Notes

Trifolium pratense

Trifolium pratense

trefoil

Folio coronat et trifolium. tria eius genera: minyanthes vocant Graeci, alii asphaltion, maiore folio, quo utuntur coronarii, alterum acuto oxytriphyllon. tertium ex omnibus minutissimum. inter haec nervosi cauliculi quibusdam ut maratho, hippomaratho, myophono. utuntur et ferulis et corymbis hederae, et flore purpureo in alio genere earum silvestribus rosis simili. sed in his quoque colos tantum delectat, odor autem abest. Et cneori duo genera, nigri atque candidi. hoc et odoratum, ramosa ambo. florent post aequinoctium autumnum. totidem et origani in coronamentis species, alterius enim nullum semen, id cui odor est Creticum vocatur.

The leaves of trefoil also are used for chaplets. There are three kinds of it: the first is called by some Greeks minyanthes, by others asphaltion, having a larger leaf than the other kinds, which the garland makers use. The second kind, oxytriphyllon, has a pointed leaf. The third is the smallest of them all. Among these some have a sinewy stem, such as marathum, hippomarathum, myophonum. They use also fennel-giant, the clusters of the ivy and a red flower classified in another kind of the ivies and resembles the wild rose. But in these too it is only the colour that pleases, as they have no perfume. There are also two kinds of cneorum, a dark and a white. The latter has perfume, and both are branchy. They blossom after the autumnal equinox. There are also two kinds of wild marjoram used for chaplets, one having no seed, and the other, which has perfume, being called Cretan.

Trefoil

Pliny xxi. 9, § 30.

trefeuil

Τρίφυλλον, trifolium, allusion aux feuilles, composée de trois folioles, de la plante. «Folio coronat et trifolium», dit Pline, XXI, 30, qui en décrit trois espèces: 1° minyanthès ou asphaltion, qui serait pour Fée Psoralea bituminosa, L. (à ne pas confondre avec le ményanthe de Theophraste (IV, II), qui est le trèfle d’eau, Menyanthes trifoliata, L.). 2° Oxytriphyllon. 3° Minutissimum.
Il est probable que Rabelais vise ice le trefeuil (treuffle), notre trèfle fourrager, du G. Trifolium qui comprend de nombreuses espèces. (Paul Delaunay)

Les aultres de leurs formes

Encore une fois, tout cela se retrouve dans le petit livre de Charles Estienne, De latinis nominibus.

trefoil

trefoil. Forms: trifolie, tryfolye, -foly, -folly, trifoly, treyfoyle, treifoile; traif-, treff-, terf-, treef-, tryfoyle; tri-, tre-, -foil(e, -foyl(e, trey-, (tree-) foile, trefoil, trey-, trayfole, (folde), trifole, trifol, tre-fole [The A-forms appear to be directly adaptation of Latin trifolium, formed on tri- three + folium leaf; the b-forms, from Anglo-French French trifoil (c 1265 in Thomas Wright and Richard Paul Wülcker, Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies (1884) 556/33): compare late Old French trefeuil, -feul (15th century in Godefroy).]

A plant of the genus Trifolium, having triple or trifoliate leaves; a clover: commonly applied to species or varieties other (esp. smaller) than those cultivated under the name of `clover.’

Notes

Spica celtica

Valeriana

Nardus celtica

Nardus celtica
Valeriana saxatilis L.
celtica L.

Spica Celtica

Spikenard.

spica celtica

Spica celtica, nom bas-latin du Nard celtique des Anciens (originaire des Alpes méridionales ou Celtiques), par opposition au Nard indique. Valeriana celtica, L. (Valérianée). — Spic celtic, dit Platerius (XIIIe siècle). (Paul Delaunay)

spica centica

spica celtica or nard, from Celtic Gaul…

spica

spica. [Latin spica ear of grain, etc.: after Greek staxuj.]

oil of spica, oil of spike. Obsolete

Notes

Scicados

Lavendula

Plate 82

Lavendula

Lavandula stœchas

Stichas
Stichaskraut
Taxon: Lavandula stoechas L.
Ancient Greek:stoichas
English:French lavender

Stoechades

Stoechas in insulis tantum eiusdem nominis gignitur, odorata herba coma hysopi, amara gustu. menses ciet potu, pectoris dolores levat. antidotis quoque miscetur.

