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ILIJA LEMEŠKIN
Institute of the Lithuanian Language
Research interests: early Baltic writing and literature, comparative folkloristics, lexicography, history of Baltic studies.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35321/al181-01
SENIAUSIAS BALTŲ TEKSTAS IR JO ANTROPONIMAI
The Oldest Baltic Text and Its Anthroponyms
ABSTRACT
In 2013, a new linguistic and genre-related interpretation of the Trace of Basel (Dini 2004; 2014: 553–558), based on an analogy with sung, recitative pieces closely related to Christmas carols, was proposed in the pages of Acta Linguistica Lituanica (Lemeškin 2013: 11–29). The new reading was supported and encouraged by the manuscript’s metadata, namely the reference to its dating, which the scribe decided to emphasize particularly in the colophon: the phrase in vigilia epiphanie was moved to the front, while the passage per manus illius qui scripsit eas, written first, was placed afterwards. Taking into account their formal features and the discernible genre-related properties of the text, most of the word forms composing the micro-text found a logical and convincing explanation; however, the author was not entirely satisfied with the interpretation of the phrase thoneaw labonache. The form thoneaw was read as an abbreviation of the vocative singular of the personal name ‘[An]tony’ (Lemeškin 2013: 19–20). As for the word labonache, several potentially possible but artificial hypotheses requiring serious graphical emendations were proposed. In this article, adhering to the interpretation of the text proposed earlier, we return to the analysis of these words.
KEYWORDS: oldest Baltic text, colophon of 1369, reading of the Trace of Basel, request for gifts, addressee of Christmas carols, (Italian) anthroponyms.
ANNOTATION
In 2013, a new linguistic and genre-related interpretation of the Trace of Basel (Dini 2004; 2014: 553–558) based on analogy with singing, recitative, texts akin to Christmas carols was put forward in the pages of Acta Linguistica Lituanica (Lemeškin 2013: 11–29). The new reading was supported and encouraged by the manuscript’s metadata or, specifically, reference to time, which was intentionally emphasized by the scribe in the composition
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of the colophon: the phrase in vigilia epiphanie was moved to the front, and the passage per manus illius qui scripsit eas, which had been written first, was put down afterwards. Considering formal features and genre-related properties of the text, most of the word forms comprising the micro-text found a logical and convincing interpretation; however, the author was not fully satisfied with the interpretation of the phrase thoneaw labonache. The word form thoneaw was read as an abbreviated vocative singular form of the personal name ‘[An] tony’ (Lemeškin 2013: 19–20). As regards the word labonache, more potentially possible, yet artificial, hypotheses requiring serious graphical corrections, were provided. The article comes back to the analysis of these words by adhering to the earlier interpretation of the text.
KEYWORDS: oldest Baltic text, colophon of 1369, reading of the Trace of Basel, plea for gifts, addressee of Christmas carols, (Italian) anthroponyms.
1. Functional-structural analysis of the 1369 colophon suggests that the writing down of the oldest Baltic text was governed by the conventions of colophon composition. The writing tradition of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries attests colophons of particularly complex (extended) structure, in which the ordinary-content section (with the usual metadata) was concluded by the hexameter Omnibus omnia non mea sompnia dicere possum, “I cannot tell everyone all my dreams.” Read literally, the declarative hexameter seemed to constrain freedom of expression, so the scribe continued it (the hexameter and the colophon) in an unintelligible language—that is, an artificially constructed or little-known language not used in writing (widely or at all). The private section of such a specific colophon revealed the writer’s sornniurr—a thirst concealed from everyone (except a small circle of some educated compatriots) (on this type of colophon, see Lemeškin 2019; 2000).
