The ''Catholicon Anglicum'' () is an English-to-Latin bilingual dictionary compiled in the late 15th century.

History

Writing and publishing

The ''Catholicon Anglicum'' was written in 1483. Its author was anonymous at the time of its writing in the 15th century, and remains unknown to the present day. From the dialect of English used, the author might have been a native of

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

in the north of England. The book was republished by the

Camden Society The Camden Society was a text publication society founded in London in 1838 to publish early historical and literary materials, both unpublished manuscripts and new editions of rare printed books. It was named after the 16th-century antiquary ...

in 1882. The dictionary was edited by Sidney Herrtage prior to its republication. Wikisource:A glossary of words used in the neighbourhood of Sheffield/Catholicon Anglicum

Current status

Two copies of the dictionary are known to be still in existence, only one of which is complete. Since 2014, both dictionaries reside in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

. The first is incomplete: some of the leaves in this copy are missing. It was purchased by the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

in 1846, and was added to the Additional Manuscripts sequence. It is now British Library Add MS 15562. The second, complete dictionary was manuscript no. 168 in the Monson family collection and was collated with Add MS 15562 in a publication by the Camden Society in 1882. This complete version was put up for sale in 2013.

Auction

In July 2013, the complete copy of the ''Catholicon Anglicum'', formerly owned by the Monson family, was sold by

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

to a buyer outside of the United Kingdom for £92,500, so an export ban was subsequently placed on the book by then-culture minister Ed Vaizey after a recommendation from the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA), administered by

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

. The purchase price was eventually matched by the

, which purchased the book on 27 February 2014, shortly before the expiration of the ban. It was then added to the Additional Manuscripts sequence, as Add MS 89074.

Notability

The ''Catholicon Anglicum'' is notable for being one of the earliest dictionaries in the English language. The ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'' stated that many important words in the English language such as ''diphthong'' were first attested in the ''Catholicon Anglicum''. The importance of the ''Catholicon Anglicum'' has been described by Ed Vaizey: "The manuscript is of outstanding significance for the history of the English language, which is fundamental to the identity and life of our nation." Christopher Wright from the RCEWA has said:

References

External links

* * * * * * {{Dictionaries of English 1483 books English dictionaries