Re: Finocchio = occhio fino? (Re: Could f17r be fennel?)

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

At 09:22 21/01/02 +0000, Jacques Guy wrote:
> Seriously now, the belief in fennel
> being good for the eyes must have derived from the
> name, finocchio, not the other way around. Sure, the
> "eyes" in the roots of the drawing might be a
> result of that folk etymology. And again they might
> not.

According to Ernst Breisach, Caterina Sforza's recipes are a heady mixture 
of (1) empiric experiments, (2) collected herbal traditions and (3) pure 
folk nonsense. The purpose of his noting her association between 
"finocchio" and "occhio" was to give an example of (3).

Still, Caterina Sforza believed it sincerely (in the Aristotelian sense), 
as would probably others compiling herbals in the same region at the same 
time: so it's worth bearing in mind here.

> And what about the tiny little dragon frolicking
> between the roots of another plant on I forgot which
> folio?

I recently suggested that this plant could be mandrake, and the dragon was 
actually a dog pulling up the root (in the traditional medieval herbal way, 
with the herb-picker out of earshot).

But, similarly, this could be a Romagnan Italian pun: can anyone tell me 
the etymology of "mondragone" (as in the villa, which was established in 
1586) as opposed to "mandragora"? Neither word appears in my (otherwise 
excellent) Collins Italian dictionary.

> "Finocchio" BTW, also means "pederast" in Italian.

I can see how this might prove embarrassing to non-Italian field botanists 
in Italy. :-/

Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....