Let me start by introducing a fish species, which might not be known in English. It is a fish that does not swim in any known waters, the so-called “Zwiebelfisch” – the term would literally be translated as “onionfish”. The word belongs to a special technical terminology used by German book printers. “Zwiebelfisch” refers to a printed word that contains letters of different fonts; this can happen when a letter type is put into the wrong compartment of the letter case, or when certain letter types run out or are missing. To give an example:
Zwiebelfisch
One might note that the fonts of the first /ie/ and the /fis/ are different from the rest of the printed word. The page number 666 in a 16th-century German book about demons and witchcraft is a good example of a “Zwiebelfisch” [Fig. 4.1].1
Bodin Jean – Fischart Johann, De magorum daemonomania. Vom außgelassnen wütigen Teufelsheer (Strasbourg, Bernhard Jobin: 1586) 666 (detail)
When you look closer, you can see that the third number is a different font (a “Zwiebelfisch”) – by the way, these are not three ‘sixes’, but three ‘nines’ placed upside down: The typesetter was superstitious and afraid of the devilish number mentioned in the Book of Revelation. And, he knew a few tricks of the trade to get out of the risky interaction with evil.
Printing workshops, which produced low-quality printed matter, were called “Zwiebelfischbuden” – “onionfish-shops”. The word is a metaphor. But how does this metaphor work? Fish of lesser quality needs to be cooked with a lot of onions to cover the dingy taste; thus, at the fish market a “Zwiebelfisch” is a fish of lousy quality. And so is a printed volume without elegant typography at the book market.
How does this word relate to the phenomenon that it signifies? The relationship between words and things is always arbitrary, as modern linguistics has taught us, or as Friedrich Nietzsche said: all words are nothing but metaphors.2 In order to know how the word “Zwiebelfisch” relates to the phenomenon in a printed book, we need a specific cultural context, in this case culinary facts, institutions, issues of trade and craftsmanship and special technical jargon.
And this brings me to real fish. Fish do not tell us their names. The procedures that relate a concrete swimming or floating being to its name are complicated, sometimes involving translations from different languages, confusion with other species, different terms used by scholars or fishermen. Early modern ichthyology can be described as a major struggle to connect animals and words. As popular as ‘animal studies’ are in recent academic discourse, there should be more ‘animal philology’: we cannot speak scientifically about animals without considering the very nature of our language.
The starting point of my journey into the world of the philological aspects of ichthyology was a list of fish names in the first German translation of Rabelais’ Gargantua. The Alsatian author Johann Fischart did not only translate Rabelais’ text (first edition 1575), wherever possible he added long lists of German words, like lists of German sausages, cheeses, beers and wines, of guns and ammunition or of all the pumps used for mining. Grandgousier, the giant who is always hungry and thirsty, stows huge amounts of food in his storage rooms, including masses of fish. Fischart’s German text has no equivalent in Rabelais’ novel, it is an interpolation:
Deßgleichen vergaß er sich auch nicht mit frischen Fischen, als allerhand Bratfischen vom Bodensee, Hausengalreien, gebratenen Forellen, Hausstockfischen, Doͤrren Posten, Proͤsem, Stoͤren, scheiden, Rot Fohren, weiß Orffen, vnnd gel Haselnaschen, Raumen den Streydasguͤtlein die Taschen. O kugelhaupt, gebachen Pirsching fuͤr die Pfaffen gut, gebraten Latfohren gut zum Salat, Miltzhaͤring gut zum sauren Kraut, gereuchert Rencken, blo Felchen, weiß vnnd gelb Gangfisch, Ruͤdling, Kelchlin, Lauben, Truschen, Ropelen ….3
This list is quite strange in many regards. Presented are not only the different common names of fish in the sea, but also the names of fish dishes prepared in the kitchen. The fish named by Fischart are supposed to be fish from the Bodensee, i.e. Lake Constance in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland. And some of the fish from the list do indeed swim in that very body of water; however, some of the typical species found in Lake Constance are not mentioned. In 1546 Gregor Mangolt published a book about the fish in Lake Constance, and also Conrad Gessner often mentioned Lake Constance and specific fish found there in his list of vernacular fish names.4 Among them are the eel, the carp as well as fish called “Inlancken” or “Blieck” – they do not appear in Fischart’s list at all.
