SC - Is beans beans?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

> The word in Sabina Welserin is Pfifferling. I assumed that it was the same as the modern usage, but there is always the chance that the terminology has drifted. Anyone know if the Early Modern High German use of that particular noun was different than today? <


The article in the "Deutsches Woerterbuch" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
and the passages in Moriz Heyne's book (p. 332) suggest that the
prototypical use of "pfifferling" is the one to denote the mushroom
called "chanterelle" in French and English. On the other hand some
glossaries of the 15th century put together the word "pfifferling" with
more general terms in latin like "boletus", which meant (I assume, don't
quote me) something like 'edible mushroom'. There are even entries like
"tuberes pfyfferling" (lat. _tuber_, 'truffle').

As far as I can see, the descriptions in the herbals of the time of
Sabina Welser suggest that the word "pfifferling" meant the chanterelle.
The herbal of Lonicer (1616) says:
"Die dritten sind Pfifferling oder Pfefferling/ welche man also nennet
vmb deß hitzigen Geschmacks willen/ der sich dem Pfeffer gleichet. Diese
werden bey den Lateinischen Boleti orbiculati genannt" (fol. 86a; 'The
third kind of mushrooms are the pfifferlinge or pfefferlinge. They are
called this way because their taste is hot, comparable to the taste of
pepper. These mushrooms are called boleti orbiculati [round mushrooms]
in Latin'). 

In the herbal of Hiermonymus Bock (1577) we find: "Die dritten Schwemme
droben gesetzt/ nennet man bey vns Pfifferling/ heissen wol Pfifferling/
vmb des heissen geschmacks willen/ vnnd Orbiculati der groesse halben.
Jm Rhase Cautar oder Alcorsoph. cap xviij." (fol. 332a; 'The third kind
of mushrooms above mentioned is called in German pfifferling/ probably
they are called pfifferling because of their hot taste, and they are
called orbiculati [round and formed like a disk] because of their size.
In the book of Rhazes they are called Cautar or Alcorsoph, chapter
18.').

The passage referred to by "droben gesetzt" (above mentioned) is: "Die
dritten so auch inn der speise genuetzt weren/ wachsenn inn hohen
finstern Waelden/ von farben gantz weisz/ rund/ etliche breytter dann
ein Deller/ die geben/ wann sie zerbrochen seind/ weisse scharpffe
hitzige Milch/ heisser auff der zungen dann Pfefferwurtz. Dise braten
die arme leut im Odenwald mit saltz/ auff glueenden kolen jhn zuor
speise" (331a; 'The third kind of mushrooms, which are used for cooking,
grow in high and dark woods, they are all white, round, some of them
broader than a plate. If they are broken there is a white sharp and hot
"milk", hotter on the tongue than pepper. These mushrooms are roasted
with salt on a coal as a dish by the poor people in the Odenwald [a
rural landscape northwest of Heidelberg]').

Konrad von Megenberg in his "Book of nature" (about 1350) tells the
following story: "ez ist auch ainer ander lai swannen, die haizent
etleich ze latein boletos und haizent ze da"utsch pfifferling da schol
man sich vor hu"eten, wan si sint dick gar vergiftig und toetleich. daz
waiz ich wol, wan ez geschach ze Wienn in Oesterreich da ainer
pfifferling az und trank met dar auf und starb zehant vor dem vaz" (ed.
Pfeiffer 1861, p. 402).
'There is a different kind of mushroom, which some people call in Latin
boletos and they are called pfifferlinge in German; be careful not to
eat these mushrooms because they are often [_dick_ = 'often'] very
poisonous and deathly. This is something I know very well: it happened
in Vienna in Austria that someone ate pfifferlinge and then drank "Met"
and he died instantly before the barrel with the Met'.

Well: either "pfifferling" is here used for some poisonous mushroom or
the guy did not eat "pfifferlinge" at all or he died from something else
(e.g. poison_ed_ mushrooms).

Thomas

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