Using Medieval Latin: A Toolbox of Resources
by Carol D. Lanham

[updated 17 June 1999]

Dictionaries / Word and Concept Studies

A very frustrating area. No dictionary of classical Latin begins to suffice: The word stock continued to expand vigorously, and semantic change went on apace. And no comprehensive modern dictionary of medieval Latin yet exists (nor will within our lifetimes), though several multivolume efforts are underway. You will often be forced to consult two or three dictionaries before finding any help at all. I try to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of some of these dictionaries in Using Dictionaries.

Archivum latinitatis medii aevi [ALMA] (also known as Bulletin Du Cange).

Covers sixth century to Renaissance, focusing on word and concept studies, lexica, book reviews, and research reports. Index to vols. 1–25 (1955) includes word index. Appears ca. biennially.

A. Blaise. Dictionnaire latin-français des auteurs chrétiens. Strasbourg 1954; supplement 1967.

Blaise’s dictionary of Christian Latin addresses a central component of medieval Latin vocabulary. It is important for new meanings given to existing words, and for the new vocabulary of Christianity; and it can often be useful even when the context is not explicitly religious.

See also the same author’s Lexicon latinitatis medii aevi, praesertim ad res ecclesiasticas investigandas pertinens (Turnhout 1975), which might be described as something of a complement to Niermeyer.

Franz Blatt, ed. Novum Glossarium mediae latinitatis ab anno DCCC usque ad annum MCC. Copenhagen 1957– .

Dictionaries usually start with the letter A. This one, having overturned convention by starting in the middle of the alphabet with L (this could be very important to know!), has now reached “perlysus” (1998). A revised and much enlarged Index scriptorum novus appeared in 1973, and a further supplement in 1989.

Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources. Ed. R. E. Latham et al. London 1975– .

In progress, a full-scale dictionary covering the period ca. 550–1550. Complete through L (1997). List of sources at beginning of vol. 1. Latham’s one-volume Revised Medieval Latin Word-List represents the collecting stages of this project.

Several other “national” lexica, of Latin words from Catalan, Dutch, Irish, Polish, etc., source materials, are at various stages of completion.

“Du Cange.” Glossarium mediae et infimae aetatis.

Du Cange’s original compilation (3 vols. Paris 1678) underwent various reworkings, eventually reaching 10 volumes (Niort 1883–87). Although it contains a huge amount of material and numerous indexes and is often cited, its sole principle of organization seems to be alphabetical, and sources of quotations are often very hard to trace and date.

B. Fischer, ed. Novae Concordantiae Bibliorum Sacrorum. 5 vols. Stuttgart 1977.

Since the language of the Vulgate Latin Bible permeates medieval Latin texts, you may need to consult a concordance in order to identify the source of an allusion or to see whether a word is common or rare. This splendid concordance is based on the 1975 Stuttgart critical edition of the Vulgate. See Preface in vol. 1 for the ground rules (e.g. words omitted, MS variants included).

Older one-volume concordances, worth buying secondhand: Dutripon, arranged under each entry by order of occurrence in the Bible; or Peultier, arranged by word forms, i.e. cases, person/tense forms of verbs.

“Forcellini.” Lexicon totius latinitatis. 4 vols. + 2-vol. Onomasticon. Padua 1940.

Valuable for medievalists because it is the only large-scale Latin dictionary that is actually complete, and its terminus is 600 A.D. Useful not only because it covers the entire alphabet, but also because its quotations tend to be generous. Like Du Cange, much revised since A. Forcellini’s original edition of 1771.

R. E. Latham. Revised Medieval Latin Word-List from British and Irish Sources. London 1965.

An example of regional, or what I have labeled “national,” lexica: “… includes in principle all words collected to date from British and Irish sources, in so far as they are non-Classical either in form or in meaning” (p. vii). Gives only dates, not sources, of occurrence. Note that * = “word is of regular occurrence in the sense noted and between the dates specified” (xx). (See Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources.)

“Lewis and Short.” A Latin Dictionary. C. T. Lewis and C. Short. Oxford 1879; often reprinted (published in the U.S. as Harper’s Latin Dictionary, ed. E. A. Andrews).

Not at all superseded—for medievalists, especially—by the Oxford Latin Dictionary, which cuts off at approximately 200 A.D. Lewis and Short quote, albeit not systematically, numerous early medieval writers, as late as Isidore and Aldhelm (7th c.). Essential to own if you expect to do sustained work with Latin texts of any vintage. (It now lists for an astonishing $175 new, but secondhand copies do turn up.)

The Perseus Project has begun to expand from Greek into Latin, and the entire Lewis and Short now resides online, searchable via the Perseus search tool for Latin words. The next step will be to link the dictionary entries to the growing Perseus database of Latin texts so that one can study how a word is used in various contexts; a sample of this nifty feature is available for verro.
Latin word search: <www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/resolveform?lang=Latin>
Latin texts: <www.perseus.tufts.edu/Texts/latin_TOC.html>
Sample: <www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/lexindex?lookup=verro&db=ls>

Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch [MLW]. Munich 1959– .

A cousin of the Thesaurus linguae latinae, its coverage (based primarily on German sources) extends to the end of the thirteenth century. Definitions given in Latin and German. Very good, but moving with glacial slowness. Published thus far: A through “corregnalis” (1997), and a second edition of Abkurzungs- und Quellenverzeichnisse. (1996). N.b., * preceding an entry means “not in TLL,” i.e. a new, postclassical word.

J. F. Niermeyer. Mediae latinitatis lexicon minus. Completed by C. van de Kieft. Leiden 1960–76.

The least unsatisfactory one-volume dictionary of medieval Latin, covering chiefly the period 550–1150. Strong on economic, political, and legal terms. Definitions given in French and English.

Oxford Latin Dictionary [OLD]. P. G. W. Glare, ed. Oxford 1968–82.

Detailed analysis of meanings, generously illustrated by citations, and easy to follow thanks to attractive typography and layout. Though it is very good for classical Latin, if you are looking for anything after about 200 A.D., forget it! (See also “Lewis and Short.”)

Alexander Souter. A Glossary of Later Latin to 600 A.D. Oxford 1949.

Intended to supplement the Oxford Latin Dictionary, which stops at ca. 200 A.D.

Thesaurus linguae latinae [TLL]. Leipzig 1900– .

Pride of place among dictionaries must go to the mighty TLL, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1994. It is the authoritative dictionary—but still, alas, far from complete: With certain gaps (chiefly the entire letter N, postponed because the negative words are so difficult to analyze!), it now goes through (most of?) “prodeo” (1996). Since its coverage extends to 600 A.D., Christian and Late Latin writers are included.

A revised Index scriptorum was published in 1990. Also published in 1990, and well worth consulting: Praemonenda de rationibus et usu operis, which outlines—in Latin and six modern languages—the archival materials upon which the dictionary’s articles are based, and the organization of entries (its account of this crucial information is far more thorough than mine).

A pilot project was announced in 1995 to produce an electronic version of the TLL <http://www.cs.usask.ca/faculty/devito/e-TLL/>. Let us hope that it will not take 100 years to reach P.

O. Bloch and W. von Wartburg. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française. 5th ed. Paris 1968.

Serves as a sort of reverse index to von Wartburg’s Französisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [FEW] (Bonn, etc. 1928– ), vols. 1–14 of which treat French words of Latin origin. The latter’s arrangement by Latin etymon means that in order to study the history of (e.g.) enseigner in detail, you must already know that it derives from *insignare (* = unattested reconstruction).

Joan Corominas. Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico. 6 vols. Madrid 1980–91.

Vol. 6 includes a 900-page index of cross-references to other words and forms (e.g. for sabir see acíbar).

W. Meyer-Lübke. Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [REW]. 3rd ed. Heidelberg 1935.

Do you want to know whether your Latin word survives in the Romance languages? Start here, by checking part 1: You will not find, e.g., autem, because it survives in no Romance language. Does your Romance-language word come from Latin? Turn to part 2: For example, French enseigner, listed there, leads to Latin *insignare (* = unattested reconstruction), number 4462 in part 1.