The Expositiones Vocabulorum Biblie (Exposition of Bible Words) is a hand-written,

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of ...

book in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

written (or inspired) by the 12th century clergyman William Brito (Guillaume le Breton). It is, in essence, a

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...

. It gives explanations, derivations and

etymologies Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the form of words and ...

of words, some from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, for the most difficult words in the

Vulgate Bible The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels us ...

. Entries are arranged in alphabetical order, demonstrating William's wide knowledge, many drawn from a range of classical, patristic and medieval writers. It is one of the very few documents to survive King

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

's Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. There is at least one known copy, now owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

and as of April 2013 is on display at

Lacock Abbey Lacock Abbey in the village of Lacock, Wiltshire, England, was founded in the early 13th century by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, as a nunnery of the Augustinian order. The abbey remained a nunnery until the suppression of Roman Catholic inst ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

National Trust copy

The National Trust book is bound (or re-bound) in wooden front and back panels, with leather bindings. It shows signs that it would have originally been chained (for security and safety) in an alcove for common use by people within the Abbey, and originally used to assist with translation of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

by the nuns of Lacock Abbey.Lacock Abbey displays 14th Century bible 'dictionary'

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, 16 April 2013 It is written in maybe four different hands as a collegial work by monks. Various notes and papers specific to Lacock Abbey have been bound into this volume over the years, further linking it to the site. This volume realised £46,850 at auction in 2011.WILLIAM BRITO or GUILLAUME LE BRETON (mid-13th century), Expositiones Vocabulorum Biblie, in Latin, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

, description: Sale 8002 Lot 11, accessed 15 April 2013 It was sold at Christie's on 23 November 2011, by the Talbot family that once owned Lacock Abbey, of whom

William Henry Fox Talbot William Henry Fox Talbot FRS FRSE FRAS (; 11 February 180017 September 1877) was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later ...

is perhaps the best-known member as the inventor the

calotype Calotype or talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. Paper texture effects in calotype photography limit the ability of this early process to record low co ...

process, a precursor to

photographic processes A list of photographic processing techniques. Color *Agfacolor ** Ap-41 process (pre-1978 Agfa color slides; 1978-1983 was a transition period when Agfa slowly changed their color slide films from AP-41 to E6) *Anthotype *Autochrome Lumière, 190 ...

of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Influence

It is known that this dictionary had a wide circulation and was regarded as an essential scholarly tool. In 1284 it was one of the three texts that Archbishop

John Pecham John Peckham (c. 1230 – 8 December 1292) was Archbishop of Canterbury in the years 1279–1292. He was a native of Sussex who was educated at Lewes Priory and became a Friar Minor about 1250. He studied at the University of Paris under ...

instructed

Merton College Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, ch ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, to have for the use and instruction of the poor of the area, chained to one of the desks.

References

{{reflist

External links

Summa Britonis : sive, Guillelmi Britonis Expositiones vocabulorum Biblie / edited by Lloyd W. Daly and Bernadine A. Daly. Guillelmus Brito, 13th cent.
-

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

"Trove" entry (translation)
Harley MS 1687
- ''Expositiones vocabulorum Bibliae, attributed to William Brito and Alexander Neckam, Corrogationes Promethei'',

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

, Manuscript 1687 13th-century Latin books 13th-century Christian texts

National Trust copy

Influence

See also

References

External links