The Role of Derivation Dictionaries in the Educational Practices of the European Intellectual Communities in the 13th - 15th Centuries

The main aim of the article is determination of the role that the derivational dictionary (which is one of the most interesting and least studied type of the medieval educational lexicographic texts) played in the intellectual practices of the Late Middle Ages. The article analyzes the following dictionaries: "Elementarium doctrinae rudimentum" (c. 1041-1053) by Papias of Lombard, "Panormia" (between 1150 and 1180) by Osbern of Gloucester, "Liber derivationes" (c. 1150-1160) by Uguccio of Pisa, "Summa derivationum" (c. 1229-1230) by Gualtiero d'Ascoli, and "Catholicon" (1286) by John of Genoa. It demonstrates that in the XII-XIV cc. these texts gradually ceased to be an applied fixation of the oral school derivation practice becoming an important intellectual tool that could be independently used in philosophical, legal and theological studies. These changes are observed in their connection with a wide range of socio-cultural innovations. For example, the biographies of the authors of the dictionaries discussed in the article are a vivid illustration showing the evolution of the intellectuals' social positions in the XII-XIII c. Furthermore, the article analyzes how the supposed circle of dictionaries' readers was broadening: from pupils of the monastery school to masters of law and theology. This process was related to the change in the relationship between teacher and student that was reflected by its authors. Thus, the derivation dictionaries influenced the transformation of important elements forming late medieval intellectual culture, contributing to greater variability and independence of educational institutions and reading practices.