Vernacular Writing in Early Medieval Manorial Administration: Two Tenth-Century Documents from Werden and Essen

Stefan Esders

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Chapter 10 Vernacular Writing in Early Medieval Manorial Administration: Two Tenth-Century Documents from Werden and Essen

In: The Languages of Early Medieval Charters

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Stefan Esders

Stefan Esders
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 378–411

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004432338_011

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Abstract

Owing to the continuing predominance of Latin as an administrative language, texts relating to manorial administration were only rarely written in the vernacular in the earlier Middle Ages. Starting from this observation, this chapter investigates two short vernacular registers from tenth-century Saxony. The first text, from the polyptych of the monastery of Werden in the Ruhr area, refers to monastic property located some distance away in the present-day Netherlands. The use of the vernacular is explained through the observation that the list contains a number of Old Dutch place-names which could not easily be translated into Latin, while the area concerned was also characterized by a distinct Frankish legal tradition. The second example, very different in character, is preserved in a tenth-century manuscript from the women’s convent of Essen. While the manuscript mainly contains homilies of Gregory the Great with some vernacular glosses, at its very end, a short Latin manorial register was added, as well as an Old Saxon homily for All Saints and an Old Saxon manorial register. Because this vernacular register refers to the delivery of barley and several other products from nine of the monastery’s manors on feast days, it is usually associated with the monastery’s brewery. As this study demonstrates, the vernacular register presupposes the tenth-century division of monastic property between the abbess and the convent, while reference to the feast days of the monastery’s patrons, among whom were included Sts Cosmas and Damian, is to be linked to the celebration of All Saints’ Day on 1 November. The manuscript should thus be attributed to Essen’s female provost, who read passages from Latin homilies and commented upon them in the vernacular, while her economic responsibilities led her to prepare a vernacular register in order to communicate with the lay officials of the monastery’s manors on feast days. The paper concludes with some general observations on the kinds of situations that stimulated communication in the vernacular and on the critical importance of taking each instance of vernacular writing on its own terms.

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The Languages of Early Medieval Charters

Latin, Germanic Vernaculars, and the Written Word

Series: Brill's Series on the Early Middle Ages, Volume: 27

Cover The Languages of Early Medieval Charters

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004432338

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 16 Nov 2020

Subjects
- History
- Languages and Linguistics
  - Historical and Comparative Linguistics & Linguistic Typology
  - Multilingualism & Language Contact

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Chapter 10 Vernacular Writing in Early Medieval Manorial Administration: Two Tenth-Century Documents from Werden and Essen

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The Languages of Early Medieval Charters

Latin, Germanic Vernaculars, and the Written Word

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