A revised typology for the St Gall Priscian glosses

While manuscript glosses provide rich evidence for practices of reading, translation, education and textual culture generally, their study can present major challenges of interpretation, particularly because glosses can exhibit a very wide variety of functions. A general typology of glosses is therefore a useful research tool, since it a) helps us to consider all of the possible functions of an individual gloss, b) allows us to make general, quantitative observations about the character of a collection of glosses, and c) facilitates comparison between different glossed manuscripts (potentially across diverse cultural regions). This chapter evaluates some previous approaches to developing a typology of glosses, and in particular undertakes a close review of the typology used by Rijcklof Hofman for the St Gall Priscian glosses (St Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, 904). It aims to present a revised typology that can more easily be applied to other collections of glosses, as a basis for future comparative work.