Donatus Ortigraphus

Donatus Ortigraphus (fl. c.815) was an anonymous grammarian in the Carolingian empire, whose sobriquet is taken from the incipit to his catena of Latin grammatical excerpts. His grammar (essentially a teacher's manual) is arranged in catechetical form as a dialogue between master and disciple. It is divided into two parts, ‘De littera et syllaba et accentu et possituris’, and ‘De octo partibus orationis’, like the ‘Ars maior’ of Donatus Aelius (fourth century). It possesses a number of features in common with the ‘Ars Bernensis’ and other Irish grammars. Donatus also had access to Priscian's ‘Grammar’, which is known from several ninth-century Irish manuscripts now in Leyden and St Gall. The sources are numerous and the collection is therefore of considerable interest since it preserves excerpts from now lost or imperfectly preserved texts. The grammar is preserved in several manuscripts, dating from the early ninth to the twelfth century.