Draft:Mondsee fragments

The Mondsee Fragments, or Monsee Fragments, formerly known as Vienna Fragments, constitute a collection of Christian writings originating from the Western part of the Frankish Empire. These texts were translated into Old High German (Old Bavarian) in the early 9th century within the confines of the Mondsee Monastery. Among the contents, the Gospel of Matthew stands out as the oldest surviving translation of a biblical segment into Old High German idiom. Additionally, the fragments include a translation of a work by Isidore of Seville, which holds particular significance in Old Germanic studies due to the existence of two similar texts from other linguistic regions. Despite their historical and linguistic importance, the Mondsee Fragments have not been comprehensively explored to date and, for the time being, remain one of the mysteries of Germanic studies.

The term "Monseer Fragments" derives from the ancient spelling of the location's name. The name first appears in written records in the year of the monastery's foundation in 748, documented as "Maninseo" and in Latin as "Lunaelacus" (luna for the moon, lacus for the lake). Over the centuries, the name underwent various transformations in form and spelling, evolving into iterations such as Maense, Meinse, Maninse, Moninsee, Moensee, Mannsee, Monnsee, Mansee, and ultimately Mondsee. This nomenclature was introduced to Germanic studies in 1854 by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Some instances of this spelling persist in contemporary Germanic secondary literature.

Contents
The Mondsee Fragments comprise at least five texts by different Latin authors, each inscribed in Latin on the verso side of the manuscript and translated into Old High German (Old Bavarian) on the opposite recto side. The fragments encompass:


 * The Mondsee Fragments consist of a translation of the Gospel of Matthew from the Latin Vulgate into Old High German (Old Bavarian), a rendition of the sermon "De vocatione omnium gentium" by Prosper Tiro of Aquitaine, an unidentified sermon fragment located on the reverse side of the corresponding leaf of the Latin original, the 76th sermon (LXXVI) by Saint Augustine of Hippo with translation, and an Old High German (Old Bavarian) translation of "De fide catholica contra Iudaeos" by Isidore of Seville.

Isidore group
The Mondsee Fragments are collectively classified in scholarly literature as part of the Isidore group or Isidore family, owing to the preservation of three distinct translations of the text "De fide catholica contra Judaeos" by Isidore of Seville into Old High German. These translations include:


 * The Paris manuscripts, originating around 800 in Austrasia, are composed in the western South Franconian-Lorraine dialect and are currently housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, bearing the signature Ms. lat. 2326. The Mondsee Fragments, dating to around 810 and produced in the Mondsee Monastery, are written in Old High German (Old Bavarian). Approximately 220 fragments are presently located in the Austrian National Library in Vienna, under the signature Hs. 3093*. However, two leaves of the codex are held in the Lower Saxony State Library in Hanover, marked as Ms. I, 20b.
 * The Codex Junius 25, accompanied by the glossary Jc, also originating in the early 9th century in the Alemannic region, possibly in the Murbach Monastery, is currently housed in the Bodleian Library in Oxford, with the signature Ms. Junius 25.

The scholarly examination of these three partially overlapping manuscripts is commonly referred to as Isidore studies. This field of study is particularly intriguing for historical linguistics due to the nearly simultaneous early medieval translations of the same Latin text into various West Germanic and Old High German idioms.

The exclusive focus of scholarly attention on the comparison of these three Isidore texts has resulted in a lack of exploration of other texts within the Mondsee Fragments, such as the Old High German (Bavarian) Gospel of Matthew. Their significance in regional religious history has, until now, received minimal research. Questions, such as why these specific texts were translated and the extent of their circulation in the Bavarian Duchy, remain open. Exploring potential citations in purely Latin manuscripts could provide insights into these aspects.

Origin
The manuscript originated in the Benedictine monastery of Mondsee, established on the initiative of Duke Odilo of Bavaria. According to monastery tradition, its initial monks arrived in the year 748 from the Monte Cassino monastery in Italy. However, some research suggests a more likely scenario, with speculation that it could have been settled by the Salzburg Monastery of St. Peter.

Based on the analysis of the Latin portion and the specific selection of translated texts, the manuscript is widely believed by scholars to have been written during the nominal abbacy of Hildebold at the Mondsee Monastery (803–818). Hildebold, who had been the Bishop of Cologne since 787 and arch-chaplain of the palace since 791, primarily resided at the court of Charlemagne. On-site representation was handled by Deacon Lantprecht, later to become his successor as abbot. According to a theory proposed by Klaus Matzel, a significant Isidore scholar in the 1960s and 1970s, the source of these texts might have originated from the close ties between the monastery and Salzburg. During this period, Arn served as Bishop (785–821) and concurrently as the Abbot of Saint-Amand. Matzel suggests that the script used in the Mondsee Fragments bears similarities to texts from that distant region. Some doubts have been raised about whether the Mondsee Fragments were consistently penned by a single scribe. However, recent scholarly literature tends to acknowledge the presence of two scribes, active around the year 810.