Stoechas grows only in the islands of the same name, a fragrant plant with the foliage of hyssop [Dioscorides says thyme, III 26: ὁμοίαν ἔχουσα θύμῳ κόμην, but ὕσσωπος occurs a few words later] and a bitter taste. Taken in drink it is an emmenagogue, and relieves pains in the chest. It is also an ingredient of antidotes.

Stoechados

Stoechados. French Lavender, Steckadoe, Stickadove, Cassidonie, Cast-me-downe.

Stœchades

Stœchades] Voiez Pline, l. 27 chap 12. Ce sont les Isles d’Hiéres.

Stœchas

Parcequ’il prend le titre de caloyer des îles d’Hières au titre du livre III et du livre IV.

isles Hieres

Rabelais prend le titre de Caloyer des îles d’Hières, en tête des livres III et IV du Pantagruel.

caloyer

Moine grec, religieuse grecque, de l’ordre de Saint-Basile. Termes grecs signifiant beau, honorable, et vieillard.

Stoechas

A kind of lavender (Pliny xxvii. 12 § 107). My islands, etc. On the title-page of the Third Book Rabelais calls himself Calloier des Isles Hières.

caloyer

CALOYER [ÉTYM. Emprunté du grec mod beau et vieillard. XIV^{e S. Calogere, Caumont, dans GODEF. Suppl. 1512. Caloyer, Thénaud, Voy. d’outre-mer, dans DELB. Rec.] Religieux, religieuse de l’ordre de Saint-Basile, dans l’Église grecque.}

isles Hieres

Quelle allusion se cache sous l’appellation, prise par Rabelais, de « calloier des isles Hieres », nommées ailleurs « mes isles Hieres, anticquement dictez Stœchades ». On n’a pu, jusqu’ici, rien découvrir de précis à cet sujet. Faut-il supposer un voyage accompli par l’auteur durant la période de sa vie, restée si obscure, qui va de 1543 à 1545, ou ne voir, sous ce titre, qu’un simple souvenir du temps où ses séjours dans le Sud-Est ont pu l’amener à visiter ces îles, chère au botaniste ? Peut-être le nom Aureæ Insulæ qui leur fut octroyé à l’époque de la Renaissance, l’a-t-il conduit se représenter, par antiphrase, comme un religieux maître de ces belles solitudes. Un hasard heureux pourra seul procurer la solution de cette petite énigme.

Stœchades

Des îles Stœchades, auj. îles d’Hyères, Σνοτχάζ (Dioscoride, III, 31). « Stœchas in insulis tantum ejusdem nominis gignitur odorata herba », dit Pline, XXVII, 107. C’est Lavendula stœchas, L. (Labiée). Rabelais dit « mes îles Hieres » parce qu’il prise le titre de Calloier des îles Hyères. (Paul Delaunay)

mes isles Hières

Cf. la page de titre du TL,

Les Iles d’Hyères

On the title page of the editions of the Tiers Livre published in 1546 and 1547 (New Rabelais Bibliography numbers 28 to 32), Rabelais assumes the epithet, “Docteur en Medicine and Calloier des Isles Hieres.” In the edition published in 1552 (NRB 36, on which this commentary is based), Calloier is omitted.

isles Hières

En 1546, l’auteur était Calloïer des Isles Hieres (var. b, p. 339).

le nom des regions…

Toutes ces informations sur les plantes dont le nom est d’origine géographique sont dans le livre d’Estienne, sauf sur la rhubarbe, pour laquelle Rabelais suit sans doute Ruellius, De Natura stirpium (1536), III, 2 (mêmes renseignements dans B. Chasseneuz, Catalogus gloria mindi, XII, 90). Sur «Stœchas» (Pline, XXVII, 12), le «Calloïer des Isles Hieres» (ou Stéchades), comme signe Rabelais in 1546, ne pouvait oublier cette plante; mais c’est aussi un façon de rappeler que toutes ces pages l’ont pour auteur.

stoechas

stoechas. Also stechas, stichas. See also stechados, stickadove. [Latin, adopted from Greek stoixa. According to Pliny the plant was so called because imported from the Stoechades islands (Greek Stoixadej, literally `standing in a row’, formed on stoixoj row), now Les Iles d’Hyères.]

