Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources - online (2024)

For more than a thousand years after the end of the Roman empire, Latin remained an important language across Western Europe. Used throughout the Middle Ages for purposes as diverse as literature, scientific discourse, administration, and religious worship, it existed alongside the many everyday native languages of the people.

The Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources presents the vocabulary of the Latin language as written in Britain and by Britons abroad from Gildas (AD 540) to Camden (1600). Thousands of Latin works by more than 2,000 named authors are known of from Britain in this period, together with the works of many anonymous writers and a huge body of public and private documents. These texts form a continuous tradition of thought and composition in a language based upon and derived from the highest literary register of Classical and Late Latin, but also incorporating elements and influences from the contemporary languages spoken, written, or known in these islands, including Greek and various Celtic, Germanic, Romance, and Semitic languages.