Department of Medieval Lexicography
Research Focus
The department’s main task is the creation of the Dictionary of Medieval Latin in Czech Lands which registers and explains Medieval Latin vocabulary used in Czech lands since the beginnings of Latin literature in this area to 1500 CE. The Dictionary is published per fascicules and serves both Czech and foreign scholars in all branches of Medieval Studies (the entries are explained in Latin and in Czech). Apart from the printed version, it is also possible to use the electronic version and scans of a part of the card files which serve as the material for the Dictionary’s creation. The work on the Dictionary is a basis for other research outputs of the department: lexicographic studies, translations and editions.
HISTORY OF THE DICTIONARY
The work on the Dictionary began in 1934, when a Commission for the Dictionary of Medieval Latin, led by Prof. Bohumil Ryba, was established within the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts. Since that year till the 1970s (with a slow-down during the War), excerption of sources was taking place. In 1977, first fascicule appeared, containing editorial principles and lists of sources and abbreviations. The first two volumes of the Dictionary, encompassing letters A–C and D–H, were published by the publishing house Academia. Since 1995, the Dictionary is published by KLP – Koniasch Latin Press. Since the 1930s, the Dictionary is a part of an international researched project coordinated by the Union Académique International in Brussels.
Current Projects
Team Projects
LATINITATIS MEDII AEVI LEXICON BOHEMORUM – THE DICTIONARY OF MEDIEVAL LATIN IN CZECH LANDS
The Dictionary registers and explains the vocabulary of Medieval Latin as used in Czech lands since the beginnings of Latin letters in this area (from about 1000 CE) to 1500 CE. The material, today amounting to ca. 800 000 excerpt sheets, was assembled from sources of various types (diplomatical, official, belles-lettres, scientific literature etc.) of Czech provenance. It provides thorough and sufficiently informative data about the wide range and heterogeneity of means of expression to be found in Latin letters of the Czech Middle Ages. Its card file index is the richest corpus of Medieval Latin in the Czech Republic. The merit of our Dictionary, as compared to those created in foreign countries, is that it includes not only edited texts, but also numerous manuscripts and old prints from Czech and foreign libraries. Thus, it makes accessible a great wealth of words that would otherwise remain hidden in unpublished sources. Especially valuable for better understanding of the medieval mentality are quotations from medieval treatises, public acts and numerous Czech and German vocabularies.
The Dictionary differentiates its content from and complements the eighth edition of Georges’ Latin‑German Lexicon (K. E. Georges - H. Georges, Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch I, II, Basel 19138). This method, stipulated by rules of Du Cange Committee for creating dictionaries of Medieval Latin, allows the capture of all phonological, morphological, syntactical, stylistic, prosodic and semantic divergences of Medieval Latin vocabulary inherited from the ancient era as compared with classical norms; the study of its changes and developments in new social and cultural conditions; and also the separate analysis of peculiar and newly-emerged words from Medieval Latin. Explanations in entries are given in Latin and Czech, Latin explanations having the character of a definition, the Czech ones being basically translations.
Volumes published so far: volume I (A-C), volume II (D–H), volume III (I–M). The electronic version contains the first two volumes and a part of the card file index (A–Con, Pi–Z). The unpublished material is accessible on demand in the Centre, where it is also possible to buy the printed fascicules.
In preparation: fascicule 24, comprising entries beginning with N.
Grant projects
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF METEOROLOGICAL THEORIES AND TERMINOLOGY IN THE CZECH LANDS
Principal researcher: Mgr. Barbora Kocánová, Ph.D.
Collaboration on Projects Run by Other Institutions
FONTES LATINI BOHEMORUM
Published by the publishing house OIKOYMENH under the direction of Hana Šedinová and Lenka Karfíková, since 2002 of Hana Šedinová and Zuzana Silagiová.
This book series comprises bilingual editions of medieval and humanistic texts of Czech provenance which have not been published before. The texts are provided with rich commentaries and indices and preceded by introductory studies in Czech and in a foreign language. In this way, a strictly scholarly presentation is coupled with a popularising one: the specialised public is given an authentic, reliable text allowing further research, while members of the general public may read (apart from the Czech translation) an erudite introduction to the relevant topic and factual comments on the text. The department’s staff takes part on the book series as authors and editors. The list of volumes published so far is accessible here.
LIBRARY OF MEDIEVAL TRADITION
Published by the publishing house OIKOYMENH under the direction of Hana Šedinová and Lenka Karfíková, since 2014 of Lenka Karfíková.
This book series intends to provide Czech readers with important works of medieval thinking in a bilingual form. Its aim thus is to make accessible the less well known aspects of European culture. The texts are accompanied with introductory studies and rich commentaries. Apart from a large-scale project of publishing Isidore of Seville’s encyclopaedia Etymologiae, writings of important schools of “the 12th century renaissance” and other important texts of the Middle Ages (Bonaventura, Suger of Saint-Denis, and Roger Bacon) are being published. The department’s staff takes part on the book series as authors and editors. The list of volumes published so far is accessible here.
“CREATIVE COPYING”. COMPILATIONS BY OLDŘICH KŘÍŽ OF TELČ
A project of the Faculty of Humanities of the Charles University, Prague. Principal researcher: Doc. Mgr. Lucie Doležalová, Ph.D. Representatives of the department are Hana Florianová, Barbora Kocánová and Zuzana Silagiová.
