sci.lang
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Hrabanus Maurus, "De inventione linguarum."

Subject: Re: Hrabanus Maurus, "De inventione linguarum."
From: "Heidi Graw"
Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 20:07:25 GMT
Newsgroups: sci.lang
>"mb" <azythos2@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message 
>news:1156963590.531581.154580@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>> Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> ...
>> I have yet to find an electronic university library catalog that isn't
>> fully searchable from any computer on earth with web access.
>>
>> I just read his entry in the Britannica. (Did you?) Try looking for
>> Rabanus Maurus. What you're looking for might be a chapter in his De
>> arte grammatica.

> mb wrote:
> No, the exact ref is available (other post)

This is turning into quite the sleuthing game. <chuckle>

We know this document "De inventione linguarum" was accessible at some point 
in time.  Viktor Rydberg (1826 to 1895) uses Maurus as a reference in his 
Teutonic Mythology, chapter 17.

http://www.northvegr.org/lore/rydberg/017.php

"There lived in the time of Charlemagne and after him a Frankish man whose 
name is written on the pages of history as a person of noble character and 
as a great educator in his day, the abbot in Fulda, later archbishop in 
Ma e, Hrabanus Maurus, a scholar of the distinguished Alcuin, the founder 
of the first library and of the first large convent school in Germany. The 
fact that he was particularly a theologian and Latinist did not prevent his 
honouring and loving the tongue of his fathers and of his race. He 
encouraged its study and use, and he succeeded in bringing about that 
sermons were preached in the churches in the Teutonic dialect of the 
church-goers. That a Latin scholar with so wide a horizon as his also was 
able to comprehend what the majority of his colleagues failed to 
understand - viz., that some value should be attached to the customs of the 
fathers and to the old memories from heathen times - should not surprise us. 
One of the proofs of his interest in this matter he has given us in his 
treatise De invocatione linguarum, in which he has recorded a Runic 
alphabet, and added the information that it is the alphabet used by the 
Northmen and by other heathen tribes, and that songs and formulas for 
healing, incantation, and prophecy are written with these characters. When 
Hrabanus speaks of the Northmen, he adds that those who speak the German 
tongue trace their descent from the Northmen."

I have a copy of a documented published in 1938 written by Carl Selmer who 
also references Maurus in a footnote:
"Hrabanus Maurus' treatise "De inventione linguarum (Migne, PL, CXII, 1579).

Another document dated 1973 written by Fred C. Robinson also makes a 
reference to Maurus...however, with an interesting twist:  St. Boniface may 
have been the author!   The footnote claims PL. CXII, cols. 1581-82. 
Levison, p. 291, inclines to accept Hrabanus' authorship, adding that in any 
case, the treatise appears to be connected with the Fulda circle of the 
ninth century."

It is unclear to me whether or not Selmer and Robinson actually read "De 
inventione linguarum."...they may have just quoted from another source which 
quoted from something even more previous.  Rydberg, however, appears  to 
have actually read the document.  And this is what I'm looking for...a copy 
of that document...the whole thing!

I would think from a linguistic point of view this may even be of interest 
to sci.lang members.  What I also find interesting is that any of the books 
I have about runes do *not* make a reference to Maurus!   Hmmm....

Ah well... It'll be interesting to see if this document is actually 
available to scholars and other interested people.

Heidi





<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Privacy Policy