''Orbis Latinus'', originally by Dr. J. G. Th. Graesse, is a

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 ...

-German dictionary of Latin place names. Most recently updated in 1972, it is the most comprehensive modern reference work of Latin

toponymy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

, covering antiquity to modern times.

History

Johann Georg Theodor Graesse (1814–1885), a librarian, art historian, and literary scholar, published the first edition of ''Orbis Latinus'' in 1861. Although this first edition already listed a considerable number of names from around the world, it contained large gaps, especially in its coverage of more obscure locations. There followed a 1909 edition, almost doubled in size, under the direction of the

University of Breslau A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

Professor Frederick Benedict (b. 1850), who evaluated previously published sources and historical works far more systematically. Benedict increased the keywords of ''Orbis'', especially in regard to central Europe and the Middle Ages, but largely ignored areas outside of Europe, and did not consider material beyond the early modern period. Nevertheless, this work was re-released in a third edition, substantially unchanged, in 1922. In the decades after World War II, Helmut Plechl (b. 1920), together with Sophie-Charlotte Plechl, began work on the fourth edition of ''Orbis Latinus'', adding many names of monasteries, mountains, and bodies of water, and taking into account material dating from antiquity to the Latin literature of the nineteenth century. This was first published in a one-volume manual edition in 1971, followed by a large three-volume edition in 1972. Due to the political instability of the period, the political boundaries of Germany as they existed in 1937 were used for the work. The Bavarian State Library made images of the three-volume 1972 edition available online in July 2010, and has also made a full-text searchable version available.

References

External links

Orbis Latinus
searchable database of the 1972 edition
''Orbis Latinus'' (1972 edition)

at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

1909 edition
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

1861 edition
* {{Librivox author , id=2312 1861 non-fiction books 1909 non-fiction books 1922 non-fiction books 1972 non-fiction books 19th-century Latin books 20th-century Latin books Latin dictionaries Latin place names Research projects