Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources

Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources
Author(s)	Ronald Edward Latham, David Robert Howlett, et al.
Country	UK
Language	English
Publisher	Oxford University Press for the British Academy
Publication date	1975 to present
Media type	Print
OCLC Number	1369101
Dewey Decimal	473/.21
LC Classification	PA2891

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, the dictionary itself was begun in 1965, and it has been published in fascicles since 1975. It is due for completion in 2014, and will eventually be published online through a grant from the Packard Humanities Institute.^[1]

History

In 1913, Robert Whitwell, a prolific contributor to the OED,^[2] 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).^[3] Whitwell's idea was taken up in 1920 by the new International Union of Academies, which decided in 1924 that each country should produce a nation-specific dictionary whilst also furnishing the material for an international Novum Glossarium.^[4] 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.^[5] Scholars continued to gather quotations, though, and a Revised Word-List appeared in 1965.^[6]

Published fascicles

A binding case for the first five fascicles is supplied with Fascicle V, forming the first volume (A-L).

• 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.), 03 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), expected January 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-726508-6

See also

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

References

1. ^ Liam Sloan, "Latin dictionary is a lifetime career", The Oxford Times, 8 June 2011.
2. ^ Peter Gilliver, "OED Personalia", in Lynda Mugglestone (ed.), Lexicography and the OED: Pioneers in the Untrodden Forest (2000).
3. ^ Robert Jowitt Whitwell, "Mediaeval Latin", letter to The Spectator, 1 February 1913.
4. ^ Union Académique Internationale project page Retrieved on 2011-09-11.
5. ^ James Houston Baxter and Charles Johnson, "Introduction", Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources.
6. ^ Ronald E. Latham, Revised Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources (1965).

Further reading

• Richard Sharpe, "Modern Dictionaries of Medieval Latin", in J. Hamesse (ed.), Bilan et perspectives des études médiévales en Europe. Actes du 1er congrès européen d’études médiévales (Spoleto, 27-29 mai 1993) (1995).
• Richard Ashdowne, "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 (2010).

External links

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