Another fishy thing about this fishy list is that it contains fish names which do not exist anywhere else: Species called “Haselnasche” or “Latfohre” are simply unknown.
Fischart did not make up that list. The lists in his novel, plus-texts he added to the Rabelais text, are excerpts from contemporary German publications. For a list of sausages, he used the Nomenclator omnium rerum by Hadrianus Junius; a list of cheeses was taken from Olaus Magnus’ popular book about the northern countries; for other food items, Fischart replicated excerpts from Hieronymus Bock’s Teutsche Speiskammer, and he copied a big collection of names of regional wines from Nicodemus Frischlin’s Carmen on the royal wedding in Württemberg. Fischart used Leonhard Fronsberger’s Kriegsbuch (guns) and Agricola’s Bergwerkbuch (mining tools) for inventories of technical items. His translation of Rabelais with all the additional material may sometimes seem like an attempt to include all the books of his time in that one novel; his German translation is quite an encyclopaedic approach.5
It was not a fish book or a cook book from which Fischart took the fish names, but a poem by the famous German poet Hans Sachs from Nuremberg. The poem is called The hundred and twenty-four fish and sea-mirabilia and is dated to 6 May 1559.6 In it, Hans Sachs claims that he received this information from an old fisherman, who told him about all the fish. He must have been a very, very old or very learned fisherman since he mentions Aristotle, Pliny, Isidor of Seville and Albertus Magnus as his references. Hans Sachs refers to the unknown fish first, excerpting from Pliny’s Historia naturalis. Then he presents “the fish in our land” – in Germany.
Fischart copied the fish names in his list from this poem, even the sequence of the terms corresponds. Comparing the texts, one can also see how the “Haselnasche” came into being: Hans Sachs wrote:
Fischart’s “Haselnasche” originated from two fish species in Sachs’ poem: the “Hasel” (Leuciscus leuciscus) and the “Äsche” (Thymallus thymallus). Thus, we can observe a miraculous multiplication of fish by making copy errors. The same is true for the enigmatic “Latfohre” in Fischart’s list – in Sachs’ poem it is the well-known fish named “Lachsfohre”.
Some ethnobiological research into Sachs’ poem proved that he mentioned species which can typically be found in lakes in the Bavarian Prealps8 – Fischart turns these fish into fish from Lake Constance – which explains why some typical species are missing.
How does this relate to the topic of the present volume? Both Hans Sachs and Fischart participated in the discourse of early modern ichthyology and turned the knowledge of their time into something like poetic energy. The work on the German names of things, including their relation to Latin terms and to other vernacular languages, is also very relevant to the field of natural history as well as ichthyology. This becomes evident in the works of Conrad Gessner (1516–1565). For his research on the nomenclature of fish, Gessner studied ancient texts about aquatilia; he extensively used, among other contemporary publications, the fish book by Guillaume Rondelet,9 the Montpelier scholar who was among Gessner’s correspondents. The depictions and descriptions of whales and sea-monsters in the popular book by Uppsala’s archbishop Olaus Magnus about the northern lands were also of special interest to Gessner.10 In addition to such bookish learning, Gessner received a wealth of information from his numerous correspondents – he corresponded with more than 500 scholars, pharmacists, doctors and others.11 The starting point for Gessner’s name-search were the ancient authors. However, they mainly addressed the aquatilia in the Mediterranean Sea, which do not necessarily correspond to the fauna north of the Alps. The writings of Aristotle, Pliny and Solinus were of major importance to the aquatilia. Didactic poetry, such as the Halieutica by Oppian, also had a profound influence.12 And also Ovid