Priceless 14th century Latin 'dictionary' goes on display for the first time

A priceless 700-year-old Bible 'dictionary' which gives a unique insight into the way nuns lived has gone on display for the first time, the Daily Mail reported.

The Expositiones Vocabulorum Biblie by the 12th century clergyman William Brito - sometimes known as Guillaume le Breton - is written entirely in Latin.

It is one of the few monastic documents which is still in its original location after surviving the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII in the 1530s, where the monarch disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland, and seized their assets and income.

The hand written parchment book is thought to have helped nuns decipher parts of the Bible and contains explanations and the origins of difficult words.

It is now on display at Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire, where the nuns lived, after it was recently bought in an auction by the National Trust.

Sonia Jones, house and collections manager at Lacock, said the 14th century book gave an insight into how the nuns lived during their time in the abbey.

She said: “We know little about the everyday lives of the nuns at Lacock Abbey.

“This one book gives us a remarkable rare glimpse, a short glance into how they might have lived their lives.

“It tells us that they studied the Bible closely and most would have been literate.

“There is scrap parchment in the bindings which are part of the accounts of the abbey, recycled when the book was bound.

“Those fragments let us see just a little of some of the business side of the abbey, selling wool to provide an income.

“It is a special and important book, but to have it in Lacock and to be able to put it on display in the abbey, in its original home is simply priceless.'

It is also not known whether books such as the dictionary were ever written at Lacock or where this copy was laboriously hand written elsewhere.

The book was already known to the Trust and had passed down through generations of the Talbot family who lived at the abbey.

It was put up for sale and was bought by the National Trust at auction at Christie's.