Mittelalterliche volkssprachige Glossen: Internationale Fachkonferenz des Zentrums für Mittelalterstudien der Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, 2. bis 4. August 1999. Herausgegeben von Rolf Bergmann, Elvira Glaser, Claudine Moulin-Fankhänel. Heidelberg: C. Winter, 2001. Pp. x + 610; 33 facsimiles of manuscripts; 4 facsimiles of computer images; 2 maps. EUR 77.

The remarkable collection of essays focuses on primarily vernacular traditions of glossing Latin during the earlier Middle Ages in northwestern Europe, including the vernaculars: Old Irish, Old English (including runes), Old Norse, Old High German, Old Low German, Old Saxon (the essays by Ferrari and Ganz focus exclusively on Latin glossing). Among traditions of Latin glossing bracketed out at the conference are thus the vast areas of late antiquity, the Romance languages, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia (the essay by Raschellà on the latter topic was added to the volume); the material covered is, however, equally broad and deep. While not a textbook in any sense, the volume is nevertheless an exemplary collection of case studies that demonstrates the basic craft and advanced skills of the text-oriented medievalist—paleography, codicology, philology, linguistics, with an occasional foray into literary and social history. To read such a collection is to see the day-to-day spade work of the text-based study of the European Middle Ages as scarcely to be found elsewhere.

Jerold C. Frakes
University of Southern California