Chapter Morus, Mirex, Medica arbor: de herbis in un inedito glossario bobbiese di IX secolo

Overview & Synopsis

The contribution analyses some glosses de herbis, transmitted in an unedited Latin glossary from Bobbio, written in the IX4/4 century and preserved in Milan, Bibl. Ambrosiana, C 243 inf. Two of these glosses (Morus and Mirex), both cited as depending on works by Bede, present some problematic aspects in the identification of the sources. The glosses contain, in fact, traces of orality that suggest the circulation of an expanded, reworked or glossed version of Bede's commentary on the Gospel of Luke. Finally, a parenthetical element in a gloss taken from the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville is examined, which, by means of a reminiscence of Paul the Deacon, offers an unexpected geographical clue confirming the glossary's North Italian provenance.