Glosses

Glosses The Latin hymns of the Divine Office are cited in works on grammar and metrics throughout the Middle Ages. The study of hymns at several different levels of Latin-language education apparently led their texts to be annotated with glosses. Although the majority of the extant glosses are interlinear, some comprise more extended commentary and were thus written in the margins of medieval hymnals. Hymn glosses are preserved in Latin, Old English, Old High German, and Old Irish. Vernacular glosses on the hymns are found in manuscripts beginning in the 8th century, when Old High German glosses were added to the hymns in a manuscript from the abbey of Murbach (Oxford, Bodleian Library,...