Anglo-Norman words

Edward Mills is a PhD student at the University of Exeter, and — like David, our previous author — was a recipient of a bursary from the AND and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to support research at the Dictionary’s offices. In this guest blog post, he offers an insight into how he spent his two weeks. ———— E quant l’ enfant fust de set anz, si le manderent a Joce de Dynan pur aprendre e noryr, quar Joce fust chevaler de bone aprise. And when the child was seven years old, they gave him to Joce of Dinan to be taught and brought up, since Joce was a knight of great learning. 1 London, British Library, MS Royal 12 C XII (fol. 36r). Spot the reference to ‘aprendre e noryr’! You’re seven years old. You didn’t sleep well last night — even an aristocratic family like yours, after all, isn’t immune from the winter chill — and you shiver slightly as you rise and go to rub the sleep from your eyes. Then you remember what your father told you the previous e...

Davide Battagliola , post-doctoral researcher from the University of Milan visited the Anglo-Norman Dictionary project for 4 weeks in July-August 2018 – thanks to a bursary from the AND and the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council). During this period, he was able to continue his research in Aberyswyth, making use of the materials, resources and expertise of the AND team. He writes the following blogpost on his project. __________________________________________________________________ Writing Morality in the Anglo-Norman World We can find a high number of continental manuscripts transmitting the Livre de Moralitez . This French translation of William of Conches’ Moralium Dogma Philosophorum achieved a remarkable success throughout Europe during the Middle Ages; yet, little did we know about the circulation of this moral treatise in medieval Britain.   The treatise opens with the author falling asleep and being visited in his dream by ancient philosophe...