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The Medieval Church · c. 765–790
The Abrogans
Anonymous, probably at Freising
What it is
A Latin synonym dictionary with German equivalents written above the words, beginning at abrogans and running through some thirty-five hundred entries — made so that monks whose Latin was shaky could read the fathers.
Why it lasted
The oldest book in the German language, and its subject is how to understand Christian Latin. German literacy begins as a tool for reading scripture and its commentators, which is true of most European vernaculars.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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