Kassel conversations () is the conventional name of an

early medieval The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Middle Ages of Europ ...

text preserved in a manuscript from c. 810. It is held today in the

university library An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution, which supports the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are an es ...

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

(Ms. 4° theol. 24). It contains several parts, among them an , an instructional theological text 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 ...

. The part that has been of most interest for modern scholarship is that of the so-called Kassel glosses, one of the earliest written documents of the

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 ...

language. The Kassel glosses are a collection of words and short phrases translated from Latin to Old High German. They appear to have been meant as a practical tool to help speakers of

Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

to learn Old High German. Among them are everyday phrases such as orders given to servants ''("shave my beard"),'' questions and answers for basic communication ("do you understand? No, I don't"), and a few fragmentary grammar paradigms ("I understand, you understood, we understood"). The most famous entry, however, is a jocular jibe in Latin and Old High German: *Latin: *Old High German: *Translation: "Roman () people are stupid,

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

ns are smart; there is little smartness in the Romans; they have more stupidity than smartness." The manuscript is written on 60 sheets of parchment. Based on the scribal hands and the forms of the

Carolingian minuscule Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one ...

employed, it is believed that the text was written by two different scribes from the area of

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 ...

c. 810. Parts of the text have a parallel in a second manuscript held in St. Gallen,

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The manuscript came to Kassel from

Fulda Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the city hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival. Histor ...

in 1632. It was mentioned for the first time by

Johann Heinrich Hottinger Johann Heinrich Hottinger (10 March 1620 – 5 June 1667) was a Swiss philologist and theologian. Life and works Hottinger studied at Geneva, Groningen and Leiden. After visiting France and England he was appointed professor of church history ...

in his work {{lang, la, Historica ecclesiastica novi testamenti from 1637. The first scholarly study of the manuscript was done by

Wilhelm Grimm Wilhelm Carl Grimm (also Karl; 24 February 178616 December 1859) was a German author, philologist and anthropologist. He was the younger brother of Jacob Grimm, of the literary duo the Brothers Grimm. Life and work Wilhelm was born in February 1 ...

in 1846. Grimm made the mistake of re-drawing the text with a modern ink to make the writing more legible. This has caused some permanent damage to the fragile material.

References

* Wilhelm Braune und Ernst A. Ebbinghaus (eds.): ''Althochdeutsches Lesebuch'', Tübingen 1968 * Horst Brunner: ''Geschichte der deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters im Überblick (= RUB 9485)'', Stuttgart 2003, S.51 * Wilhelm Grimm: ''Exhortatio ad plebem christianam. Glossae Cassellanae'', in: Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Phil.-hist. Klasse 1846, Seite 425–537, Berlin 1848 * E. Steinmeyer and E. Sievers (eds.):
Die althochdeutschen Glossen
', III, 9-13 (Berlin: Weidmann, 1879 ff.). Old High German literature Writers from the Carolingian Empire 9th-century manuscripts University of Kassel 9th-century books in Latin Translation dictionaries Regensburg (district)

See also

References