The Abrogans - our first German book

As stated in the contribution to the beginnings of German literature , the first written traditions of German literature in the 8th century were created, and every really enthusiastic bookworm would now like to know what knowledge can be found in the first book of German literature.

However, it also had to be shown in this article that everything that interests the leisure reader, i.e. the love stories, horror stories, fairy tales and exciting stories of all kinds from the early days of German language development were not transmitted in writing, but only passed on orally.

When the first records in an idiom that can be called a German language then started in the 8th century, one thought of more important things than love and imagination. The first book that we have in a language that is subject to the term German does not necessarily delight with the most exciting content of the world. But the whole thing is exciting enough for that:

The first German book is a Latin-old high German glossary, which is usually called “Abrogans” . Sometimes there is also talk the Keronian dictionary But that is not quite certain again, the author could also be the author of the South Tyrolean spiritual Arbeo .

In any case, it is almost agreed that the Abrogans in the Old Bairian diocese of Freising was created, which was subordinate to this Arbeo, which was bishop there from 764 to 783.

It is agreed that this dictionary was translated into German in the second half of the 8th century by glossing Latin keywords and their Latin reproductions with old High German equivalents, only the exact times fluctuate quite a bit, between 750 and 790.

In any case, the Abrogans, or the Codex Abrogans, is surprisingly extensive, it contains about 3,670 Old High German words and over 14,600 evidence of these words. However, if the abrogans with its many entries are praised as a valuable source to explore the oldest Upper German language, this praise has its pitfalls: This Latin-Eldehochdeutsche Synonymous dictionary was obviously one of the first of its kind, according to the scientists, it builds on a purely Latin synonym dictionary.

This Latin Abrogans, the template, was therefore a Latin-Latin glossary that was probably put together in Italy from many older, late antiquities to early medieval glossary.

In this way, a dictionary was created in which rare expressions, partly from the biblical Latin, were explained by common words of the popular Latin.

A huge source of error, which immediately becomes clear when you think about which words are considered “common” today, even in the middle of the 8th century, this procedure most likely led to very many incorrect translations, and the use of another word type quickly causes incorrectness.

Against this background, it is also not surprising that the Abrogans could not be fully evaluated by linguists to this day, there are around 700 words that do not appear in any other Old High German text and therefore remained puzzling until today.

of the really real “first German book” has been preserved, the scientists can only adhere to three younger Alemannic copies of the Bavarian template. The best preserved of these manuscripts is a slightly mutilated copy of the archetype, which can be visited today in the abbey library of the former Benedictine pen St. Gallen.

The “name of the whole” lets some smiles and “typical German” murmur: The work was named after the first entry, and this first entry “Abrogans” (Old High German “Dheomodi”) means nothing more than modest or humble.

Are the circumstances around our first German book exciting enough to reconcile them with the prose content?

If you are concerned with knowledge about the development of books at all, this insight into the beginnings of the literature is likely that you could e.g. For example, the “Book of the Book” by Marion Janzin and Joachim Güntner are interested in this work, you could find out more than 5000 years of book history if you have a copy of this 1995 book z. B. can get hold of Kunstplaza .

Perhaps you also enjoy dealing with our literary beginnings with more exciting evidence? Then you may be interested in the Merseburg spells, which are also created around 750, of which you will certainly not get an original debit in your hand.

Only the literature stays around it, although you do not necessarily have to adhere to purely linguistic works to obtain new knowledge.

You could z. B. looking for a copy of the book “Healing with Soul Codes” by Roswitha and not only find the content of the Merseburg magic sayings there, but also everything about the mysterious meaning of the magic word Abrakadabra and Hokuspocus and Simsalabim.

Perhaps you can draw valuable therapeutic gain from such an approximation to the oldest literature, maybe you just have a lot of joy when exploring old symbols and key words.