The ''Promptorium parvulorum'' (

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 ...

: "Storehouse for children") is an English-Latin

bilingual dictionary A bilingual dictionary or translation dictionary is a specialized dictionary used to translate words or phrases from one language to another. Bilingual dictionaries can be ''unidirectional'', meaning that they list the meanings of words of one lan ...

that was completed about 1440 AD. It was the first English-to-Latin dictionary. It occupies about 300 printed book pages.The ''Promptorium Parvulorum'' as published in 1865, downloadable at Archive.org
Its authorship is attributed to

Geoffrey the Grammarian Geoffrey the Grammarian (floruit, fl. 1440) (in Latin: Galfridus Grammaticus) was an English medieval monk and linguist, grammarian who wrote several treatises. Geoffrey was originally from Norfolk, England. In the late 15th century, he published ...

, a friar who lived in

Lynn, Norfolk King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, nor ...

, England.Entry for "Geoffrey the Grammarian" in ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (edition published 1885-1900), volume 21. After the invention of the printing press, the ''Promptorium'' was published repeatedly in the early 16th century by printer

Wynkyn de Worde Wynkyn de Worde (died 1534) was a printer and publisher in London known for his work with William Caxton, and is recognised as the first to popularise the products of the printing press in England. Name Wynkyn de Worde was a German immigr ...

. In the 19th century, the

Camden Society The Camden Society was a text publication society founded in London in 1838 to publish early historical and literary materials, both unpublished manuscripts and new editions of rare printed books. It was named after the 16th-century antiquary a ...

republished it under the extended title ''Promptorium parvulorum sive clericorum'' (“Storehouse for children or clerics”). For language historians it is a major reference work for the vocabulary of late medieval English. It is a frequently cited reference in today's primary dictionary of late medieval English, the ''

Middle English Dictionary ''The Middle English Dictionary'' is a dictionary of Middle English published by the University of Michigan. "Its 15,000 pages offer a comprehensive analysis of lexicon and usage for the period 1175–1500, based on the analysis of a collection of ...

'', published by the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

References

External links

The ''Promptorium Parvulorum'' as published in 1865, downloadable at Archive.org
15th-century Latin books 1440s books English bilingual dictionaries Latin dictionaries {{dict-stub

See also

References

External links