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『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

of Marco Barbaro's Venetian Genealogies which deal with the Ponti (Treviso Ms., 679 vº-680 vº.),
we are at least in a position to say that the Ponti were a noble Venetian family a member of which
may very well have been appointed as podestà in Constantinople c. 1260. The Ponti, originally
a family of Romagna, moved to Ferrara, and afterwards to Venice where they were already esta-
blished as wheat merchants in 863; on account of their long residence in Venice and of their good
reputation, they entered the Councils of the Republic. Well-known in the 12th cent., the Ponti went
to Germany; from 1217 onwards, there was for a time no representative of the family in Venice. But
some Ponti must have returned fairly soon, since a « Simeon de Ponte » is mentioned in 1261
and 1266, and a « Joannes de Ponte » many times from 1277 to 1301. The Ponti were still well-
known when Barbaro wrote his Genealogies in the middle of the 16th cent.

317. PORCELAIN

« Porcelain », in old French « porcelaine » or « pourcelaine », occurs in mediaeval texts with
four different meanings: 1. « cowry »; 2. « china-ware »; 3. « vases of mother of pearl » (?);
4. « purslane ». Nos. 1 and 2 are met with in Polo (see « Cowry » for the readings); No. 4 may
be provisionally left out. Scholars are agreed that Nos. 2 and 3 are derived from No. 1. So « por-
celain » originally meant « cowry », or rather the genus Cypraea, and is certainly borrowed from
Italian porcellana; « porcellana » has remained the designation of Cypraea at many points on the
French coast. Another word is porcelletta, used by Ca' da Mosto and others in the sense of « cowry »
(see « Cowry »); Jourdain Cathala speaks of vasa pulcherrima... et porseleta (Cordier, Les Merveilles
de l'Asie, 92, 121, pl. xv); although the construction is abnormal and the text perhaps slightly
corrupt, it will be shown further that the stuff meant is certainly « porcelain ». Porcellane has
become persivolas in Frampton (Penzer, 352). Port. porcelana has been altered into persulana
in the Goa dialect, with the meaning « tile », which is also that of Konkani phuslán; pusalana is
« bowl », « cup », in Singhalese (cf. Dalgado, Influência do Vocabulário Português, 130). Opinion
is also unanimous that both porcellana and porcelletta represent derivative forms which ultimately
are to be traced to Latin porcus, « pig ». But unanimity stops at that; no conclusive argument has
been produced to establish when, how and why derivative forms of porcus had become the Italian
designation of the cowry.

Mahn (Etymol. Untersuchungen, 1st part, Berlin, 1863, 11-15) devoted to the etymology of
« porcelain » a special note in which, following moreover the lead of authors of the 17th and 18th
cents., those of the Encyclopédie included, he tried to establish that the Cypraea had been so called
on account of the similitude of its flat bottom with the female sex organ. In Greek, the Cypraea
was called χοίρινη (not expressed: χόγχη), « pig[-shell] », from χοῖρος, « pig », itself often used in
the obscene sense which also attached to Latin porcus and perhaps some of its derivative forms
(cf. O. Keller, Die antike Tierwelt, II, 543). Some other names point in the same direction:
Dutch Klipkoussen according to Rumphius (D'Amboinsche Rariteitkamer, Amsterdam, 1705;
1741 reprint, 113); old Danish kudefisk, « mussel », lit. vulva-fish (cf. Karlgren, in Bull. of the
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