Reading in medieval St. Gall / Anna A. Grotans.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Grotans, Anna A., 1961-

Series:

Cambridge studies in palaeography and codicology ; 13.

Cambridge studies in palaeography and codicology ; 13

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Latin philology--Study and teaching--Switzerland--Saint Gall--History--To 1500.

Latin philology.

Kloster St. Gallen.

Books and reading--Switzerland--Saint Gall--History--To 1500.

Books and reading.

Notker, Labeo, approximately 950-1022--Knowledge and learning--Language and languages.

Notker.

Notker, Labeo, approximately 950-1022.

Notker, Labeo, approximately 950-1022--Knowledge and learning--Education.

Education.

History.

Latin philology--Study and teaching.

Saint Gall (Switzerland)--Intellectual life--To 1500.

Saint Gall (Switzerland).

Switzerland--Saint Gall.

Physical Description:

xv, 363 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Summary:

Learning to read in medieval Germany meant learning to read and understand Latin as well as the pupils' own language. The teaching methods used in the medieval Abbey of St. Gall survive in the translations and commentaries of the monk, scholar, and teacher Notker Labeo (c. 950-1022). Notker's pedagogic method, although deeply rooted in classical and monastic traditions, demonstrates revolutionary innovations that include providing translations in the pupils' native German, supplying structural commentary in the form of simplified word order and punctuation, and furnishing special markers that helped readers to perform texts out loud. Anna Grotans examines this unique interplay between orality and literacy in Latin and Old High German, and illustrates her study with many examples from Notker's manuscripts. This study has much to contribute to our knowledge of medieval reading, and of the relationship between Latin and the vernacular in a variety of formal and informal contexts.

Contents:

1 Medieval reading 15

Literacy and orality 15

Grammatica and the classical past 23

The monastic "present" 28

Legibility and comprehension 33

Reading and writing German 39

2 Education at St. Gall 49

The St. Gall "schools," pupils and teachers 53

Teaching methods and curriculum 67

Primary education 71

Secondary education 76

Tenth-century curricular changes 79

Reading Notker's texts 91

The readers of Notker's texts 101

3 Language use and choice 111

Diglossia 112

Ekkehard IV on language 121

Languages of instruction 131

The "natural method" 132

The "eclectic method" 138

Code-switching and Notker's mixed prose 145

4 The St. Gall Tractate 155

Tenth-century lectio 158

Structural analysis 158

Circumstances of action 161

The ordo naturalis 164

Sentence movement 173

Performance analysis 179

5 Discretio in the classroom 199

Simplified word order 200

Syntactical punctuation 223

Performance cues and markers 226

Verbal performance cues 228

Graphic performance markers 235

6 Accentus 249

Notker's accentuation "system" 250

The "rules" 253

Exceptions to the "rules" 254

Sloppy scribes or shifting system? 261

Traditions of accentuation 267

The Latin context 267

Vernacular accentuation 275

Accentus applied to reading in Notker's texts 277

7 Spelling for reading 285

Writing German 285

Notker's "Anlautgesetz" 288

Classical and medieval orthographia and pronunciation 293

Alcuin's spelling reform 297

Notker's German spelling 300

Reading from written texts 302

The "Anlautgesetz" applied 307.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-353) and indexes.

ISBN:

0521803446

OCLC:

60835363

Publisher Number:

9780521803441

Online:

Publisher description