Databases
Card file index of the Dictionary of Medieval Latin in Czech Lands
Dictionary of Medieval Latin in Czech Lands
Involvement in the Strategy AV21
DIGITISED CARD FILE INDEX OF THE DICTIONARY OF MEDIEVAL LATIN IN CZECH LANDS
The aim of the project, which takes place within the research programme “Memory in the Digital Age”, is to scan and make accessible on the Internet the material basis of the Dictionary of Medieval Latin. Anyone who has interest now has access to the unique corpus of Medieval Latin vocabulary of Czech provenance, including manuscript texts. For more information click here.
Completed Projects and Selected Important Publications
GRANTS
A grant of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic LD13043: The Dictionary of Medieval Latin – Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum, 2013–2015. The project was a part of the international programme COST “Europa mediaevalis”. Output: Electronic version of the Dictionary, volumes I and II (A–H).
THE CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE “HISTORY AD INTERPRETAION OF THE BIBLE”: A joint project of the Evangelic Theological Faculty of Charles University, Prague, Sts Cyril and Methodius Faculty of Theology of Palacký University, Olomouc, and the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Principal researcher: Dr. Jan Dušek. Representatives of the department were Hana Šedinová, Barbora Kocánová and Zuzana Silagiová.
THE CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE “CULTURAL CODES AND THEIR TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE HUSSITE PERIOD”: A joint project of the Institute of Philosophy of the CAS, Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University, Prague, and the Institute of the Czech Language of the CAS. Principal researcher: Prof. Dr. František Šmahel, DrSc. The representative of the department was Zuzana Silagiová.
ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS
Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum - Dictionary of Medieval Latin in Czech Lands. Vol. I, (A-C), second, revised edition, prepared by Zuzana Silagiová with the assistance of Julie Černá, Hana Florianová, Pavel Nývlt, Hana Šedinová, and Kateřina Vršecká, on the basis of the first edition, prepared by Dana Martínková with the assistance of Marcela Bernášková, Helena Businská, Anděla Fialová, Daniel Korte, Helena Kurzová, Jiří Matl, and Zuzana Pospíšilová (Silagiová).
BOOKS
Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum – Dictionary of Medieval Latin in Czech Lands, fascicules 21–23, prepared by Zuzana Silagiová, with the assistance of Julie Černá, Hana Florianová, Barbora Kocánová, Dana Martínková, Pavel Nývlt, Hana Šedinová and Kateřina Vršecká, Praha: KLP 2011, 2014, 2016.
Silagiová, Zuzana – Šmahel, František (eds.), Catalogi librorum vetustissimi Universitatis Pragensis. Turnhout: Brepols 2015 (Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis, 271).
STUDIES
Florianová, Hana, “Tractatus de urinis Matouše Berana v kodexu Národní knihovny I F 35”, in: M. Dragoun – L. Doležalová – A. Ebersonová (eds.), Ubi est finis huius libri deus scit. Středověká knihovna augustiniánských kanovníků v Roudnici nad Labem, Praha: Scriptorium 2015, pp. 177–184 [“Treatise De urinis by Matouš Beran in the Codex of Czech National Library I F 35”].
Florianová, Hana, “Die Benennung und Klassifikation der Hautkrankheiten im Mittelalter”, in: Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi 71, 2013, pp. 197–207.
Kocánová, Barbora, “The Sublunary Phaenomena as a Subject of Medieval Academic Discussion: Meteorology and the Prague University Disputationes de Quolibet”, in: Early Science and Medicine 22, 2017, pp. 72–102.
Kocánová, Barbora, “Questio astronomicalis Zdeňka z Labouně (kritická edice)”, in: Listy filologické 139, 2016, pp. 123–165 [“Questio astronomicalis by Zdeněk of Labouň (Critical Edition)”].
Kocánová, Barbora, “Latein als Sprache der mittelalterlichen Schriften über Wettervorhersage”, in: Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi 71, 2013, pp. 237–248.
Nývlt, Pavel, “Modo in Quadragesimale Admontense”, in: Listy filologické 137, 2014, pp. 275–292.
Nývlt, Pavel, “Ze Slovníku středověké latiny: muscida huba”, in: Listy filologické 139, 2016, pp. 431–437 [“From the Dictionary of Medieval Latin: muscida huba”].
Silagiová, Zuzana, “Spuren des Tschechischen in lateinischen Texten böhmischer Provenienz: Lehnübersetzungen”, in: M. Pérez González – E. Pérez Rodríguez (eds.), Influencias léxicas de otraslenguas en el latín medieval. León: Universidad de León 2011, pp. 277–297.
Silagiová, Zuzana, “Die Sprache der Komputi”, in: Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi 71, 2013, pp. 303–313.
Šedinová, Hana, "From the Dictionary of Medieval Latin: gracocenderius", in: Listy filologické 140, 2017, 3-4, pp. 455–470.
Šedinová, Hana, "Incendula or monedula? An Enigmatic Bird Name in Medieval Latin-Written Sources", in: Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi 74, 2016, pp. 89–109.
Šedinová, Hana, „Aristotle’s Carp as Claretus' Bird ,comor‘? Tracing the Origin of One Medieval Term“, in: Acta Universitatis Carolinae – Philologica 2 (Graecolatina Pragensia) 2016, s. 111–123.
Šedinová, Hana, „,Esca eius erant locustae‘. The Origin and Meaning of the Imaginary Quadruped ,locusta‘“, in: Listy filologické 138, 2015, s. 231–268.
Vršecká, Kateřina, "Ze Slovníku středověké latiny: Balatro", in: Listy filologické 141/1-2 2018, s. 201-219 [“From the Dictionary of Medieval Latin: balatro”].
Vršecká, Kateřina, „The Language and Style of Latin Rubrics in Medieval Liturgical Easter Drama“, in: Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi 71, 2013, s. 267–280.
