Language Latin, Middle English Subject Bilingual dictionary | Country England | |
Similar Manipulus vocabulorum, Catholicon, Table Alphabeticall, An Universal Etymologi, Homes of family names in | ||
The Promptorium parvulorum (Latin: "Storehouse for children") is an English-Latin bilingual dictionary which was completed about year 1440. It was the first English-to-Latin dictionary. It occupies about 300 printed book pages. Its authorship is attributed to Geoffrey the Grammarian, a friar who lived in Lynn, Norfolk, England.
After the invention of the printing press the Promptorium was published repeatedly in the early 16th century by the printer Wynkyn de Worde. In the 19th century the Camden Society republished it under the extended title Promptorium parvulorum sive clericorum (“Storehouse for children or clerics”). For language historians it is a major reference work for the vocabulary of late medieval English. It is a frequently cited reference in today's primary dictionary of late medieval English, the Middle English Dictionary.