played a major role, since Pliny mentioned Ovid’s didactic poem about fish as a source in the 32nd book of his natural history. This poem has been known since the 9th or 10th century; but although it appears in many early modern Ovid editions, it is probably a medieval paraphrase of the fish Pliny listed in hexameters.13 All these texts are not only considered by scholars for facts and dates, they are themself the object of major philological efforts in the 15th and 16th centuries, they are being commented, the manuscripts are being revisited, and the problem of how to translate Greek and Latin names into vernacular ones becomes crucial.14 The search for reference in this field is a huge project throughout Europe. Gessner himself edited and commented the pseudo-Ovidian Halieutica, which had already been published in several editions of Ovid’s collected works after the editio princeps in Venice in 1534.15 Gessner especially corrected the fish names according to other sources, added commentaries (scholia) and included an appendix with an enormous catalogue of German fish names.16 As already mentioned, he also initiated the printing of the German book about the fish in Lake Constance, written by Gregor Mangolt.17
Gessner was not able to find all the German names of fish in the books of his day. The copia verborum of fish names, which he presents in his list, is the result of fieldwork and extensive correspondence. Gessner used contacts abroad to collect data and had friends send him inventories of locally used fish names. Gessner drew remarkably well, and he also systematically collected excellent drawings and paintings; this is evident in the original paintings used for the woodcuts of the Historia animalium, which were recently rediscovered by Florike Egmond.18 He sent images to his correspondents and asked them to inquire of the local fishermen the names they used. Here, Gessner also played an important role in the lexicography of German dialects. The appendix in his pseudo-Ovidian Halieutica edition is followed by separate lists of fish that were caught in the Rhine river in Strasbourg and one list of fish in the Elbe river in Dresden. The latter list was composed and sent to Gessner by Johannes Kentmann, who produced a beautiful, handwritten herbal – the spectacular script can be viewed in Dresden’s library.19 To give an impression of the work on fish names and its epochal dimensions, I will present the Strasbourg list (the Rhine fish are of course also somewhat relevant to Lake Constance):
PISCES RHENI CIRCA ARgentinam. numero XXXIII.
Stoͤr.
Salm/ Forell.
Aal/ Lampred/ Berling oder Prick/ Nünaug/ Rufelck/ oder Rutt/ oder Trüsch. Koptt oder Gropp/ Steinbyß/ Grundel/ Schlye. Karpf/ Brachsme/ Meckel oder Blick. Meyfische oder Man̄emer hengst/ die vß dem meer kom̄en/ sunst werden die Hasele Meyfisch genennt. Rottel. Hecht. Aesch. Bersing. Kutt oder Goldfisch. Barb. Furn oder Alet. Naß. Schnottfisch oder Hasele. Elbele.
Rotteugel oder Schwal: sunst nennemn etlich ein Blieck ein Rotteugel. Lauck. Blieck. Kreß/ oder Gräßling. Stichling oder stahelfischle. Mylling oder orlē/ villiecht unsere Harlüchle/ and’schwo Pfrillen/ Pfaͤlen/ Bintzbautten. Riemling/ villicht vnsere Bambele.
PISCES ALBIS, EX CATAtaloge quem Ioannes Kentmanus Dresdensis medicus nos dedit
I. Elbfische die auß der sehen kom̄en/ und bleibē nicht/ nem̄en abe od’ sterben.
Sthor/ Lachs/ Ziege/ wird sunst Goldfisch genennt/ kompt mitt dem Sthor in die Elbe/ wirdt mitt imm gefangen. Halbfisch. Lampreten. Nünaugen
II. Elbfische die auß den bechen in die Elbe kom̄en/ gedien vnd nemen darin zuͦ.
Steinbiß. Foren. Aeschen. Bapst/ der Mullen/ oder Kaulhaupt. Olruppen. Smerling. Steinsmerling. Elderitz. Stichling. Schlei. Aal. Beisecker.Welß.
III. Elbfisch die da schuͦppen haben.
Hecht. Karpf. Kaulbersing. Streiffbersing. Parme.
IIII. Elbfisch de guͦt zubraten.
Jesen. Diebeln. Rappē. Blehen. Geusten Roteugel. Zorten oder Zerten.
V. Weißfisch.
Heseling. Grundling. Ockeln. Karas. Oberkottichen. Schneppelfischgen.
