Sensational find: Admont abrogans
Saturday, 13 May 2017
THE ADMONT ABROGANS - AN EXTRAORDINARY FIND
During digitisation work in 2012, Dr Martin Haltrich, then working at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, discovered a Carolingian fragment containing Old High German words.
He recognised that it was part of the so-called "Abrogans", a Latin-German dictionary that has survived in only three copies worldwide: a complete copy in St. Gall; fragments in Paris and Karlsruhe.
Prof Dr Stephan Müller from the Institute of Germanisics at the University of Vienna then took over the scientific investigation of the find. Photographs were also taken under ultraviolet light, palaeographic studies were carried out and contacts were made with specialists in this field throughout Europe. On 12 May 2017, the time had finally come: 12 scientists met at Admont Abbey to share their findings and finally examine the original Abrogans fragment.
On the evening of this very interesting and intensive workshop day, the results were presented to the public at a ceremony. The fragment, which, according to research by librarian Karin Schamberger, had been kept in the fragment folder in the archive's stacks since 1963 and had previously been a cover on a baroque print, was created around 800 and is an independent adaptation of the lost "Ur-Abrogan", from which the other surviving copies originate. According to Stephan Müller, the special feature is that the Latin words have already been put into a fully alphabetical order and that new, previously unknown Old High German words are also included.
P. Maximilian Schiefermüller on this extraordinary find: "For my team at the Abbey Library and Archives, as well as for our entire monastic community, the discovery of the Abrogans fragment is a particular joy. Even though the research work is still far from complete, it is a sensational find: The great age (over 200 years older than the monastery) and the unique design of our specimen, which differs from other fragments of the abrogans. I am grateful for the scholarly work that has already been done on our fragment and, together with my fellow monks, I look forward to many more inspiring reflections on the "Admont Abrogans". For our scientific "department" at Admont Abbey, the find, the media response and the overwhelming interest in the fragment itself and, as a result, in our other archive and library holdings, are an incredible motivational boost and confirmation that we are definitely on the right track with our work."