The Épinal-Erfurt glossary is a glossary of
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
. It survives in two manuscripts (from Épinal and Erfurt). It has been described as "the earliest body of written English",
and is thought to have been compiled at
Malmesbury
Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the upp ...
for
Aldhelm (c. 639–709).
Manuscripts
Two main manuscripts of the Glossary exist today:
* ,
Épinal
Épinal (; german: Spinal) is a commune in northeastern France and the prefecture of the Vosges department.
Geography
The commune has a land area of . It is situated on the river Moselle, south of Nancy. Épinal station has rail connecti ...
, France, Bibliothèque municipale, MS72 (2), fols. 94–107, around the turn of the seventh to eighth centuries, England (perhaps specifically
Southumbria
The Southumbrians or 'Suðanhymbre' were the Anglo-Saxon people occupying northern Mercia. The term might not have been used by the Mercians and was instead possibly coined by the Deiran or Bernician people as a territorial response to their own ...
).
*
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
, Germany, Wissenschaftliche Bibliothek, MS Amplonianus, MS 2
o42, fols. 1–14v, from the first quarter of the ninth century. (This contains other glossaries too; the one shared with the Épinal manuscript is known as "Erfurt I".)
However, parts of the glossary are also found in other manuscripts, most importantly the
Second Corpus Glossary, which contains amidst other glosses a complete text of the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary, descended independently from a common exemplar.
[Phillip Pulsiano, ‘Prayers, Glosses and Glossaries’, in ''A Companion to Anglo-Saxon Literature'', ed. by Phillip Pulsiano and Elaine Treharne (Oxford, 2001), pp. 209–30 (p. 218).]
Facsimiles
* ''The Épinal Glossary, Latin and Old English'', ed. by Henry Sweet, Early English Text Society, o.s. 79b (London: Trübner, 1883).
* Bischoff, Bernhard, Mildred Budny, Geoffrey Harlow, M. B. Parkes and J. D. Pheifer (eds), ''The Épinal, Erfurt, Werden, and Corpus Glossaries: Épinal Bibliothèque Municipale 72 (2), Erfurt Wissenschaftliche Bibliothek Amplonianus 2o 42, Düsseldorf Universitätsbibliothek Fragm. K 19: Z 9/1, Munich Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Cgm. 187 III (e.4), Cambridge Corpus Christi College 144'', Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, 22 (Copenhagen, 1988).
Online facsimile of the Épinal MS
Editions
''The Oldest English Texts'' ed. by
Henry Sweet
Henry Sweet (15 September 1845 – 30 April 1912) was an English philologist, phonetician and grammarian.''Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language'', as hosted oencyclopedia.com/ref>
As a philologist, he specialized in the Germanic lang ...
,
Early English Text Society
The Early English Text Society (EETS) is a text publication society founded in 1864 which is dedicated to the editing and publication of early English texts, especially those only available in manuscript. Most of its volumes contain editions of ...
, o. s. 83 (London: Oxford University Press, 1885), pp. 35–107.
* “The Épinal Glossary, Edited with Critical Commentary of the Vocabulary”, ed. by A. K. Brown, 3 vols (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1969).
*
Old English Glosses in the Epinal-Erfurt Glossary', ed. by J. D. Pheifer (Oxford:
Clarendon Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1974), .
*
The Épinal-Erfurt Glossary Project: A Critical Edition of the Épinal-Erfurt Glossary', ed. by Michael W. Herren, David W. Porter, Hans Sauer (Toronto: The Dictionary of Old English, 2019-).
Commentaries
*
References
Old English dictionaries
7th-century manuscripts
9th-century manuscripts
Glossaries
Old English literature
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