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Dictionary of Medieval Latin (MLW)


Links to the project

The Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch is a joint project of the German Academies of Sciences, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences. It is the most comprehensive of several national dictionaries that (following the plan of the Union Académique Internationale) will together form an extensive dictionary of medieval Latin.


Dictionary of Medieval Latin (MLW)

Host Academy
Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities

Location and federal state
Munich, Bavaria

Type
Historical and Foreign Language Dictionaries

Project number
I.B.02


The Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch is based on a corpus of Latin texts written in the German-speaking area during the Middle Ages, with the addition of texts relevant for German history, especially sources from Frankia and the Italian parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Selected works of technical literature have also been included in the corpus to represent the terminology of disciplines like philosophy, law, canon law, medicine, theology, liturgy and church history, philosophy, ethics, logic, mathematics, geometry, calendrical calculations, astrology, astronomy, zoology, botany, alchemy, pharmacy, anatomy, surgery, grammar and music. The corpus covers the period from ca. 600 AD to 1280 (death of Albertus Magnus), thus chronologically following the Thesaurus linguae Latinae, and including the scholastical terminology of the High Middle Ages. The Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch provides the international dictionary Novum Glossarium with its German, Austrian and Swiss word references. Additionally the archives, which today contain approximately 10 million slips, are accessible for interested scientists for the purposes of research; and upon request the employees of the project give information on linguistic and lexical questions for editions and special research.

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