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Darrera modificació: 2016-08-04
Bases de dades: Sciència.cat
Burnett, Charles, "Sapores sunt octo: The Medieval Latin Terminology for the Eight Flavours", Micrologus: Natura, Scienze e Società Medievali, 10 (2002), 99-112.
- Resum
- The author examines the progressive establishment of the number and terminology of the eight medieval Latin flavors that the tongue can sense - dulcis (sweet), unctuosus (greasy), amarus (bitter), salsus (salty), acutus (sharp), stipticus (harsh), ponticus (briny), and acetosus (vinegary) - in the course of transmission from Greek and Arabic sources on the flavors into the Latin. First, the A. discusses the general stability of terms in Greek and Arabic scientific writings, in contrast to the slight fluctuation in number of flavors between seven and eight. Then, turning to the translations of these texts into Latin, the A. signals the variance in Latin terms according to the language of the source, for example, more faithful to the original Greek in cases like Archbishop Alfano of Salerno's translation of Nemesius, or James of Venice's translation of Aristotle's De anima. In the case of Arabic-Latin translations, terminology varies moreover depending on the geographic location, from 11th-century southern Italy, where translators like Constantine the African at Monte Cassino purposely dissimulated their Arabic sources by remaining close to Greek terms; to Antioch in the early 12th century, where Stephen «the Philosopher» chose to make a more literal translation of al-Majusi's Complete Book on the Art of Medicine; and to Spain into the 13th century, where early variations eventually gave way to the broad acceptance of Constantine's terminology on the flavors. The A. also hints at the influence of Indian medical texts and Arabic astrological writings, for example, which associated flavors with the humors or elements, schemes of categorization that sometimes produced changes in the number of flavors. The also adds three tables, the first comparing Greek, Arabic, and Latin terminology in twenty-seven sources, the second relating the flavors with four elements, the humors, and astrological associations, and the third classifying the flavors according to elements and qualities.
- Matèries
- Alimentació
Medicina - Dietètica i higiene
Llatí
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