----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Netherton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
<<...I am not quite sure why he thinks that scarlet is involved in this
quotation (but I don't know the words "berjemo" or "pano" so perhaps one of
them is translated as "scarlet").>>
"Berjemo" is an archaic word for red, though it can be used to refer to
non-scarlet red. For example, the Red Sea is translated as "el Mar Berjemo"
rather than "el Mar Rojo" in older Spanish texts; horses, wine, food, and
many other non-scarlet things are described as berjemo. (I can't think of
the right grammatical terms for this concept, but the word doesn't stand
alone: if you were to try to use it to say "It is red" what you would
actually be saying is, "It is a red object." But that's more the sense I
get from the context I've seen it in, rather than something I'm certain is a
grammatical rule.)
Is the word "pano" or "paño"? The usage of "paño" I'm most familiar with is
simply "cloth" or perhaps "pall," though in some uses it's more like
"kerchief" which would perhaps make the most sense here. To be slightly
more specific, it's "a cloth" rather than just "cloth"--it's an item that's
in its finished state AS a cloth, like a head cloth or a dish cloth or a
cloth you knead dough on. I've also seen it used as fabric terminology: in
the early 17thC, "paño" was a Spanish-style cloth, usually woolen & of good
quality. (See "The Mixtecs of Colonial Oaxaca" by Kevin Terraciano for the
usage of "paño" as a specific type of cloth in trade accounts.)
Putting together the words "red" and "high quality wool" it's really not
much of a leap to think of scarlet, though I do think it's still a leap,
especially when a mountain woman (serrana) is involved in the getting or
gifting of it--I wouldn't think scarlet would exactly be readily available
to her, would you?
"Prenderó" (verb) means something along the lines of acquiring an object. In
other words, "He/she took it." (In terms of common root words and cognates,
think "apprehend.") The word survives in Italian in the same sense. A
"prendero" (noun) is a second-hand dealer, fence, or pawnbroker--in other
words, one who takes the object or receives the object that was taken. In
the noun sense, it's a bit old-fashioned, (say, early 20thC) but I don't
think I'd call it entirely archaic.
So based on the snippet provided, it sounds like the guy either took a red
cloth from Menga, or he sent her to go get him a red cloth. Or, to fit the
context exactly as provided, he demanded/asked her for it as a gift, perhaps
in a slightly Mafia sort of way.
All that said, I couldn't quite find the question on #1--was it confusion
about the translations? On #2, I'm only familiar with Talavera as a
location, so I'm no help there.
-E House
(NOT an expert at archaic Spanish, but I did grow up reading the Reina
Valera bible and other archaic spanish texts. However, I don't think any of
them went as far back as 1340, so, y'know, big grain of salt on whether or
not 17thC Spanish applies to 14thC Spanish...)
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