Language Tools

This post is more for the medievalist rather than the passing history buff but I thought it would be useful to compile useful sites for translating and using medieval documents.

I'll update this periodically if I find any more useful sites, or if any become out of date.

For those of you that expected more than a page of links, here is a nun picking penises from a tree:

- Read more about penis trees 

- and a more academic look 

Latin glossary:
http://ducange.enc.sorbonne.fr/

Latin glossary:
http://comp.uark.edu/~mreynold/recint1.htm

Medieval latin dictionary and conjugator:
http://archives.nd.edu/words.html

Verb conjugator, not very smart though as sometimes it will invent conjugations:
http://www.verbix.com/

How to translate latin verbs into English:
http://www.uvm.edu/~bsaylor/latin/cheatsheet.html

More for classical latin, but useful if you're trying to find alternate beginnings or endings for a word:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?redirect=true&lang=Latin

Latin abbreviation dictionary (Online version of The Record Interpreter)

https://archive.org/details/recordinterprete00martiala

Latin abbreviation dictionary (online version of Cappelli)

http://www.hist.msu.ru/Departments/Medieval/Cappelli/

Latin place names

http://placenames.org.uk/browse/mads/epns-deep-96-b-subparish-000073

Whole list of useful online palaeographic resources:
http://www.rechtshistorie.nl/en/home/palaeography

Online palaeography course:
http://www.history.ac.uk/research-training/courses/online-palaeography

Another online palaeography course:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/

Middle English dictionary:

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/med/

Numerous dictionaries including old English and French:

http://www.wikiwords.org/

Dictionary of French equivalents for Latin place names:

https://archive.org/details/dictionnairelat00unkngoog

Digitised MS images:
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm

Cold Snap

The recent cold snap made this entry in Reading Abbey's cartularies all the more poignant:


8th November, 1257

"Grant by Pope Alexander IV to the abbot and convent of Reading...that since they assert that the cold in winter is so sever in their region that they cannot attend divine office bare-headed without danger to health, they may wear appropriate felt caps in the monastery when necessary."

Notes

Kemp, B., ed., Reading Abbey Cartularies, Vol. 31, Camden Fourth Series (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, UCL, 1986) p. 138

Image: "TheBaldingOne", Deviant Art
http://www.deviantart.com/art/Roche-Abbey-I-264766923

Sainthood - St Anthony

Today, the 17th of January, is the feast day of St Anthony. St Anthony is a fairly important saint in my own research (medieval monasticism) as he was one of the founding fathers of the monastic lifestyle.

Alive in Egypt between 251-356 AD, his life was recorded by St Athanasius (296-373 AD).

The son of wealth parents, he inherited their wealth following their death when he turned 20. His desire to imitate the life of Christ's disciples convinced him to surrender his worldly possessions and devote his life to worship.

At this point aspects of Christianity such as asceticism, fasting, chastity, piety, and prayer had been undertaken as part of every day  but there was a shift amongst the particularly religious to retreat to huts on the outskirts of settlements. When Anthony gave up his possessions, this was widely spread and he began his new life by seeking other ascetic and studying the way they lived before retreating himself to live in a tomb near his original village.

During his time in the tomb it is recorded that he faced "strange conflicts with demons in the shape of wild beasts, who inflicted blows upon him, and sometimes left him nearly dead" (Catholic Encyclopedia). After 15 years of this, he decided to retreat from life even further and he lived alone in an "old fort" on a mountain with food being delivered to him over the wall.

As a result of this lifestyle, pilgrims came to see him and eventually, a number of followers accumulated in the area around his self-imposed prison.

Anthony eventually yielded to the pressure of these followers to teach them and he emerged and devoted himself to the instruction and organisation of what were to be the first monks. These monks were eremitic (hermits basically). It would be St Pachomius who would established the more easily recognised coenobitic monks (Monks that live communally, you'll have to wait until the 9th of May to read more about Pachomius).

Anthony established the first monastery, Der Mar Antonios, at his mountain retreat before retreating himself to the desert between the Red Sea and the Nile. This was where he remained for the last 45 years of his life but this time he allowed visitors and according to his biography, he helped support martyrs during the persecution of Christians in 311 and preached against the Arians close to his death.

For trainspotter info, his is the protector of butchers, salami makers, domestic animals and basket makers and is depicted dressed as "a hermit, with a T-shaped staff, a bell, and a pig" (Giorgi)


Notes

British Library, MS Harley 1251, f. 39v

Catholic Encyclopedia:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01553d.htm

Giorgi, R. Saints, A year in faith and art (New York, Abrams: 2005) p. 42

Corpse Roads

I learnt something new recently. 

Corpse roads are a category of track/road along which the dead were most often taken. Why I hear you ask? It comes down the right to burial. 

In rural areas for example, there may have been numerous chapels in the area to attend weekly services at, however there may have been only one parish church that held the right of burial. 

Hindle uses the example of Kendal, the parish of which extended over an area of 25km/16miles. Villagers within the parish had to transport the dead back to Kendal to the rites of burial. The population collapse that followed the Black Death however led to the creation of two more parishes in the area, shortening the distance to travel. 

Read more on burial rites here.

Further south in Abingdon, the abbey church held the right to bury the dead which the churches of St Helens and St Nicholas (the other parish churches in the town) did not. However, in an 1391 a papal bull was issued which consecrated a burial ground at St Helen’s that was already in use. Clearly parishioners were not above taking a practical approach.  

 

Notes

Cox, M., The Story of Abingdon, Part I (Abingdon, 1986) p. 74

Hindle, P., Medieval Roads and Tracks (Princes Risborough: Shire Publications LTD, 1998) pp, 10-12

Preston, A., The church and parish of St. Nicholas, Abingdon (Wakefield: S.R. Publishers Limited, 1971) p. 35

Slade, C. and Lambrick, G., 'Two cartularies of Abingdon Abbey' in Oxford Historical Society, New Series, (1988). Vol. 1, p. 453

Stevens, The History of the Antient Abbeys, Monasteries, Hospitals, Catherdral and Collegiate Churches being two additional volumes to William Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum, (London: Tho. Taylor et. al., 1722)  p. 507

Happy New Year!

I trust your New Year's Eve/Hogmanay went with a bang?

Or did it go something like this:

 

"D...dronken -

dronken, dronken, y-dronken,

... dronken is Tabat attë wyne.             (Drunk is Tabart at the wine)

Hay…suster, Walter, Peter,                  (sister)

Ye dronke all depe,                             (you all drink deeply)

And Ichulle eke.                                 (and I shall too)

Stondëth alle stillë -                            (stand everyone still)

Stillë, stillë, stillë –

Stondëth allë stillë –

Stille as any ston;                                (stone)

Trippe a litel with thy fot,

And let thy body gon."                         (go)

A happy, healthy and prosperous new year to you all!

Notes

Image - MS, British Library, Additional, 27695, f. 14

Poem/Song - MS Oxford, Bodleian. Rawlinson D. 913

Duncan, T., ed., Medieval English Lyrics and Carols (Camridge: D.S. Brewer, 2013) p. 176