Saggi di lessicografia mediolatina, a cura di V. Lunardini

This volume contains essays published since the mid-1960s which aim to throw light on Medieval Latin authors and texts on lexicography from Isidore of Seville through the great collections compiled during the waning of the Middle Ages when increasingly important evidence of vulgaris eloquentia began to appear on the horizon. The treatment of various themes brings to light details relating especially to the works of Papias, Osberno, Uguccione da Pisa, Giovanni Balbi and Guillaume le Breton. In addition, preliminary research illuminates the inedited lexicons of Gualtiero d’Ascoli and Angelo Senisio. These are not copies of previously published essays as newly-discovered documentation and the data gleaned from recent research have made useful and necessary retractationes possible - in fact, predictable - given the vast areas still open to investigation in the broader field of Medieval lexicography. Nevertheless, a methodological guide to future research has emerged clearly. Scholars will thus have to give attention both to words gathered from the vernaculars and terms defined as monstra in these essays, and studied as such, rather than to the thesaurus of semantically recognized and confirmed lemmas, when used in research. These elements are of interest because they often reveal precious evidence of corruptions in form and meaning that exerted considerable influence on the history of Medieval culture.