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Evidence for knowledge of Greek in Anglo-Saxon England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Mary Catherine Bodden
Mary Catherine Bodden
Affiliation:
Marquette University
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More than half of the extant manuscripts from Anglo-Saxon England, both vernacular and Latin, contain Greek. How much Greek did the early English know? M. L. W. Laistner accepted only a handful of early authors, Bede among them, as ‘competent Hellenists’. Bernhard Bischoff, too, noted that among the numerous witnesses to Greek writing in the medieval West, only a few show knowledge of the language itself, and the majority in their corrupt state suggest just the opposite; moreover, he points out, their function is very often liturgical. By the same token, a recent survey of the rich Greek materials from Sankt Gallen makes the general observation that ‘few medievals possessed an ability to read Greek prose, an ability based on, at least, an acquaintance with the elementary principles of grammar’. For a number of years, I have been compiling a catalogue of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts containing Greek, and on the basis of what I have seen, these various assumptions – that much of the Greek was badly copied, that its vocabulary was largely ecclesiastical or liturgical, that such a vocabulary would necessarily repeat itself, yielding therefore perhaps no more than some 500 to 800 Greek words, and that knowledge of Greek grammer (declensions, inflexions and so forth) was minimal – need major modification. In what follows, I shall examine these various assumptions in turn.

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Research Article
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Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 17 , December 1988 , pp. 217 - 246
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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References

1 The number of manuscripts containing Greek would be, therefore, between six and seven hundred. For vernacular and Latin manuscript materials pertaining to England, c. 700–1100, the following works are standard: Lowe, E. A., Codices Latini Antiquiores, 11 vols, and supp. (Oxford, 1934–71);Google ScholarKer, N.R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957),Google Scholarwith his ‘A Supplement to the Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon’, ASE 5 (1976), 121–31;Google ScholarA Plan for the Dictionary of Old English, ed. Frank, R. and Cameron, A.(Toronto, 1973);Google ScholarSawyer, P. H., Anglo-Saxon Charters, An Annotated List and Bibliography (London, 1968);Google ScholarBishop, T. A. M., English Caroline Minuscule (Oxford, 1971);Google Scholarand Gneuss, H., ‘A Preliminary List of Manuscripts Written or Owned in England up to 1100’, ASE 9 (1981)Google Scholar, 1–60. For the origin and provenance of manuscripts cited in this article, I have adopted the abbreviations used by Gneuss, Ibid.

2 Laistner, M. L. W., Thought and Letters in Western Europe (London, 1931), pp. 191, 192n. and 201. A few more, Laistner thought, had ‘an acquaintance with the Greek alphabet, with a few passages from the Greek liturgy, or with a certain number of isolated Greek words or phrases, generally from the Old and New Testament’. A long way behind those, he observed, was ‘a little band of those whose Greek amounted not even to an elementary knowledge of the language, but only to familiarity with the alphabet and with a sprinkling of common words or phrases’.Google Scholar

3 Bischoff, B., ‘Das griechische Element in der abendländischen Bildung des Mittelalters’, Mittelalterliche Studien, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, 1966–81) II, 246–75, at 256: ‘Nur sehr wenigeder so zahlreichen Denkmäler griechischer Schrift im Abendlande beweisen eine Kenntnis griechischer Sprache; die Mehrzahl in ihrer Mangelhaftigkeit zeugt vielmehr für das Gegenteil’; see also pp. 262–3, and nn. 86–95.Google Scholar

4 Kaczynski, B., ‘Greek Learning in the Medieval West: a Study of St. Gall, 816–1022’ (unpubl. Ph.D. dissertation, Yale Univ., 1973); Kaczynski adds, however, that ‘many literate persons [had] a simple familiarity with the alphabet, and with words or phrases culled from glossaries, Bibles, and liturgies’ (pp. 10–11).Google Scholar

5 The eventual Catalogue will (I) briefly identify Anglo-Saxon manuscripts containing Greek; (2) analyse the Greek, its orthography, syntax, declensions, etc.; (3) list the folioscontaining Greek; (4) provide reference to other manuscripts containing identical or similar Greek matter; (5) provide bibliography pertinent to the Greek matter in the text; (6) include an Index of relevant continental manuscripts; and (7) include a Glossary of Greek words found in the texts.