In the extended colophon, the closest mutual connection is evident between the aforementioned hexameter and the trace of language, which together form a single whole: had the scribe not used the eloquent Latin formulation that constrained his freedom of expression, an unintelligible, enigmatic text (from the perspective of the broad reading public) would never have been included in the manuscript. Thus, from a functional perspective, it can be argued that without the writer’s intention, clearly expressed in the hexameter, the oldest Baltic text would never have been written down. The German motto ihs ich leid, found nearby, also belongs to the same category of unknown languages. This circumstance indicates that the trace originated where German and Prussian were exotic languages—that is, geographically somewhere far from the territories inhabited by Prussians and Germans. It was precisely under such circumstances that, after the hexameter Omnibus omnia non mea sompnia dicere possum, the writer could “express” his concealed thirst in these languages.
Comparison with other written monuments of this kind revealed the scribe’s effort to make the unintelligible part of the colophon metrically correspond to the hexameter. In the Trace of Cologne (a copy of Pope Gregory IX’s Decretales from around 1300 – Köln, Dombibliothek, Codex 130), the Danish distich iac wet en frugha iwaeraeldet waere /
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haenna lif tha wil iac aer[e] “If I were with the Lady in this world, / Then I would wish to honor her life,” following the example of the hexameter Omnibus omnia non mea sompnia dicere possum, was cast into a single line: iac wet en frugha iwaeraeldet waere haenna lif tha wil iac aera.
Fig. 1. Trace of Cologne
The same mechanism is attested in the Trace of Basel, which was presented according to the structure of a hexameter and has subsequently been interpreted by researchers as a hexameter distich:
Given the rhythmic resonance¹, internal rhyme (rekyſe – thewelyſe; poyte – doyte; koyte – nykoyte), the parallelism in parts of speech, their forms, and semantics, it is useful to divide the stanza (following the example of the Trace of Cologne) in another way as well—into three lines:
¹ Besides assonance <oy> in the lines, signs of alliteration also seem discernible: Kayle rekyſe (thoneaw la-bonache) thewelyſe. / Eg · koyte · poyte · / nykoyte · pēnega doyte.
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a) Kayle rekyfė · thewelyfę “Bless, God, dear father! b) Eg · koytė · poytė · if you want—give him/them drink, c) nykoytė · pėnega doyte · if you do not want to—give money”
Removing the “dissonant” fragment thoneaw labonache, which may be regarded as optional, gives the trace a polished metrical form and structural unity.
2. An earlier “reading” of the Trace of Basel was proposed in 1974–1975:
In 1982, W. P. Schmid modified a version of this traditional “reading”:
“Greetings, sir! if I want to drink,
You are truly no longer [our] father, [but] you do not want to give money at all”
(Schmid 1982).
When considering and verifying the directions of grammatical and semantic understanding of the Trace of Basel outlined so far (as a persiflage and a model of Christmas carols), one may object to the use of the concept reading. It is reasonable to ask: what is the definition of this concept?
Reading is “the semantic interpretation of a written (available) text and the apprehension of the meanings contained in the text.” In this sense, it is doubtful that the interpretive attempts proposed by W. R. Schmalstieg, V. Mažiulis, and W. P. Schmid are readings, since the aforementioned researchers do not read the Trace of Basel, but radically rework it. The accumulation of proposed emendations ultimately produces the desired (preconceived) semantics. The understanding of the Trace formulated in 1974–1975 was based on the model: address – negative characterization of the addressee – justification of this characterization. Such a “reading,” based on persiflage, required researchers to make a set of
² A caroler or carolers depicted on F. 63r.
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emendations. As an example, we will cite the corrections proposed by V. Mažiulis, where only one form remains intact—conį. Eg ‘if’:
Original forms:
According to V. Mažiulis, it should be emended to:
Corrections that differed in nature, and the assumptions motivating their abundance, ensured the “smoothness” of the so-called reading; the extent of the “fitting” into the supposedly “readable” text is revealed by the following two forms, in which all the places improved one way or another are highlighted in sequence:
A situation in which, out of eleven forms, only one remains “intact,” while most forms are corrected several times in different ways and in different places, is absurd, because in this way the text’s semantics are not reconstructed but constructed, just as the supposedly “read” text itself is constructed.
