Volume XXII: The Épinal, Erfurt, Werden, and Corpus Glossaries

Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile Finding Aid Home

v. I     v. II     v. III     v.IV     v. V     v.VI     v.VII     v.VIII     v.IX     v.X

v.XI     v.XII     v.XIII    v.XIV     v.XV     v.XVI     v.XVII     v.XVIII     v.XIX    

v.XX     v.XXI     v.XXII     v.XXIII     v.XXIV     v.XV     v.XVI     v.XVII    

v.XXVIII and XXIX    Other resources

Volume XXII: The Épinal, Erfurt, Werden, and Corpus Glossaries

In this volume are gathered four glossary manuscripts of seventh-to-ninth-century date, representing the earliest lexicographical initiatives of the Anglo-Saxons. They derive from collections of glosses compiled in England in the seventh century. The Èpinal and Corpus glossaries were written in England, but the Erfurt manuscript is in a type of script used in the school of St Peter’s cathedral, Cologne, at the beginning of the eight century, while the script of the Werden manuscript of the same date is related to other manuscripts from the monastery of St Liudger, (Essen-) Werden; they are thus early witnesses to the influence of English scholarship upon the Continent. Taken together, these glossaries are an index, however inadequate, to the intellectual life of their time. More than that, their entries in English provide precious material for the linguist, being by far the most substantial evidence we have for the state of the language at such an early period.

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