Presentation made within the workshop "Temps et temporalités: fêtes et calendriers" of the project Études pratiques et interdisciplinaires des religions établies-E.P.I.R.E. 2 (Lille, 22 March 2019).
The earliest lists of animal names paired with the verbs indicating their distinctive cries date from Late Antiquity and one of them has long been attributed to Suetonius. A short list, the contents and structure of which was repeated... more
The earliest lists of animal names paired with the verbs indicating their distinctive cries date from Late Antiquity and one of them has long been attributed to Suetonius. A short list, the contents and structure of which was repeated again and again with small variations over a long period of time, is included in the Laterculus of Polemius Silvius. In the case of Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, B XI.8, the poem on fol. 41v is in fact a versification of Polemius's list in dactylic hexameters. The lists of Voces animantium also took the form of poetical compositions such as the 'De cantibus avium' (AL no. 733) or the 'Carmen de philomela' (incipit 'Dulcis amica veni …'); lines based on animal names and their sounds also occur within longer poems. The short poetical compositions facilitated easy memorisation and were sometimes accompanied by interlinear glosses in the vernacular.
