La philologie et l’histoire des mots : quelques remarques sur l’argumentation étymologique des humanistes

Mikhail Sergeev

doi:10.21638/spbu20.2021.110

Authors

Mikhail Sergeev Herzen University, 48 Moiki nab., St. Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu20.2021.110

Abstract

The article concerns the influence of humanist scholarship on sixteenth-century etymological practices, testified in the Neo-Latin reference works and special treatises on linguistics and history. Being an important part of historical research, which relied mostly on Greek and Latin literary sources, etymology could not but adopt some important principles and instruments of contemporary philological work, notably on the source criticism. The foremost rule was to study the sources in their original language, form, and eliminate any corrupted data as well as any information not attested in written sources. This presumed that every text had its own written history, which tended to be a gradual deterioration of its state, represented in the manuscript tradition that was subject to scribal errors and misinterpretations. This view on the textual history was strikingly consonant with that on the history of languages, which was treated by the humanists as permanent corruption and inevitable degeneration from the noble and perfect state of their ancient ancestors. In an effort to restore the original text, philology used emendation as a cure for scribal abuse and textual losses; likewise, language historians had their own tool, namely etymology, to reconstruct and explain the original form of words (including the nomenclature of various sciences). The intersection of both procedures is taken into account in the article and it demonstrates how textual conjectures, manuscript collation, and graphical interpretation of misreadings were employed by the sixteenth-century scholars to corroborate their etymological speculations, which established themselves as one of the ways of the reception and criticism of classical scholarly heritage.

Keywords:

history of philology, etymology, reception of antiquity, 16th century, Neo-Latin handbooks, textual criticism, humanism, Latin, German

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Sources/References

Althamer A. Commentaria Germaniae in P. Cornelii Taciti Equitis Rom[ani] libellum de situ, moribus, & populis Germanorum. Norimbergae, I. Petreius, 1536.

Anonym. Aliquot nomina propria Germanorum ad priscam etymologiam restituta. Vitembergae, Schirlentz, 1537.

Aventinus J. Annales ducum Boiariae, liber primus et secundus usque ad declinationem Romani imperii et captivitatem urbis Romae. [Codex manuscriptus : BSB Clm 282]. 1521: Joannis Aventini Annales ducum Boiariae, liber I et prima pars libri II — BSB Clm282 — BSB-Katalog (bsb-muenchen.de) (19.04.2020).

Aventinus J. Sämmtliche Werke. Bd. I–VI. München, Ch. Kaiser, 1881–1908.

de Bovelles Ch. Liber de differentia vulgarium linguarum, & Gallici sermonis varietate […]. Parisiis, R. Stephanus, 1533.

Glaréan H. (ed.) C. Iulii Caesaris Commentariorum libri VIII. Quibus adiecimus suis in locis D. Henrici Glareani doctissimas annotationes. Basileae, N. Brylinger, 1544.

Goropius Becanus J. Origines Antwerpianae sive Cimmeriorum Becceselana. Antverpiae, Ch. Plantin, 1569.

Estienne H. Epistola, qua ad multas multorum amicorum respondet, de suae typographiae statu, nominatimque de suo Thesauro Linguae Graecae. [Genève], H. Stephanus, 1569.

Gelenius S. Lexicum Symphonum quo quatuor linguarum Europae familiarium, Graecae scilicet, Latinae, Germanicae ac Sclavinicae concordia consonantiaque indicatur. Basileae, H. Frobenius — N. Episcopius, 1537.

Gessner C. Mithridates De differentiis linguarum tum veterum tum quae hodie apud diversas nationes in toto orbe terrarum in usu sunt […] observationes. Tiguri, Ch. Froschoverus, 1555.

Hunger W. Linguae germanicae vindicatio contra exoticas quasdam, quae complurium vocum et dictionum, mere Germanicarum, Etymologias, ex sua petere sunt conati. Agentorati, B. Jobin, 1586.

Junius H. Animadversorum libri sex, omnigenae lectionis thesaurus, in quibus infiniti pene autorum loci corriguntur et declarantur. Basileae, M. Isengrin, 1556.

Maaler J. Die teütsch Spraach. Alle Wörter, Namen und Arten zuo reden in hochteütscher Spraach, dem ABC nach ordenlich gestellt unnd mit guotem Latein gantz fleissig unnd eigentlich vertolmetscht… Tiguri, Ch. Froschauer, 1561.

