Aldredian glosses to proper names in the Lindisfarne Gospels

Abstract

This article explores the multiple ways in which Aldred, the glossator of the Lindisfarne Gospels, rendered proper names, both place-names and personal names. It shows that there is no support in the corpus to maintain that Aldred left most of the proper names unglossed; on the contrary, he accomplished a painstaking job. In this respect, the article examines how the glosses provide the reader with information not only about the meaning of a particular name, but also about certain biblical conceptions and interpretations, behind which the view of the Fathers of the Church can be identified. The analysis of the glosses reveals that Aldred was a careful glossator, aware of linguistic features, whose work was nothing similar to the mechanical translation of the Latin text.