The Antwerp-london Glossaries: Publications of the Dictionary of Old English

The Antwerp London Glossaries are eleventh-century descendents of the earliest school text in the English language. In their earliest form they played a central role at the seventh-century school of Canterbury; they contributed material to the fundamental texts, dated to the 600s, known as the Leiden Glossary and the Epinal-Erfurt Glossary. A varied collection with five distinguishable parts, the glossaries have at their heart a late Latin encyclopedia, the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville. The longest glossary lists thousands of Isidorian headwords and gives definitions in Old English. The glossaries are an important witness to the composing of the first encyclopedic work in our language. In shaping basic school texts, this encyclopedia became a crucial medium for translating Classical learning to an Insular environment. It put its stamp as well on the production of original works by the first generation of English writers, including Aldhelm, a Canterbury alumnus. The Antwerp London Glossaries are perhaps the last long Old English text never to have been properly edited. This edition is accompanied by textual apparatuses and complete English and Latin indexes.

David W. Porter was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1950. He holds a doctorate degree from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied literature and language. He has taught in Japan and Egypt, at several American universities, and, for the past twenty-two years, at Southern University, Baton Rouge, where he currently chairs the Department of English. In addition to many articles on Anglo-Latin and on lexicography, David Porter has published three previous books, including (with Anna Grotans) The St Gall Tractate: A Medieval Guide to Rhetorical Syntax, (with Scott Gwara) Anglo-Saxon Conversations: The Colloquies of Alfric Bata, and Excerptiones de Prisciano: The Source for Alfric's Latin-Old English Grammar. Additionally, he plays five-string banjo with The Laughing Lizards String Band (laughinglizardsband.com) and builds furniture at Feliciana Chairworks in St Francisville, Louisiana.