Description

First edition of 10th-century compendium of grammatical lore, second only in importance to Ælfric's own Grammar.

When the famous Anglo-Saxon scholar Ælfric wrote the first grammar in a European vernacular, he used as his direct source the Excerptiones de Prisciano excerpts from major curriculum authors of the medieval schools, including Donatus, Isidore and Priscian himself . The tenth-century text, probably of English origin, most probably compiled by Ælfric, is an ambitious compendium of grammatical lore, and it is, with the exception of Ælfric's own Grammar, arguably the most sophisticated Latin-learning text of the Anglo-Saxon age. Edited here for the first time, the Excerptiones appear with all scholia, an English translation, and a full contextual introduction.

DAVID W. PORTER is Professor of English, Southern University, Baton Rouge.