When there are no indications of copying errors in a text, the philologist must aim for a non-invasive reading of it, which leads to a fundamentally different strategy for interpreting the text: a greeting—a polite form of address (from the caroler to the host) by name and according to social status—an imperative expressed as a command-request.
3. A non-invasive reading of the Trace of Basel helps eliminate the problems that arise in interpreting thoneaw and labonache. The form thoneaw is considered especially problematic: “Only ‘thoneaw’, in spite of the numerous interpretative hypotheses surrounding it, has remained rather obscure” (Ardoino 2016: 13). The interpretation expressed in Ch. Stang’s correspondence with W. R. Schmalstieg, according to which thoneaw designates a specific person, (An)tonius, has so far received little attention.
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vardų: „[T]honeaw is quite obscure to me. Can it be a voc. sg. of a nominal u-stem, perhaps a proper name?“ (pagal Dini 2000: 201); „Stang (personal communication) thinks that thoneaw might be a proper name. If so, then the couplet may be about the scribe himself, e.g. „To your health, sir! Anthony is a fine fellow […]“ (McCluskey, Schmalstieg, Zeps 1975: 162). Be Ch. Stango ir W. R. Schmalstiego, tokią galimybę svarsto A. Bammesbergeris (Bammesberger 1998: 125–126), P. U. Dinis (Dini 2000: 398), I. Lemeškinas (Lemeškin 2013: 21; 2017: 96), bet atmeta kaip teorinį bei neįtikinamą F. Kortlandtas (Kortlandt 1998: 128). Su F. Kortlandtu, kuris nepateikė jokių argumentų savo teiginiui pagrįsti, negalima sutikti.
The identification of the personal name is determined by the position and functional-structural analysis of the text. The form thoneaw follows the interjectional label *kaileis rīkis “Skalsink Dieve” and precedes the vocative address, as if to a father, thewelyłe; the anthroponym is naturally “drawn” toward it. The position favorable to a personal name—between the interjections Kayle rekyłe and voc. sg. thewelyłe—has a parallel in Lithuanian Buk sweykas ku-mey (VUB, f. 102–JR4: 63), cited in connection with the Trace of Basel by A. Nepokupnas (Непокупный 1979: 167)³. The Old Prussian construction differs only in that it is expanded by the name of a specific person being “addressed”.
The linguistic reading of the Trace of Basel (so far the only one; in our view, other attempts cannot be considered readings, since they are artificial linguistic reinterpretations) is further substantiated by the Italian context in which the Trace of Basel arose⁴. The oldest text in the Baltic languages, datable to 1369, originates in the circle of the Lithuanian duke Butautas in Prague, while the recording of this Trace itself is associated with the journey to Rome in 1368–1369 of Emperor Charles IV, the queen, and their entourage. The copying of N. Oresme’s work must be associated with the academic milieu of the University of Prague in 1368–1369. The creator of the Trace of Basel, too, will have belonged to this same historical and cultural milieu, but the Trace itself (as part of the colophon) was probably inserted elsewhere— in Tuscany—into a copy that was being completed or had already been completed (for details on the possible circumstances and context of the text’s emergence, see Lemeškin 2017; 2019).
³ The inscription accidentally discovered by the Ukrainian Balticist is likewise connected with the circumstances in which books were written: Jokingas tev buwa zmogus, kuris szta kniga raszie. Buk sweykas kumey. This was how another person responded to the priest who had written the register book.
⁴ It must be particularly emphasized here that the Italian context for the Trace’s emergence was not artificially selected, that is, specially “discovered” in order to “explain” the origin of the mysterious thoneaw labonache. The historical context was established independently and much later (2013 → 2017); on closer examination of the original (including its position, favorable to the realization of proper names), a corresponding linguistic interpretation of these words was proposed.
