The Codex Cumanicus is a

linguistic 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 ...

manual of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, designed to help

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

missionaries communicate with the

Cumans The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic people, Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cumania, Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Ru ...

, a nomadic Turkic people. It is currently housed in the Library of St. Mark, in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

(BNM ms Lat. Z. 549 (=1597)). The codex was created in

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

in 14th century and is considered one of the oldest attestations of the

Crimean Tatar language Crimean Tatar (), also called Crimean (), is a Turkic languages, Turkic language spoken in Crimea and the Crimean Tatar diasporas of Uzbekistan, Turkey and Bulgaria, as well as small communities in the United States and Canada. It should not ...

, which is of great importance for the history of Kipchak and Oghuz dialects — as directly related to the Kipchaks (Polovtsy, Kumans) of the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

steppes and particularly the Crimean peninsula.

Origin and content

It consists of two parts. The first part consists of a dictionary in

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 ...

, Persian and

Cuman The Cumans or Kumans were a Turkic nomadic people from Central Asia comprising the western branch of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation who spoke the Cuman language. They are referred to as Polovtsians (''Polovtsy'') in Rus' chronicles, as " ...

written in the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

, and a column with Cuman verbs, names and pronouns with its meaning in Latin. The second part consists of Cuman- German dictionary, information about the Cuman grammar, and poems belonging to

Petrarch Francis Petrarch (; 20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374; ; modern ), born Francesco di Petracco, was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest Renaissance humanism, humanists. Petrarch's redis ...

.
Codex Cumanicus (Kumanlar Kitabı) However the codex referred to the language as "Tatar" (''tatar til''). The first part of Codex Cumanicus was written for practical purposes, to help learn the language. The second part was written to spread Christianity among the

and different quotes from the religious books were provided with its Cuman translation. In the same section there are words, phrases, sentences and about 50 riddles, as well as stories about the life and work of religious leaders. The

codex The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...

likely developed over time. Mercantile, political, and religious leaders, particularly in Hungary, sought effective communication with the

as early as the mid-11th century. As

Italian city-states The Italian city-states were numerous political and independent territorial entities that existed in the Italian Peninsula from antiquity to the formation of the Kingdom of Italy in the late 19th century. The ancient Italian city-states were E ...

such as

Republic of Genoa The Republic of Genoa ( ; ; ) was a medieval and early modern Maritime republics, maritime republic from the years 1099 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italy, Italian coast. During the Late Middle Ages, it was a major commercial power in ...

began to establish trade posts and colonies along the

coastline, the need for tools to learn the Cuman language sharply increased. The earliest parts of the codex are believed to have originated in the 12th or 13th century. Substantial additions were likely made over time. The copy preserved in

is dated 11 July 1303 on fol. 1rhttps://archive.org/details/codexcumanicusbi00kuunuoft/page/n147/mode/2up "MCCCIII die XI Iuly" (see Drimba, p. 35 and Schmieder in Schmieder/Schreiner, p. XIII). The codex consists of a number of independent works combined into one.

Riddles

The "Cuman Riddles" (CC, 119–120; 143–148) are a crucial source for the study of early Turkic folklore. Andreas Tietze referred to them as "the earliest variants of riddle types that constitute a common heritage of the Turkic nations." Among the riddles in the codex are the following excerpts: * :"The white

yurt A yurt (from the Turkic languages) or ger (Mongolian language, Mongolian) is a portable, round tent covered and Thermal insulation, insulated with Hide (skin), skins or felt and traditionally used as a dwelling by several distinct Nomad, nomad ...

has no mouth (opening). That is the egg." * :"my bluish kid at the tethering rope grows fat, The melon." * :"Where I sit is a hilly place. Where I tread is a copper bowl. The stirrup."

Example

The codex's Pater Noster reads:

Codex Cumanicus sources

* Güner, Galip (2016), Kuman Bilmeceleri Üzerine Notlar (Notes on the Cuman Riddles), Kesit Press, İstanbul. 168 pp. * Argunşah, Mustafa; Güner, Galip, Codex Cumanicus, Kesit Yayınları, İstanbul, 2015, 1080 pp. (https://www.academia.edu/16819097/Codex_Cumanicus)
Dr. Peter B. Golden on the Codex

Italian Part of “Codex Cumanicus”, pp. 1 - 55. (38,119 Mb)

German Part of “Codex Cumanicus”, pp. 56 - 83. (5,294 Mb)
* Schmieder, Felicitas et Schreiner, Peter (eds.), Il Codice Cumanico e il suo mondo. Atti del Colloquio Internazionale, Venezia, 6-7 dicembre 2002. Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2005, XXXI-350 p., ill. (Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani, Ricerche, 2). * Drimba, Vladimir, Codex Comanicus. Édition diplomatique avec fac-similés, Bucarest 2000. * Davud Monshizadeh, Das Persische im Codex Cumanicus, Uppsala: Studia Indoeuropaea Upsaliensia, 1969.

References

External links

Codex Cumanicus on-line
* Full text of the Codex Cumanicus in Latin * Golden, Peter B.
Codex Cumanicus
. Provides an in depth overview of the book's content. * Article in Encyclopædia Iranica: http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/codex-cumanicus *Complete copy of Ligeti's Prolegomena and Kuun's Latin edition and commentary (as published in Budapest, 1981): https://library.hungaricana.hu/hu/view/MTAKonyvtarKiadvanyai_BORB_01/?pg=0&layout=s *Ligeti's Prolegomena
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23682271
{{Authority control 14th-century books 14th-century Christian texts Cumans Riddles 14th-century manuscripts Cuman language Latin dictionaries Persian dictionaries Manuscripts in Latin