Western Medieval Manuscripts : Greek-Latin lexicon

Western Medieval Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This manscript contains a simple Greek-Latin lexicon, defining Greek words by a single Latin word or brief description, without citations of texts or lengthy discussion. Given its content, it was presumably produced in western Europe, probably not by a native Greek-speaker. The Greek script is simple and written by the same hand the Latin text, while the quire signatures, although in Greek, do not conform to normal Greek practice, using letters in alphabetical order rather than numerals.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The physical substance of the manuscript appears to date from the mid-15th century, on the basis of the watermarks of the two types of paper it originally contained. However, while the Greek and Latin scripts could also be consistent with such a date, they are more suggestive of the 16th century. It is therefore possible that the manuscript was written at a later date than its creation as an object. Its long, slender format is well-suited to its content, but would also conform with the structure of an account-book, and such a book would be left blank when originally made, to be filled in later. It could therefore have been left unused for its original purpose and much later adopted for the copying of this lexicon. Supposing it to be a 15th-century production, it would presumably have been written in Italy, the main western venue for the study of Greek, but a later date would allow for a wider geographical range.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Christopher Wright</p>