Main Menu | List of entries | finished

LIA. Leah, Laban's elder daughter with weak eyes, was stealthily married to Jacob in place of Rachel, whom he loved. Not until the next morning did Jacob know that Laban had deceived him (Genesis 29:13-35).

The Second Nun defines Cecile as a "conjoynynge of heaven and Lia," explaining that Lia represents the saint's busyness, SNP 94-98. Jacobus de Voragine says that the saint is called Lya because of her hard work, LA CLXIX. Leah represents the active life, Purg XXVII.97-108. [Cecile: Jacob: Jacobus Januensis: Rachel]

Lia is the form in the Latin Vulgate, and appears twice medially, SNT 96, 98.

Dante, Divine Comedy, ed. and trans. C.S. Singleton, II, 1: 296-297; Jacobus de Voragine, GL, trans. G. Ryan and H. Ripperger, 689; ibid., LA, ed. Th. Graesse, 771.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
Main Menu | List of entries | finished