6 These preliminary results are based upon an examination of about two-thirds of the thousand or so manuscripts of Anglo-Saxon origin or provenance. The corpus of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts which I consulted includes those in Ker and in Lowe which are not in Gneuss's list, e.g., manuscripts written by Anglo-Saxon scribes on the continent. For the latter, the best survey available is still Lowe's Codices (excluding vol. IV). See also Rella, F. A., ‘Continental Manuscripts Acquired for English Centers in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries: a Preliminary Checklist’, Anglia 98 (1980), 107–16.Google Scholar

7 For example, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auctarium F. 1. 15 (CaA, CaCC and Exeter, s. x2: Boethius, De consolatione Philosophiae), 35r21, where the original once read ΔH BPOTWN O ϒΔEN ΓEΓWCI BIOTON, we have ΛNBROT0WN0N ΔEN ΓENΓW CHNKIW. In two tenth-century copies of Bede's De orthographia, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 221 (? CaA, s. x1) and London, BL, Harley 3826 (? Abingdon, s. x2), the transmission of the Greek characters is relatively accurate in the first half of the text; in the second half, however, both precision and sense yield to surmise and wonder. In Harley 3826, forms such as BΔAΠTW, ΠΛATϒ and ΠAPOIKOC become BAATITW, ΠAATIN, and ΠAPWIKUC at 52r8, 54VI4 and 46r17 respectively.

8 As one of the features of the Greek hand of ‘medieval Europe’, Kaczynski (‘Greek Learning’, p. 92) includes C as a substitute for Σ. However, C is regularly substituted for Σ by the fourth century, and is found in purely Eastern as well asin Western texts. For numerous instances, see Codices Graeci Bibliothecae Vaticanae Selecti, IV, ed. Follieri, H. (Vatican City, 1969).Google Scholar

9 For example, Harley 3376, 90rI, FRUNTIMOS was probably once ΦPO)– I )–(OC (‘sensible’), and at 92rII, ‘FEREMU grece uoce mea’, was quite likely ΦW E MOU. A more obvious example is found in London, Inner Temple 511.10: Macrobius, In Somnium Scipionis, 20V31–2, ‘quae in ipsa diuina mente consistunt quam diximus NOϒ uocari’, which in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. F. 2. 20, 30r9–11, reads‘…quam diximus NOYH uocari.’

10 Rella (‘Continental Manuscripts’, p. 112) regards Royal 15. A. XVI (Scholica graecarum glossarum) as a continental production of s. ix2 whose folios received English Caroline additions at St Augustine's by s. x2. Some qualification is necessary here. The material of the manuscript is indeed continental: the leaves are thin and yellowish, and the nap is poor. However, the script contains both English and continental features. The Scholica, therefore, were either copied from an Insular exemplar or were written by a hand trained in Insular practices. The latter is more likely: in addition to the slightly clubbed minims and the ascenders being more even and straighter than are usually found in continental manuscripts of this period, there is the unmistakably English feature of the æ ligature appearing in a number of Latin terms. Note, for example, 76r16 cænæ, and Antiæ, 76v6 Bulæ, and 78r22 poetriæ, and cf. the similar letter-forms in contemporary English manuscripts such as Cambridge, Trinity College O. 4. 10 (s. x), BL Cotton Cleopatra A. iii (s. x med), Vespasian D. vi (s. xmed), Vitellius A. xix (s. xmed), Harley 3376 and 3271 (s. xi1).

