Cleopatra Glossaries
Encyclopedia
Cotton Cleopatra A.iii is an Anglo-Saxon manuscript once held in the Cotton library
, now held in the British Library
, and contains three glossaries
, providing important evidence for Old English vocabulary, as well as for learning and scholarship in Anglo-Saxon England generally. The manuscript was probably written at St Augustine's, Canterbury, and has generally been dated to the mid-tenth century, though recent work suggests the 930s specifically. The manuscript contains three Latin-Old English glossaries.
The First Cleopatra Glossary (folios 5r-75v) is alphabeticised by first letter, drawing on a wide range of sources, including a glossary more or less identical to the Third Cleopatra Glossary, material related to the Corpus Glossary, and a glossed text of Isidore of Seville
's Etymologiae. Some of these sources are among the earliest glosses in English, but the Cleopatra reviser (or his source) often revised them. The glossary only gets as far as P: the compilation or copying seems never to have been completed.
The Second Cleopatra Glossary (folios 76r-91v) contains a shorter glossary, organised by subject. A closely related glossary is found in the first three subject lists of the Brussels Glossary (Brussels, Royal Library, 1928-30).
The Third Cleopatra Glossary (folios 92r-117v) contains glosses to Aldhelm's Prosa de virginitate and Carmen de virginitate, with the lemmata in the same order as they appear in the text. It was presumably, therefore, based on a copy of Aldhelm's texts which had interlinear glosses. This glossary or one like it was influential, influencing Byrhtferth
of Ramsey and at least one Anglo-Saxon medical text. Kittlick's linguistic investigation showed that some, at least, of the glosses in the Third Cleopatra Glossary are in the Anglian dialect of Old English, with later overlays from West Saxon and Kentish (probably in that order). The glossary--though not necessarily all its entries--must have originated in the eighth century.
About two thirds of the material in the Cleopatra Glossaries also occurs in the later Harley Glossary.
Cotton library
The Cotton or Cottonian library was collected privately by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton M.P. , an antiquarian and bibliophile, and was the basis of the British Library...
, now held in the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, and contains three glossaries
Glossary
A glossary, also known as an idioticon, vocabulary, or clavis, is an alphabetical list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms...
, providing important evidence for Old English vocabulary, as well as for learning and scholarship in Anglo-Saxon England generally. The manuscript was probably written at St Augustine's, Canterbury, and has generally been dated to the mid-tenth century, though recent work suggests the 930s specifically. The manuscript contains three Latin-Old English glossaries.
The First Cleopatra Glossary (folios 5r-75v) is alphabeticised by first letter, drawing on a wide range of sources, including a glossary more or less identical to the Third Cleopatra Glossary, material related to the Corpus Glossary, and a glossed text of Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville
Saint Isidore of Seville served as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "le dernier savant du monde ancien"...
's Etymologiae. Some of these sources are among the earliest glosses in English, but the Cleopatra reviser (or his source) often revised them. The glossary only gets as far as P: the compilation or copying seems never to have been completed.
The Second Cleopatra Glossary (folios 76r-91v) contains a shorter glossary, organised by subject. A closely related glossary is found in the first three subject lists of the Brussels Glossary (Brussels, Royal Library, 1928-30).
The Third Cleopatra Glossary (folios 92r-117v) contains glosses to Aldhelm's Prosa de virginitate and Carmen de virginitate, with the lemmata in the same order as they appear in the text. It was presumably, therefore, based on a copy of Aldhelm's texts which had interlinear glosses. This glossary or one like it was influential, influencing Byrhtferth
Byrhtferth
Byrhtferth was a priest and monk who lived at Ramsey Abbey. He had a deep impact on the intellectual life of later Anglo-Saxon England and wrote many computistic, hagiographic, and historical works. He was a leading man of science and best known as the author of many different works...
of Ramsey and at least one Anglo-Saxon medical text. Kittlick's linguistic investigation showed that some, at least, of the glosses in the Third Cleopatra Glossary are in the Anglian dialect of Old English, with later overlays from West Saxon and Kentish (probably in that order). The glossary--though not necessarily all its entries--must have originated in the eighth century.
About two thirds of the material in the Cleopatra Glossaries also occurs in the later Harley Glossary.