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Quaderni Veneti | Vol. 6 | June 2017

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Research Article

Su un termine poliano di origine veneziana: peitere (Devisement dou monde, LXXXV, 11)

Alvise Andreose    Università degli Studi di Udine, Italia    

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abstract

An important section of Marco Polo’s Devisement dou monde is devoted to the description of the magnificence of Qubilai’s court. The traveller was particularly impressed by the splendour of the large vessel that contained the alcoholic drinks served to the guests attending the Khan’s banquets. To describe this wonderful artifact, the Franco-Italian version transmitted by the manuscript BnF fr. 1116 chooses the word peitere, which is a deformation of the Venetian form pitèr/pitèra, designating ‘an earthenware vase’, ‘a jar’. It also possible that the choice of this term was influenced by the word pitare, attested in the ‘Levantine French’ used in Cyprus during the late Middle Ages to designate ‘a large earthenware vase’, ‘a large jar’ for conserving wine. 

Published
Dec. 20, 2017
Submitted
Sept. 7, 2017
Language
IT

Keywords: Rustichello da Pisa • Franco-Italian language • Marco Polo • Levantine French • Milione • Devisement dou monde • Yuan Dynasty • Venetian dialect • Wine vessel • Medieval China

permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/1724-188X/QV-6-1-17-2

Copyright: © 2017 Alvise Andreose. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.