A Late Eighth Century Latin - Anglo - Saxon Glossary. Edited by John Henry
Ilessels, M.A. (Cambridge University Press. 10s. net.)—Mr. Hessels published in 1890 an edition of a similar Glossary which is preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The present volume is the completion of labours commenced at a yet earlier date. We may congratu- late Mr. Hessels on bringing to an end an interesting work, and recognise also the public spirit of both editor and publishing University. The MS. consists of fifty-two folios, and contains, besides the Glossary, which occupies the middle portion, a mis- cellaneous collection of ecclesiastical writings, beginning with the Versus Siby/iini. The Abgarus Letters and some of the Hymns of Prudentius may be mentioned as specimens. After the Glossary come various extracts in later handwritings which have been inscribed on the blank leaves of the original book. It would be difficult to give a satisfactory idea of the labour spent on the edition. Three of the chapters of the Glossary (4, 5, 35) contain collections of glosses to Rufinus's translation of Eusebius's "Ecclesiastical History," and to Rufinus's own additions to that work. "I read them," says Mr. Hessels, "five or six times" in the hope of tracing these words. Chap. 6, again, contains a number of words which "had a poetical look." The editor read Prudentius, Dracontius, and other Latin poets of the same type in the hope of identifying them. It was afterwards discovered by accident that they came from Gildas, "De Excidio Britanniae." As the words number thirty-one only, we get a vivid notion of Mr. Hessels's.industry. It may be necessary to explain that the Anglo-Saxon element is small. It is not a Latin-Anglo-Saxon Glossary in the sense of a Latin-English Dictionary. A number of Anglo-Saxon words are given when the occasion occurred. So in chap. 39 we have " Fledo- mum : blodsaex," these two words being equivalent to a "lancet" (blood-knife). The book is of too technical a kind to be treated at great length ; but we are anxious to show our appreciation of this disinterested labour.
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