The plant French Lavender, Lavandula stoechas.

caloyer

Religieux grec de l’ordre de Saint-Basile. 1509 caloyer (J. Le Maire, Œuvres, III, 371, Stecher, ibid.). Empr. au gr. mod. kalogeros (g se prononçant y) proprement « bon vieillard » gr. καλο ́ς « beau » (en gr. class.) puis « parfait » (en gr. post-class.) et γε ́ρων « vieillard »; cf. le m. fr. calogere, 1418 (Caum., Voy. d’oultr., p. 45 ds Gdf. Compl.)

Caloyer

Caloyer, moine grec de la règle de saint Basile. Par extens., chef, prince.

Notes

Plantago

psyllium

Psyllion alii cynoides, alii crystallion, alii sicelicon, alii cynomyiam appellant, radice tenui supervacua, sarmentosum, fabae granis in cacuminibus, foliis canino capiti non dissimilibus, semine autem pulici, unde et nomen. hoc in bacis, ipsa herba in vineis invenitur. vis ad refrigerandum et discutiendum ingens. semen in usu. fronti inponitur in dolore et temporibus ex aceto et rosaceo aut posca. ad cetera inlinitur. acetabuli mensura sextarium aquae densat ac contrahit; tunc terere oportet et crassitudinem inlinere cuicumque dolori et collectioni inflammationique. vulneribus capitis medetur aristolochia, fracta extrahens ossa et in alia quidem parte corporis sed maxime capite, similiter plistolochia. thryselinum est non dissimile apio. huius radix commanducata purgat capitis pituitas.

Psyllion is called by some cynoides, by others chrystallion, by others sicelicon, and by others cynomyia; it has a slender root of no use in medicine, numerous twigs with grains like beans [This is a very strange phrase, and Fée calls the description absurd] at the point, leaves not unlike a dog’s head and seed not unlike a flea: hence too its name. The seed is in berries, and the plant itself is to be found in vineyards. Its cooling and dispersing properties are very strong. The part used is the seed. For headache it is applied to the forehead and temples in vinegar and rose oil or in vinegar and water. For other purposes it is used as liniment. An acetabulum thickens and coagulates a sextarius of water; then it should be beaten up and the paste applied as liniment to any pain, gathering or inflammation. Wounds in the head are healed by aristolochia, which also brings away fragments of bone in other parts of the body, but especially in the head; the same with plistolochia. Thryselinum is not unlike celery. The root of it chewed clears away catarrhs of the head.

psyllion

Herbe aux puces; de φύλοζ, puce

Psyllion

Pliny xxv. 11, § 90.

psylion

Ψυλλιον, psyllium, herbe aux puces, de ψνλλα, puce, allusion à la forme des graines. «Psyllion… semine autem pulici unde et nomen», Pline XXV, 90. C’est Plantago psylllium, L.

pas similitude

Toutes ces plantes, dans De latinis nominibus, sauf pour le delphinium.

Psylion

De φὑλλα, «puce» (Pline, XXV, xc).

psyllium

psyllium. [Latin psyllium, adopted from Greek yullion, formed on yulla flea.]

The herb Plantago psyllium = fleawort; also, (a preparation of) the seeds of this plant or of Psillium ovata or P. indica, used as a laxative.

Notes

Lilium

saphran

How you also, Celmis, now adamant, were once most faithful friend of little Jove; how the Curetes sprang from copious showers; how Crocus and his beloved Smilax were changed into tiny flowers. All these stories I will pass by and will charm your minds with a tale that is pleasing because new.

Smilax

Similis est hederae e Cilicia quidem primum profecta sed in Graecia frequentior quam vocant smilacem, densis geniculata caulibus, spinosis frutectosa ramis, folio hederaceo, parvo, non anguloso, a pediculo emittente pampinos, flore candido, olente lilium. fert racemos labruscae modo, non hederae, colore rubro, conplexa acinis maioribus nucleos ternos, minoribus singulos, nigros durosque, infausta omnibus sacris et coronis, quoniam sit lugubris virgine eius nominis propter amorem iuvenis Croci mutata in hunc fruticem. id volgus ignorans plerumque festa sua polluit hederam existimando, sicut in poetis aut Libero patre aut Sileno, quis omnino scit1 quibus coronentur?
E smilace fiunt codicilli; propriumque materia est ut admota auribus lenem sonum reddat. hederae mira proditur natura ad experienda vina, si vas fiat e ligno eius, vina transfluere ac remanere aquam si qua fuerit mixta.