11 apo tu retoresin: Cambridge, Trinity College B. 15. 33, the opening line of bk 11 of Isidore's Etymologiae; apo to historin: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 146, 37V, l. m. (Aldhelm, De laude virginitatis); and AΠO TOϒ HISTORIN: Royal 15. A. XXXIII, 123v8 (Remigius, In Martianum Capellam). Except where editions are cited, the Greek material quoted in this article represents the form(s) found in the manuscripts referred to, that is, with no accents and generally in capital letters. In the case of Isidore, Etymologiae, apart from a few citations from manuscripts, all other citations of Greek words from the Etymologiae are taken from Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi Etymologiarum sive originum Libri XX, ed. Lindsay, W. M. (Oxford, 1911).Google Scholar

12 Ysocolon: Royal 15. A. XXXIII, 121V19; APO: in BL Royal 15, A. XVI, 74V6–7; and ϒΠEP: Harley 3826, 54v17–55r5.

13 IOS [IOΣ]: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 146, 3IV, r. m.; AEMA [AIMA]: BL, Royal 15. A. XVI, 76r29; AIGIDI [AIΓIΔI]: CCCC 356, pt III, Ir., col b., 20; CARDIAS [KAPΔIAΣ]: Digby 146, 46v, l. m.; DYNAMI [ΔϒN AMIC: BL Harley 3826, 68V12–15; PALIN [IIAΛΛEIN]: Digby 146, 65v, l. m.; CLEPTIN [AΠO TO ϒ KΛEΠTEIN ΣOMATA or COM ATA] (‘EI’ often went to ‘I’ in later spellings): Royal 15. A. XXXIII, 127r22; XEIPA: Royal 15. A. xvi, 78r12–13, and XHΛH: Royal 15. A. XXXIII, 193V25–27.

14 On the other hand, many of the Latin glosses are concerned with the spiritual content of the words.

15 One vernacular and thirteen Latin manuscripts (along with several fragments)have survived; see below n. 43.

16 Within the sentence L W ΔOΞA ΔOΞA MϒPϒOUCI ΔH BPOTWN OϒΔEN ΓEΓWCI BIOTON OΓKWCAC MEΓ AN (De consolation, III, pr.vi).

17 E.g., Antwerp, Plantin-Moretus Museum M. 16. 8 (190), 47V, l. m. and Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, lat, 6401 A, 40r, r. m.

18 The Antwerp manuscript reads AMBROTONOS (I omit other minor orthographical variants).

19 ‘brotos dicitur cibus] brotos grecibus’: BN lat. 6401 A, 40r, r. m. Perhaps ‘grecibus’ was misconstrued from ‘dr cibus’.

20 ‘ad sidere uultus] ad sydere tollere uultus’: Antwerp M. 16. 8, 47V, l. m.

21 PHARUS (-OS) (ϕáρος), an island near Alexandria, in Egypt, where King Ptolemy Philadelphus built a famous lighthouse, hence called Pharus, now Faro; transferred meaning: the lighthouse on the island of Pharos. The term already appears in Caesar, Bellum civile III. 112: ‘Pharus est in insula turris, magna altitudine, mirificis operibus extructa, quae nomen ab insula accepit’; cf. also Suetonius, Claudius, ch. 20 and Statius, Silvae iii.2, and, later, the Etymologiae, xv.ii.37, as well as at least two Latin–Old English glossaries: BL Cotton Otho E. i, 8V24–8 and Cleopatra A. iii, 43vb15–17 and 44ra1–4.

22 OE fyrtor, ‘fire tower’; in Cotton Cleopatra A. iii, a single folio earlier, is found the entry FARUS, beacenstan (42r).