Münster S. Dictionarium Hebraicum […] Adiectis Chaldaicis vocabulis non parum multis. Basileae, J. Froben, 1523.

Postel G. De Originibus seu de Hebraicae linguae et gentis antiquitate deque variarum linguarum affinitate, liber. Parisiis, P. Vidovaeus, 1538.

Rhenanus B. Rerum Germanicarum libri tres. Basileae, J. Froben, 1531.

Rocca A. Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana. Romae, Typ. Apostolica Vaticana, 1591.

Tacitus P. C. Annalium ab excessu Augusti […] libri sedecim qui supersunt […] Libellus de Germanorum populis, Dialogus de oratoribus, denique Vita Iulii Agricolae […] Basileae, J. Froben, 1533.

Tschudi A. De prisca ac vera Alpina Rhaetia, cum caetero Alpinarum gentium tractu, nobilis ac erudita ex optimis quibusque ac probatissimis autoribus descriptio. Basileae, M. Isengrin, 1538.

Turgot A.-R. Etymologie, in: Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, par une Société de Gens de lettres. T. 6. Paris, chez Briasson [et al.], 1756, 98–111.

Waser C. Mithridates Gesneri, exprimens differentias linguarum. Editio altera. Tiguri, Typis Vuolphianis, 1610.

Bibliographie sélective

Borchardt F. L. German antiquity in Renaissance myth. Baltimore, John Hopkins Univ. press, 1971.

Buridant C. Les paramètres de l’étymologie médiévale. In : Buridant C. (éd.) L’étymologie de l’antiquité à la renaissance. Villeneuve-d’Ascq, Presses univ. du Septentrion, 1998, 11–56.

Claes F. Inleiding, in: Kiliaan C. Etymologicum Teutonicae Linguae. Den Haag, Mouton, 1972, 5–45.

Considine J. Dictionaries in Early Modern Europe: Lexicography and the making of heritage. Cambridge, CUP, 2008.

Copeland R., Sluiter I. (ed.) Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300-1475. Oxford, OUP, 2009.

Demaizière C. La langue à la recherche de ses origines: la mode des étymologies grecques. Bulletin de l’Association d’étude sur l’humanisme, la réforme et la renaissance 1982, 15 (1), 65–78.

Demaizière C. Convergences et divergences étymologiques chez Bovelles et Sylvius, in: Schoeck R. J. (ed.) Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Bononensis. Binghamton, Medieval & Renaissance texts & studies, 1985, 239–246.

Demonet M.-L. Les Voix du signe : Nature et origine du langage à la Renaissance (1480–1580). Paris — Genève, Champion — Slatkine, 1992.

Demonet M.-L. Renaissances étymologiques, in: Buridant C. (éd.) L’étymologie de l’antiquité à la renaissance. Villeneuve-d’Ascq, Presses univ. du Septentrion, 1998, 57–67.

Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm [1852-1961]: http://woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB/ (19.04.2020)

Doronin A. V. Brothers Tuisco and Gomer, Druids and Abbot Trithemius’ Dog: How the German Humanists Proved their Kinship with Ancient Greeks, in: Kudriavtsev O. F. (ed.) Arts and Culture in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe. Moskva — Sankt-Peterburg, Tsentr gumanitarnykh initsiativ, 2016, 269–289. (In Russian)

Droixhe D. La Linguistique et l’appel de l’histoire (1600–1800) : Rationalisme et révolutions positivistes. Genève, DROZ, 1978.

Dubois C.-G. Celtes et gaulois au XVIe siècle: Le développement littéraire d’un mythe nationaliste. Paris, Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 1972.

Enenkel E., Ottenheym K. Oudheid als ambitie: De zoektocht naar een passend verleden 1400–1700. Nijmegen, Vantilt, 2017.

Frederickx E., Van Hal T. Johannes Goropius Becanus (1519–1573). Brabants arts en taalfanaat. Hilversum, Verloren, 2015.

Guenée B. Histoire et culture historique dans l’Occident médiéval. Paris, Aubier-Montaigne, 1980.

Hassler G. Von der Offenbarung des Ursprungs zur Spur der Geschichte. Zum Wandel des Etymologieverständnisses im frühneuzeitlichen Sprachdenken, in: Korrespondenzen. Literarische Imagination und kultureller Dialog in der Romania: Festschrift für Helene Harth zum 60. Geburtstag. Tübingen, Stauffenburg Verlag, 2000, 17–36.

