ABSTRACT
ON THE NATURE AND TRANSMISSION OF LATIN GLOSSARIES 207
The justification for studying purely Latin glossaries in their own right is perhaps less clear. Given the wealth of classical and patristic Latin texts of all kinds, the glossaries' contribution to our knowledge of the Latin language is inevitably rather marginal. So it has generally-been scholars interested in marginal Latinity, archaic, late, vulgar, technical, non-literary of all sorts, who have been led to delve into glossaries, from the sixteenth century onwards5. But in any case, it might be argued, the glossaries' contribution to Latin lexicography has surely long been publicly available : each new fascicle of the Thesaurus linguae Iatinae progressively evaluates and exploits the glossaries, in the best and most convenient way. What then remains to be done?
