Forgotten Paths: Etymology and the Allegorical Mindset

208 Pages·2007·1.36 MB·English

by  Del Bello

Forgotten Paths

Forgotten Paths
etymology and the allegorical Mindset
Davide Del Bello
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the Catholic University of america Press
Washington, D.C.
Copyright © 2007
the Catholic University of america Press
all rights reserved
the paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of american national standards for Information science—Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Del Bello, Davide, 1964–
Forgotten paths : etymology and the allegorical mindset /
Davide Del Bello.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-8132-1484-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-8132-1484-x (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Language and
languages—etymology—history. 2. allegory. I. title.
p321.d45 2007
121'.68—dc22 2006021104
Neque instantia, neque futura
ai miei genitori

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
Chapter 1 the science of etymology: From “sound”
Laws to Plausible Conjectures 1
Chapter 2 Nomen est Omen: etymology and allegory 34
Chapter 3 the names of heroes: greek and
alexandrian etymologizing 47
Chapter 4 Quartus Gradus Etymologiae: the roman
Contribution 72
Chapter 5 allegorical etymology as a Denkform:
the Middle ages of Isidore 95
Chapter 6 Emithologia: etymology’s riddles
from 1500 to 1700 116
Chapter 7 redefining Difference: allegorical etymology
in de Man, Derrida, and Vico 135
Chapter 8 alternative routes 156
selected Bibliography 171
Index 181

ILLUstratIons
figure 1. Sumitur et abycitur from Ferro’s
Teatro d’Imprese 127
figure 2. Frontispiece of Rime degli Accademici
Occulti con le loro imprese e discorsi 128
figure 3. Sonetto Figurato di Palatino,
Dove son gli occhi 131
figure 4. De nomine Adam protoplasti,
from rabanus Maurus’s Laudibus S. Crucis 133
figure 5. hermes Trismegistus 147
figure 6. tree Diagram of the *pter root 163
figure 7. Pater in a Vichian reconstruction 164
ix