Over the centuries
Jerome’s translation of the Bible () became more difficult to read for novice clergy as a result of the various grammatical,
lexical, and
phonological changes that Latin was experiencing in the course of its evolution into Romance. To facilitate interpretation, scribes would put together
glossaries or collected explanations of words or phrases found in the Vulgate. The words used as glosses tended to be those that were destined to survive in Romance, whilst the words that needed glossing generally were not. What we now know as the Reichenau Glossary was compiled circa the eighth century at the
Abbey of Corbie in
Picardy. From there it eventually found its way to the
Abbey of Reichenau, in southern Germany, where it was found in 1863 by the philologist
Adolf Hotzmann. == Selected entries ==