Foreign Language Influences and Vocabulary for Special Purposes: Some Examples from Twelfth-Century German Medical Texts

With the exception of the so-called Basler Rezepte (end of the eighth century) and the gloss corpus, the medical-pharmaceutical literature in German language starts being recorded between the eleventh and the twelfth century, through the translation and re-elaboration of previous Latin works (collections of remedies, herbals, lapidaries, single remedies, charms and blessings and so on). In my contribution I will focus on some examples witnessing the creative effort made by German scribes/translators in order to render Latin medical terms and phraseology in their own language.