The scribes of these texts were not mere mechanical copyists; they independently translated the texts into the contemporary Bavarian vernacular. Remarkably, they even engaged in lexical innovation, creating Bavarian technical terms for Latin and Greek terms.

Two scribes were involved in the transcription of the codex, with one responsible for the Isidore tractate and the other for the remainder of the compilation. Since Klaus Matzel's seminal study initially posited a single scribe and transcriber (the adapting hand of the Bavarian monk), it remains to be clarified whether distinct features of adaptation to the Bavarian dialect can be attributed to both scribes. On the other hand, within the Gospel of Matthew, Klaus Matzel also demonstrated varying degrees of consistency in the treatment of material from the South Franconian-Lorraine Vorlage. Therefore, the interpretative value of the observed differences might be limited.

Another question arising from the distribution of texts across two scribes is whether one can infer the existence of two distinct source documents. After all, the only parallel translation available is for the Old High German Isidor found in the Paris Manuscript lat. 2326. However, it is conceivable that the Parisian Isidor also belonged to a more extensive compilation manuscript.

The language
The scribe of the consistently bilingual Mondsee Fragments translated the Latin texts into the Old High German (Old Bavarian) of the early 9th century. Previous research presumed that the scribe used an older translation into a different Old High German or Lorraine-West Frankish idiom as a source, suggesting that the text couldn't be entirely Bavarian. This is because traces of the source translation still appear in the vocabulary and grammar.

The distinction between Bavarian and Franconian can be discerned in the Mondsee Fragments (circa 810), where the text of the South Franconian-Lorraine Old High German Isidor is "more or less consistently replaced by Bavarian linguistic forms and spellings"

(Matzel, VL2, I, 297), as noted by Stefan Sonderegger in his work on language history (Sprachgeschichte, p. 2907).

The Mondsee Gospel of Matthew
The assertion made by Dr. Elke Krotz from the University of Vienna regarding the Mondsee Gospel of Matthew is as follows:

"The justification for presenting a Gospel in the language of its intended audience is evident, particularly given the classical bilingual nature of Old High German. This aligns with comparable endeavors, such as Tatian, which share a dual-language approach in both linguistic and manuscript design. The sacred language of the text must, in a sense, transcend its confines to fulfill the missionary mandate with which it concludes. It's plausible that the selection of this particular Gospel was influenced by the concluding directive to "go to all peoples of the earth." The divine nature of the Gospel also forms the foundation for the other texts, serving as the opening piece for the manuscript. The Latin version, however, does not become obsolete but stands alongside, creating a link to purely Latin traditions through references to the Eusebian "Canones evangeliorum." What distinguishes the Old High German text from poetic compositions like Otfrid's Evangelienbuch and the Heliand is its strict adherence to the Latin wording and the absence of explanatory additions. Unlike the creation of poetic masterpieces or attempts to elucidate challenging passages in other works, the Mondsee Gospel of Matthew refrains from such practices and does not endeavor to provide exemplary insights into higher scriptural interpretation."

Literature

 * Elke Krotz: Auf den Spuren des althochdeutschen Isidor – Studien zur Pariser Handschrift, den Monseer Fragmenten und zum Codex Junius 25. Mit einer Neuedition des Glossars Jc. Universitätsverlag C. Winter, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-8253-1363-8.
 * Stefan Sonderegger: Althochdeutsche Sprache und Literatur – eine Einführung in das älteste Deutsch, Darstellung und Grammatik. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-017288-7, Kap. 3.4.4.: Die althochdeutschen Übersetzungen der Isidor-Sippe, p. 129 ff. (eingeschränkte Vorschau in der Google-Buchsuche).
 * Werner Besch, Anne Betten, Oskar Reichmann, Stefan Sonderegger: Sprachgeschichte: ein Handbuch zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und ihrer Erforschung. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-015883-3, Artikel Altbairisch, p. 2906 ff. (eingeschränkte Vorschau in der Google-Buchsuche)
 * Klaus Matzel: Untersuchungen zur Verfasserschaft, Sprache und Herkunft der althochdeutschen Übersetzungen der Isidor-Sippe (= Rheinisches Archiv. volume 75). Röhrscheid, Bonn 1970, ISBN 3-7928-0282-1.
 * Francesco Delbono: L’Isidoro e la questione delle origini della letteratura tedesca. In: Nuovi annali della facoltà di magistero dell’università di Messina. 4, 1986, pp. 159–182.
 * Kurt Ostberg: The old high German „Isidor“ in its relationship to the extant manuscripts (eighth to twelfth century) of Isidorus „De fide catholica“ (= Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik. volume 203). Kümmerle, Göppingen 1979, ISBN 3-87452-348-9.
 * Walter Kunze: Mondsee 5000 Jahre Geschichte und Kultur. 2. Auflage. Selbstverlag der Marktgemeinde Mondsee, Linz 1991.