VI Malostraca, & Ostracoderma
Krebs. Schnecken.20
However, the plenitude of fish names and the number of creatures are not congruent. Fishermen used to name fish according to certain features, which might not be apparent in the first year of the fish, but in the third year. Therefore, Gessner also presented different names according to the age of the fish. A consideration of the constancy of species is not always relevant here. It was also not in the interest of the fishermen, who followed other practical principles for their nomenclature. Gessner’s inventory is therefore influenced by geography, dialects and the age of the fish, making it the reason for an abundance of cross-references in his alphabetical list of names. Additionally, Gessner compared classical terms with the expressions in the vernacular languages, which makes room for observations in the field of etymology. It also shows how many gaps and blanks there still are. Thus, Gessner had to fill them, become a nomothete himself: He took expressions from other Germanic languages and created similar German words. In the beginning of his Latin edition of the Historia Piscium he mentions in an index of German names: “His non adiunximus quae ab authore conficta sunt. potest etiam fieri ut Anglica nonnulla sint admixta.”21 In any case, all the extensive work on the names of aquatilia finds its ultimate goal in the fourth volume of the Historia animalium from 1558. Over 1000 German and Dutch fish names are collected here, also the classical and various vernacular languages are taken into consideration, including Arabic and Hebrew, and sometimes Gessner even refers to hieroglyphs. (That the synonymy of ancient and vernacular fish names is all but clear nowadays is proven by Fritz Fajen’s recent edition and translation of Oppian’s Halieutica. Fajen notes that he was not able to identify all the names and that he simply transcribed the Greek names when in doubt.22 ) In its inventory of names, Gessner’s enormous project connects the practices of editing classical texts, lexicography, correspondence, autopsy and comparative language studies; images and objects (skeletons, taxidermic fish, fossils) are also included here as are the exchange and trade of such items.23 All these practises and procedures establish and affirm the reference of words. This project shows in an impressive way that the perception and understanding of the world, especially the collecting of empirical facts, is mediated by and intertwined in language and that philology therefore is, in the end, the science of the world itself. Without Gessner among others, the nomenclature of Linnaeus, which proved to be Ariadne’s thread out of the labyrinth of words, words and words, could not have been developed at all.
All this is somehow also the background of the cultural archive – so to say – from which poetry takes its impulses. The fish list contributes to Rabelais’ and Fischart’s grotesque presentation of the gigantic heroes, who can eat the whole world. But there is more than just the literary aim in the German translation. Fischart attempts to prove in his novel that the German language is capable of competing with other languages, classical and vernacular, since it has the potential to name all things in the world.24 This is how Fischart transfers the ideas of the Pléiade into German, and it is Fischart’s patriotic aim when he creates long lists of things. For Johann Fischart the interesting aspects of early modern ichthyology are those which are relevant to the complete dictionary of the German language. And this is the reason why a literary scholar like me, who usually only cares about fish as a culinary item and is more interested in literary history and poetic form, sometimes also has to consider early modern ichthyology as important background for poetic imagination.25
Bibliography
Bodin Jean – Fischart Johann, De magorum daemonomania. Vom außgelassnen wütigen Teufelsheer (Strasbourg, Bernhard Jobin: 1586).
Brockstieger S., Sprachpatriotismus und Wettstreit der Künste. Johann Fischart im Kontext der Offizin Bernhard Jobin (Berlin – Boston: 2018).
Bulang T., “Spiele in Johann Fischarts Geschichtklitterung”, in Jahn B. – Schilling M. (eds.), Literatur und Spiel. Zur Poetologie literarischer Spielszenen (Stuttgart: 2010) 45–69.
Bulang T., Enzyklopädische Dichtungen. Fallstudien zu Wissen und Literatur in Spätmittelalter und früher Neuzeit (Berlin: 2011).
Bürger T. (ed.). Das Kräuterbuch des Johannes Kentmann von 1563. Mit einem Essay von Hansjochen Hancke und botanischen Erläuterungen von Marina Heilmeyer (München et al.: 2004).
Egmond F. (ed.), Conrad Gessners Thierbuch. Die Originalzeichnungen, transl. G.M. Vorderobermeier (Darmstadt: 2018).
