TY - JOUR

T1 - Beans and Phases of the Moon in Columella (R. r. 2. 10. 12)

AU - Кейер, Денис Валерьевич

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - To protect beans from weevils, Columella (R. r. 2. 10. 12) prescribes gathering them “in the dark of the moon before dawn (silente luna ... ante lucem)” and then, when they have dried on the threshing-floor, immediately beat them out, cool them and store them in the granary “before the moon begins its waxing (priusquam luna incrementum capiat)”. Yet, the moon begins its waxing immediately after the dark of the moon. Since drying of beans in the threshing-floor must take at least four or five days, it does not help to take "incrementum" as ‘a (noticeable) increase’. I suggest deleting "priusquam luna incrementum capiat" as a gloss on "silente luna ... ante lucem" (cf. "sidus aestatis" in R. r. 7. 3. 24 deleted by Hine 1984, 10 as a gloss on "Caniculae"). Palladius, who rephrased Columella’s advice in 7. 3. 2, retained the requirement "antequam luna procedat", but changed "silente luna" to "luna minuente". He must have worked with Columella’s text that had already been glossated, but saw the problem and moved the date for cropping back to the waning moon, in order to increase the time allowed for drying of beans and further operations “before the moon increases”.

AB - To protect beans from weevils, Columella (R. r. 2. 10. 12) prescribes gathering them “in the dark of the moon before dawn (silente luna ... ante lucem)” and then, when they have dried on the threshing-floor, immediately beat them out, cool them and store them in the granary “before the moon begins its waxing (priusquam luna incrementum capiat)”. Yet, the moon begins its waxing immediately after the dark of the moon. Since drying of beans in the threshing-floor must take at least four or five days, it does not help to take "incrementum" as ‘a (noticeable) increase’. I suggest deleting "priusquam luna incrementum capiat" as a gloss on "silente luna ... ante lucem" (cf. "sidus aestatis" in R. r. 7. 3. 24 deleted by Hine 1984, 10 as a gloss on "Caniculae"). Palladius, who rephrased Columella’s advice in 7. 3. 2, retained the requirement "antequam luna procedat", but changed "silente luna" to "luna minuente". He must have worked with Columella’s text that had already been glossated, but saw the problem and moved the date for cropping back to the waning moon, in order to increase the time allowed for drying of beans and further operations “before the moon increases”.

KW - Columella, gloss, new moon, Palladius

M3 - Article

VL - 26

SP - 157

EP - 164

JO - Hyperboreus

JF - Hyperboreus

SN - 0949-2615

IS - 1

M1 - 9

ER -