Canapé

The name comes from the Latin dogs ("little dog") and indicates the star that rises and sets with the Sun (heliacal rising) from 24 July to 26 August (the "dog days" period)^[3]. The name of the constellation probably derives from the ancient Egyptians, as it warned (like a watchful dog) the arrival of the period of the Nile floods.

In the Middle Ages it began on 25 July, a feast of San Cristoforo and ended on August 24th. This period of the year had a particular symbolic attraction in popular culture: for example, there was the feast of Saint Guinefort, the holy dog. The strong symbolism of this period was derived from various beliefs: it was thought for example that the presence of Sirio in the sky was the cause of the heat, adding his warmth to that of the sun; he had maleficial implications for the "surheating of blood" which facilitated diseases, actually caused by the increase of malarial mosquitoes. The dog heat influenced, always according to the medieval beliefs, also the success of some technical recipes, so it was the propitious period to get some ingredients and work them adequately to obtain particular substances.