Sertula

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Complete text of entry:

Sertula Dyascorides herba est humilis odore suavis et colore exalbido floscellum habens subrubeum. Illa vero melior est que est vasta et non nimis exalbida et recens et cetera. Plinius {sc. Melilotum} sertulam campanam vocant in campania Italie laudatissima ubicumque asperis et silvestribus nata; a sertis dicta sertula quia antiqui coronabantur ea, odor eius vicinus croco et flos ipsa cana placet maxime foliis brevissimis atque pinguissimis et cetera. Cornelius celsus mellilotum sertulam campanam vocat.


Complete translation of entry:

Dyascorides {see comment below} states: Sertula {“melilot”} is a small low-growing plant, with a pleasant fragrance and it is pale. It bears a small yellow{?} flower. That {specimen} which is large and not too pale and fresh is considered the best, etc.”. {For ease of comparison Everett’s translation was modified to fit Simon’s text, see below}.

Pliny says that they call this plant {sc. melilotum} the Campanian sertula, because the one most highly thought of grows in Campania in Italy. But wherever it grows it is in rough and wild places. Sertula is so called from the word serta {“garlands"} because the ancients used to be garland-crowned with it. Its fragrance is close to that of crocus and so is the flower, which is grey-white {see comment below}; the one with very short and fleshy leaves is the most liked.

Cornelius Celsus also calls mellilotum the Campanian sertula.


Simon's text sectioned: Dyascorides Alphabetum Galieni

Sertula Dyascorides herba est humilis odore suavis et colore exalbido floscellum habens subrubeum. Illa vero melior est que est vasta et non nimis exalbida et recens et cetera.

Apparatus:
floscellum AC fp | floxellũ ms. e | flossellũ j | flocelũ B
habens | habet p
subrubeum | rubeum j
vero om. f
vasta | nasta f {‘u’ misread as ‘n’}
exalbida | exalbit’da C {printer’s error}
et cetera om. ef

Translation:
Sertula {“melilot”} is a small low-growing plant, with a pleasant fragrance and it is pale. It bears a small yellow{?} flower. That which is large and not too pale and fresh is considered the best, etc.”. {Everett’s translation modified to fit Simon’s text, but see the following commentary}.

Commentary:
Dyascorides/ Alphabetum Galieni:
Unusual for Simon the source he attributes this excerpt to is not Dyascorides but this text is clearly taken from Alphabetum Galieni (Everett 2012: 348) with some differences, cf.:
262) Sertula
Sertula herbula {v.l.: herba} est humilis, odore suavi, exalbida, flosculum habens subrufum. Cuius melior habetur quae est recens et vastior et non nimis exalbida – which Everett op.cit. translates: “King’s clover { i.e. ‘melilot’} is a small, low-growing, pale plant that has a pleasant fragrance and bears a small yellow flower. That which is fresh, larger, and not too pale is considered the best”.
The reason for this wrong attribution may be as trivial as an early misreading of “G” {= a common abbreviation for ‘Galienus’} as “D” {= Dyascorides} since capital letters in medieval mss. can suffer from overenthusiastic decorative squiggles which more often than not mar the original shape of the letter.

Sertula:
The word itself is a diminutive form of serta, sertorum “wreaths, garlands of flowers”, sg. sertum, the naming motive being that in Antiquity this plant was used in garlands; see the excerpt from Pliny below. Serta alone and Serta Campanica are already attested in Cato’s De agri cultura ed. Goetz (122: 107 [[1]] and 113 [[2]], 1922: 48 and 50 resp.). It is a derivative of the verb sero “to join or bind together, to plait, interweave, entwine”.


Simon's text sectioned: Pliny

Plinius sertulam campanam vocant in campania Italie laudatissima ubicumque asperis et silvestribus nata; a sertis dicta sertula quia antiqui coronabantur ea, odor eius vicinus croco et flos ipsa cana placet maxime foliis brevissimis atque pinguissimis et cetera.

Apparatus:
Plinius rubricated in f
campania ABC ej | campaniaʒ f | cãponia p
Italie AC | ytalie B efjp
laudatissima | laudatissime e
croco | crocro ms. e
vicinus croco AC | c. v. B efjp
cana ABC ej | canna (cãna p) fp
pinguissimis | piguissimis j
et cetera om. fj

Translation:
Pliny says that they call {sc. melilotum} the Campanian sertula, because the one most highly thought of grows in Campania in Italy. But wherever it grows it is in rough and wild places. sertula is so called from the word serta {“garlands} because the ancients used to be garland-crowned with it. Its fragrance is close to that of crocus and so is the flower, which is grey-white {see Comment below}; the one with very short and fleshy leaves is the best liked.

Commentary:
This is a quote from Pliny Natural History, 21, 29, 53, ed. W.H.S. Jones (1938-63: VI, 198). In this chapter Pliny speaks about plants that are used for making of garlands, melilotum being one of them.
The text of this quote is less verbatim than Simon’s quotes from Pliny usually are, thus e.g. in one section Pliny writes:
coronas ex ea antiquitus factitatas indicio est nomen sertulae, quod occupavit
which W.H.S. Jones – the editor and translator of this part of the Loeb edition – translates: “That chaplets were in antiquity often made from the melilot is shown by the name sertula (garland), which it has adopted as its own”.
But Simon offers a simpler retelling:
a sertis dicta sertulam quod antiqui coronabantur ea, “sertula is so called from the word serta {“garlands} because the ancients used to be garland-crowned with it”. However a more extensive quote containing this same Plinian text is found in Simon’s entry Mellilotum but there the original version of this sentence is preserved.

Also in Pliny’s text the section flos ipsa cana “and so is the flower, the plant is grey-white” is probably corrupt and has seen emendations by several editors. For more information on this see also Mellilotum.


Simon's text sectioned: Cornelius Celsus

Cornelius Celsus mellilotum sertulam campanam vocat.

Apparatus:
Cornelius rubricated in f
mellilotum AC efp | melilotum B j
vocat | vocant fp

Translation:
Cornelius Celsus calls mellilotum the Campanian sertula.

Commentary:
Sertula Campana is mentioned twice in Celsus, De medicina, 5, 11, 6, ed. Spencer (1935-38: II, 11) as an agent to disperse “what has collected in any part of the body” {Spencer, op.cit. p. 11) and
6,5.3. ed. Spencer (1935-38: vol. II.p. 184).where he mentions a composition thought to have been invented by Trypho pater. Here sertula Campana is an ingredient of said composition, which colours scars and is helpful in removing pimples, spots, freckles, etc. {op.cit. p.185).

These texts are available online in the Teubner edition by F. Marx, (1915: 193 and 258 resp.) [[3]].

Botanical identification:

Since sertula is clearly seen as a synonym for “melilot” see Mellilotum for further botanical comment.


WilfGunther (talk) 16:08, 24 October 2016 (BST)


See also Mellilotum


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