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THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME XII SLICE II
Gloss to Gordon, Charles George
Articles in This Slice
GLOSS, GLOSSARY GOLDBEATING GLOSSOP GOLDBERG GLOUCESTER, EARLS AND DUKES OF GOLD COAST GLOUCESTER, GILBERT DE CLARE GOLDEN GLOUCESTER, HUMPHREY GOLDEN BULL GLOUCESTER, RICHARD DE CLARE GOLDEN-EYE GLOUCESTER, ROBERT GOLDEN FLEECE GLOUCESTER, THOMAS OF WOODSTOCK GOLDEN HORDE GLOUCESTER (city of England) GOLDEN ROD GLOUCESTER (Massachusetts, U.S.A.) GOLDEN ROSE GLOUCESTER CITY GOLDEN RULE GLOUCESTERSHIRE GOLDFIELD GLOVE GOLDFINCH GLOVER, SIR JOHN HAWLEY GOLDFISH GLOVER, RICHARD GOLDFUSS, GEORG AUGUST GLOVERSVILLE GOLDIE, SIR GEORGE DASHWOOD TAUBMAN GLOW-WORM GOLDING, ARTHUR GLOXINIA GOLDINGENGLOSS, GLOSSARY, &c. The Greek word γλῶσσα (whence our “gloss”), meaning originally a tongue, then a language or dialect, gradually came to denote any obsolete, foreign, provincial, technical or otherwise peculiar word or use of a word (see Arist. Rhet. iii. 3. 2). The making of collections and explanations1 of such γλῶσσαι was at a comparatively early date a well-recognized form of literary activity. Even in the 5th century B.C., among the many writings of Abdera was included a treatise entitled Περὶ Ὁμήρου ἤ ὀρθοεπείης καὶ γλωσσέων. It was not, however, until the Alexandrian period that the γλωσσογράφοι, glossographers (writers of glosses), or glossators, became numerous. Of many of these perhaps even the names have perished; but Athenaeus the grammarian alone (c. A.D. 250) alludes to no fewer than thirty-five. Among the earliest was Philetas of Cos (d. c. 290 B.C.), the elegiac poet, to whom Aristarchus dedicated the treatise Πρὸς Φιλπτᾶν; he was the compiler of a lexicographical work, arranged probably according to subjects, and entitled Ἅτακτα or Γγῶσσαι (sometimes Ἅτακτοι γλῶσσαι). Next came his disciple Zenodotus of Ephesus (c. 280 B.C.), one of the earliest of the Homeric critics and the compiler of Γλῶσσαι Ὁμηρικαί; Zenodotus in turn was succeeded by his greater pupil Aristophanes of Byzantium (c. 200 B.C.), whose great compilation Περὶ λέξεων (still partially preserved in that of Pollux), is known to have included Ἀττικαὶ λέξεις, Λακωνικαὶ γλῶσσαι, and the like. From the school of Aristophanes issued more than one glossographer of name,—Diodorus, Artemidorus (Γλῶσσαι, and a collection of λέξεις ὀψαρτυτικαί), Nicander of Colophon (Γλῶσσαι, of which some twenty-six fragments still survive), and Aristarchus (c. 210 B.C.), the famous critic, whose numerous labours included an arrangement of the Homeric vocabulary (λέξεις) in the order of the books. Contemporary with the last named was Crates of Mallus, who, besides making some new contributions to Greek lexicography and dialectology, was the first to create at Rome a taste for similar investigations in connexion with the Latin idioms. From his school proceeded Zenodotus of Mallus, the compiler of Ἐθνικαὶ λέξεις or γλῶσσαι, a work said to have been designed chiefly to support the views of the school of Pergamum as to the allegorical interpretation of Homer.2 Of later date were Didymus (Chalcenterus, c. 50 B.C.), who made collections of λέξεις τραγωδουμέναι κωμικαί, &c.; Apollonius Sophista (c. 20 B.C.), whose Homeric Lexicon has come down to modern times; and Neoptolemus, known distinctively as ὁ γλωσσογράφος. In the beginning of the 1st century of the Christian era Apion, a grammarian and rhetorician at Rome during the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius, followed up the labours of Aristarchus and other predecessors with Γλῶσσαι Ὁμηρικαί, and a treatise Περὶ τῆς Ῥωμαΐκῆς
