La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, Historical Dictionary of Old French Language

FROM IT ORIGIN TO LOUIS XIV CENTURY

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT WORK FOR THE STUDY OF OLD FRENCH

The Historical dictionary of old French langage by Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye is "an incomparable tool for the in-depth study of ancient French vocabulary" (Gilles Roussineau, wordly recognized specialist in Ancient french studies). It is an indispensable complement to the Dictionary of olf French langage and all its dialects from the 9th to the 15th century by Frédéric Godefroy and to the Dictionary of the 16th century French langage by Edmond Huguet, also proposed online by Classiques Garnier Numérique.

Composed by Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, born in 1697, the Historical dictionary of old French langage ou Glosary of French langage from it origin to Louis XIV century was not published during the author’s lifetime. It is thanks to the industry of an erudite writer in the second half of the 19th century, Léopold Favre, that the monumental work by La Curne de Sainte-Palaye was published in ten volumes, between 1875 and 1882.

Because of its very detailed glossary and the very extensive corpus considered (literary, historical and didactic texts of the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, printed material of the 16th and 17th centuries, charts, ancient inventories, etc.), La Curne’s Dictionary is an invaluable instrument for historians of the French language, and particularly for specialists of the Middle Ages (14th-15th centuries).

The Historical dictionary by La Curne de Sainte-Palaye, with its 60 000 entries, is an irreplaceable instrument for studies on Ancient French vocabulary. The exceptional intuitions of La Curne and his elucidation of meanings, the classification of the different connotations of a word, his constant attention to rare words and to locutions, adverbs, proverbs of Ancient and Middle French, make this dictionary an irreplaceable work of reference.

FIELDS OF INTEREST

Medieval studies, old French, literature, history, linguistic history, lexicography

EDITORIAL TEAM

Presentation by Gilles Roussineau, professor at the Sorbonne
Published par Claude Blum, professor at the Sorbonne