44 ON METONYMS. 



Mezzobarba, the name of an annotator on Occo's Numismata Impera- 

 toram Romanorum, becomes Mediobarbus. Sometimes the name is 

 Latinised by a translation of its meaning in Italian : as when Banchieri, 

 Bankers, Exchange-brokers, became Cambiatores, and liicci, ' of the 

 curled locks,' professor of Belles Lettres at Florence in 1500, became 

 Crinitus, and Pietro Capretto, an Italian mystic writer in 1492, became 

 Petrus Hjedus (kid). Giovanni Griglis is Johannes de Liliis, Giglis 

 being from Giglio for Lilio, that is Lilium, Anglice, Lily. Occasion- 

 ally the name is Greeised in a similar manner : as when Forteguerra 

 becomes Crateromachus, ' Strong i' th' Fight/ and Buonacorsi is sup- 

 posed to be sufficiently expressed by Callimachus, signifying probably 

 for the occasion, 'Of graceful action in the Tournament.' Johannes 

 Victor Rossi, a Roman satirist, is, somewhat mixedly, Janus Nicius 

 Erythrasus, and Giampietro Arrivabene, elegantly, Eutychius. Ritius 

 represents Riccio; also Riz, Ris and Rit. One would have supposed 

 that Galeotto, ' Galley-slave/ would have chosen some more elaborate 

 metonym than 'Galeottus.' By entitling a work of his 'Be vulgo In- 

 cognitis/ he, in the 15th century, forestalled the 'Things not generally 

 known' of Mr. Timbs. 



Local, territorial and family appellations are expressed by appropriate 

 local and gentile adjectives. Thus Rucellai, head of the Platonic 

 academy at Florence, is Oricellarius ; Chiaramonti, Claramoutius ; 

 Lorenzo de' Medici, Laurentius Mediceus; Ambrogio di Calepio, Am- 

 brosius Calepinus. In Belcarius (Hist. Rer. Gallicarum), Ercole 

 d'Este becomes Hercules Atestinus. 



We have an interest on this continent in the name of Amerigo Ves- 

 pucci. On the title page of his Novus Mundus, addressed to Lorenzo 

 de' Medici, it is metonymised into Albericus Vespuccius. Albericus 

 was softened into Americus : Italianised, it became Amerigo. In old 

 Fh-ench he is called Emeric de Vespuce. This identifying of Amerigo 

 with Albericus determines the prosodiacal quantity of the penultima of 

 America in Latin, all the Teutonic proper names in -icus having it 

 long; but custom has rendered it short in America. In a volume of 

 Latin and other verse in the Bodleian, of the date 1761, we have the 

 old soldier of the reign of Geoi'ge II. describing his exploits on this 

 continent and speaking in good iambics of 



Americaj sinus, et immanes lacus, 

 Comata sylvis montium cacnmina, 

 Gravesqne lapsus fluminum, urbinm situs 

 Et barbarorum corpora, et vultus truces, &c. 



