Beschreibung:

Fragment of two leaves from the Liber Glossarum, an early Carolingian Latin encyclopedia, with remarkably early vernacular glosses in Old High German, manuscript on parchment [Germany (probably south), first half of the twelfth century] Cutting with the top half of a leaf and part of the adjacent sister leaf from the bifolium, with remains of double column of 41 lines in an elegant and readable early gothic bookhand (entries for B and C), with strong st-ligature and majuscule R used to form abbreviation for -orum, five main words glossed in contemporary hand in Old High German (see below), larger initials in same penwork, some small natural flaws in parchment repaired with small cuttings from other leaves in the same parent volume, later C at head of main leaf (perhaps thirteenth-century hand), and partially trimmed away inscription of fourteenth century: iste liber est sanctorum … at foot of leaf cut down to a stub, folds, spots, else good and solid condition, 304 by 411mm. The Liber Glossarum is an enormous and sprawling encyclopedic work, arranged alphabetically so that a reader could look up the meaning of an individual Latin word, find its numerous synonyms, and read a brief collection of information on the specific topic. As the earliest copies were written in the local pre-Carolingian script of Corbie AB minuscule, it is thought to have been initially compiled in that imperial abbey, most probably during the abbacy of Adalhard (780-814 and 821-826). Adalhard was a cousin of Charlemagne, and thus perhaps the work was produced under direct imperial patronage; certainly it provided a powerful reference tool for the Carolingian Renaissance blossoming in the imperial court. Many manuscripts of the text survive, but what sets this one apart is that on five occasions the scribe, or a near-contemporary, has glossed the meanings of certain words in Old High German in the interlinear space above the Latin word in question, with: (i) Castri margia glossed with what is perhaps gragi, (ii) Catax with hufhalz, (iii) Cartilago with prustlesel, (iv) Cassia with wichpom and (v) Cassis with helm. As a language, German is blessed with having a number of manuscript witnesses to its early forms, including the late eighth-century Abrogans codex, which contains a glossary with 3670 words (now St Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 911) among other word lists and collections of glosses. However, such items are unobtainable for the private collector, and these words here are among the very earliest witnesses to that language to come to the open market.