Abstract Priscian’s Ars grammatica played a pivotal role in Carolingian intellectual culture (eighth–tenth centuries), particularly due to its extensive engagement with Greek material. As a central text of grammatical study, it gave rise to a substantial glossing tradition. Despite around fifty surviving glossed manuscripts, these glosses remain understudied. This article combines thematic sampling with close textual analysis to present a systematic investigation of glosses on proper names, including mythological names, in Book I of ninth-century manuscripts of the Ars grammatica . Through careful analysis of material derived from the Mythologiae of Fulgentius, this article demonstrates how Carolingian scholars, including those connected to Irish scholarly circles, repurposed this late antique mythological text as a pedagogical tool for grammatical analysis. Furthermore, it also sheds light on Carolingian access to the Mythologiae through intermediary compilations; on how Irish scribal centers played a mediating role in transmitting this material on the Continent; and on the relationships between important witnesses to the Ars grammatica tradition and specific transmission routes connecting Tours, Fleury, and Monte Cassino. It also provides new insights into the potential role of Fleury as a nodal point in the circulation of Priscian manuscripts between Francia, Germany, and southern Italy.
Mary Sweeney (Wed,) studied this question.