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with old High German dry point glosses are known.11 these manuscripts
were produced in all regions of the old High German language area. the
bulk of the manuscripts was produced in the eighth and ninth centuries,
and younger dry point glosses tend to be in Latin, not in the vernacular.12
the manuscripts can contain any number of glosses, from very few to over
1,000.13 their function varies, too: some dry point glosses were individual,
spontaneous notes on single words, some were used as a means of drafting
text until the scribe was able to write the glosses with quill and ink, yet
others were clearly intended to be read by users of the manuscripts.14 A
small number of Griffelglossen were written in cipher. on p. 163 of abbey
Library St Gall, MS nr. 219, we find some dry point glosses in the so-
called bfk-cipher, where vowels were supplanted with the consonant fol-
lowing the vowel in the alphabet.15 Since these cryptographic Griffelglossen
11 Althochdeutsche Glossen Wiki, http://de.althochdeutscheglossen.wikia.com/wiki/Griff el-
glossenhandschriften (accessed 26 March 2018). Bernhard Bischoff was the first who
analysed them systematically, see his “nachträge zu den althochdeutschen Glossen,” Beiträge
zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 52 (1928): 153–168.
12 Glaser and nievergelt, “Griffelglossen,” 221–223.
13 Ibid., 222–223.
14 Ibid., 224–225.
15 andreas nievergelt, “Griffelglossen zur Pastoralregel,” SchriftRäume: Dimensionen von
Schrift zwischen Mittelalter und Moderne, ed. by Christian Kiening and Martina Stercken.
“HELGa Á ÞESSa LÖ GBÓ K”
Figure 2b: Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Boreal 91, fol. 83v, lower margin with traced
inscription. © Silvia Hufnagel and Isabella Buben, with friendly permission of the
Bodleian Library.