To a special category of technical glossaries belongs a large and important class of works relating to the law-compilations of Justinian. Although the emperor forbade under severe penalties all commentaries (ὑπομνήματα) on his legislation (Const. Deo Auctore, sec. 12; Const. Tanta, sec. 21), yet indices (ἴνδικες) and references (παράτιτλα), as well as translations (ἑρμηνεῖαι κατὰ πόδα) and paraphrases (ἑρμηνεῖαι εἰς πλάτος), were expressly permitted, and lavishly produced. Among the numerous compilers of alphabetically arranged λέξεις Ῥωμαΐκαί or Λατεινικαί, and γλῶσσαι νομικαί (glossae nomicae), Cyril and Philoxenus are particularly noted; but the authors of παραγραφαί, or σημειώσεις, whether ἔξωθεν or ἔσωθεν κείμεναι, are too numerous to mention. A collection of these παραγραφαί τῶν παλαιῶν, combined with νέαι παραγραφαί on the revised code called τὰ βασιλικά, was made about the middle of the 12th century by a disciple of Michael Hagiotheodorita. This work is known as the Glossa ordinaria τῶν βασιλικῶν.3
In Italy also, during the period of the Byzantine ascendancy, various glossae (glosae) and scholia on the Justinian code were produced4; particularly the Turin gloss (reprinted by Savigny), to which, apart from later additions, a date prior to 1000 is usually assigned. After the total extinction of the Byzantine authority in the West the study of law became one of the free arts, and numerous schools for its cultivation were instituted. Among the earliest of these was that of Bologna, where Pepo (1075) and Irnerius (1100-1118) began to give their expositions. They had a numerous following, who, besides delivering exegetical lectures (“ordinariae” on the Digest and Code, “extraordinariae” on the rest of the Corpus juris civilis), also wrote Glossae, first interlinear, afterwards marginal.5 The series of these glossators was closed by Accursius (q.v.) with the compilation known as the Glossa ordinaria or magistralis, the authority of which soon became very great, so that ultimately it came to be a recognized maxim, “Quod non agnoscit glossa, non agnoscit curia.”6 For some account of the glossators on the canon law, see Canon Law.
In late classical and medieval Latin, glosa was the vulgar and romanic (e.g. in the early 8th century Corpus Glossary, and the late 8th century Leiden Glossary), glossa the learned form (Varro, De ling. Lat. vii. 10; Auson. Epigr. 127. 2 (86. 2), written in Greek, Quint, i. 1. 34). The diminutive glossula occurs in Diom. 426. 26 and elsewhere. The same meaning has glossarium (Gell. xviii. 7. 3 glosaria = γλωσσάριον), which also occurs in the modern sense of “glossary” (Papias, “unde glossarium dictum quod omnium fere partium glossas contineat”), as do the words glossa, glossae, glossulae, glossemata (Steinmeyer, Alth. Gloss. iv. 408, 410), expressed in later times by dictionarium, dictionarius, vocabularium, vocabularius (see Dictionary). Glossa and glossema (Varro vii. 34. 107; Asinius Gallus, ap. Suet. De gramm. 22; Fest. 166b. 8, 181a. 18; Quint. i. 8. 15, &c.) are synonyms, signifying (a) the word which requires explanation; or (b) such a word (called lemma) together with the interpretation
Latin, like Greek glossography, had its origin chiefly in the practical wants of students and teachers, of whose names we only know a few. No doubt even in classical times collections of glosses (“glossaries”) were compiled, to which allusion seems to be made by Varro (De ling. Lat. vii. 10, “tesca, aiunt sancta esse qui glossas scripserunt”) and Verrius-Festus (166b .6, “naucum ... glossematorum ... scriptures fabae grani quod haereat in fabulo”), but it is not known to what extent Varro, for instance, used them, or retained their original forms. The scriptores glossematorum were distinguished from the learned glossographers like Aurelius Opilius (cf. his Musae, ap. Suet. De gramm. 6; Gell. i. 25. 17; Varro vii. 50, 65, 67, 70, 79, 106), Servius Clodius (Varro vii. 70. 106), Aelius Stilo, L. Ateius Philol., whose liber glossematorum Festus mentions (181a. 18).