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The widespread baptismal name Antonio was regularly shortened to Tonio /'tonjo/ in Tuscany. This is illustrated by the following examples from around the same period, taken from the corpus Corpus OVI dell’ Italiano antico:
1 Simintendi, a. 1333 (tosc.) L. 12 3, 74.25
giacea (questo sa tuo padre), mandai lo coltello per gli fianchi di colui che spogliava. Tonio e Teleboas giacciono morti per la mia spada. Quelli avea prima portato lo ramo con
2 Cronaca sen. (1202–1362), c. 1362 123.6
schale e introro per una finestra e rupeno due uscia per volere amazare Mino e Tonio e ’l Porina figliuoli di miser Meio Talomei. E quando chostoro sentiro el busso del
3 Cronaca sen. (1202–1362), c. 1362 127.41
finì e nondimeno vi morì IIII persone: e uno el quale aveva nome Sano di Tonio, ligritiere, mise fuocho in santo Pavolo da lato di verso el Chanpo, e none ardendo
4 Doc. imol., 1350–1367 Debitori 16.1.1360 355.11
per 2 ciroli da le lode, pexò l. 1½: s. 9 a f. 124 r. Tonio Tartagno di avere per 468 fasadelli de legne de salexe, a s. 40.C.: monta
5 Doc. imol., 1383–1385 Spese 21.11.1384 345.2
per fare pontelare la stazone ch’è cho gle fradi de Penitenzia che la tene Tonio da le Sele per traue e per una cholona e per murare Gostolo in somo
6 Doc. imol., 1383–1385 Spese 21.11.1384 345.
una cholona e per murare Gostolo in somo L. VIIII e chasì pa el dito Tonio a maistri tochomene per la mitade L. IIII, s. X.
The ending -eaw would in that case correspond to the vocative form. The circumstances surrounding the appearance of the same Trace of Basel—Siena, 1369, the eve of Epiphany—make it possible to elegantly (i.e., without any emendations) solve the problematic form labonache within the spectrum of proper names, since another Italian anthroponym “breaks through” in it: the surname Bonacci /boˈnatʃ:i/, especially popular in Tuscany (even to this day), which in the 13th–14th centuries was written with the digraph <ch> to denote the affricate (Larson 1988), e.g., according to Corpus OVI dell’ Italiano antico:
Doc. sen., 1277–1282 – pag. 280, riga 30
a ssere Ristoro del Seta per factura d’ una charta di mille libre da Gulielmo Bonachi. Ancho III lib. et XIIII sol. et IIII den. nel dì ai signori de la
Only the element la- raises questions, as it presupposes the feminine definite article. It seems that the scribe relied on widely used or locally heard anthroponyms, but failed to master Italian articles: instead of
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heard anthroponyms, but failed to master Italian articles: instead of debonachi (dē [dei < di + i] Bonacci “from the Bonacci family”; for this distortion of the anthroponym, compare also Guglielmo dei Bonacci > Leonardus fi [i.e., filius] Bonacci > Leonardo Fibonacci), having omitted the preposition for metrical reasons (to achieve a trisyllabic foot), he wrote the article la.
On the other hand, the origin of the surname Bonachi (a derivative of personal names of the type Bono, Bonito, Ottobono, Omobono, Giambono...) was clear to everyone: bon- < bonus (cf. Italian bonaccia, medieval Latin bonacia ‘calm’—a folk-etymologized form, by analogy with malus, of malacia ‘calm sea’). Considering that the Trace of Basel playfully continues the colophon (ludere scriptor eat), one might also discern here a resourceful duplication of the root: labonache = lab-bon-ache “lab-Bonaccian, good little Goodie.” Such a reading, or rather an excessively humble form of address that seems to explain the meaning of the other Prussian form bonache, suits the caroling context, since the addressee must be honored in order to receive good gifts: thoneaw labonache thewelyje “Anthony Lab-goodie little father.”
