Teaching Grammars of the Middle Ages: Notes on the Manuscript Tradition

G. L. Bursill-Hall

Summary

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.

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References

A.Critical Editions

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