Resembling ivy is the plant called smilax [A species of bind-weed] which first came from Cilicia, but is now more common in Greece; it has thick jointed stalks and thorny branches that make it a kind of shrub; the leaf resembles that of the ivy, but is small and has no corners, and throws out tendrils from its stalk; the flower is white and has the scent of a lily. It bears clusters of berries like those of the wild vine, not of the ivy; they are red in colour, and the larger ones enclose three hard black stones but the smaller a single stone. This plant is unlucky to use at all sacred rites and for wreaths, because it has a mournful association, a maiden named Smilax having been turned into a smilax shrub because of her love for a youth named Crocus. The common people not knowing this usually pollute their festivals with it because they think that it is ivy; just as in the case of the poets or Father Liber or Silenus, who wear wreaths made of who in the world knows what?
Smilax is used for making tablets; it is a peculiarity of this wood to give out a slight sound when placed to one’s ear. It is said that ivy has a remarkable property [Cato R.R. CXI] for testing wines, inasmuch as a vessel made of its wood allows wine to pass through it, water that has been mixed with the wine stops in the vessel.

Smilax

Smilax

Pliny xvi. 35, § 63.

Smilax

Smilax, jeune fille qui fut, selon la fable, changée en plante avec son amant Crocus.

Et Crocon in parvos versum cum Smilace flores prætereo…
Ovide, Mét. IV 283-284

Smilax aspera L., Salsepareille d’Europe, Asparaginée grimpante de la France méridionale. (Paul Delaunay)

crocus

thus Crocus, a lovesick suitor, and smilax, after the maid he pined for…

Smilax

Pour smilax (crocus) voir Textor, Officina, d’apres Ovide, Metam, IV 283.

Smilax

Changée en plante grimpante en même temps que son amant Crocus.

smilax

smilax. [adopted from Latin smi¯lax (Pliny), adopted from Greek smilac bindweed, etc.]

A large genus of liliaceous plants typical of the order Smilaceæ, or a species of this genus, the tuberous rootstocks of which constitute the sarsaparilla of commerce. In earlier writers, as Morwyng (1559) and Turner (1562), smilax is used in other senses of the Latin and Greek word, after passages in Pliny or Dioscorides.

Notes

Juniperus

Juniperus

Oleander

Juniperus (text)

Juniperus sabina

Sabina
Seuenbaum

sabine

Herba Sabina brathy appellata a Graecis duorum generum est, altera tamarici folio similis, altera cupressi. quare quidam Creticam cupressum dixerunt. a multis in suffitus pro ture adsumitur, in medicamentis vero duplicato pondere eosdem effectus habere quos cinnamum traditur. collectiones minuit et nomas conpescit, inlita ulcera purgat, partus emortuos adposita extrahit et suffita. inlinitur igni sacro et carbunculis cum melle; ex vino pota regio morbo medetur. gallinacii generis pituitas fumo eius herbae sanari tradunt.

Sabine herb, called brathy by the Greeks, is of two kinds. One has a leaf like that of the tamarisk, the other like that of the cypress, for which reason some have called it the Cretan cypress. Many use it instead of frankincense for fumigations; in medicines moreover a double dose is said to be equivalent in strength to a single dose of cinnamon. It reduces gatherings and checks corroding sores; an application cleanses ulcers, and used as a pessary or for fumigation it brings away the dead foetus. With honey it is used as an ointment for erysipelas and carbuncles; taken in wine it cures jaundice. By fumigation sabine herb is said to cure the pip in chickens.

Sabine

Pliny xxiv. 11, § 61.

sabine

Arbrisseau commun en Italie dans le pays des Sabins: « Herba sabina… duorum generum est », dit Pline, XXIV, 61. Les deux espèces distinguées par cet auteut ne sont, pour Fée, que deux var. du Juniperus Sabina L. (Junipéracée). (Paul Delaunay)

sabine

sabine, or oleander, from the Sabine province, north of Rome…

Sabine

Sabine. [adaptation of Latin Sabinus]

Of or pertaining to the Sabines:

One of a race of ancient Italy who inhabited the central region of the Apennines.