23 On the Scholica graecarum glossarum, see Contreni, J., ‘Three Carolingian Texts Attributed to Laon: Reconsiderations’, SM 3 rd ser. 17 (1976), 797–813, at p. 806, for its use of Isidore; see also Kaczynski, ‘Greek Learning’, p. 281.Google ScholarThe most recent study of bk III of the Bella Parisiacae Urbis and its use of the Scholica graecarum glossarum is Lendinara, P., ‘The Third Book of the Bella Parisiacae urbis by Abbo of Saint-Germain-des-Près and its Old English Gloss’, ASE 15 (1986), 73–89. The study is most enlightening, with several splendid insights. Lendinara's point that ‘Many discrepancies indicate that Abbo did not draw his material from any of the known manuscripts of the Scholica’ (italics mine) is nicely complemented by a second observation that of the eighty lemmata (i.e., rare words, most of which are grecisms) ‘only 14 of these do not recur in other glossaries’ (p. 80 and n. 41). Elsewhere she questions the frequent criticism levelled against the pedantry of Abbo's bk III. She proposes, instead, that such ‘pedantry’ may well be the ‘jocular component of the hermeneutic tradition’; Abbo, she suggests, ‘composed a mockery, a very well constructed tour de force directed against the Greek vogue of the time, instead of complaining about it as Hincmar of Rheims had done to his nephew Hincmar of Laon’ (p. 81). Lendinara's hypothesis is surely valid, but I think that Abbo's exercise was a scherzo più grande than we have assumed thus far, as I hope to show in a forthcoming article, ‘The Influence of “Greek” Studies upon Anglo-Saxon Culture’.Google Scholar

24 Laistner, M. L. W., ‘Notes on Greek from the Lectures of a Ninth Century Monastery Teacher’, Bull, of the John Rylands Lib. 7 (1923), 421–56, at 421, and Contreni, ‘Three Carolingian Texts’, pp. 805 and 806.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25 Bischoff, ‘Das griechische Element’, pp. 259 and 261.

26 The manuscripts containing the Ars grammatica are London, BL Harley 5642 (St Gallen, s. ix/x), 9r–23V (Ars grammatica) and 24r–33r with 39v–47r (portions of Hermeneumata); Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 601 (s. ix/x), 59V–66V (selections from Hermeneumata) and 67r–82v (Ars grammatica); and St Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, 902 (St Gallen, s. ixex), pp. 8–43 (Ars grammatica) and pp. 43–59 (Hermeneumata). It will be noticed that the genuine Ars grammatica of Dositheus frequently travelled in manuscript with pseudo-Dositheus, Hermeneumata. Since one English manuscript now contains the Hermeneumata (Brussels 1828–30), there is a remote possibility that it (or its exemplar) once contained the genuine Ars grammatica as well. But this is mere speculation.

27 Kaczynski, ‘Greek Learning’, p. 113.

28 See Bischoff, , ‘Das griechische Element’, passim and W. Berschin, Griecbisch-Lateinisches Mittelalter (Bern, 1980).Google Scholar

29 Grammatici Latini, ed. Keil, H., 8 vols. (Leipzig, 1857–80) v, 599–630.Google Scholar

30 Kaczynski, ‘Greek Learning’, p. 120.

31 Gibson, M., ‘Priscian, Institutiones Grammaticae: A Handlist of Manuscripts’, Scriptorium 26 (1972), 105–24.Google Scholar

32 See also the entry ‘Priscianus maior’ in a booklist on an end folio in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Tanner 3, ptd Lapidge, M., ‘Surviving Booklists from Anglo-Saxon England’, learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Lapidge, M. and Gneuss, H. (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 33–89, at 70 (no. 15).Google Scholar

33 Cotton Cleopatra A. vi is usually assigned to the second half of the tenth century, but features of the script (especially the open-headed p's and the st-ligature) suggest to me, rather, the early tenth century.

