The ''Ars Bonifacii'' is the title given to a

Latin grammar Latin is a heavily inflected language with largely free word order. Nouns are inflected for number and case; pronouns and adjectives (including participles) are inflected for number, case, and gender; and verbs are inflected for person, numbe ...

ascribed to

Saint Boniface Boniface, OSB (born Wynfreth; 675 –5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of Francia during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations of ...

Textual history

The text survives in three manuscripts. # The so-called ''Kaufunger Fragment'', named for

Kaufungen Abbey Kaufungen Abbey () was a Benedictine nunnery founded in 1017 by the Empress Cunigunde of Luxembourg, wife of Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, located in Kaufungen in Hessen, Germany. History In May 1017 Cunigunde was staying on the imperial estate ...

; this may have been copied in the south of England even during the saint's lifetime (he died in 754). #

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana The Vatican Apostolic Library (, ), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City, and is the city-state's national library. It was formally established in 1475, alth ...

, Pal. Lat. 1746, a codex deriving from

Lorsch Lorsch () is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hessen, Germany, 60 km south of Frankfurt. Lorsch is well known for the Lorsch Abbey, which has been named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Geography Location Lorsch lies about 5 km ...

, Hessen, consisting of a number of varied texts, including the

Rule of St. Augustine The Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about the year 400, is a brief document divided into eight chapters and serves as an outline for religious life lived in community. It is the oldest monastic rule in the Western Church. The rule, develop ...

and Isidore's ''

Etymologiae (Latin for 'Etymologies'), also known as the ('Origins'), usually abbreviated ''Orig.'', is an etymological encyclopedia compiled by the influential Christian bishop Isidore of Seville () towards the end of his life. Isidore was encouraged t ...

'', as well as another Anglo-Saxon grammar, by

Tatwine Tatwine ( – 30 July 734) was the tenth Archbishop of Canterbury from 731 to 734. Prior to becoming archbishop, he was a monk and abbot of a Benedictine monastery. Besides his ecclesiastical career, Tatwine was a writer, and riddles he compos ...

. # Bibliothèque nationale Paris, Lat. 17959, a composite codex whose second part, containing the grammars by Boniface and Tatwine, is possibly from the

abbey of Saint-Riquier The abbey of Saint-Riquier was founded in 625 by Richarius (Riquier), son of the governor of the town of Centula (or ''Centulum''), which lay within the kingdom of Austrasia. The foundation was enriched by King Dagobert I and prospered under the ab ...

. The latter two date from the late eighth-early ninth centuries, and both also contain the grammar of Tatwine, though Vivien Law notes that the two did not share a transmission history and came to the two codices by different ways--Tatwine's likely from England to the court of

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 ...

, and Boniface's from the areas in Germany where Anglo-Saxon missionaries were active.

Sources

The basic framework of Boniface's grammar derives from

Aelius Donatus Aelius Donatus (; fl. mid-fourth century AD) was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric. He once taught Jerome, an early Christian Church father who is most known for his translation of the Bible into Latin, known as the Latin Vulgate. N ...

's ''Ars Maior'', though his examples are drawn from elsewhere. It shares four sources with Tatwine's: Donatus,

Priscian Priscianus Caesariensis (), commonly known as Priscian ( or ), was a Latin grammarian and the author of the ''Institutes of Grammar'', which was the standard textbook for the study of Latin during the Middle Ages. It also provided the raw materia ...

, Isidore, and Asporius. In addition, Boniface used

Charisius Flavius Sosipater Charisius ( 4th century AD) was a Latin grammarian. He was probably an African by birth, summoned to Constantinople to take the place of Euanthius, a learned commentator on Terence. ''Ars Grammatica'' The ''Ars Grammatica'' ...

, Phocas, Audax,

Diomedes Grammaticus Diomedes Grammaticus was a Latin grammarian who probably lived in the late 4th century AD. He wrote a grammatical treatise, known either as ''De Oratione et Partibus Orationis et Vario Genere Metrorum libri III'' or '' Ars grammatica'' in three boo ...

, Sergius (pseudo-Cassiodorus),

Virgilius Maro Grammaticus Virgilius Maro Grammaticus (, ), known in English as Virgil the Grammarian or Virgil of Toulouse, is the author of two early medieval grammatical texts known as the ''Epitomae'' and the ''Epistolae''. Biographical It is unknown exactly when or ...

, and

Aldhelm Aldhelm (, ; 25 May 709), Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey, Bishop of Sherborne, and a writer and scholar of Latin poetry, was born before the middle of the 7th century. He is said to have been the son of Kenten, who was of the royal house of Wessex ...

to provide him with theory and examples. Boniface's Latin was church Latin; it was used specifically to read scripture and liturgy, as well as commentary on scripture. However, in contrast with earlier grammars from the fourth and fifth centuries, his grammar is written for an audience that learned Latin as a foreign language. The Christian backdrop for such language learning also meant that Boniface and other grammarians at the time had to incorporate non-Latin terms and names (specifically, some Greek terminology and Hebrew names) in the Latin grammatical system. In general, Boniface's Latin was heavily influenced by Aldhelm; in 1931,

Paul Lehmann Paul Lehmann (13 July 1884 – 4 January 1964) was a German paleographer and philologist.Memoir by Harry Caplan, Taylor Starck, and B. L. Ullman in ''Speculum'' Vol. 40, No. 3, Jul. 1965, p. 583 Biography Paul Lehmann was the son of business ...

even identified the grammar as having been written by Aldhelm.

References

{{Reflist Latin grammar books