SC - So-Called "Oil from the Spleen"

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

Either Dionisio Perez was an idiot, or he was working with a seriously 
flawed manuscript.

Let me explain.  Perez was the editor of the 1929 printing of the 1529 
edition of Nola.  I have mostly been working from his book, though I also 
have a facsimile manuscript, because print is a lot easier to read than 
calligraphy.  (And the footnotes are helpful.)  However, lately I have been 
discovering some troubling errors in his transcription.  There's a recipe 
for fava beans which says to take the whitest ones that have not been 
"cocidas" by weevils.  Huh?  "Cocidas" means cooked.  As far as *I* 
know, weevils are content to eat their food raw.  I thought it might be an 
archaic secondary meaning, but couldn't find one.  I asked someone 
else who has worked with the text -- a native speaker -- and she said 
that her edition said "comidas" -- eaten.  Makes perfect sense.  So I 
looked at the facsimile, and there was a perfectly clear "comidas" in the 
midst of that sentence.

In the "manteca" thread, Vincente and I were discussing the puzzling 
"aceite de bazo" -- so-called oil from the spleen.  Well, "bazo" does 
mean spleen, no getting around that.  But when I looked in the facsimile 
this morning, what I saw was "aceite debaxo".  (Note the 'x', where 
Perez spelled it with a 'z'.)  Now, you have to understand that medieval 
Spanish often uses an 'x' where modern spelling would use 'j'.  
Transforming "debaxo" into "debajo" makes the word mean 
"underneath", which makes perfect sense.  And the phrase in the recipe 
now reads: "cast in a little oil underneath so that the dough does not stick to 
the frying pan".  (The recipe is for a tart, baked Dutch-oven style in a frying-
pan with coals on the lid.)

Carmen Irazno, editor of the 1969 printing of the 1525 edition of Nola, 
transcribed the word as "debaxo", and the glossary in back says "debaxo-
debajo".

It was my intention anyway to check my translation against the facsimile, but 
now I will do so much more carefully.

Brighid, muttering darkly into her coffee


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net