34 Holtz, L., Donat et la tradition de l'enseignement grammatical (Paris, 1981), pp. 354–423.Google Scholar

35 Ibid. pp. 308 and 498.

36 Law, V., The Insular Latin Grammarians (Woodbridge, 1982), p. 16.Google Scholar

37 See Lapidge, M., ‘The Hermeneutic Style in Tenth-Century Anglo-Latin Literature’, ASE 4 (1975), 67–111, at 80, n. 1: ‘In the earliest catalogue from Christ Church, Canterbury (c. 1170), there is an item “Donatus grece”Google Scholar (James, M. R., The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cambridge, 1903), pp. lxxxv and 7). This was probably a copy of pseudo-Dositheus, not Dionysius Thrax as James suggests. If this Greek grammar was pre-Conquest, it indicates that Greek may have been studied at Canterbury.’Google Scholar

38 For a more detailed discussion of the transmission of Greek matter in these manuscripts, see Bodden, M. C., ‘The Transmission and Preservation of Greek in Early England’, in Sources of Anglo-Saxon Culture, ed. Szarmach, P. E., Stud, in Medieval Culture 20 (Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1986), 53–63. The Greek sentence of the original reads: that is, ‘Speak out, do not conceal your thoughts.’Google Scholar

39 For convenience I cite the Gneuss numbers (‘Preliminary List’) for the thirteen Latin copies of the De consolatione: 12, 23, 68, 193, 534, 776, 823, 829, 886, 887, 899, 901 and 908. The vernacular version, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 180 (s. xii1), does not retain the Greek matter.

40 For example, of the thirteen Latin versions copied or used by the early English, ten retain the-original EξA ϒΔA (‘Speak out!’) in the first Greek sentence of the text. Two of these ten (BN lat. 14380 and Escorial E. II. I), also have the gloss EξOMOΛOΓO (‘Confess!’). A third manuscript, BN lat. 6401, contains EξOMOΛOΓO as part of the text itself. Three other manuscripts, presumed to be Canterbury manuscripts, namely, Geneva, Bodmer C.B. 175, Cambridge, Trinity College O. 3. 7 and BN lat. 17814, show EξOMOΛOPW (–PΛ), with ‘confitere mihi’ glossed above the word. Of these three, Bodmer and Trinity are closely related to each other while BN lat. 17814 appears to be more closely related to the continental versions. One manuscript bridges the English and continental groups: Paris, BN lat. 14380. Its text gives the complete EξAϒΔA sentence, and in its margin is EξOMOΛOPW. This same manuscript is also possibly from Canterbury, and postdates, slightly, Bodmer and Trinity. The fact that its marginal gloss is identical to that in the Bodmer and Trinity manuscripts suggests that ultimately its continental source was their source: EξOMOΛOPW or variations of EξOMOΛOΓEW is the reading substituted in half of the twelfth-century continental manuscripts which I have seen thus far (including Paris, BN lat. 1478, 6639, 12961, 15090 and 16093, Alençon, Bibliothèque municipale, 12, Orléans, Bibliothèque municipale, 271, Bern, Burgerbibliothek, 179, 181 and 421, St Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, 844 and 845, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 14324, 15825, 18767 and 19452, and Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, lat. 3865).

41 For convenience a few relevant continental Greek manuscripts may be mentioned. BL Harley 5642 (see above, n. 26) a manuscript which also contains the bilingual ‘Colloquium Harleianum’ at 29r–33V (see also Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum, ed. Goetz, G., 7 vols. (Leipzig, 1888–1923) III, 108–16); Paris, BN lat. 528 (Saint-Denis, s. ix): only a fragment (134v–135r) remains of the Greek elementary lesson, ‘Ti estin doctus’Google Scholar(see Omont, H., ‘Grammaire grecque au ixe siècle’, Bibliothèque de I'École des Chartes 42 (1881), 126–7); BN lat. 6503 (Corbie, s. ix/x), 1r–4r, part of Aesop's Fables; BN lat. 7561 (s. ix), beginning at 11r1, the Lord's Prayer with accents; St Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, 17 (St Gallen, s. ix2), Greek–Latin Psalter and Canticles, Lord's Prayer; 902 (St Gallen, s. ix2), pp. 8–43 (Dositheus, Ars grammatica) and pp. 43–51 (selections from Hermeneumata pseudo-Dositheana) and 1395 (St Gallen, s. x), pp. 336–61, Greek-Latin Psalter; and most remarkable of all, Laon, Bibliothèque municipale, 444 (Laon, s. ix2), in particular the Greek–Latin glossary, (5r–255v) and the ‘Graeca Prisciani de octo partibus et constructione’ (276r–87v).Google Scholar

