This volume brings together a number of papers written by R. W. Hunt (1908-1979) on the history of grammar in the Middle Ages. The importance of these papers lies almost as much in the spark of scholarly investigation that they have inspired, as in their contribution to original research. The first three studies in this collection deal with the change in grammatical doctrine that took place in the late 11th and 12th centuries and from which all subsequent developments during the creative period of medieval grammatical speculation derive. The fourth paper deals with a problem that concerns all students of the medieval liberal arts: the unity of learning, as opposed to the present-day compartmentalisation of studies. The remaining three studies deal with the textual materials available to the medieval student of grammar.

Surveys of linguistics in the Middle Ages often begin with the twelfth century, dismissing the preceding six centuries as 'devoid of originality' or 'dependent upon Donatus and Priscian'. This collection of articles devoted to linguistics in the early Middle Ages attempts to redress the balance by presenting a variety of approaches to new and controversial questions. The volume opens with a study of the historiography of early medieval grammar, with a bibliography of primary and secondary literature. The history of linguistic doctrine is discussed in articles dealing with Virgilius Maro Grammaticus, with the Irish contribution to the analysis of Latin, and with the Carolingian grammarians. A paper discussing a grammar from late Anglo-Saxon England (Beatus quid est) offers new insights into pedagogical techniques and the integration of literary texts into grammar teaching. The attitudes towards varieties of Latin in late antique and early medieval grammars are discussed in a wider context of cultural history. Finally, the volume includes two articles on the transmission of the grammars of the later Roman Empire to the early Middle Ages (Priscian and Dynamius).

Grammar and Grammarians in the Early Middle Ages is the only book in this field which examines linguistics in the Middle Ages from the standpoint of both the medievalist and the historian of linguistics. Primary source material along with previously unpublished texts are used extensively with all foreign texts translated into English, and are listed in a useful bibliography to aid further study. Historical surveys, author studies and introductions to medieval grammatical terminology are also included to help clarify the historical context of the study. The volume will prove invaluable reading and an important reference work for those studying historical linguistics, for medieval and cultural historians, and to all who are interested in the intellectual life and literature of medieval Europe.

This study focuses on the uses of the grammatical concept of etymologia in primarily Latin writings from the early Middle Ages. Etymologia is a fundamental procedure and discursive strategy in the philosophy and analysis of language in early medieval Latin grammar, as well as in Biblical exegesis, encyclopedic writing, theology, and philosophy. Read through the frame of poststructuralist analysis of discourse and the philosophy of science, the procedure of the ars grammatica are interpreted as overlapping genres (commentary, glossary, encyclopedia, exegesis) which use different verbal or extraverbal criteria to explain the origins and significations of words and which establish different epistemological frames within which an etymological account of language is situated. The study also includes many translations of heretofore untranslated passages from Latin grammatical and exegetical writings.

In the Middle Ages, grammar formed an established part of a broad educational scheme, the Liberal Arts. Defined as their foundation, grammar was a gateway to literary culture, both secular and religious. Grammatical treatises taught how to use the Latin language correctly and additionally provided technical tools for interpreting literature. Medieval grammarians inherited from Antiquity a large number of textbooks, of which the works of Donatus and Priscian became authoritative. Donatus' Ars minor provided the model for teaching the basic language skills at the secondary level, while Priscian's Institutiones grammaticae established itself as the principal object of commentary at a more advanced level. All levels of teaching underwent a heavy influence of logic in the Middle Ages. The two principal genres within which medieval teachers developed their ideas on language were the ars grammatica and commentary. However, specimens of other ancient approaches to language teaching also enjoyed a continuous popularity. They include regulae ('rules', 'patterns'), and parsing grammars. Some new medieval forms of grammar writing also arose, such as verse grammars, lexicographical treatises, and quaestiones. By describing the evolution of all the subgenres of medieval grammar writing, this book aims at creating a balanced picture of grammar teaching in medieval Europe.