Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources

The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources is a lexicon of Medieval Latin, published by Oxford University Press for the British Academy, and sometimes referred to as simply the Dictionary of Medieval Latin or the Medieval Latin Dictionary. After decades of preparatory work, work on the dictionary itself was begun in 1965, and it was published in fascicules between 1975 and 2013.

History

In 1913, Robert Whitwell, a prolific contributor to the OED,^[1] petitioned the British Academy to use the imminent International Congress of Historical Studies to propose a replacement for the standard dictionary of medieval Latin, Du Cange's Glossarium (1678).^[2] Whitwell's idea was taken up in 1920 by the new International Union of Academies, which decided in 1924 that member academies should produce dictionaries based on those medieval Latin texts produced in geographic areas corresponding to their respective present-day territories, whilst also furnishing the material for an international Novum Glossarium.^[3] To this end, the British Academy appointed two committees to direct the collection of quotations, one covering the sixth to eleventh centuries for the Novum Glossarium and the other covering 1066 to 1600 for a dictionary of "late medieval British Latin".

By 1932 the Academy felt that they could usefully publish the first fruits of the project, which appeared in 1934 as the Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources;^[4] a Revised Word-List appeared in 1965.^[5]

Published fascicules

• I: A–B (R.E. Latham), 17 April 1975, ISBN 978-0-19-725948-1
• II: C (R.E. Latham), 14 May 1981, ISBN 978-0-19-725968-9
• III: D–E (R.E. Latham, D.R. Howlett, et al.), 26 June 1986, ISBN 978-0-19-726023-4
• IV: F–G–H (D.R. Howlett, A.H. Powell, et al.), 14 December 1989, ISBN 978-0-19-726082-1
• V: I–J–K–L (D.R. Howlett), 21 August 1997, ISBN 978-0-19-726148-4
• VI: M (D.R. Howlett, J. Blundell, et al.), 3 January 2002, ISBN 978-0-19-726240-5
• VII: N (D.R. Howlett), 30 May 2002, ISBN 978-0-19-726266-5
• VIII: O (D.R. Howlett), 29 January 2004, ISBN 978-0-19-726300-6
• IX: P–Pel (D.R. Howlett), 24 November 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-726340-2
• X: Pel–Phi (D.R. Howlett), 18 January 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-726387-7
• XI: Phi–Pos (D.R. Howlett), 13 December 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-726421-8
• XII: Pos–Pro (D.R. Howlett), 26 March 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-726436-2
• XIII: Pro–Reg (D.R. Howlett), 28 October 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-726467-6
• XIV: Reg–Sal (D.R. Howlett), 8 December 2011, ISBN 978-0-19-726508-6
• XV: Sal–Sol (D.R. Howlett, R.K. Ashdowne), 26 July 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-726528-4
• XVI: Sol–Syr (R.K. Ashdowne, D.R. Howlett), 19 February 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-726545-1
• XVII: Syr–Z (R.K. Ashdowne), 19 December 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-726561-1

A binding case for the first five fascicules is supplied with Fascicule V, forming the first volume (A–L).

See also

• A Latin Dictionary
• Oxford Latin Dictionary
• Lexicon Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis Polonorum

References

1. ↑ Gilliver, Peter. "Biographical Information". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 2013-10-19. 
2. ↑ Robert Jowitt Whitwell, "Mediaeval Latin", letter to The Spectator, 1 February 1913.
3. ↑ Union Académique Internationale project page Retrieved 2011-09-11.
4. ↑ James Houston Baxter and Charles Johnson, "Introduction", Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources.
5. ↑ Ronald E. Latham, Revised Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources (1965).

Further reading

• Ashdowne, Richard (2014). "Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources". British Academy Review 24: 46–53. 
• Ashdowne, R.K. (2010). "'Ut Latine minus vulgariter magis loquamur': The making of the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources". In Christopher Stray (ed.). Classical dictionaries: past, present and future. London: Duckworth. pp. 195–222. ISBN 9780715639160. 
• Latham, R.E. (1957). "Suggestions for a British-Latin Dictionary". Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi 27: 189–229. 
• Sharpe, Richard (1995). "Modern Dictionaries of Medieval Latin". In Jacqueline Hamesse (ed.). Bilan et perspectives des études mediévales en Europe: actes du premier Congres européen d'études médievales (Spoleto, 27-29 mai 1993). Textes et études du moyen âge. Louvain-la-Neuve: Fédération Internationale des Instituts d'Études Médiévales. pp. 289–304. 

External links

• Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources project website
• Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources project blog
• Oxford University Press (UK) catalogue listing
• Quisquiliae, notes from an Assistant Editor on the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources