Expositio Notarum

Edition of a unique, unpublished Latin text illuminating education in the time of Augustine and the formation of Latin glossaries.

A. C. Dionisotti (Edited by)

9781316514795, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 September 2022

642 pages, 10 b/w illus. 10 tables
22.3 x 14.5 x 4 cm, 0.9 kg

This is the first edition of a Latin text unlike any other surviving one : at first sight an extensive, jumbled list of words with explanations, on closer inspection a window on the teaching of Latin shorthand in North Africa c. AD 400, when we find notarii, those trained in shorthand, prominently employed everywhere in state and church. The text reveals in detail how that training could relate to literary Latin and the classical Roman past. The single manuscript of it in our possession descends from a copy that must have been in Anglo-Saxon England by AD 700, and we can see how it was used for the earliest Latin glossary from that context. The edition seeks to make this story accessible both in general and in detail, with copious indices for those who may wish to consult it from various viewpoints: classical and later Latin, linguistic and historical.

Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
Text of the Expositio Notarum with notes
Appendix I. Possible additional items
Appendix II. Linguistic overview
Appendix III. Concordance with Anglo-Saxon glossaries
Appendix IV. Concordance with Notae Tironianae
Appendix V. Placidus
Appendix VI. Festus General index (includes Special indices 1-4)
Special indices: 1. Proper names
2. Words condemned as not Latin
3. Words only otherwise in CNT or glossaries, if at all
4. Greek in the Expositio
5. Antiquities.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], History: earliest times to present day [HBL], Language: history & general works [CBX]