But how do we know that "blatta" means specificaly "bookworm" as distinct
from some insect or other which attacks books?
At 10:50 20/09/99 -0700, you wrote:
>In a message dated 9/20/99 12:37:27 PM, alxmason@eagle.cc.ukans.edu writes:
>
><< Do we know whether bookworms infest papyrus? >>
>
>According to Martial (Epigram XIII.1), papyrus was subject to the attacks of
>the bookworm (blatta): in the epigram Martial modestly asks the Muses to
>inspire him to "waste" some "papyrus from the Nile" so that "The filthy
>bookworm may not fear hunger"; here's the Latin:
>
>"Ne toga cordylis et paenula desit olivis
>aut inopem metuat sordida blatta famem,
>perdite Niliacas, Musae, mea damna, papyros"
>
>Fred Schreiber
>
Alexandra Mason,Spencer Librarian emer.
Kenneth Spencer Research Library
University of Kansas
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E-mail: alxmason@eagle.cc.ukans.edu