Fischart Johann, Geschichtklitterung (Gargantua). Synoptischer Abdruck der Fassungen von 1575, 1582 und 1590. Mit drei Titelblättern und den Originalholzschnitten der Ausgabe von 1590 von Tobias Stimmer, ed. H. Schnabel, 2 vols. (Halle a. S.: 1969).
Gebhard T., “Das Spruchgedicht des Hans Sachs von den 124 Fischen”, Bayerisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde (Munich: 1985) 76–85.
Gessner Conrad., Historia animalium liber IIII. qui est de piscium [et] aquatilium […] (Zurich, Christopher Froschauer: 1558).
Hakelberg D., “Das Bodensee-Fischbuch von Gregor Mangolt in einem Basler Nachdruck von 1612”, Wolfenbütteler Barock-Nachrichten 36 (2009) 107–114.
Hendrikx S. – Smith P.J., “Ichthyology in Translation: Conrad Gessner’s Fish Books”, in Fournel J.-L. – Paccagnella I. (eds.), Traduire – Tradurre – Translating. Vie des mots et voies des œuvres dans l’Europe de la Renaissance (Geneva: 2022) 341–361.
Hühnemörder Ch., “Die Geschichte der Fischbücher von Aristoteles bis zum Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts”, Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv 1 (1975) 185–200.
Leu U.B., Conrad Gessner (1516–1565). Universalgelehrter und Naturforscher der Renaissance (Zurich: 2016).
Magnus Olaus, Beschreibüng allerley Gelegenheyte/Sitten/Gebräuchen und Gewonheyten/der Mitnächtigen Völcker […] (Strasbourg: Theodosius Rihel, 1567).
Mangolt Gregor, Fischbuͦch, Von der natur vnd eigenschafft der vischen (Zurich, Andreas Gessner: 1557).
Nietzsche F., “Ueber Wahrheit und Lüge im aussermoralischen Sinne”, in Friedrich Nietzsche. Kritische Studienausgabe vol. 1: Die Geburt der Tragödie. Unzeitgemäße Betrachtungen I–IV. Nachgelassene Schriften 1870–1873, eds. G. Colli – M. Montinari (Munich: 1999) 873–890.
Oppianus, Halieutica, transl. and ed. F. Fajen (Stuttgart – Leipzig: 1999).
Ovidius (Pseudo-), Helieuticon: hoc est, de piscibus libellus, multo quam ante hac emendatior et scholijs illustratus. Emendantur et Plinij aliquot loca. Accedit Aquatilium animantium Enumeratio iuxta Plinium, emendata et explicata per Conradum Gesnerum, ordine alphabetico. Earundem nomina Germanica eodem ordine (Zurich, Andreas and Hans Gessner: 1556).
Ovidius (Pseudo-), De piscibus et aquatilibus omnibus libelli III. novi. Authore Conrado Gesnero medico et philosophiae naturalis interprete in Schola Tigurina: I. Scholia et emendationes in Halieuticon P. Ouidij Nasonis. II. Aquatilium animantium enumeratio juxta Plinium, emendata et explicata serie literarum. III. Eorundem Nomenclator Germanicus longe copiosissimus. Et alia ad piscium historiam pertinentia (Zurich, Andreas Gesner: 1556).
Peters M. (ed.), Konrad Gessner: Deutsche Namen der Fische und Wassertiere. Neudruck der Ausgabe Zürich 1556 (Aalen: 1974).
Richmond J., Chapters on Greek Fish-Lore (Wiesbaden: 1973).
Rondelet Guillaume, Histoire entière des poissons (Lyon, Mathias Bonhomme: 1558).
Rondelet Guillaume, Libri de piscibus marinis in quibus verae piscium effigies expressae sunt (Lyon, Mathias Bonhomme: 1554).
Sachs Hans, “Die hundert vnd Vier vnd zweintzig Fisch vnd Meerwunder mit jrer art”, in Sachs Hans, Werke, ed. A. von Keller, vol. 7. (Tubingen: 1873) 456–463.
