once pristine

name, virgil : a strangely circular and metalinguistic virgilius grammaticus reaffirms the 'ontological status' of naming names : his teacher is aeneas, a character created by another virgil, and several other virgils apparently appear in his grammars : vivien law explains that medieval readers were naturally accustomed to looking for meaning and significance in proper names : law describes the virgilius chapter titled propria nomina as containing underlying layers of discoverable significance : she quotes virgilius: 'Proper nouns are not to be read as mere noises, but as having some subtler interpretation.' : she also cites Isidore of Sevile, who 'points out in his Etymologiae ... many names are motivated by their own causes' : what is the nature of the causes that motivate names, which are not mere noises : if names are motivated by their own causes, what is the role of name giver, if it is the will of the name giver which bestows the name, but yet names are motivated by their own causes : 'a man can do as he wills, but not determine what it is that he wills', schopenhauer : the nomothete gives the name that he wills, but does not determine the name that he gives : zachary, father of john the baptist, luke: zechariah's dumbness is very intertwined with the usurpation by the angel of his role as name giver : he is told by the angel that elizabeth will have a son and that his name will be john, he doubts and so the angel takes away his voice : he remains dumb until exactly the moment when he must declare the child's name : john was about to be named zechariah, but elizabeth claimed his name was to be john, the crowd did not believe her and asked zechariah, who asked for a writing table and wrote that the child's name was to be john, at this moment he was again able to speak : isaiah's foretelling of john: 'the voice of one crying in the desert' and 'the mouth of the Lord hath spoken' : john the baptist's death: the literal severing of his voice box: