Teaching Grammars of the Middle Ages
Notes on the Manuscript Tradition
G. L. Bursill-Hall | Simon Fraser University
Grammar enjoyed a privileged position in the medieval curriculum; along with the other members of the Trivium it provided a thorough foundation which probably accounts for much of the intellectual success of the medieval schoolmen. This article discusses the material used in the Middle Ages for the teaching of grammar and aims at an exhaustive list of pedagogical material which can still be found, for the most part unedited, in European manuscripts collections; this material served not only for the teaching of Latin grammar to students whose mother tongue was not Latin but also as an introduction to the study of grammatical theory. The article refers to the changes that took place in grammar, i.e., from being a literary discipline it became a logical, speculative discipline, which is reflected in this pedagogical material. Furthermore, this material provides important indications of developments in grammatical theory and their effect on grammatical pedagogy. What is very striking is that certain text-books which enjoyed a widespread influence were written when there was not only a greatly increased demand for text-books but also when every discipline was undergoing radical change.
Published online: 01 January 1977
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.4.1.02bur
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.4.1.02bur
References
A.Critical Editions
Fierville, Charles
(1833-?), ed. 1886 Une grammaire latine inédite du XIIIe siècle, extraite des manuscrits no. 465 de Laon et no. 15462 (fonds latin) de la Bibliothèque nationale. Paris: Impr. nationale.
Reichling, Dietrich
(1845–1921), ed. 1893 Das Doctrinale des Alexander de Villa-Dei: Kritisch-exegetische Ausgabe … Berlin: A. Hofmann & Co.
Wrobel, Johann
(1831–1909), ed. 1887 Eberhardi Bethuniensis Graecismus; ad fidem librorum manu scriptorum recensuit, lectionem varietatem adiecit, … Breslau: G. Koebner.
B.Secondary Works
Brother Bonaventure, F. S. C.
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1976 “Johannes de Garlandia – Forgotten grammarian and the manuscript tradition”. HL 3:2. 155–77. 
Gibson, Margaret
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Haskins, Charles H(omer
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Hunt, Richard William
1950 “Hugutio and Petrus Helias”. Medieval and Renaissance Studies 2:2.174–78. (Repr. in R. W. Hunt, Collected Papers on the History of Grammar in the Middle Ages, 145–49. Amsterdam: John Benjamins 1978.)
1964 “Oxford Grammar Masters in the Middle Ages”. Oxford Studies presented to Daniel Callus, 163–93. Oxford: Oxford Historical Society. (Repr. in Hunt, op. cit., 167–97.)
Manitius, Max
(1858–1933), with the collaboration of Paul Lehmann (1884–1964) 1931 Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters. Part III1: Vom Ausbruch des Kirchenstreits bis zum Ende des zwölften Jahrhunderts. Munich: C. H. Beck.
Marigo, Aristide
1936 I codici manoscritti delle “Derivationes” di Uguc-cione Pisano. Rome: Ist. Graf. Tiberino.
Pinborg, Jan
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Scaglione, Aldo D.
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Thurot, Charles
(1823–83) 1868 Notices et extraits de divers manuscrits latins pour servir à l’histoire des doctrines grammaticales au moyen âge. Paris: Impr. impériale. (Repr., Frankfurt/M.: Minerva 1964.)
Cited by
Cited by 10 other publications
Allen, W.S. & C.O. Brink
1980. The old order and the new: A case history.
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Bursill-Hall, G. L.
1981. Medieval donatus commentaries.
Historiographia Linguistica 8:1 ► pp. 69 ff.
Bursill-Hall, G. L.
1989. Medieval Priscian commentaries.
Historiographia Linguistica 16:1-2 ► pp. 89 ff.
Huntsman, Jeffrey F.
1978. Computers and medieval english lexicography.
Computers and the Humanities 12:1-2 ► pp. 53 ff.
HUNTSMAN, JEFFREY F.
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In Medieval Studies and the Computer,
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Kneepkens, C. H.
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In Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy,
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Alastair Minnis & Ian Johnson
2005.
In The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism,
Reinikka, Anna
2017. Latin parsing grammars from the Carolingian age to the later Middle Ages.
Historiographia Linguistica 44:2-3 ► pp. 255 ff.
Rosier, Irène
1990.
In Philosophie et science au Moyen Age / Philosophy and Science in the Middle Ages,
► pp. 783 ff.
Rosier-Catach, Irène
1998. Remembering Geoffrey Bursill-Hall.
Historiographia Linguistica 25:3 ► pp. 251 ff.
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