Catholicon () is a 15th-century

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

written in

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally **Breton people **Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Gale ...

, French, and

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 ...

. It is the first Breton dictionary and also the first French dictionary. It contains six thousand entries and was compiled in 1464 by the Breton priest . It was printed in 1499 in Tréguier. A dictionary manuscript is preserved in the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

in Paris, identified as Latin 7656. This ''Catholicon'' is referred to by some historians as the , in reference to

Armorica In ancient times, Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; ; ) was a region of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, and much of historical Normandy. Name The name ''Armorica'' is a Latinized form of the Gauli ...

, which is a name for

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

in Latin. It is a different dictionary than the , which is an English–Latin dictionary compiled at very nearly the same time in England. The is also to be distinguished from the ''Catholicon'' of John of Genoa, a dictionary dated late 13th century written in Italy.

Bibliography

* ''Le Catholicon'', reproduction of Jehan Calvez's edition (5 November 1499) from a copy at Rennes, edited by Christian-J. Guyonvarc'h, Éditions Ogam, Rennes, 1975 **–do. –New edition issued by éditions Armeline, Brest, 2005 * * ''Le vocabulaire breton du Catholicon (1499), le premier dictionnaire breton imprimé breton-français-latin de Jehan Lagadeuc'', edited by Gwennole Le Menn, (Bibliothèque bretonne; 11.) Imprimerie Keltia Graphic, Edition Skol (Spézet), 2001 * *

External links

Facsimile edition of the ''Catholicon''
Breton language Breton dictionaries French dictionaries Latin dictionaries Multilingual dictionaries 15th-century books in Latin {{Dict-stub