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Two points in Marchand’s argument stand out as particularly
convincing: 1) Hebreo is no longer to be read as the land of the Jews but
as the Hebrew version of the Psalm;2) gieda corresponds to Latin miluus,
kite. Consequendy, giedu hus is to be compared to milui abies domus
est10. Discovering whence the author of the OIP borrowed the above
mentioned interpretation of Psalm 103,17 is a matter which requires a
thorough investigation. Marchand holds that the gieda chapter is a
gloss on the Psalm* 11. According to him, the author derived his
information directly from St. Jerome’s letter or indirectly through an
intermediate source, for example Remigius of Auxerre who in De
verbis Psalmi: Herodii domus dux est eorum'2 comments on the verse
and quotes Jerome. Although the bird of the Psalm always refers to
spiritual qualities and holy men13, we think it is necessary to analyse
other passages dealing with milvus in order to find a doser connection
between the bird and the allegorical meaning it embodies in the OIP,
i.e.: andliga menn...himna rike gripendr. The following excursus will
show that the allegory linked to the milvus14 generally refers to negative
qualities, although now and then also positive implications appear.
addition to the cited letter, Jerome’s commentaries on Jeremiah II, 8 (J.-P. Migne,
Patrologiae cursus completus, Series latina, Paris 1844-64, henceforth PL, 24, col. 765:
Pro milvo quem interpretatus est Symmachus, LXX et Theodotio ipsum verbum
Hebraicum posuere asida...) and on Zachariah I, 5 (PL 25, col. 1521: Asidam Hebraei
milvum putant, avem rapacissimam et semper domestitis avibus insidiantem). For the
relation ucuvo? /milvus cf. U. Aldrovandi, Ornithologiae, hoc est de Avibus Historiae Libri
XII, Bologna 1599-1603,1, pp. 392-93. Seealso Cahier, III, pp. 208-11 and his observa-
tion on fulica and herodius. Jerome’s various renderings of the word asida are cited by
Petrus Lombardus who in Collatio in Ps. CIII (PL 191, cols. 944-46) traces the history of
the undefined bird.
10 On the habit which kites have of budding their nests on top of tall trees cf. J. C.
Wood, Wood’s Bible Animals, Philadelphia 1882, pp. 423-29.
11 Marchand, Two Notes, p. 503.
12 PL 125, cols. 957-62.
13 For Patristic commentaries on Ps. 103, 17 cf.: S. Hieronymi Presbyteri Opera, Pars II,
ed. by D. G. Morin(Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 78),Tumhout 1958,Tractatus
.de Psalmo CIII, p. 185; Bede, In Psalmorum Librum Exegesis, PL 93, col. 1009;
Walafrid Strabo, Glossa Ordinaria, PL 111, col. 1016-17; Haymo of Halberstadt,
Explanatio in Psalmos, PL 116, col. 547; Remigius of Auxerre, Enarrationes in Psalmos,
PL 131, col. 677; Bruno the Carthusian, Expositio in Psalmos, PL 152, col. 1181; Petrus
Lombardus, Commentarium in Psalmos, PL 191, cols. 936-37.
14 On the subject see F. McCulloch, Mediaeval Latin and French Bestiaries, 2nd ed.
Chapel Hiil 1962 (University of North Carolina, Studies in the Romance Languages and
Literatures, 33), pp. 135-36.