Sachs Hans, Die Hundert vnnd vier vnd zweintzig Fisch vnd Meerwunder mit jrer art. Das ander Buch: Sehr herrliche Schoͤne Artliche vnd gebundene Gedicht mancherley art […] (Nuremberg, Christoph Heußler: 1560).
Strömberg R., Studien zur Etymologie und Bildung der griechischen Fischnamen (Gohtenbug: 1943).
Bodin Jean – Fischart Johann, De magorum daemonomania. Vom außgelassnen wütigen Teufelsheer (Strasbourg, Bernhard Jobin: 1586) 666.
See Nietzsche F., “Ueber Wahrheit und Lüge im aussermoralischen Sinne”, in Friedrich Nietzsche. Kritische Studienausgabe vol. 1: Die Geburt der Tragödie. Unzeitgemäße Betrachtungen I–IV. Nachgelassene Schriften 1870–1873, eds. G. Colli – M. Montinari (Munich: 1999) 873–890, see: 878–879.
Fischart Johann, Geschichtklitterung (Gargantua). Synoptischer Abdruck der Fassungen von 1575, 1582 und 1590. Mit drei Titelblättern und den Originalholzschnitten der Ausgabe von 1590 von Tobias Stimmer, ed. H. Schnabel, 2 vols. (Halle a. S.: 1969) 82.
Mangolt Gregor, Fischbuͦch, Von der natur vnd eigenschafft der vischen (Zurich, Andreas Gessner: 1557); see Hakelberg D., “Das Bodensee-Fischbuch von Gregor Mangolt in einem Basler Nachdruck von 1612”, Wolfenbütteler Barock-Nachrichten 36 (2009) 107–114. Gessner’s German list of fish names is part of his edition and commentary of (pseudo-)Ovid’s Halieutica, which exists in two slightly different versions: P. Ovidii Nasonis Helieuticon: hoc est, de piscibus libellus, multò quàm ante hac emendatior et scholijs illustratus. Emendantur et Plinij aliquot loca. Accedit Aquatilium animantium Enumeratio iuxta Plinium, emendata et explicata per Conradum Gesnerum, ordine alphabetico. Earvndem nomina Germanica eodem ordine (Zurich, Andreas and Hans Gessner: 1556); De piscibus et aquatilibus omnibus libelli III. novi. Authore Conrado Gesnero medico et philosophiae naturalis interprete in Schola Tigurina: I. Scholia et emendationes in Halieuticon P. Ouidij Nasonis. II. Aquatilium animantium enumeratio juxta Plinium, emendata et explicata serie literarum. III. Eorundem Nomenclator Germanicus longé copiosissimus. Et alia ad piscium historiam pertinentia (Zurich, Andreas Gesner: 1556). The ichthyological catalogue “Teütsche nammen der Fischen vnd Wasserthieren” (97–279) is identical in both editions. A separate edition of only the catalogue with a remarkable introduction is by. Peters M. (ed.), Konrad Gessner: Deutsche Namen der Fische und Wassertiere. Neudruck der Ausgabe Zürich 1556 (Aalen: 1974); cf. Leu U.B., Conrad Gessner (1516–1565). Universalgelehrter und Naturforscher der Renaissance (Zurich: 2016) 201f.
For cheese and sausages, cf. Bulang T., Enzyklopädische Dichtungen. Fallstudien zu Wissen und Literatur in Spätmittelalter und früher Neuzeit (Berlin: 2011) 346–348, 384–385. For wine, see Bulang T., “Spiele in Johann Fischarts Geschichtklitterung”, in Jahn B. – Schilling M. (eds.), Literatur und Spiel. Zur Poetologie literarischer Spielszenen (Stuttgart: 2010) 45–69, see 52–53. For guns and mining tools, see Bulang, Enzyklopädische Dichtungen 350–351, 377–378.
Sachs Hans, Die Hundert vnnd vier vnd zweintzig Fisch vnd Meerwunder mit jrer art. Das ander Buch: Sehr herrliche Schoͤne Artliche vnd gebundene Gedicht mancherley art […] (Nuremberg, Christoph Heußler: 1560), “Das ander Theyl: von Tugent und Laster” fol. 90r–92r; Sachs Hans, “Die hundert vnd Vier vnd zweintzig Fisch vnd Meerwunder mit jrer art”, in Sachs Hans, Werke, ed. A. von Keller, vol. 7. (Tubingen: 1873) 456–463. I will quote the text from 1560 and also refer to Keller’s edition.
