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Anglo-Norman Dictionary

The Anglo-Norman Dictionary projects offers a free digital presence for the standard dictionary of Anglo-Norman French. Its first printed edition was published between 1977 and 1992. The second, revised, edition started in the late 1990s and is still ongoing: its work is published online in (bi-)yearly installments and is expected to be completed by 2029. The site provides coverage for areas of francophone activity in the British Isles from 1066 up to 1500.
The site also provides a detailed Bibliography of all Anglo-Norman primary sources currently available, an introduction to Anglo-Norman for a non-academic public, a range of searchable Anglo-Norman texts, unpublished transcriptions and academic articles.

Cantus Planus at University of Regensburg

Cantus Planus at the University of Regensburg presents a variety of tools and databases for the study of plainchant. The site offers a number of datafiles containing antiphons, responsories, and the texts of various liturgical books from across Europe. Likewise, the site presents databases for searching various aspects of the liturgy, including saints’ feasts or the type of liturgy used for a particular day. Likewise, the site contains search apparatus for notation as well as a number of bibliographies on chant.

The site is free to use, though it has not been recently updated.

Chinese Text Project

The Chinese Text Project is an open-access digital library whose goal is to make available a wide variety of Chinese texts from ancient periods. Though the site focuses on ancient texts in particular, texts from the Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties are well represented as well. Texts are generally taken from open-source documents published elsewhere on the internet, but there are also original transcriptions as well.

The CTP also brings together a variety of resources for the study of ancient Chinese texts, including dictionaries, bibliographies, and other resources. There is also an active discussion board where questions of transcription and translation are frequently asked. The site continues to be updated regularly.

Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon

The CAL is a text base of the Aramaic texts in all dialects from the earliest (9th Century BCE) through the 13th Century CE, currently with a database of approximately 3 million lexically parsed words, and an associated set of electronic tools for analyzing and manipulating the data, whose ultimate goal is the creation of a complete lexicon of the language. It is a work in progress, not a completed dictionary. Accordingly, any citations for scholarly purposes should include the date when the data was found.

Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources

An Oxford-based research project, the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources is a dictionary of medieval Latin in the British Isles from 540CE to 1600CE based entirely on original research. Published through Brepolis, the online version presents the contents of the print dictionary in a searchable format. Drawing only on sources from the British Isles, the dictionary shows localized usages of Latin words.

There are two versions of the DMLBS. The free version is available through Logeion and can only be searched by keyword. The paid version published by Brepols has more extensive search features and is accessible through Brepolis. On that version, a user may create advanced searches that include or exclude terms as well as browse an index of headwords.

Dictionary of the Welsh Language

GPC is the only standard historical dictionary of the Welsh language.
It is broadly comparable in method and scope to the Oxford English Dictionary.

It presents the vocabulary of the Welsh language from the earliest Old Welsh texts, through the abundant literature of the Medieval and Modern periods, to the huge expansion in vocabulary resulting from the wider use of Welsh in all aspects of life in the last half century.

This vocabulary is defined in Welsh, and English equivalents are also given. Detailed attention is given to variant forms, collocations, and etymology.

The work is based on an ever-expanding collection of over two million citation slips gathered from a range of texts over many years.

Dictionnaire Étymologique de l’Ancien Français

An etymological dictionary of Old Frence: “Le Dictionnaire étymologique de l’ancien français (DEAF) jette les bases scientifiques, tant philologiques que linguistiques, de l’ancien français. Il embrasse la période allant de 842 jusqu’au milieu du 14e siècle. Les articles sont classés par ordre alphabétique et contiennent les mots groupés par familles étymologiques. Les travaux se font en partant de principes philologiques stricts (Ad fontes!). Pour en savoir plus, veuillez lire notre présentation succincte. Le dictionnaire se fonde en principe sur toute la littérature écrite en ancien français telle qu’elle est répertoriée dans le Complément bibliographique. La publication se fait en ligne dans le DEAF électronique, ainsi que sous forme imprimée par livraisons de 192 colonnes. Nous laissons à d’autres l’appréciation du travail accompli et nous contenterons ici de citer quelques résultats exemplaires qui illustrent la valeur encyclopédique de l’ouvrage.”

