Vichelos
Vichelos velut vichilos .g. tussis. nos transferentes vita in .b. nostrum dicimus bichelos. vichi tussis velut bichi βηχη unde bichichias pillulas et quascunque medicinas ad tussim dicimus. vix etiam βηξ dicunt.
Apparatus:
Vichelos A | Victelos B ek | Viththeles f | Vichthelos np | Vichchelos j
velut A fjnp | vel BC ek
vichilos AC | victilos B e | viththeles f | vichthilos np | bichtilos k | michthilos j
nos transferentes ABC efjkp | meam ferentes n
vita A ejknp | iota B | vica f
in ABC efjkp | in nostrum n
dicimus ABC ejknp | om. f
bichelos A | bictilos B | barchtelos e | viethelos f | bichtelos p | bichtelos βιχτελος k | bichthelos j | bictelos n
vichi tussis velut A f | vichtusit B | vichi tussis vel e | vichi tussis βηχ (one or two illegible characters) velut p | vichi tussis βηχι vel k | j rephrases vichi velut bichi .i. tussis p | vichitus sit βηχη n
bichi ABC efjkp | bicu n
quascunque AC | quascumque B f | quascũque ejknp
vix ABC fjknp | vix 28 (illegible abbreviations) e
etiam ABC ej | eciam f | etiam βηξ p | eticam βηξ k | etiam βηξ n
dicunt ABC efjnp | om. k
B starts a new lemma with vichtusit.
j starts new lemmata with vichi and vix.
Translation:
Vichelos or vichilos is Greek for cough. We transfer the vita in our 'b' and say bichelos. vichi means cough, or bichi, βηχη, hence we also call cough pills and some medication for cough bichichias. They also say vix, βηξ.
Commentary:
This entry is of particular importance to our understanding of the transmission of the Clavis. Some manuscripts transmitting this entry, k, n and p, contain Greek words. One of these words, βιχτελος /bikhtelos/, is transmitted in only one witness, and it also contains an incorrect reading that appears to go back to a mistake in the Latin transmission. It is not uncommon for Latin speaking scribes to double consonants in the process of transmission, here a ch became chch. Latin 'c' in turn looks very similar indeed to Latin 't'. Therefore, the readings containing chch or chth are most likely Latin mistakes, which suggests that the Greek word βιχτελος /bikhtelos/ was added by a scribe. This is also supported by the fact that the ε /e/ in this word is not correct, see below for details.
The other two Greek words are transmitted in all three manuscripts. The former, βηχη /bēkhē/ or βηχι /bēkhi/, is a mere transliteration of the preceding Latin word, and may or may not be original. The latter, βηξ /bēks/, seems somewhat out of place in the syntax. However, this could have been caused by its position in the text. The last words of an entry are always in danger of being mixed up, as they may be written in blank space above or below the line. With Latin text, this would be easy to recognize, but not necessarily with Greek text, as the scribe may not have been able to understand it.
These observations are rather disconcerting. These three manuscripts transmit a substantial amount of Greek words, some of which are likely to be genuine, see for instance entry Cameleon (1). Manuscript p also transmits a larger amount of Arabic words.
Simon himself states, that he included both Greek and Arabic material, but that he was rather pessimistic as to whether these would be copied correctly, see Preface $ 6.
