to the Stonyhurst Medulla: An Edition of the Letter “A”

The Medulla Grammatice, a very popular compilation of Latin words with English and Latin meanings, translated “the core of the grammatical (art)”, has been transmitted through 19 manuscripts and four fragments. It was found in most of the major centers of learning in England. The time period was the 15th century, early to late, with only one manuscript internally dated: St. John’s (Cambridge), 16 December, 1468. As the first major Latin-Middle English glos sary, the Medulla takes its place in a venerable glossographical tradition. The recorders of these traditions, the scribes, were in part educated, but, in all, were not capable of being relied upon for accurate and uninterfering transcription. A great number of manuscripts were recopied in some form to be used in the classroom, and when subjected to the rigors of preparation for class, the masters, in proportion to their weakness in the Latin language, clarified the problematic words and phrases by scribbling above the Latin word or in the margin an equi valent meaning in English. Hence, the gloss. Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics contain the first recorded instances o