 

Early English Laws Online

Early English Laws Online has as its goal the publication in print and translation of all English legal codes up to Magna Carta in 1215. Currently, the project has digitized and indexed a number of legal texts from the period in Latin, Old French, and Old English. One can search by text name, abbreviation, category, or by the king under whose reign the laws were written. Likewise, one can view catalog data and links to other repositories containing manuscripts of the legal codes. A few of these manuscripts have images that can be viewed in the site’s manuscript viewer.

The project also contains a bibliography on English law, a glossary, contextual essays, and links to other related projects.

eDIL

The electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language (eDIL) is a digital dictionary of medieval Irish. It is based on the ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY’S Dictionary of the Irish Language based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials (1913-1976) which covers the period c.700-c.1700. The current site contains revisions to c.4000 entries and further corrections and additions will be added in the coming years.

Footprints: Jewish Books through Time and Place

The Footprints projects is a growing database of records that aim to track the circulation of printed “Jewish books” across time and space. Though the great majority of records come from the early modern period and beyond, there are currently over 200 entries from the invention of the printing press to the end of the 16th century.

The database tracks interactions with printed books through what it calls “footprints,” which is the project’s terminology for users’ interactions with books through marginalia, ownership marks, and numerous other qualities. The project features advanced search functionality that allows a user to search by time, place, and various textual and physical properties of the printed books. There is also visualization capability to show the path of books and holdings in various repositories around the world.

Additionally, an active community of users exists on the site as well as a blog that is updated regularly.

Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru: A Dictionary of the Welsh Language

Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru: A Dictionary of the Welsh Language (GPC) is the online version of A Dictionary of the Welsh Language, the historical dictionary of Welsh similar in scope to the Oxford English Dictionary. Funded by the Welsh government, the decades-long print project was completed in 2001 and the digital version was begun in 2011 and is an ongoing project. The GPC contains entries dating back to the earliest references to Welsh and contains many entries spanning the medieval period. Entries contain grammatical information as well as a definition and dated historical sources to the words under consideration. Users may search entries in either Welsh or English.

The project is free to use and has an active web presence that updates users on the project’s status.

Glossarial Concordance to Middle English

Housed at Johns Hopkins University, the Glossarial Concordance to Middle English is a database of words and their locations in texts derived from the Chaucer and Gower’s poetic works. The creators hope to expand the platform to other Middle English authors in the future. Drawing primarily from Larry Benson’s Riverside Chaucer in addition to the compiled works of Gower, the database allows a user to make complex searches for terms and phrases in those authors’ works. For an entry, the Concordance presents the text’s title and the line number at which it appears.

The site also interacts with the Middle English Dictionary to allow a user to search by dictionary headword. Searching is made simpler through the use of predictive text, so that as a user begins typing, the Concordance offers possible matches in the search box. The site invites users to contact the creators if they would like to add a text. Additionally, the source code for the project is made available on GitHub.

Glossarium Græco-Arabicum

The database Glossarium Græco-Arabicum makes available the files of a lexical project, intended to open up the lexicon of the mediæval Arabic translations from the Greek. It contains images of the filecards (ca. 80,000) which have not yet been published in the analytical reference dictionary A Greek and Arabic Lexicon (Leiden: Brill, 1992ff.), and comprises Arabic roots from the letter jîm to the end of the Arabic alphabet.

From the eighth to the tenth century A. D., Greek scientific and philosophical works were translated wholesale into Arabic. This activity resulted in the incorporation and reorganization of the classical heritage in the new civilization which, using Arabic, spread with Islam.

The object of project Glossarium Graeco-Arabicum is to make readily available to scholars the direct information which the Graeco-Arabic translations contain for several areas of research. These include:

– the vocabulary and syntax of Classical and Middle Arabic;
– the development of a scientific and technical vocabulary in Arabic;
– the vocabulary of Classical and Middle Greek;
– the chronology and nature of the translation movement into Arabic; and
– the establishment of the texts of Greek works and their Arabic translations.

