La funzione delle lettere alfabetiche nella glossa interlineare alla Regula Sancti Benedicti del manoscritto London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius A.III

MS London, Cotton Tiberius, A.III transmits the Benedictine Rule with a composite interlinear gloss in Old English, which includes the alphabetic letters from a to z. These letters help understand the Latin text showing both the logical order of phrases in a clause, or the logical order of the clauses in a sentence, and the logical function specific to each element. The glossator has chosen the letter a to mark the beginning of a sentence and for the verb of main clauses; while b is the letter of the subject, closely linked to the verb. The other letters underline the different elements that characterize the different clauses and their relationship. The function of the syntactic letters and the result given to the chapters of the Rule devoted to lauds and psalms – the richest in those letters – lead the interlinear gloss to a monastic centre acquainted with AEthelwold’s learning and religious plans.