Thus the mysterious phrase thoneaw labonache can be treated as thoneaw la bonache arba thoneaw la(b)bonache “[An]thony [of the] Bonacci [family] / [An]thony Lab-goodie.” The problematic digraph <ch> requires emendation only from the perspective of the Baltic languages, but no editorial note accompanies the Trace of Basel stating that all the words presented here represent Prussian lexical resources. The digraph, anomalous from a Balticist perspective, situated between the formulaic interjection *kailes rīkis “Bless, God” and the vocative form of address thewelyje, is a strong argument for recognizing at precisely this position an insertion from a foreign language—namely, an Italian anthroponym written according to its own orthography. How else was a Prussian in the 14th century supposed to write proper names from other languages? The effort to adapt foreign elements to Lithuanian is attested considerably later. There can be no question of an intention to “Prussianize” something in the period under discussion.
Thus, the identification of Italian proper names in the oldest Baltic text is determined by the following arguments:
a. The writing of the digraph <ch> cannot be explained as a copying error, since the Trace does not have the features (characteristics) of a copied text. In the writer’s eyes and ears, it must have had a particular phonetic value.
b. The 1369 Basel colophon is not geographically tied to a particular place; that is, the possible geography of the Trace of Basel’s appearance is broad, and it may have taken account of some foreign local language.
c. The identification of the personal name is determined by its position, which encourages the use of anthroponyms: after the formulaic interjection *kailes rīkis “Bless, God” and before the vocative form of address, as if to a father, thewelyje.
d. The form labonache, problematic from the perspective of the Baltic languages, appears alongside the enigmatic word thoneaw. If alongside one puzzling form (from the perspective of the Prussian language),
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compared (already by Ch. Stang) with the Christian name Antonius, when another ambiguous form is used, it is necessary first to check whether it is a foreign-origin onym, since the use of pairs or several onyms in sequence (first name + surname; first name + patronymic; first name + demonym) is a regular and very common phenomenon. This explains why precisely here, i.e. between the interjection and the vocative form of address, there are two obscure (from the perspective of Prussian) forms together:
e. The non-invasive reading of the mixed forms—as regards Italian onyms—correlates well with the previously defined historical context for the emergence of the Trace of Basel: the court of Butautas of Prague (1365–1380) and the long-term presence of this court in Tuscany, specifically in 1368–1369.
f. The spellings of the cited onyms find exact matches in the database Corpus OVI dell’Italiano antico.
g. The genre-related aspect encourages us to identify personal names. Personal names were common in Christmas carols (Lemeškin 2013). A great variety of them can be found: Arlauskas, Arlauskienė, Barisa, Bielinis, Čelna, Ignotas, Janulevičienė, Kasparavičius, Kašėta, Saikauskas, Kabaras, Valatka, Valatkienė, Velička, Adelė, Gabriūkas, Juozas, Petrutis (KL 357, 345 A); Baltramiejus, Grinkevičienė, Tamošius, Žukauskas, Žukauskienė (KL 357, 345 B).
LITERATŪRA
Ardoino Diego 2016: Interpreting and translating Old Prussian microtexts: the Trace of Basel. – Vertimo Studijos 9, 7–20.
Bammesberger Alfred 1998: Anmerkungen zum Baseler Epigramm. – Baltistik: Aufgaben und Methoden. Heidelberg: C. Winter, 121–126.
Corpus OVI dell’Italiano antico. Prieiga internete: http://gattoweb.ovi.cnr.it/(S(jr3myzf3h3slmh453zzwor45))/CatForm01.aspx.
Dini Pietro Umberto 2000: Sul ‘Frammento di Basilea’ e altri inediti nel carteggio fra Chr. Stang e W. R. Schmalstieg. – Res Balticae 6, 195–209.
Dini Pietro Umberto 2004: Nota terminologica: come chiamare la scritta in prussiano antico di Basilea? – Res Balticae 10, 243–246.
Dini Pietro Umberto 2014: Foundations of Baltic Languages. Vilnius: Eugrimas.
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Kortlandt Frederik 1998: Who is who in the Old Prussian Epigram. – Baltistík: Aufgaben und Methoden. Heidelberg: C. Winter, 127–128.
