Sylvia : zur Entstehung des wissenschaftlichen Namens der Grasmücke (Arist. Hist. an. 592b22)
- Author
- Grigory Vorobyev (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- The article aims at demonstrating that the Latin bird name sylvia used by modern zoologists originates from the Greek..a., attested in several manuscripts of Aristotle's Historia animalium (592b22). Working on his Latin translation of this treatise in the 1450s-1470s, Theodore Gaza preferred the variant to other readings. He rendered with a neologism rubicilla and . with the word silvia used only as a proper name before. As all the editions of the Greek text from the 1504 ed. princeps onwards take over Aldus Manutius' emendation, the origin of silvia has not been ascertained until now, even though modern editions have in their apparatus. Gaza's sixteenth-century readers considered silvia (later mostly spelled sylvia) a synonym of the nearby word rubecula, another neologism of his coinage, identified arbitrarily since the late fifteenth century with robin redbreast. That is why in 1769 Giovanni Antonio Scopoli used the word sylvia as the name for his newly introduced bird genus comprising robin redbreast. In 1800 Georges Cuvier suggested leaving only the typical warblers in that genus ("typical warblers" is a problematic name, since also whitethroats and other birds belong to the genus; the German Grasmucken is taxonomically more convenient), whereas other species, including robin redbreast, were moved to new genera. Thus, the word silvia coined as an equivalent for the Greek. (which was perhaps a scribal error) had been considered a name of robin redbreast for three centuries. Since 1800, spelled sylvia, it designates typical warblers.
- Keywords
- early modern zoological nomenclature, Latin neologisms, Aristotle's Historia animalium, warblers, robins, sylvia, silvia, pyrrhula, erithacus, rubecula, ARISTOTLE
Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01HC0QKCZPP4VCKDT6K040H2ZF
- MLA
- Vorobyev, Grigory. “Sylvia : Zur Entstehung Des Wissenschaftlichen Namens Der Grasmücke (Arist. Hist. an. 592b22).” PHILOLOGIA CLASSICA, vol. 13, no. 2, 2018, pp. 247–64, doi:10.21638/11701/spbu20.2018.206.
- APA
- Vorobyev, G. (2018). Sylvia : zur Entstehung des wissenschaftlichen Namens der Grasmücke (Arist. Hist. an. 592b22). PHILOLOGIA CLASSICA, 13(2), 247–264. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu20.2018.206
- Chicago author-date
- Vorobyev, Grigory. 2018. “Sylvia : Zur Entstehung Des Wissenschaftlichen Namens Der Grasmücke (Arist. Hist. an. 592b22).” PHILOLOGIA CLASSICA 13 (2): 247–64. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu20.2018.206.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Vorobyev, Grigory. 2018. “Sylvia : Zur Entstehung Des Wissenschaftlichen Namens Der Grasmücke (Arist. Hist. an. 592b22).” PHILOLOGIA CLASSICA 13 (2): 247–264. doi:10.21638/11701/spbu20.2018.206.
- Vancouver
- 1.Vorobyev G. Sylvia : zur Entstehung des wissenschaftlichen Namens der Grasmücke (Arist. Hist. an. 592b22). PHILOLOGIA CLASSICA. 2018;13(2):247–64.
- IEEE
- [1]G. Vorobyev, “Sylvia : zur Entstehung des wissenschaftlichen Namens der Grasmücke (Arist. Hist. an. 592b22),” PHILOLOGIA CLASSICA, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 247–264, 2018.
@article{01HC0QKCZPP4VCKDT6K040H2ZF,
abstract = {{The article aims at demonstrating that the Latin bird name sylvia used by modern zoologists originates from the Greek..a., attested in several manuscripts of Aristotle's Historia animalium (592b22). Working on his Latin translation of this treatise in the 1450s-1470s, Theodore Gaza preferred the variant to other readings. He rendered with a neologism rubicilla and . with the word silvia used only as a proper name before. As all the editions of the Greek text from the 1504 ed. princeps onwards take over Aldus Manutius' emendation, the origin of silvia has not been ascertained until now, even though modern editions have in their apparatus. Gaza's sixteenth-century readers considered silvia (later mostly spelled sylvia) a synonym of the nearby word rubecula, another neologism of his coinage, identified arbitrarily since the late fifteenth century with robin redbreast. That is why in 1769 Giovanni Antonio Scopoli used the word sylvia as the name for his newly introduced bird genus comprising robin redbreast. In 1800 Georges Cuvier suggested leaving only the typical warblers in that genus ("typical warblers" is a problematic name, since also whitethroats and other birds belong to the genus; the German Grasmucken is taxonomically more convenient), whereas other species, including robin redbreast, were moved to new genera. Thus, the word silvia coined as an equivalent for the Greek. (which was perhaps a scribal error) had been considered a name of robin redbreast for three centuries. Since 1800, spelled sylvia, it designates typical warblers.}},
author = {{Vorobyev, Grigory}},
issn = {{0202-2532}},
journal = {{PHILOLOGIA CLASSICA}},
keywords = {{early modern zoological nomenclature,Latin neologisms,Aristotle's Historia animalium,warblers,robins,sylvia,silvia,pyrrhula,erithacus,rubecula,ARISTOTLE}},
language = {{ger}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{247--264}},
title = {{Sylvia : zur Entstehung des wissenschaftlichen Namens der Grasmücke (Arist. Hist. an. 592b22)}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu20.2018.206}},
volume = {{13}},
year = {{2018}},
}
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