In his Preface to Laurence Nowell's Vocabularium Saxonicum, Albert H. Marckwardt writes: "Many years ago, when I first read Laurence Nowell's Vocabularium Saxonicum in manuscript, I was firmly convinced that it was of sufficient intrinsic interest to merit publication. It seemed desirable that a man like Nowell, so important in the development of Old English studies, should become more than a footnote in an occasional history of linguistic or legal scholarship. His dictionary, reflecting so clearly the personality of a true scholar with broad and human interests, deserved to be made generally available despite the advance of linguistic knowledge since its time."
The writings of two influential Elizabethan thinkers testify to the influence of Old English law and literature on Tudor society and self-image. Full of fresh and illuminating insights into a way of looking at the English past in the sixteenth century... a book with the potential to deepen and transform our understanding of Tudor attitudes to ethnic identity and the national past. Philip Schwyzer, University of Exeter. Laurence Nowell (1530-c.1570), author of the first dictionary of Old English, and William Lambarde (1536-1601), Nowell's protégé and eventually the first editor of theOld English Laws, are key figures in Elizabethan historical discourses and in its political and literary society; through their work the period between the Germanic migrations and the Norman Conquest came to be regarded as a foundational time for Elizabethan England, overlapping with and contributing to contemporary debates on the shape of Elizabethan English language. Their studies took different strategies in demonstrating the role of early medieval history in Elizabethan national -- even imperial -- identity, while in Lambarde's legal writings Old English law codes become identical with the "ancient laws" that underpinned contemporary common law. Their efforts contradict the assumption that Anglo-Saxon studies did not effectively participate in Tudor nationalism outside of Protestant polemic; instead, it was a vital part of making history "English". Their work furthers our understanding of both the history of medieval studies and the importance of early Anglo-Saxon studies to Tudor nationalism. Rebecca Brackmann is Assistant Professor of English, Lincoln Memorial University.
The Old English manuscript whose charred and burnt remains are now MS BL Cotton Otho B. xi was written at Winchester during the reign of Æthelred, partly in the middle of the tenth century and partly about the middle of the first half of the eleventh. In its pristine state it contained Anglo-Saxon texts of some importance, including a collection of laws. Unfortunately, the manuscript fell victim to the Cottonian fire of 1731 and was largely destroyed. Before the fire, however, in 1562, Otho B. xi was transcribed practically in its entirety by the antiquarian Laurence Nowell, whose work formed the basis for the printed edition of the Anglo-Saxon Laws contained in William Lambarde's Archaionomia of 1568. The present edition offers a brief discussion of the laws of the Anglo-Saxons as they survive in manuscripts and printed editions and then concentrates on the work of Nowell and Lambarde. Two Laurence Nowells and at least three Nowell transcripts of Cotton Otho B. xi are known to modern scholarship and require consideration before proceeding to an edition of what can be reconstructed of MS BL Cotton Otho B. xi. The texts of the law codes known as II Athelstan, V Athelstan, Iudex, and Alfred and Ine found originally in MS BL Cotton Otho B.xi are printed from the Nowell transcript contained in MS BL Additional 43703, while on facing pages the corresponding passages from Lambarde's Archaionomia are reproduced. Variants from the other Nowell transcripts of the same texts are noted, manuscript relations are discussed in an appendix, and a select bibliography is offered. The importance of the present edition is that it makes it easier to compare the Otho B. xi text and Lambarde's printed version than is possible with Felix Liebermann's Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen. Comparison of the Nowell and Lambarde texts with one another shows that there can be little doubt that Lambarde for his Archaionomia used Otho B. xi or a transcript of it made by Nowell Comparison of the Nowell and Lambarde texts with the other extant manuscript and printed versions casts some further light on the relations between the surviving law codes of the Anglo-Saxons.
"Edward Lye (1694-1767) was an important contributor to the advancement of our understanding of the structure of the English language, its vocabulary, and its literature. Compared with the work of more celebrated pre-nineteenth-century Anglo-Saxonists and antiquaries, Lye's was a scholarly output of less original talent and reach (the role he gave himself was 'to remove the rubbish out of the way, as an underworkman'), but in the course of editing, improving, and publishing the hitherto unpublished work of others he made genuine advances in scholarship, particularly in the areas of English lexicography and Gothic studies. The Lye correspondence - in the main a collection of scholarly letters that are also sometimes the personal communications of friends - indicates how varied his interests were, how widely he read, and how frequently he discussed texts, elucidated cruces, and established correct textual readings, often for the first time." "This edition presents the 193 letters known to have passed between Edward Lye and forty-five correspondents between 1729 and Lye's death in 1767. English translations are provided for letters written in Latin, Greek, and Swedish, as well as for words and passages in other languages (e.g. Old English, Gothic, Hebrew) discussed in the correspondence. The introduction provides a biography of Lye and a detailed examination of his major scholarly accomplishments: the edition of Franciscus Junius's Etymologicum Anglicanum, published in 1743 with extensive improvements and additions by Lye; the publication in 1750 of Eric Benzelius's edition and Latin translation of the Gothic Gospels (Sacrorum evangeliorum versio Gothica), together with Lye's own contribution of corrections and notes, preface, and a Gothic grammar; the Dictionarium Saxonico- et Gothico-Latinum, completed posthumously by Owen Manning and published in 1772; and an unfinished translation into Latin of the Old English poems of the Caedmon Manuscript (Oxford, Bodl. MS. Junius 11)." "Supporting materials, including biographical records and documents relevant to the edited letters and Lye's publications, are presented in several appendices; there are also biographical notes on Lye's correspondents and a bibliography of manuscripts and printed works. This book will be of value to all those interested in Germanic philology, the history of Old English and Gothic scholarship, and the work of the sixteenth- to eighteenth-century antiquaries in England and northern Europe."--BOOK JACKET.
This Gedenkschrift celebrates the memory of Professor Hans Sauer and his passion for travelling. The contributions in this volume explore different kinds of textual and temporal travels from various linguistic, literary, and philological perspectives.
This book provides an accessible yet comprehensive introduction to the study of the dialects of English as they are spoken around the world, from the earliest dialect dictionaries of the sixteenth century to contemporary research emerging from the field of geolinguistics. Organised into ten thematic chapters, it explores and evaluates the methods and purposes of each approach to the study of dialectal variation, with full explanations of technical terms throughout. Illuminating one of the most productive fields of interest in language study, this compelling book is essential reading for students of dialect and regional difference in English.