Larson Pär 1988: Italiano <ch>, <gh>: lingua germana in aure romana? – Studi linguistici italiani, 38–49.
Lemeškin Ilja 2017: Bazelio kolofonas: tarp Prahos ir Sienos? – Incontri baltistici in Pisa. Studi e saggi (Studia baltica pisana 2). Novi Ligure: Joker Edizioni, 95–110.
Lemeškin Ilja 2019: Lithuanica aliter. Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos institutas.
Lemeškin Ilja 2020: Bazelio pėdsako pateikimo pozicija ir jos motyvacija pagal Kölno pėdsako (danų kalbos) analogiją. – Incontri baltistici in Pisa. Studi e saggi (Studia baltica pisana 3). Novi Ligure: Joker Edizioni (spaudoje).
Mažiulis Vytautas 1975: Seniausias baltų rašto paminklas. – Baltistica 11(2), 125–131.
McCluskey Stephen C., Schmalstieg William R., Zeps Valdis J. 1975: The Basel epigram: A new minor text in Old Prussian. – General Linguistics 15, 159–165.
Schmalstieg Williams R. 1974: An Old Prussian Grammar: The Phonology and Morphology of the Three Catechisms. University Park.
Schmid Wolfgang P. 1982: Jesus, ich leid. – Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Sonderheft 50. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität Innsbruck, 205–208.
Непокупный Анатолий Павлович 1979: Балтійські родичі слов’ян. Київ: Наукова думка.
The Oldest Baltic Text and Its Anthroponyms
SUMMARY
The identification of Italian onyms in the composition of the oldest Baltic text is determined by the following arguments:
a. The insertion of the digraph <ch> cannot be explained as a transcription error, because the trace does not have the features of a transcribed text. In the eyes and ears of the scribe it must have had a certain phonetic meaning.
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b. The colophon of Basel of 1369 is not geographically linked with a specific location, i.e. the potential geography of the origin the Trace of Basel is broad; when the trace was being inscribed, some foreign local language could have been taken into account.
c. The identification of an anthroponym is determined by the position, which naturally supports the use of anthroponyms: it comes after the etiquette-based interjection *kaileis rūkis “good day” and before the address expressed in the vocative form thewelyfe as if addressing one’s father.
d. The word form problematic from the perspective of Baltic languages, labonache, comes next to the mysterious word thoneaw. If one confusing form (from the perspective of the Prussian language), which was compared (by Christian Stang already) to the first name Antony, comes next to another confusing word form, we must first check whether it is not an onym of foreign origin, because the use of two or more onyms next to one another (name + surname/nickname; name + patronymic; name + katoikonym) is a regular and very frequent phenomenon. It explains why two confusing forms (in terms of the Prussian language) stand together in this particular place, i.e. between the interjection and the address expressed in the vocative form:
e. The non-invasive reading of mysterious forms – from the perspective of Italian onyms – well correlates with the historical context of the origin of the Trace of Basel discussed before: the manor of Butautas in Prague (1365–1380) and the long-term existence of this manor in Tuscany (1368–1369).
f. The inscription of the above onyms finds exact equivalents in the database Corpus OVI dell’Italiano antico.
g. The aspect of genre also invites us to see personal names. Personal names were a commonplace phenomenon in Christmas carols. A wide variety of them can be found: Arlauškas, Arlauskienė, Barisa, Bielinis, Čelna, Ignotas, Janulevičienė, Kasparavičius, Kašėta, Saikauskas, Kabaras, Valatka, Valatkienė, Velička, Adelė, Gabriukas, Juozas, Petrutis (KL 357, 345 A); Baltrameijus, Grinkevičienė, Tamošius, Žukauskas, Žukauskienė (KL 357, 345 B).
Įteikta 2019 m. gruodžio 1 d.
ILJA LEMEŠKIN
Lietuvių kalbos institutas Petro Vileišio g. 5, LT–10308 Vilnius, Lietuva [email protected]