Transferred sense in allusion to the proverb Sabini quod volunt somniant, `the Sabines dream what they will’ (Festus).

Notes

Absinthium vulgare

Absinthium vulgare
Artemisia absinthium L.
Ancient Greek: apsinthion
English: wormwood

Sautonica

Ozell emends Urquhart’s translation: “Read Santonica, which Cotgrave interprets the Seed of Holy Wormwood. Cambridge Dict. says French Wormwood, and in that case it may have its name from Saintonge in France.”

Santonica

Pliny xxvii. 7, § 28. A kind of Vermouth: “Absinthii genera plura sunt; Santonuicum appellatur e Galliae civitate.”

santonica

Absinthii genera plura sunt: Santonicum appellatur e Galliae civitate, Ponticum e Ponto, ubi pecora pinguescunt illo et ob id sine felle reperiuntur, neque aliud praestantius,multoque Italicum1 amarius, sed medulla Pontici dulcis. de usu eius convenit, herbae facillimae atque inter paucas utilissimae, praeterea sacris populi Romani celebratae peculiariter, siquidem Latinarum feriis quadrigae certant in Capitolio victorque absinthium bibit, credo, sanitatem praemio dari honorifice arbitratis maioribus. stomachum corroborat, et ob hoc sapor eius in vina transfertur, ut diximus. bibitur et decoctum aqua ac postea nocte et die refrigeratum sub divo, †decoctis sex drachmis foliorum cum ramis suis in caelestis aquae sextarii tribus, oportet et salem addi. vetustissimum usu est†. bibitur et madefacti dilutum, ita enim appelletur hoc genus. diluti ratio ut, quisquis fuerit modus aquae, tegatur per triduum.

There are several kinds of wormwood. The Santonic comes from the state of the Santoni in Gaul, the Pontic from Pontus, where cattle fatten on it, and so are found to be without gall; there is no finer wormwood than this, the Italian being far more bitter, but the pith of Pontic wormwood is sweet. About its use there is general agreement, for it is a plant very easily found, and one of the most useful, being moreover especially honoured at the religious rites of the Roman people, seeing that at the Latin festival there is a race for four-horse chariots on the Capitoline Hill, the winner of which takes a draught of wormwood, our ancestors thinking, I believe, that health was a very grand prize to give. It strengthens the stomach and for this reason it is used, as I have said, to give a flavour to wines. A decoction in water, which is afterwards cooled in the open for a day and a night, is also taken; six drachmae of the leaves with their branches are boiled down in three sextarii of rain water; salt too should be added. When very old it can still be used. There is also administered an infusion of wormwood in water; for this preparation should be styled “infusion,” and an essential of the infusion is that, whatever quantity of water is used, for three days the preparation should be wholly enclosed.

santonicque

« Santonicum appellatur e Galliæ civitate ». Pline, XXVII, 28. Plante qui pousse au pays des Santones (Saintes). « Absinthe xaintonicque », dit Bernard Palissy (Des Pierres). Le Santonicum (genus absinthii) de Pline serait, pour Fée, Artemisia santonica L., mais cette dernière est une espèce tartare et persane qu’on ne sauraut trouver en Saintonge. L’absinthe xaintonique de Palissy est, d’apres Audiat, Artemisia maritima, L., hôte habituel de notre côte atlantique, et dont une var. porte le nom d’A. sauveolens, Lmk., = A. santonica, Woodv. (Paul Delaunay)

santonica

santonica, or absinthe, from Sanitonge, the region about Saintes…

Santonicque

Plante du pays des Santones (Saintes) (Pline, XXVII, xxviii).

Saintonge

Saintonge is a small region and historical province on the Atlantic coast of France within the département Charente-Maritime, west and south of Charente in the administrative region of Poitou-Charentes. It derives its name from the ancient Gallic tribe of the Santones who lived in this area, around the current city of Saintes.
The Saintonge was the center of the French Huguenots.

santonica

santonica [adopted from Latin Santonica (sc. herba), a kind of wormwood, singular of Santonicus pertaining to the Santones or Santoni, a people of Aquitania. The plant was also called absinthium Santonicum (Pliny), Greek (ayinqion) santonikon, santonion. Cf. 16th century French santonique.]

