Talk:pentacol

For reference, I'm copying here the relevant entries from M Godefroy's Dictionairre de l'ancienne langue Francaise et de tous ses dialectes
 * , pend a col, s. m., bijou, qui se pendait au cou:
 * Un pentacol d'un saphir, dedens une bourse, prisié .. liv. (1328, Inv. de la royne Clem., ap. Laborde, Emaux.)
 * Un pentacol ou il avoit .. perles et .. esmeraudes, prisié .. escus. (1353, ib.)
 * Pentacol a ymages, d'un camahieu garny de perles. (1353, Invent. du garde-manger de l'argent., Compt. de l'argent., p. 307, Douët d'Arcq.)
 * Item, un pentacol d'un camahieu vert. (1380, Inv. de Ch. V, nº 2886, Labarte.)
 * Un pend a col, d'un camahieu vert, ou il a un ymage. (1400, Pièces relat. au règ. de Ch. VI, t. II, p. 355, Douët d'Arcq.)
 * , voir.
 * , pan., s. m., chandelier à cinq branches:
 * Ah, j'avois quasi oublié le pentacle. (, ''le Negrom., I,, éd. 1572.)
 * Je vais pour acheter le pentacle, les cierges, et les gommes pour les encensemens. (Ib., ib., II, .)
 * Leurs cernes (des magiciens), cercles et pantacles. (, Hist. des Spectres, p. 696, éd. 1605.)
 * Leurs cernes (des magiciens), cercles et pantacles. (, Hist. des Spectres, p. 696, éd. 1605.)

Godefroy's definition of as a "five-branched candlestick" seems mistaken, and is not borne out by the quotes he himself supplies:
 * "Ah, I had almost forgotten the pentacle."
 * "I'm going to buy the pentacle, candles, and gums for incenses."
 * "Their rings (of magicians), circles and pantacles."

I've examined these passages in their original context, and they obviously refer to the usual pentacles employed in ceremonial magic, i.e. small pieces of parchment or other flat material marked with magic symbols and either hung from the neck or sewn onto the breast. I presume Godefroy was unfamiliar with such outlandish objects and just took a guess.

The term pentacol is also explained in Londesborough's Miscellanea graphica: representations of ancient, medieval, and renaissance remains in the possession of Lord Londesborough (London, 1857) p. 62:
 * "It had then become the fashion to hang rich masses of jewelry to the collar, instead of fixing them to the dress, and under this form they were known by such names as pewlants and pentacols. Clemence of Hungary, queen of France, possessed, in 1328, 'a round fermail for a pentacol' (un fermail ront à pentacol) [...]"

Fuzzypeg (talk) 14:33, 12 March 2014 (UTC)