''Abrogans'', also ''German Abrogans'' or ''Codex Abrogans'' (St Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 911), is a

Middle Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. It was also the administrative language in the former Roman Provinces of Mauretania, Numidia and Africa Proconsularis under the Vandals ...

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Old High German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

glossary A glossary (from , ''glossa''; language, speech, wording), also known as a vocabulary or clavis, is an alphabetical list of Term (language), terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms. Traditionally, a gloss ...

, whose preserved copy in the Abbey Library of St Gall is regarded as the oldest preserved book in the German language. Dating from the 8th century (765–775), the glossary contains approximately 3,670 Old High German words in over 14,600 examples and is therefore a valuable source for the knowledge of the oldest Upper German language. It was named by German researchers after its first entry: = ( = modest, humble). On several occasions the South Tyrolean bishop Arbeo of Freising († 783 or 784) or the Benedictine monk Kero are named as authors.

General Information

The German ''Abrogans'' is a

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

–

thesaurus A thesaurus (: thesauri or thesauruses), sometimes called a synonym dictionary or dictionary of synonyms, is a reference work which arranges words by their meanings (or in simpler terms, a book where one can find different words with similar me ...

, which was not, however, produced from a collection of Latin – Old High German translations, but structured on a pure Latin, alphabetically-sorted thesaurus. This Latin–Latin glossary, the Latin ''Abrogans'', was probably compiled in Italy (possibly in the important southern Italian monastery

Vivarium A vivarium (; or vivariums) is an area, usually enclosed, for keeping and raising animals or plants for observation or research. Water-based vivaria may have open tops providing they are not connected to other water bodies. An animal enclosur ...

) of numerous older late-antiquity and early medieval glossaries. Thus arose a dictionary in which rare expressions, above all from biblical Latin, were explained. The dictionary was likely finally translated into German in the second half of the 8th century in the old Bavarian bishopric Freising, which came under control of the bishop Arbeo (he was bishop here from 764 to 783). At the same time, both the Latin key word and its Latin reproduction were entered with the Old High German equivalents. For example: This arrangement often led to poor translations around the middle of the 8th century, for example translations in which parts of speech were erroneously exchanged. Nevertheless, the ''Abrogans'' offers tremendous material for

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, which still today is not yet completely analyzed. It includes about 700 words that do not appear in any other Old High German texts.

Tradition

No specimens from the time of origin of the glossary in the 8th century have been saved. Only three younger Alemannic copies of the Bavarian document are preserved. The best, albeit mangled handwriting is the direct copy of the

archetype The concept of an archetype ( ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, philosophy and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main mo ...

that was made around 810 in Murbach for

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

(Baesecke) or in

Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...

under Bishop Baturich ( Bernhard Bischoff). (Paris, Bibl. Nat., cod. lat. 7640, f. 124r-132v).

Literature

* Bernhard Bischoff (Publisher.): ''Die „Abrogans“-Handschrift der Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen. Das älteste deutsche Buch''. Zollikofer, St. Gallen 1977. (German) *# ''Faksimile''. *# ''Kommentar und Transkription.'' * Jochen Splett: ''Abrogans deutsch''. In: Verfasserlexikon. Band 1. 1978. Sp. 12–15. (German) * Jochen Splett: ''Abrogans-Studien. Kommentar zum ältesten deutschen Wörterbuch''. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1976, , (Zugleich: Münster, Univ., Habilitations-Schrift, 1972). (German)

External links

Abrogans im Handschriftencensus
(German)

''Digital facsimile of the Codex Abrogans''
(Cod. Sang. 911) in the Digital Abbey Library of St. Galle
''Codices Electronici Sangallenses (CESG)''

References

''Codex Abrogans''
A transcription of the Codex Abrogans (Latin and German) equests a username & password {{Authority control 8th-century manuscripts Glossaries Old High German literature Earliest known manuscripts by language Manuscripts in the Abbey library of Saint Gall Medieval documents Encyclopedias in German Medieval European encyclopedias 8th-century books in Latin Latin dictionaries