Reading in Medieval St. Gall

An analysis of medieval teaching methods through the surviving manuscripts of the scholar Notker of St Gall.

Anna A. Grotans (Author)

9780521803441, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 May 2006

380 pages
25.4 x 18.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.8 kg

"Reading in Medieval St. Gall is now the best study in English of one of the most important figures in medieval German literature, Notker Labeo...Grotans has been a pioneer in squarely placing Notker in his medieval pedagogical context, a context that she knows like scarcely any other."
-Robert G. Sullivan, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Journal of Medieval Studies

Learning to read in medieval Germany meant learning to read and understand Latin as well as the pupils' own language. The teaching methods used in the medieval Abbey of St Gall survive in the translations and commentaries of the monk, scholar and teacher Notker Labeo (c.950–1022). Notker's pedagogic method, although deeply rooted in classical and monastic traditions, demonstrates revolutionary innovations that include providing translations in the pupils' native German, supplying structural commentary in the form of simplified word order and punctuation, and furnishing special markers that helped readers to perform texts out loud. Anna Grotans examines this unique interplay between orality and literacy in Latin and Old High German, and illustrates her study with many examples from Notker's manuscripts. This study has much to contribute to our knowledge of medieval reading, and of the relationship between Latin and the vernacular in a variety of formal and informal contexts.

Introduction
1. Medieval reading
2. Education at St Gall
3. Language use and choice
4. The St Gall Tractate
5. Discretion in the classroom
6. Accentus
7. Spelling for reading
Bibliographies.

Subject Areas: Palaeography [history of writing CFL]