Sachs 1560, fol. CXIv; Sachs 1873, 462, V. 1–10.
Gebhard T., “Das Spruchgedicht des Hans Sachs von den 124 Fischen”, Bayerisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde (Munich: 1985) 76–85.
Rondelet Guillaume, Libri de piscibus marinis in quibus verae piscium effigies expressae sunt (Lyon, Mathias Bonhomme: 1554); Rondelet Guillaume, Histoire entière des poissons (Lyon, Mathias Bonhomme: 1558).
See the German translation: Magnus Olaus, Beschreibüng allerley Gelegenheyte / Sitten / Gebräuchen und Gewonheyten / der Mitnächtigen Völcker […] (Strasbourg: Theodosius Rihel, 1567) 189r–329v. For the tradition of fish books since Aristotle, see Hühnemörder Ch., “Die Geschichte der Fischbücher von Aristoteles bis zum Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts”, Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv 1 (1975) 185–200.
See the table of Gessner’s letters in Leu, Conrad Gessner 390–406. For Gessner’s correspondence about fish names, see the introduction in Peters (ed.), Konrad Gessner 7–43, and Leu, Conrad Gessner 201–202.
Cf. Oppianus, Halieutica, transl. and ed. F. Fajen (Stuttgart – Leipzig: 1999).
Cf. Der Neue Pauly, vol. 5, 1998, s.v. “Helieuticon”.
Cf. Hendrikx S. – Smith P.J., “Ichthyology in Translation: Conrad Gessner‘s Fish Books”, in Fournel J.-L. – Paccagnella I. (eds.), Traduire – Tradurre – Translating. Vie des mots et voies des œuvres dans l’Europe de la Renaissance (Geneva: 2022) 341–361.
The Halieutica can be found in the early modern editions of Ovid’s works: e.g. Cologne, Martinus Gymnicus: 1545; Cologne, Walther Fabritius: 1554. They are also part of collections with classical texts about hunting (cynegetica): Augsburg, Steiner: 1534; Frankfurt am Main, Sigismund Feierabend: 1582. Modern edition: Ovidii Haleutica, Gratii et Nemesiani Cynegetica ex recessione Mauritii Hauptii accedent inedita Latine et tabula lithographica (Leipzig: 1838); Ovid, Halieutiques, transl. and ed. E. de Saint Denis (Paris: 1975). For Gessner’s edition with scholia, see note 3. For Greek fish names, see Strömberg R., Studien zur Etymologie und Bildung der griechischen Fischnamen (Gohtenbug: 1943); see also Richmond J., Chapters on Greek Fish-Lore (Wiesbaden: 1973).
See note 3.
See note 3.
Egmond F. (ed.), Conrad Gessners Thierbuch. Die Originalzeichnungen, transl. G.M. Vorderobermeier (Darmstadt: 2018), see here the images of the album III C 22: “Tiere, die im Wasser leben” 35–219.
Not a print, but a manuscript with large illustrations, see Bürger T. (ed.). Das Kräuterbuch des Johannes Kentmann von 1563. Mit einem Essay von Hansjochen Hancke und botanischen Erläuterungen von Marina Heilmeyer (München et al.: 2004).
Gessner, Teütsche nammen der Fischen vnd Wasserthieren 267–268.
Gessner Conrad, Historia animalium liber IIII. qui est de piscium [et] aquatilium […] (Zurich, Christopher Froschauer: 1558). The indices are without pagination, see under: “[nomina] GERMANICA.”
Halieutica, ed. Fajen (see note 11), 11, note 1.
See Leu, Conrad Gessner 190–194.
See Brockstieger S., Sprachpatriotismus und Wettstreit der Künste. Johann Fischart im Kontext der Offizin Bernhard Jobin (Berlin – Boston: 2018).
I want to thank Justine Gesell for the substantial improvement of the English version.