Multilingualism in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Explores historical multilingualism from the early Middle Ages to the beginning of the 17th century.

This interdisciplinary work explores historical multilingualism viewed from the early Middle Ages to the beginning of the seventeenth century.

It presents research methodologies related to different cultural areas of Europe covered by several classical languages. This approach aims to dispel the common misconception that Western Europe, dominated by Latin culture, constituted the only part of medieval Europe.

The volume consists of an extended introduction and twelve chapters reflecting different correlations of multilingualism and language contact in Western, Central, and Southeastern Europe during the period under study. The authors discuss various aspects of the relationship between classical languages and vernaculars, as well as the overlap of cultural areas. They adopt different points of view (multilingual texts, translations, language contacts, historical records of multilingualism), research methods, and applications of primary sources. Written by both seasoned scholars and young researchers, the chapters present novel concepts and point the way forward for the study of multilingualism, focused on the British Isles, Central Europe, and Southeastern Europe from various perspectives.

The chapters discuss both itinerant (traveling) and static multilingualism, as well as the confrontation of different languages in different mutual relationships. For the pre-modern period, such relations are linked to the varied social (diastratic) and functional roles of two types of languages: classical and vernacular. The confrontation of more classical languages or languages belonging to different cultural areas often involves scriptal pluricentricity. The book deals with a wide range of classical languages: Arabic, Armenian, Church Slavonic, Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. The vernaculars discussed include (Old and Middle) Czech, (Old) English, (Early New High) German, (Middle) Hungarian, Old Norse, (Old and Middle) Polish, (Old) Romanian, (Vernacular Middle) Greek.