De Orthographia of Bede, the Venerable: translation and study

• Grant number: 20/16175-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2021
• End date: January 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Classical Languages
• Principal Investigator: Marcos Martinho dos Santos
• Grantee: Mathias de Souza Pereira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research intends to propose an integral commented translation and to study the doctrinal aspects of De Ortografia ("About Orthography"), written by the English monk Bede, the Venerable (c. 673 - 735). At first, written in Latin, the manual had the purpose of clarifying orthography, semantics, and prosodic doubts on the Latin language. The edition chosen to consult the original work is the one presented by Heinrich Keil, which belongs to the VII volume of the Grammatici Latini collection (Leipzig: Teubner, 1880); it also will be compared to Jacques-Paul Migne's edition, which was published in volume XC of Patrologia Latina (Paris: Brepols, 1850). Regarding the translation, it is expected to produce a readable text in Portuguese, avoiding losing the expression of the original in Latin; therefore, translation procedures were used in order to achieve that goal, in addition to the consulting of Latin (and Ancient Greek, if necessary) dictionaries, grammars and syntaxes. In turn, the analysis of the text will start from the reading of two sets of titles: 1) Latin grammars focused on the same subject addressed by Beda, that is, the orthography, which is in the same volume of Grammatici Latini. 2) modern writings that deal with the traditions of grammatical historiography. In that way, this research aims to analyze the impact of De Ortografia in grammatical traditions and to examine the main subjects that allow its understanding, namely, orthography, acyrologia (the improper use of a word), and difference (the explanation of the point in which certain words, graphically or semantically close, are distinguished), subjects that are related to the research based on this manual. (AU)