Basel recipes

The so-called Basler Rezepten (BR) are three medical prose texts within the corpus of Old High German literature from the 8th century . Two of them are considered to be the oldest coherent texts in the German language. The mixed-language texts from Latin phrases contain 160 and 70 vernacular words in Old High German , East Franconian-Bavarian dialect and with Anglo-Saxon influences.

The BR have been handed down in a collective manuscript ( Isidor: 'De ordine creaturarum' ) originally from the place where it was written in Fulda in the 8th to 9th centuries, which is now in the possession of the Basel University Library (Hs. Basel, UB F. III. 15a) . The BR can be found in the two-line, 32-sheet manuscript on sheet 17 ^r , which was entered by three hands - the typeface according to Anglo-Saxon origin. The recipes were first published in modern times in 1834.

In terms of content, three recipes against different diseases are listed. According to research, the first formulation in Latin is either an antipyretic or an anti-epileptic. The following recipe in Old High German (East Franconian with Bavarian influence) is basically the same recipe with some differences and extensions (doubled text volume). This is followed by the third, shortest, Old High German ("Anglo-Saxon-Bavarian") recipe for skin ulcers (title: uuidhar cancur ). For this recipe, in contrast to the previous ones, a veterinary application for horses is seen.

literature

• Rolf Bergmann (Ed.): Old High German and Old Saxon Literature (De Gruyter Lexicon). de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-024549-3 .
• Gundolf Keil : 'Basel Recipes'. In: Werner E. Gerabek et al. (Ed.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 153.
• Stephan Müller : Old High German Literature. A commented anthology: Old High German, Old Low German / New High German. (= Reclams Universal Library 18491) Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-15-018491-2 .
• Robert Nedoma : enti danne geoze zisamane: The Old High German version of the First Basel Recipe (BR Ib) . In: Die Sprach 39,2, 1997 (published 2000), pp. 168-200.
• Jörg Riecke : The early history of medieval medical terminology in German. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2004, ISBN 978-3-11-017828-9 .
• Hans-Hugo Steinhoff: 'Basel Recipes'. In: Burghart Wachinger et al. (Hrsg.): The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon . 2nd, completely revised edition, volume 1: 'A solis ortus cardine' - Colmar Dominican chronicler. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1978, ISBN 3-11-007264-5 , Sp. 628 f.

Web links

• Entry on the Basel recipes in the Paderborn Repertory census of manuscripts

Individual evidence

1. ^ H. Hofmann (von Fallersleben): Vindemia Basiliensis. Excerpts from a Basel manuscript. Private printing by Hoffmann von Fallersleben for Wilh. Wackernagel, Basel 1834.