A Suggested Emendation of Isidore of Seville, ‘Etymologiae’ 4.8.9

In this passage, Lindsay prints ‘Verrucae aliud sunt: satiriasis aliud. Verrucae singulatim sunt, satiriasis vero una fortior, et circa ipsam plures inveniuntur.’ This seems corrupt, and it is known that Isidore did not live to revise his Etymologiae. ‘Verrucae’ can refer both to common warts and to pigmented nevi, the familiar brown moles; cf. Scribonius Largus, Conpositiones 228: ‘Si quando non exulceratas eminentias tollere sine ferro voluerimus, ut verrucas, naevos aliave eius generis …’ (ed. G. Helmreich [Leipzig 1887] p. 91f.). However, ‘satiriasis’ is discussed at Etymologiae 4.7.34 as sexual excitement of unusual degree, and may veil a reference to abnormal sexual acts or be confused with priapism. Some of, the MSS cited by Otto read phtiriasis for satyriasis, and this would demand translation as ‘louse infestation’; cf. Cassius Felix, De medicina 3: ‘In cachecticis corporibus id est mala habitudine affectis pediculosa passio generator quam Graeci pthiriasin vocant’ (ed. V. Rose [Leipzig 1879] p. 11). Other MSS read circa ipsam pruritus ex squammatione inveniuntur in place of circa ipsam plures inveniuntur, and the phrase pruritus ex squammatione suggests that pityriasis might correctly be read for satiriasis.