The ''Ars Bonifacii'' is the title given to a

Latin grammar Latin is a heavily inflected languages, inflected language with largely free word order. Nouns are inflected for grammatical number, number and grammatical case, case; pronouns and adjectives (including participles) are inflected for number, cas ...

ascribed to

Saint Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant ...

Textual history

The text survives in three manuscripts. # The so-called ''Kaufunger Fragment'', named for

Kaufungen Abbey Kaufungen Abbey (german: Kloster Kaufungen) was a Benedictine nunnery founded in 1017 by the Empress Cunigunde of Luxembourg, wife of Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, located in Kaufungen in Hessen, Germany. History In May 1017 Cunigunde was stay ...

; this may have been copied in the south of England even during the saint's lifetime (he died in 754). #

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...

, Pal. Lat. 1746, a codex deriving from

Lorsch Lorsch is a town in the Bergstraße district in Hessen, Germany, 60 km south of Frankfurt. Lorsch is well known for the Lorsch Abbey, which has been named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Geography Location Lorsch lies about 5 km wes ...

, Hessen, consisting of a number of varied text, including the Rule of St. Augustine and Isidore's ''

Etymologiae ''Etymologiae'' (Latin for "The Etymologies"), also known as the ''Origines'' ("Origins") and usually abbreviated ''Orig.'', is an etymological encyclopedia compiled by Isidore of Seville (c. 560–636) towards the end of his life. Isidore was ...

'', as well as another Anglo-Saxon grammar, by

Tatwine Tatwine ( – 30 July 734) was the tenth Archbishop of Canterbury from 731 to 734. Prior to becoming archbishop, he was a monk and abbot of a Benedictine monastery. Besides his ecclesiastical career, Tatwine was a writer, and riddles he compos ...

. # Bibliothèque nationale Paris, Lat. 17959, a composite codex whose second part, containing the grammars by Boniface and Tatwine, is possibly from the abbey of

Saint-Riquier Saint-Riquier () is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Geography The commune is situated northeast of Abbeville, on the D925 and D32 crossroads. Abbey Saint-Riquier (originally ''Centula'' or ''Centulum' ...

. The latter two date from the late eighth-early ninth centuries, and both also contain the grammar of Tatwine, though

Vivien Law Vivien Anne Law, Lady Shackleton, (22 March 1954 – 19 February 2002) was a British linguist and academic, who specialised in grammar. Over her lifetime, she "acquired a grammatical knowledge of over a hundred languages". She spent all her acad ...

notes that the two did not share a transmission history and came to the two codices by different ways--Tatwine's likely from England to the court of

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

, and Boniface's from the areas in Germany where Anglo-Saxon missionaries were active.

Sources

The basic framework of Boniface's grammar derives from

Aelius Donatus Aelius Donatus (; fl. mid-fourth century AD) was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric. Works He was the author of a number of professional works, of which several are extant: *Ars maior – A commentary on Latin grammar. * Ars minor – ...

's ''Ars Maior'', though his examples are drawn from elsewhere. It shares four sources with Tatwine's: Donatus,

Priscian Priscianus Caesariensis (), commonly known as Priscian ( or ), was a Latin grammarian and the author of the ''Institutes of Grammar'', which was the standard textbook for the study of Latin during the Middle Ages. It also provided the raw materia ...

, Isidore, and Asporius. In addition, Boniface used

Charisius Flavius Sosipater Charisius ( 4th century AD) was a Latin grammarian. He was probably an African by birth, summoned to Constantinople to take the place of Euanthius, a learned commentator on Terence. ''Ars Grammatica'' The ''Ars Grammatica'', ...

, Phocas, Audax,

Diomedes Grammaticus Diomedes Grammaticus was a Latin grammarian who probably lived in the late 4th century AD. He wrote a grammatical treatise, known either as ''De Oratione et Partibus Orationis et Vario Genere Metrorum libri III'' or '' Ars grammatica'' in three book ...

, Sergius (pseudo-Cassiodorus),

Virgilius Maro Grammaticus Virgilius Maro Grammaticus (french: Virgile de Toulouse, fl. c. 7th century), known in English as Virgil the Grammarian or Virgil of Toulouse, is the author of two early medieval grammatical texts known as the ''Epitomae'' and the ''Epistolae''. ...

, and

Aldhelm Aldhelm ( ang, Ealdhelm, la, Aldhelmus Malmesberiensis) (c. 63925 May 709), Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey, Bishop of Sherborne, and a writer and scholar of Latin poetry, was born before the middle of the 7th century. He is said to have been the so ...

to provide him with theory and examples. Boniface's Latin was church Latin; it was used specifically to read scripture and liturgy, as well as commentary on scripture. However, in contrast with earlier grammars from the fourth and fifth centuries, his grammar is written for an audience that learned Latin as a foreign language. The Christian backdrop for such language learning also meant that Boniface and other grammarians at the time had to incorporate non-Latin terms and names (specifically, some Greek terminology and Hebrew names) in the Latin grammatical system. In general, Boniface's Latin was heavily influenced by Aldhelm; in 1931,

Paul Lehmann Paul Lehmann (13 July 1884 – 4 January 1964) was a German paleographer and philologist.Memoir by Harry Caplan, Taylor Starck, and B. L. Ullman in ''Speculum'' Vol. 40, No. 3, Jul. 1965, p. 583 Biography Paul Lehmann was the son of business ...

even identified the grammar as having been written by Aldhelm.

References

{{Reflist Latin grammar books