The dried unexpanded flower-heads of species of Artemisia, produced in Turkestan, used as an anthelmintic; Levant or Alexandrian wormseed.

Notes

La barbare

Quand la Barbare en ses habitz plus beaux
Veut demonstrer sa grand magnificence,
Fourree ainsi elle est de riches peaux,
Que ce pourtrait le met en apparence.

Le barbare

Les Barbares ont le vestement semblable
Comme tu vois, cela est tout notoire,
Quoy que te soit cest habit admirable,
La verité te constraint de le croire

rubarbe

Rhabarbarum florens
Fowering Rubarbe

Ammianus, Roman History, Book 22, Chapter 8

26.  Behind them lie the inhabitants of the Cimmerian Bosphorus, living in cities founded by the Milesiani, the chief of which is Panticapaeum, which is on the Bog, a river of great size, both from its natural waters and the streams which fall into it.
27.  Then for a great distance the Amazons stretch as far as the Caspian sea; occupying the banks of the Don, which rises in Mount Caucasus, and proceeds in a winding course, separating Asia from Europe, and falls into the swampy sea of Azov.
28.  Near to this is the Rha, on the banks of which grows a vegetable of the same name, which is useful as a remedy for many diseases.

Rha

Rha = Volga

Ammianus

Amm. Marc. xxii. 8, 28

rhubarbe

Rhubarbe, Rheum. (Polygonée). De Rha, nom d’un fleuve cité par Ammien Marcellin, et qui est le Volga; et barbarum. Inconnue des anciens, ell est mentionée pour la première fois (Rheum barbarum) par Isidore de Séville (VIIe siècle). On trouve la forme Reubarbe dans Platearius et le Hortus sanitatis (1500). Ce produit, anciennement importé de la Perse et de la Chine, est fourni par diverses esp. de Rheum, surtout Rh. officinale, Bn. Mais la différenciation en est assez confuse, et compliquée par des hybridations. Cf. H. Baillon, Dict. des Sc. méd. de Dechambre, 3e s., t. IV, art Rhubarbe, p. 416-436. (Paul Delaunay)

rhubarb

rhubarb, from the barbar river named Rheu, Rea or Volga, according to the testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus, the last Roman historian of importance.

rhubarbarous maundarin yellagreen funkleblue windigut diodying applejack

Instead the tragic jester sobbed himself wheywhingingly sick of life on some sort of a rhubarbarous maundarin yellagreen funkleblue windigut diodying applejack squeezed from sour grapefruice and, to hear him twixt his sedimental cupslips when he had gulfed down mmmmuch too mmmmany gourds of it retching off to almost as low withswillers, who always knew notwithstanding when they had had enough and were right indignant at the wretch’s hospitality when they found to their horror they could not carry another drop, it came straight from the noble white fat, jo, openwide sat, jo, jo, her why hide that, jo jo jo, the winevat, of the most serene magyansty az archdiochesse, if she is a duck, she’s a douches, and when she has feherbour snot her fault, now is it? artstouchups, funny you’re grinning at, fancy you’re in her yet, Fanny Urinia.

rhabarbe

La source est probablement S. Champier, Gallicum pentapharmacum, Rhabarbo, Agarico, Manna, Terebinthina et Sene Gallicis constans, Lyon, 1534. Champer cite Ammien Marcellin à ce propos.

Rhabarbe, du fleuve Barbare nommé Rha

Ammien Marcellin (IV^e siècle apr. J.-C.) parle de la Volga.

le nom des regions…

Toutes ces informations sur les plantes dont le nom est d’origine géographique sont dans le livre d’Estienne, sauf sur la rhubarbe, pour laquelle Rabelais suit sans doute Ruellius, De Natura stirpium (1536), III, 2 (mêmes renseignements dans B. Chasseneuz, Catalogus gloria mindi, XII, 90). Sur «Stœchas» (Pline, XXVII, 12), le «Calloïer des Isles Hieres» (ou Stéchades), comme signe Rabelais in 1546, ne pouvait oublier cette plante; mais c’est aussi un façon de rappeler que toutes ces pages l’ont pour auteur.

rha

rha. Obsolete [late Latin, adopted from Greek ra, said to be from the ancient name Ra of the river Volga. See also rhabarbarum, rhapontic.]

