The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources is a lexicon of Medieval Latin

Medieval Latin

Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...

, published by Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press

Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...

 for the British Academy

British Academy

The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...

, 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

Packard Humanities Institute

The Packard Humanities Institute is a non-profit foundation, established in 1987, and located in Los Altos, California, which funds projects in a wide range of conservation concerns in the fields of archaeology, music, film preservation, and historic conservation, plus Greek epigraphy , with an...

.

History

In 1913, Robert Whitwell

R J Whitwell

Robert Jowitt Whitwell B.Litt. was a British medievalist who made significant contributions to lexicography.- Personal :...

, a prolific contributor to the OED

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...

, petitioned the British Academy

British Academy

The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...

 to use the imminent International Congress of Historical Studies to propose a replacement for the standard dictionary of medieval Latin, Du Cange

Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange

Charles du Fresne, sieur du Cange or Ducange was a distinguished philologist and historian of the Middle Ages and Byzantium....

's Glossarium (1678). Whitwell's idea was taken up in 1920 by the new International Union of Academies

Union Académique Internationale

The Union Académique Internationale is the oldest and largest federation of Academies having a national character and created for international cooperation...

, which decided in 1924 that each country should produce a nation-specific dictionary whilst also furnishing the material for an international Novum Glossarium. 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

Norman conquest of England

The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...

 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. Scholars continued to gather quotations, though, and a Revised Word-List appeared in 1965.

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
  A Latin Dictionary
  A Latin Dictionary is a popular English-language lexicographical work of the Latin language, completed in 1879, published by Oxford University Press, and still widely used by classical scholars and Latinists.-History:...
  
  
• Oxford Latin Dictionary
  Oxford Latin Dictionary
  The Oxford Latin Dictionary is the standard lexicon of Classical Latin, completed in 1982.The dictionary professes to be "independent alike of Lewis & Short on the one hand and of the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae on the other." It "is based on an entirely fresh reading of the Latin sources...
  
  
• Lexicon Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis Polonorum
  Lexicon Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis Polonorum
  Lexicon Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis Polonorum is the most comprehensive dictionary of the Latin language as was used in Poland from the 10th to the middle of the 16th century...
  
  

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