Hassler G. Etymologie, in: Haßler G., Neis C. (Hrsg.) Lexikon sprachtheoretischer Grundbegriffe des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, De Gruyter, 2009, 625–658.

Hirstein J. L’oeuvre philologique de Beatus Rhenanus et le devenir de la « philologie humaniste », in: Hirstein J. (éd.) Beatus Rhenanus (1485–1547): lecteur et éditeur des textes anciens. Turnhout, Brepols, 2000, 1–20.

Hoenigswald H. M. On the history of the comparative method. Anthropological linguistics 1993, 35 (1), 54– 65.

Kenney E. J. The Classical Text: Aspects of editing in the age of the printed book. Berkeley, Los Angeles, Univ. of California Press, 1974.

Kibbee D. Renaissance Notions of Medieval Language and the Development of Historical Linguistics. The Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 1992, 22 (1), 41–54.

Klubkov P. A. The Formation of the Petersburg Tradition of Russian Linguistics (18th — early 19th c.) . St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg University Press, 2011. (In Russian)

Kroonen G. Etymological dictionary of Proto-Germanic. Leiden — Boston, Brill, 2013.

Lambert P.-Y. La langue gauloise : Description linguistique, commentaire d’inscriptions choisies. Éd. rev. et augm. Paris, Errance, 2003.

Maissen T. Territorialisierung und Ethnisierung der Eidgenossenschaft in der Historiographie des 15. Und 16. Jahrhunderts, in: Friedrich U. et al. (Hrsg.) Geschichtsentwürfe und Identitätsbildung am Übergang zur Neuzeit. Bd. 2. Berlin, De Gruyter, 2018, 255–279.

Margolin J.-Cl. Science et nationalisme linguistique ou la bataille pour l’étymologie au XVIe siècle. Bovelles et sa postérité critique, in : The Fairest Flower: The Emergence of Linguistic National Consciousness in Renaissance Europe. Firenze, Presso l’Accademia, 1985, 139–165.

März Ch. Aventinus, Johannes, in: Worstbrock F. J. (Hrsg.) Deutscher Humanismus 1480–1520. Bd. I. Berlin, De Gruyter, 2008, 72–108.

McLean M. The Cosmographia of Sebastian Münster: Describing the World in the Reformation. Aldershot, Ashgate, 2007.

Müller P. O. Deutsche Lexikographie des 16. Jahrhunderts: Konzeptionen und Funktionen frühneuzeitlicher Wörterbücher. Tübingen, Niemeyer, 2001.

Pfeiffer R. History of Classical Scholarship from 1300 to 1850. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1976.

Puhvel J. The Indo-European and Indo-Aryan Plough: A Linguistic Study of Technological Diffusion. Technology and Culture 1964, 5 (2), 176–190.

Sergeev M. L. The 16th century Greek-Latin Lexica Reviewed by Contemporary Lexicographers. Indo-European linguistics and classical philology 2018, 22 (2), 1231–1232. (In Russian)

Sergeev M. L. History of a Written Word: on some Principles of 16th century Etymology. Journal of applied linguistics and lexicography 2019, 1 (2), 409–415. (In Russian)

Sluiter I. Ancient Etymology: a Tool for Thinking, in: Montanari F. et al. (ed.) Brill’s Companion to Ancient Greek Scholarship. Leiden — Boston, Brill, 2015, 896–922.

Stepanova L. G. Italian Linguistic Thought of the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries (From Dante to the Late Renaissance) . St. Petersburg, Izdatel’stvo RKhGI, 2000. (In Russian)

Tavoni M. Renaissance Linguistics: Western Europe. In : Lepschy G. (ed.) History of Linguistics. Vol. III. London, Longman, 1998, 1–108.

Timpanaro S. The Genesis of Lachmann’s Method / ed. and transl. by G. W. Most. Chicago — London, Univ. of Chicago press, 2005.

Van Hal T. «Moedertalen en taalmoeders». Het vroegmoderne taalvergelijkende onderzoek in de Lage Landen. Brussel, Konink. Vlaamse Acad., 2010.

Van Hal T. From Alauda to Zythus. The Emergence and Uses of Old-Gaulish Word Lists in Early Modern Publications. Keltische Forschungen 2013–2014, 6, 219–277.

Van Hal T. Bevoorrechte betrekkingen tussen het Grieks en het Germaans: Taalvergelijkende verkenningen in het Vroegduitse humanisme en in Wilhelm Otto Reitz’ Belga graecissans (1730). Leuvense Bijdragen 2016, 100, 427–443.