42 See Bede, , HE iv.2, v.8, 20 and 23; on Aldhelm, see Aldhelm: The Prose Works, trans. –Lapidge, M. and Herren, M. (Cambridge, 1979), pp. 8–9.Google Scholar

43 Martin Hiberniensis (818–75) was the first of Laon's three generations of masters of Greek learning; John Scottus, too, was associated with Laon in Martin's time: see Contreni, J. J., The Cathedral School of Laon from 850 to 930: Its Manuscripts and Masters (Munich, 1978), pp. 69–72 and 81–134.Google Scholar

44 Harley 2965; (WiNun, s. viii/ix); Harley 7653 (s. viii/ix); Royal 2. A. xx (Worcester, s. viii2) and Cotton Galba A. xviii (NE France, s. ix2; provenance Winchester, s. x1).

45 Presumably from the former leaf: the forms of both languages appear to be consistent with the text of the preceding folios: see Hunt, R. W., St Dunstan's Classbook from Glastonbury: Cod. Bibl. Bodl. Auct. F. 4. 32, Umbrae Codicum Occidentalium 4 (Amsterdam, 1961).Google Scholar

46 For example, note the following explanations in Trinity O. 2. 30: 134r8, ‘Coenobite, commune uiuentes. Coenos, grece, latini commune dicunt’; 142V, end, ‘Kalendae: calo greci dicunt uoco, latini conuocationes’; and 143r4–7, ‘Analogium dicitum quod sermo inde praedicetur, nam logus grece, latine sermo dicitur.’ On the other hand, in CUL Ee. 2. 4, the Greek etymologies occur within the text itself: 64V, col. 1: ‘Analogium dictum ab eo quod sermo inde diuinus aut legatur aut praedicetur; logos enim apud graecos sermo dicitur.’ Or at 65r, col. I: ‘Hortodoxi… horto enim apud graecos recte dicitur; doxa aut gloria uocatur; ergo hortodoxi uiri rectae gloriae dici possunt.’

47 Two of the three glossaries from this period containing substantial amounts of Greek are from the continent: Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, Voss. lat. F. 24 (W. France, s. ix/x) and CCCC 330, pt II (s. ixex: gloss on Martianus Capella's De Nuptiis).

48 Gneuss, H., ‘King Alfred and the History of Anglo-Saxon Libraries’, Modes of Interpretation in Old English Literature: Essays in Honour of Stanley B. Greenfield, ed. Brown, P. R., Crampton, G. R. and Robinson, F.C. (Toronto, 1986), pp. 29–49, esp. pp. 40–1.Google Scholar

49 For example, CCCC 356, pt III (s. xex), London, BL Cotton Otho E. i (s. x/xi), Harley 3376 (s. x/xi), Harley 3826 (s. x/xi), Royal 15. A. xvi (s. xex) and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Barlow 35 (s. x/xi).

50 The Greek glosses in Digby 146 seem to be taken from a close descendant of Paris, BN lat. 7585 (France, s. ix1: Isidore, Etymologiae).

51 SeeScott, J., The Early History of Glastonbury: An Edition and Translation of William of Malmesbury's De Antiquitate Glastonie Ecclesie (Woodbridge, 1981), p. 137,Google Scholarand Knowles, D., The Monastic Order in England, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 65, n. 3, and 697.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

52 I am deeply grateful to Michael Lapidge, who has been kind enough to read closely the typescript of this article and who, at every stage of this project, has generously shared with me his expert knowledge of manuscripts and Greek materials. To two other scholars, Helmut Gneuss and Malcolm Wallace, 1 am also grateful for their long-term advice, encouragement and constructive criticism.