Monasteriales
Indicia
The Anglo-Saxon Monastic Sign Language
Edited with notes and translation by Debby Banham
The Monasteriales Indicia is one
of very few texts which let us see how life was really lived in
monasteries in the early Middle Ages. Written in Old English and
preserved in a manuscript of the mid-eleventh century, it consists
of 127 signs used by Anglo-Saxon monks during the times when the
Benedictine Rule forbade them to speak. These indicate the foods
the monks ate, the clothes they wore, and the books they used
in church and chapter, as well as the tools they used in their
daily life, and persons they might meet both in the monastery
and outside.
The text is printed here with a parallel translation. The introduction
gives a summary of the background, both historical and textual,
as well as a brief look at the later evidence for monastic sign
language in England. Extensive notes provide the reader with details
of textual relationships, explore problems of interpretation,
and set out the historical implications of the text.
£5·95
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