This is the first edition of a Latin text unlike any other surviving
one: at first sight an extensive, jumbled list of words with
explanations, on closer inspection a window on the teaching of Latin
shorthand in North Africa c. AD 400, when we find notarii, those trained
in shorthand, prominently employed everywhere in state and church. The
text reveals in detail how that training could relate to literary Latin
and the classical Roman past. The single manuscript of it in our
possession descends from a copy that must have been in Anglo-Saxon
England by AD 700, and we can see how it was used for the earliest Latin
glossary from that context. The edition seeks to make this story
accessible both in general and in detail, with copious indices for those
who may wish to consult it from various viewpoints: classical and later
Latin, linguistic and historical.