423 D, where he explains that fish and cicadas do not have a voice but produce sounds with their gills or with their chests. Similar observations are found in Thomas (In l. De Int., 1, IV, 46) as well as in Pseudo Aegidius Romanus (In Libros Peri hermeneias Expositio, Venetiis 1507, fol. 49rb). The example of the latratus canis is already present in Ammonius, whose work, however, was only translated into Latin in 1268 by William of Moerbeke (Commentaire sur le Peri Hermenneias, ed. G. Verbeke, Corpus Latinum Commentariorum in Aristotelem Graecorum I. Louvain-Paris: Nauwelaerts 1961, p. 47: “Hoc autem ‘secundum confictionem’ separat ipsum a natura significantibus vocibus. Tales autem sunt quae irrationalium animalium voces. Extraneo enim aliquo superveniente, canis latrans significat extranei praesentiam. Sed non secundum aliquam confictionem et condictionem ad invicem emittunt talem vocem canes” (“ ‘By convention’ distinguishes [the name] from the vocal sounds significant by nature. Such are the vocal sounds of the irrational animals. For, when a stranger suddenly appears, a dog by his bark signifies the presence of the stranger; but dogs do not produce this sort of vocal sound according to any convention or agreements among themselves”). Ammonius, On Aristotle’s On Interpretation 1–8, Translated by David Blank, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1996, p. 39.

“Neque solum nomen vox significativa est, sed sunt quaedam voces quae significant quidem, sed nomina non sunt, ut ea quae a nobis in aliquibus affectibus proferuntur, ut cum quis gemitum edit, vel cum dolore concitus emittit clamorem. Illud enim doloris animi, illud corporis signum est, et cum sint voces et significent quamdam vel animi vbel corporis passionem, nullus tamen gemitum clamoremque dixerit nomen. Mutorumque quoque animalium sunt quaedam voces quae significant: ut canum latratus iras significant canum, alia vox autem mollior quodam blandimenta XXXX decsignat, quare adjecta differentia separandum erat nomen ab his omnibus quae voces quidem essent et significarent sed nominis vocabulum non tenerentur” (In De Int. Comm. Maj., PL 64, col. 420 C–D).

See In l. De Int. Comm. Maj., PL 64, col. 423 A–B: “Nec vero dicitur quod nulla vox naturaliter aliquod designet, sed quod nomina non naturaliter, sed positione significent. Alioqui habent hoc ferarum, mutorumque animalium soni, quorum vox quidem significat aliquid, ut hinnitus equi consueti equi inquisitionem, latratus canum latrantium iracundiam monstrat, et alia huiusmodi. Sed cum voces mutorum animalium propria natura significant, nullis tamen elementorum formulis conscribunt. Nomen vero quamquam subjacet elementis.”

Cf. Saint Thomas Aquinas and Tommaso de Vio Cajetan, Aristotle On Interpretation: Commentary by St. Thomas and Cajetan (Peri hermeneias), trans. from the Latin with an introd. by Jean T. Oesterle, Milwaukee, Wis.: Marquette University Press, 1962.

See pp. 27–28, n. 15, in Latratus canis (“On Animal Language”), the references to Garlandus Compotista, Dialectica III (ed. De Rijk. Assen: Van Gorcum, 1959, pp. 64, 24–28); in L. M. De Rijk, Logica Modernorum (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1967, II, pt 2, p. 78, 7–16), the Abbreviatio Montana, p. 149, 15–24; the Ars Emmerana, p. 179, 12–19, the Ars Burana, p. 358, 1–7, the Introductiones Parisienses, p. 380, 11–18, the Logica ‘Ut dicit’, p. 418, 5–9, the Logica ‘Cum sit nostra’, p. 463, 7–17, the Dialectica Monanensis. For the thirteenth century, Peter of Spain, Tractatus, called afterwards ‘Summulae Logicales’ (ed. De Rijk. Assen: Van Gorcum, 1972, pp. 1, 23, 2, 9) and Lambert of Auxerre, Logica (ed F. Alessio. Florence, La Nuova Italia, 1971, p. 7).

All prior manuals of logic began their treatment with a definition of sonus as a genus of vox. In his commentary on De interpretatione (IV, 38), Thomas will likewise affirm that “vox est sonus ab ore animali prolatus, cum imaginatione quadam.”

But see Lo Piparo (2003, IV, 9).

Institutiones Grammaticae, I, cap, de ‘voce” (ed. M. Herz, in Grammatici Latini II, Leipsig, 1855, reprint Hildesheim 1961, pp. 5–6).

See Latratus canis (“On Animal Language”), p. 29, n. 20. The influence of Priscian’s classification is discernible from the beginning of the eleventhth century onward, when, thanks especially to the influence of the Irish grammarians operating on the continent, in particular in the context of the Carolingian cultural renaissance, his authority begins to supplant that of Donatus in the principal Episcopal schools (see Holz 1981). Analogous positions are to be found in Alcuin’s Grammatica, in the Excerptio de arte grammatica Prisciani of Rabanus Maurus, in Sedulius Scottus’s In Donati artem maiorem, etc. Later the same classification will be borrowed, for example, by Petrus Helias in his Summa super Priscianum maiorem, by Vincent of Beauvais in his Speculum Doctrinale, and eventually by Simon of Dacia in his Domus Gramatice.