Italian Paleography

From the website:

The Italian Paleography website presents 102 Italian documents and manuscripts written between 1300 and 1700, with tools for deciphering them and learning about their social, cultural, and institutional settings. The site includes: digitized images of 102 manuscripts and documents; T-Pen, a digital tool to actively transcribe manuscripts and documents;
transcriptions and background essays for each item; a selection of calligraphy books and historical manuscript maps; a handbook of Italian vernacular scripts; additional resources, including a glossary, list of abbreviations and symbols, dictionaries, and teaching materials.

Lexis of Cloth and Clothing Project

Cloth and clothing have been integral to life for every person since civilization began.

In the Middle Ages dress was an identifier of occupation, status, gender and ethnicity; textiles ranged through opulent, symbolic, utilitarian and recycled. Cloth production and international trade constituted a major sector of the economy of medieval Britain.

Evidence for medieval textiles and clothing is sought in diverse academic disciplines: archaeology, archaeological textiles, art history, economic history, literature, languages.

The vocabulary of the various languages spoken and written in the British Isles is documented in different specialist dictionaries, yet geographical proximity and interaction through labour and trade would argue that this evidence should be categorised and analysed together.

The Arts and Humanities Research Council made an award of £765,576 within the Research Grants (Standard) Scheme to fund a 5-year Project to undertake a trans-disciplinary study with the purpose of  producing an analytical corpus of medieval dress and textiles terminology of the British Isles in the form of a searchable database, innovatively illustrated.

At its centre was the assembly and examination of textiles/clothing lexis in the early languages of Britain (Old and Middle English; Welsh, Old Irish and minor Celtic languages; Anglo-Norman/French, Medieval Latin, Anglo-Norse), investigating the genesis and subsequent development of the vocabulary.

The terms and their citations from both documentary and literary texts have been analysed in awareness of surviving textiles/dress accessories and graphic images in medieval art.

From the reviewer:

This website represents an ambitious project – “lexis” being the total stock of words in a language – in this case we are looking at words specific to the British Isles. The sections that focus on words are the best – the Dictionaries tab and the Search the Database are useful and provide data. The Gallery tab provides detailed photographs. The Research tab leads to interesting books – they are mostly dated from 2006 -2012, however.

Logeion

Logeion is a free online dictionary that aggregates the resources of all the Latin and Greek dictionaries available through the Perseus Classical collection in addition to other resources like the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources. A user can search by headword or an inverse search and use the tabs to switch between dictionary sources, including: Lewis and Short, Gaffiot, and others. The website also provides basic corpus analysis, offering examples of the word in sentences as well as providing morphological analysis. Though not all sources in the project are medieval, some, like the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, are predominantly medieval.

Mapping Metaphor: Metaphor Map of Old English

Mapping Metaphor is a project hosted by the University of Glasgow and represents the portion of the Mapping Metaphor project devoted particularly to the study of Old English. Deriving its data from the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, the project aims to provide useful data and data visualizations that map words and their usage as metaphors in Old English. The project presents over 70,000 metaphorical words in several visual formats. Users can also see which metaphorical words pair most frequently with a variety of statistical analyses.

The project has several tutorials and glossaries that teach a user how to use the database. Though the data itself is not available for download, the project includes several modes of searching its findings.

Medieval Nordic Text Archive

The Medieval Nordic Text Archive (Menota) is a digital repository for medieval texts from Nordic repositories. A user can navigate the repository in either English or Norwegian. A joint project among many libraries and universities across Scandinavia, Menota invites editors to submit medieval texts in the Nordic languages or Latin. All texts on the platform have been marked up in XML and users can select a variety of views, like diplomatic of facsimile. As of 2020, over 50 manuscripts have been digitally edited and the project is ongoing.

Beyond digital texts, the platform also provides a few translations of medieval texts, lexicographical resources, and links to some images of manuscripts in Nordic repositories. Menota makes its encoding practices clear in documents and handbooks available on the site. The XML of digital editions hosted on the platform are open-source and available for download.

Middle English Dictionary

Welcome to the electronic Middle English Dictionary. The print MED, completed in 2001, has been described as “the greatest achievement in medieval scholarship in America.” Its 15,000 pages offer a comprehensive analysis of lexicon and usage for the period 1100-1500, based on the analysis of a collection of over three million citation slips, the largest collection of this kind available. This electronic version of the MED preserves all the details of the print MED, but goes far beyond this, by converting its contents into an enormous database, searchable in ways impossible within any print dictionary.