In this glossary we see the preparation for our modern Latin-English dictionaries. Already, as early as the reign of Augustus, the foundation of the Latin dictionary was laid by Verrius Flaccus, but his dictionary would naturally consist of Latin words with Latin explanations. But in the seventh century there was a demand for Latin vocabularies, with equivalents in the vernacular languages; and here, in the Epinal Glossary, we have the earliest known example of such a work. At first such glossaries would be merely lists of words formed in the course of studying some one or two Latin texts, and in process of time would follow the compilation of several such glossaries into one, until, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, we find vocabularies of some compass (as Ælfric's), and by the fifteenth century we have such bulky dictionaries as the "Catholicon" and the "Promptorium Parvulorum."
We will close this chapter with specimens of the "Psalter of St. Augustine," which received an Anglo-Saxon gloss (dialect Kentish[63]) at the end of the ninth, or early in the tenth century. The book has been already described above, p. 33.
PSALM XLIX. (L.), 7:--"Hear, O my people," &c.
geher folc min ond sprecu to israhela folce ond 7. Audi populus meus et loquar Israhel et
ic cythu the thætte god god thin ic eam testificabor tibi quoniam Deus Deus tuus ego sum
na les ofer onsegdnisse thine ic dregu the onsegdnisse 8. Non super sacrificia tua arguam te holocausta
soth thine in gesihthe minre sind aa autem tua in conspectu meo sunt semper
ic ne on foo of huse thinum calferu ne of eowdum 9. Non accipiam de domo tua vitulos neque de gregibus
for thon min sind all wildeor wuda neat in 10. Quoniam meæ sunt omnes feræ silvarum jumenta in
ic on cneow all tha flegendan heofenes ond hiow 11. Cognovi omnia volatilia cæli et species
gif ic hyngriu ne cweothu ic to the min is sothlice 12. Si esuriero non dicam tibi, meus est enim
ymb hwerft eorthan ond fylnis his orbis terræ et plenitudo ejus
ah ic eotu flæsc ferra oththe blod 13. Numquid manducabo carnes taurorum aut sanguinem
ageld gode onsegdnisse lofes ond geld tham hestan 14. Immola Deo sacrificium laudis et redde Altissimo
gece mec in dege geswinces thines thæt ic genere 15. Invoca me in die tribulationis tuæ ut eripiam