The Leyden manuscript (Breton (language), Breton: ''Dornskrid Leiden'') is the name usually given in Breton studies to a four-page leaflet ("bifolio") kept in Leiden University Libraries in the Netherlands. It is a fragment of a Latin medical treatise supposedly dating from the late 8th century, 8th or 9th century, 9th century in which two Irish language, Irish words appear and about thirty Old Breton words.

Language and origin

Pierre-Yves Lambert thus describes the place held by Breton in this text (translation from French):

Vossianus lat. 96 A has the peculiarity of including Old Breton not in the gloss (annotation), glosses, but in the main text: it is one of the few documents where the vernacular language is not restricted to secondary use. Nevertheless, Old Breton only intervenes on one page of this bifolio and there it remains subordinate to Latin insofar as it is simply technical words (names of plants, preparations) which are substituted for the corresponding Latin words.

From a literary point of view, Lambert adds:

Leiden's medical fragment is doubtless not typically Breton in the subject: it is a question of ancient or medieval Latin medication, recipes that are constantly being copied in monastery, monasteries.

Professor emeritus Hervé Le Bihan from the Insular Celtic languages, Breton-Celtic department of Rennes 2 University noted that the origin and date are problably Cornish language, Cornish and the first half of the 10th century, respectively, although the words are closer to Breton. Heather Stuart found similar or identical manuscript texts, the Laon manuscript Laon 426 folio 117-119, and Amiens ms. Escalopier 2, folio I-XII.

Breton words found

Some examples of the Breton words found in the manuscript:

Literature

* * * This article contains a transcription of the manuscript (pp. 18-21) followed by a glossary (pp. 21–25). *

External link

Notes

{{Portal bar, linguistics 9th-century manuscripts Breton language Manuscripts in Leiden University Library Medical manuscripts