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Old French Mangon, Anglo-Saxon Mancus, Late Latin Mancussus, Mancosus, Mancessus, etc.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Urban T. Holmes Jr
Urban T. Holmes Jr*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina
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Extract

These terms all indicate a monetary unit of uncertain value and obscure origin, but Du Cange is doubtless correct in assuming that the French, Anglo-Saxon, and Latin forms are related. The earliest occurrence of mancus (or mances) in England dates from 848; the Latin mancus is found on the Continent as early as 814. The authorities are agreed that the Anglo-Saxon form came to Britain from the Continent. For me the main point of interest in this discussion is Old French mangon, best known through its first occurrence—in the Chanson de Roland:

      Tenez m'espee, meillur nen at nuls horn,
      Entre les helz ad plus de mil manguns.

Godefroy defines it as a “sorte de monnaie d'or: il fallait deux besantz pour faireun mangon.” This estimate of value was certainly taken from the fabliau of Guillaume au Faucon:

      Dist la dame, “Or avez faucon;
      Deux besans va'ent un mangon.”

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , March 1938 , pp. 34 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1938

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References

1 W. H. Pryor in Bulletin Du Cange, i, 79–80; H. M. Chadwick, Studies in Anglo-Saxon Institutions (1905), pp. 23–24; the NED.

2 MS. Digby 23, fol. 11, verso; ed. T. A. Jenkins (Heath, 1929), vv. 620–621. The word occurs also in vss. 1570 and 3686. Franco-Italian variations are machon and macon. The first of these is found in the Berta de li gran pie, vs. 204, and the other is in Bovo d'Antone vs. 268, Macaire, vs. 2959, and Berta de li gran pie, vs. 1344. None of these occurrences has any value for shedding light on the meaning of the term.

3 Montaiglon et Raynaud, Recueil general des fabliaux, ii, 112. Lévy in his Supplementwörterbuch and the late Professor Jenkins repeat this valuation of the mangon from Gode***froy, without comment.

4 A. R. Burns, Money and monetary policy in early times (New York, Knopf, 1927).

5 We know that a Byzantine solidus of 4.55 grams of gold was worth forty silver deniers of 1.15 grams each, in the eighth century (see B. Laum in the Lexicon der Staatswissenschaft, vi, 687). This gives an approximate ratio of ten to one for gold and silver in the Merovingian period, and we may assume that the rate was similar in the ninth century.

6 J. Bosworth, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (Oxford, 1882).

7 T. N. Toller, Supplement to Bosworth (Oxford, 1921); see also F. Liebermann in Herrig's Archiv, cxxxi, 153.

8 On these etymologies consult mancus in Hoops' Real-Lexikon; also Dozy, Supplement aux dictionnaires arabes, ii, 712.

9 It is significant that both mancus and mangon continue to be listed as of unknown origin by nearly all authorities. My colleagues in medieval history at the University of North Carolina are even more insistent than I that the ninth century was too early for such Arabic influence.

10 While I am ready to admit the possibility that the meaning in these passages in question might be that of a weight of gold equal to a hundred mancusae, or to a thousand mangons, such a meaning would be unusual, particularly in the Roland. The Old French literary texts seldom gave values, more or less exact, for objects such as a sword or a horse or a tent. In any case this interpretation does not disturb my general argument.

11 W. Stein in Hoops' Real-Lexikon, ii, 147.

12 O. Schrader in the Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde, i, 379.

13 Blanchet, Traité des monnaies gauloises, i, 21–29.

14 Ed. Strachan and O'Keefe, Supplement to Ériu (1912), p. 79.

15 Zeitschrift filr Numismatik, iii, 275.

16 S. Feist, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache (Halle, 1924).

17 Holger Pedersen, Vergleichende Grammatik der keltischen Sprachen (Göttingen, 1909). i, 33; G. Dottin, La langue gauloise (Paris, 1920), p. 269. The Liddell and Scott Greek dictionary gives arm ring rather than neck ring as the translation for .

18 Word Formation in the Roman Sermo Plebeius (New York, 1895), p. 55 ff.