A litle sheet or scrow of paper

Sebastián de Covarrubias y Horozco on the frontispiece of his main work, Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española (1611). From the DVD edition by Studiolum

Me genus et mores ornant, sermonis Iberi
Ast ego thesaurum. Fama loquatur opus.

I am adorned by ancient family and virtue; and I adorn
the thesaurus of Iberian language. Let Fame praise my work.

Yesterday we commemorated the four-hundredth anniversary of the publication of the first great Spanish thesaurus and etymological dictionary, Sebastián de Covarrubias y Horozco’s Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española (1611). As mentioned, the critical edition of the dictionary (2006) was edited by Ignacio Arellano and Rafael Zafra at the University of Navarra, and our job was not just to prepare its electronic version, but also the edition of its Latin, Greek and Hebrew texts. Accordingly, at the end of the work we greeted our colleagues with a short Latin text in which we examined where Covarrubias drew the Hungarian (!) parallels of some Greek and Latin words in the Spanish dictionary. We borrowed several idioms of our greeting from the Adagia of Erasmus, whose electronic edition was completed not much earlier by us. Now, at the occasion of the quadringentenarium, the fourth centenary we translate this essay to English as well. The Latin original was easily written at that time, but with the English version we had to cope. The translation of Erasmus is never easy. :)

Unde Covarrubias Hungaricè didicit? Operis mirae largitatis parumque auctoritatis Sebastiani Covarrubiae Thesaurum Linguae Hispanicae inscriptis editione in disco, ut dicitur, electronico peracta, in eo vocabula ex diversibus idiomatibus mutuata expetentes, ecce vocem Hungaricam cédulácska invenimus, quod Latinè schedulam dicitur. Res mira autem est, vocem ex sermone tam ab aliis remota ac incognita in opere auctoris Hispanici inveniri, adeo magis in hac peculiari raraque forma inflecta, cuius cognitio Sebastianum nostrum in lingua seminis Attilae valde peritus esse testatur; cédulácska scilicet forma diminutiva vocis cédula est. Ita enim auctor ait – sermo autem eius in transcriptione a viris illustribus eruditisque Ignatii Arellani et Raphaelis Zaphrae ad huius saeculi morem composta citatur: „CÉDULA. Es un pedazo de papel o pergamino donde se escribe alguna cosa. Del nombre schedula, graece σχήδιον, diminutivo de scheda, inde cédula. El polaco la llama cedulka, y el húngaro cédulácska, que conforman con nosotros y con el griego.” Haec ille. Quod autem Latinè tantum valet: SCHEDULA. Trunculus chartae sive pergamini in quo aliquod scribitur. Derivasse videtur e voce schedula, id est forma diminutiva vocis scheda, Graecè σχήδιον, unde in dialecto Regni Castellorum cédula dicitur. Idem Polonibus cedulka, Hungaribus cédulácska dicitur, quod non abest ab usu nostrorum Graecorumque.

How did Covarrubias know Hungarian? During the preparation of the DVD edition of Sebastian de Covarrubias’ astonishing in scope and no less prestigious Tesoro de la lengua española and by examining the words borrowed from various languages, we came across the Hungarian word cédulácska, which is an equivalent of the Latin word schedula. To find a term taken from such a remote and unknown language in the work of a Spanish author is already surprising in itself, but even more the fact that we find it in this peculiar inflected form, which proves that our Sebastian was familiar with the language of the clan of Attila: in fact, cédulácska is the diminutive for cédula. This is what the author writes, in the transcription adjusted to the standard of our age by the eminent and learned Ignacio Arellano and Rafael Zafra: „CÉDULA. Es un pedazo de papel o pergamino donde se escribe alguna cosa. Del nombre schedula, graece σχήδιον, diminutivo de scheda, inde cédula. El polaco la llama cedulka, y el húngaro cédulácska, que conforman con nosotros y con el griego.” So much is the quote, which in English means: SLIP [OF PAPER]. A piece of paper or parchment, on which something is written. Probably comes from the Latin schedula, the diminutive for scheda, in Greek σχήδιον, which in Castilian means cédula. The Poles call it cedulka, while the Hungarians cédulácska, which does not differ from our use and that of the Greeks.

O donum mirissimum linguarum, peritia abundans idiomatum, quod voces adeo minutas non solùm Hungaricè, sed etiam Polonicè, et nescio an etiam Sinicè tam liberaliter interpretare videtur! Sed multa incredibilia, ut Erasmus in Adagiis, et suo ipsius indicio periit sorex. Sapienti enim haec constellatio sermonum sat ad aperiendum illam magni Calepini editionem, quae primùs notiones vocum ex lingua Polonica et Hungarica complexa est, nempe illam anno 1590 Basilea typis excusam. Unde, mehercle, haec leguntur: Schĕdŭlă, ae, f. p. diminutivum à scheda. σχήδιον. Gal. Petite charte ou tablette. Ital. Carticella, policetta breue. Germ. Ein zedelin, vitelin papier darauff man schreibt. Hisp. Cartezilla ò escriptura que se toma por nota. Pol. Czedulka. Vngar. Czedulatska. Ang. A litle sheet or serow [scrow] of paper. Cicero ad Cassium lib. 15. Haec de tertia jam epistola antè oppressit, quàm tu schedulam aut literam.

Oh, wonderful gift of languages, a superior skill of idioms, which translates so fluently even such marginal words not only to Hungarian, but to Polish, and perhaps, if necessary, even to Chinese! But too much is incredible says Erasmus in the Adagia, and the shrew was betrayed by its own noise. In fact, this constellation is enough for the philosopher to open that edition of the great Calepinus which, embracing for the first time the Polish and Hungarian equivalents of the words, was published in Basel in 1590. There you read: Schĕdŭlă, ae, f. p., diminutive for scheda. Greek σχήδιον. French Petite charte ou tablette. Ital. Carticella, policetta breue. Germ. Ein zedelin, vitelin papier darauff man schreibt. Span. Cartezilla ò escriptura que se toma por nota. Pol. Czedulka. Hung. Czedulatska. Eng. A litle sheet or serow of paper. Cicero to Cassius, Book 15: This is my third letter to you before you wrote me even a little slip or a single letter.

Sed de aliis sexcentis quae Covarrubias ex dictionario Calepini exhaurivit, in sequenti editione Silvae nostris, Deo adiuvante, tractandum erit.

On the countless other examples exhausted by Covarrubias from the dictionary of Calepinus, we will write in a next issue of our Silva, if God wills it.

As well as here, in the Poemas of Río Wang.