SC - Scribal errors

[Terry Nutter]

LYN M PARKINSON wrote:
> 
> Adamantius,
> 
> Prescott's translation for #152, To Make Cameline [Sauce], calls for
> 'mastic thyme' but does not give the original.

O.K.! Now we're getting somewhere! I'm using the Terence Scully
translation, with concurrent listings of several manuscript originals.
In other words, it shows several manuscript versions, line by line, with
an overall "best guess" translation. All but one of the originals Scully
used call for "mastic" in French, which Scully translates as mace. One
of his source manuscripts calls for "macis" instead.

I suspect Prescott may have been sure thst "mastic" was NOT a reference
to the Mediterranean tree gum similar to gum benzoin, gum tragacanth,
etc., but may still have chosen the wrong plant to associate with
Taillevent's "mastic".
> 
> Mastic, which I believe is mace, is in another Cameline, in the original,
> in Scully's _Early French Cookery_.  My French is woeful--what is
> 'girofle' ?  Is that galingale?  Powdered giraffe horns?

Girofle is generally a reference to cloves. Cloves Giroflee, cloves
gilofre (notice the transposition), just plain cloves, and just plain
gilofre are all found in period sources. To further cloud the issue,
there is a flower sometimes known today as the clove-scented pink, or
sometimes just clove pink, which is a relative of the pink carnation, in
fact, which appears occasionally as a garnish, in the appropriate
season, just as you might find fried almonds, fried onions, or
pomegranite granules as a garnish for the appropriate pottages. Because
this flower smells like cloves, hence the name clove pink, it is also
called the gilofre in period references. Later on, in English, it became
corrupted to gillyflower. (See? You thought this was leading nowhere,
eh?) You need to decide from context and usage which one is being talked
about. In this case I think it's the clove spice.
> 
> Chiquart calls for 'macys' in the same place as the 'mastic' by itself in
> Taillevent, and both are listed after pepper and before ginger.  Ergo,
> spice.
> 
> Terrendon the Wanderer gave me a definition for mastic thyme from his
> herb encyclopedia, so I think I've got it, if Prescott really meant
> mastic thyme and not mace, although, looking again at the placement in
> the list, I think it must have been mace.

Agreed.

Oop oop a doop!

Adamantius