“Dupliciter enim ea quae simpliciter voce divisa, videlicet in significativam et non significativam, litteratam et illitteratam, quarum hanc quidem articulatam, hanc autem inarticulatum vocant” (“Let vocal sound simpliciter be divided twice into two, i.e., into significant and meaningless, and into lettered and unlettered, the former of which is called ‘articulate’ and the latter ‘inarticulate’ ”). Ammonius, then, appears to put articulation only among the differences characterizing the voces illitteratae. “Accidet enim hanc quidam esse vocem significativam et litteratam ut homo, hanc autem significativam et illitteratam ut canis latratus, hanc autem non significativam et litteratam ut blituri, hanc autem non significativam et illitteratam ut sibilus quae fit frustra et non gratia significandi aliquid aut vocis alicuius irrationalium animalium repraesentatio, quae fit non gratia repraesentationis (haec enim iam significativa), sed quae fit inordinate et sine intentione finis” (“For there will be vocal sound which is significant and lettered, like ‘human being,’ vocal sound which is significant and unlettered, like the bark of a dog, vocal sound which is meaningless and lettered, like ‘blituri,’ and vocal sound which is meaningless and unlettered, like whistling which is done for no reason and not to signify anything or the imitation [by a man] of some vocal sound made by irrational animals when it happens not in order to mimic (for that would already be significant), but in a random and purposeless manner”). Ammonius, On Aristotle’s On Interpretation 1–8, Translated by David Blank, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996, p. 40. (Commentaire sur le Peri Herm., op. cit., pp. 59, 3–60). Thomas was doubtless familiar with Ammonius in William of Moerbeke’s translation. In his commentary on the De Interpretatione (IV, 39) he echoes one of its typical lines of argument: “Sed cum vox sit quedam res naturalis, nomen autem non est aliquid naturale sed ab hominibus institutum, videtur quod non debuit genus nominis ponere vocem, quae est ex natura, sed magis signum, quod est ex institutione, ut diceretur: nomen est signum vocale; sicut enim convenientius definiretur scutella, si quis diceret quod est vas ligneum, quam si quis diceret qupod est lignum formatum in vas.” In his commentary the example Ammonius gave was that of the throne (pp. 76). What is more worthy of note is that, shortly afterward (IV, 40), Thomas appears not to accept Ammonius’s proposal to define nomen by taking signum as its genus. This is why in Figure 4 we preferred to insert sonus as our genus. See in this connection Latratus canis (“On Animal Language”).

See Max Pohlenz, Die Stoa. Die Geschichte einer geistigen Bewegung, Göttingen, Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1948–1955 and Pinborg (1962: 155–156).

See Latratus canis (“On Animal Language”), p. 31, n. 25. This identification is particularly explicit in John of Dacia’s Summa grammatica, and it appears in the second half of the fourteenth century in a manual of logic like the Summulae Logicales of Richard of Lavenham (see Spade 1980: 380–381), where the pseudo-language of parrots is discussed, citing Isadore and an epigram of Martial’s.

The position of the grammarians on the relationship between meaning and articulation would appear less original if we were to accept the reading of De Interpretatione proposed by Lo Piparo (2003) mentioned in Note 27 above. If kata syntheken is not to be interpreted as ad placitum but “by virtue of articulation, by syntactic composition of sounds otherwise deprived of meaning,” we might be entitled to suspect that the grammatical tradition had somehow been influenced by an original reading of Aristotle. And in that case the grammarians would not have considered it implicit that one articulates in order to express something, but rather that a linguistic articulation was necessary if one was to express oneself conceptually. If this was the case it would be more comprehensible why for them articulation was so closely tied to the meaning to be expressed.

For a more detailed discussion see Latratus canis (“On Animal Language”), p. 13, n. 16, and p. 17, nn. 29 and 36, where the somewhat anomalous solution of a contemporary of Thomas, the Pseudo-Kilwardby, is also considered. Influenced by Priscian, he is inclined to exclude animal voices from the field of conventional signification, and yet, unlike the other grammarians and Modistae who will come later, he attempts a classification of all signa. In his system, then, animal sounds are indeed excluded from the voces significativae, only to reappear, albeit with some ambiguity, among the signa naturalia. “Ad hoc dicendum quod diversae sunt scientiae de signis. Signorum enim quaedam significant aliquid ex institutione et quaedam significant naturaliter ut effectus generaliter sive sit convertibilis sive non convertibilis cum sua causa est signum suae causae. Quod patet tam in genere naturae quam in genere moris. In genere naturae fumus est signum ignis non convertibile et defectus luminis sive eclipsis a corpore luminoso est signum interpositionis tenebrosis corporis.

Similiter in genere moris delectatio, quae est in operationibus, est signum habitus voluntarii, sicut dicit Philosophus in secundo Ethicorum ubi dicit quod opportet signa facere habituum delectationem vel tristitiam in operationibus. Et sic patet quod effectus generaliter est signum suae causae. Unde Philosophus primo Posteriorum demonstrationes factas per effectum vocat syllogismos per signa in illa parte: ‘Quoniam