Rhubarb

rhubarb

rhubarb. Forms: rubarbe, rewbarb(e, r(h)eubarbe, rubarb, rheubarb, rembarbe, rwbarbe, rubarde, reubard(e, rubard, rebarbe, reuberbe, rhew-, ryo-, rui-, ruberb, ruybarbe, rhebarb, dial. rhubard), – rhubarb.. [adopted from Old French reu-, reo-, rubarbe, modern French rhubarbe :-Latin type *r(h)eubarbum, shortened formed on medieval Latin r(h)eubarbarum, altered by association with rhe¯um from rhabarbarum.]

The medicinal rootstock (purgative and subsequently astringent) of one or more species of Rheum grown in China and Tibet and for a long period imported into Europe through Russia and the Levant, but since 1860 direct from China; usually (e.g. in pharmaceutical and domestic use) called Turkey or Russian rhubarb, but now known commercially as East Indian or Chinese rhubarb.

Figuratively, as a type of bitterness or sourness.

Any plant of the genus Rheum. For various species see quots. †Pontic or Pontish rhubarb = rhapontic.

rhubarb

The word ‘rhubarb’ as repeated by actors to give the impression of murmurous hubbub or conversation. Hence allusively.

Symphorien Champier

Symphorien Champier (1471–1538), a Lyonnese doctor born in Saint-Symphorien, France. A doctor of medicine at Montpellier, Champier was the personal physician of Antoine, Duke of Lorraine, whom he followed to Italy with Louis XII, attending to several battles, and finally settling in Lyon. He worked in Lyon alongside François Rabelais (who wrote satirically of him in Gargantua and Pantagruel), where he established the College of the Doctors of Lyon. There he fulfilled the duties of an alderman and contributed to numerous local foundations, in particular L’Ecole des médecins de Lyon (“The School of the Doctors of Lyon”).
His fame was considerable in Lyon, which in the 16th century was the greatest manufacturer of medical books in France, with editors such as Sébastien Gryphe. In addition to medicinal science, Champier studied Greek and Arab scholars and composed a great number of historical works, including Chroniques de Savoie in 1516 and Vie de Bayard in 1525.
He was also associated with Renaissance occultism.

Notes

Genciana

Genciana

Genciana (text)

Gentiana

Gentiana acaulis L.
Gentiana V Gentianella major verna

Gentiana

Pliny xxv. 7, § 34.

Gentian

Gentianam invenit Gentius rex Illyriorum, ubique nascentem, in Illyrico tamen praestantissimam, folio fraxini, sed magnitudine lactucae, caule tenero pollicis crassitudine, cavo et inani, ex intervallis foliato, trium aliquando cubitorum, radice lenta, subnigra, sine odore, aquosis montibus subalpinis plurima. usus in radice et suco. radicis natura est excalfactoria, sed praegnantibus non bibenda.

It was a king of the Illyrians named Gentius who discovered gentian, which, though it grows everywhere, is most excellent when it grows in Illyria. The leaf is like that of the ash but of the size of a lettuce leaf; the stem is tender and of the thickness of a thumb, hollow and empty, with leaves at intervals, sometimes three cubits in height, and growing from a pliant root, which is darkish and without smell. It grows abundantly on watery slopes near the foot of the Alps. The parts used are the root and the juice. The nature of the root is warming, but it should not be taken in drink by women with child.

gentiane

Gentiana, genre de la famille des gentianées, renfermant de nombreuses espèces. « Gentianam invenit Gentius rex Illyriorum. » Pline XXV, 34. Gentiana lutea, L., dit Fée.

Gentiane, de Gentius roy de Sclavonie

Roi d’Illyrie (Pline, XXV, xxxiv).

Slav

Slav. Forms: Sclaue, Sclave, Slave, Slav.

[In early use adaptation of medieval Latin Sclavus (recorded from c. 800), corresponding to late Greek Skla´boj (c 580): compare older German Sklave, Sclav(e, Schlav(e, Middle High German Schlaff. The later forms in Sl- correspond to modern German and French Slave, medieval Latin Slavus (951), and are closer to the Old Slavic and Russian forms.]

A person belonging by race to a large group of peoples inhabiting eastern Europe and comprising the Russians, Bulgarians, Serbo-Croats, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, etc.