often used in Arabic for propolis or bee-glue [[1]] and ﺷﻤﻊ /šamʕ, šamaʕ/ for bee's wax, but they can be used interchangeably, cf Siggel (1950) above and Avicenna who in his chapter Capitulum 193. De cera simply refers the reader to Capitulum 473. De mum. This is also the case in the Arabic original, cf. p. 259: ﺷﻤﻊ /šamʕ/ [[2]].

Simon is referring to [Goehl] Avicenna's Canon book II Capitulum 473 (469) De mum (followed by: id est cera et propoli). Mum quid est? Mum purum est parietes domorum apum, in quibus faciunt ova et pullos et adducunt (advenit in) eis mel; et mum quidem nigrum est sordes fenestrarum intrinsecarum et forinsecarum (fenestrarum intrinsecarum et forinsecarum] vasibus adhaerens) - "What is mum? Pure mum is {the stuff of} the walls of the bees' hives; in them they produce their eggs and larvae and they take to them honey; and there is also a certain ‘black mum', this is the waste of the inner and outer ventilation holes and it sticks to the chambers". Avicenna's mum purum "clean mum", here literally translated from Arabic ﺍﻟﻤﻮﻡﺍﻟﺼﺎﻓﻲ /al-mūm al-ṣāfiy/, clearly denotes "wax" whereas his mum nigrum "black mum" from Arabic ﺍﻟﻤﻮﻡﺍﻼﺳﻮﺩ /al-mūm al-aswad/ denotes propolis. N.b. Propolis is often of a dark-brown colour.

The Latin text is also available online Liber II, p. 107, De mum Cap. cccclxxiii. [[3]]. The original Arabic text can be found p.208: ﻣﻮﻡ /mūm/ [[4]].

Simon also alludes to Serapion's Liber aggregatus, [Goehl] Cera 10: Ama {read: Sama} id est cera. The text is also available online: p. 35: DE CAERA ET MVM {chapter) X, where it says: Hamaha, id est, caera [[5]].


Biological remarks:

For more information click on entries below.

WilfGunther (talk) 10:55, 15 September 2015 (BST)


See also: Propoleos, Cera propolis, Mel

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