Compendium on the Song of Songs

Compendium in Canticum Canticorum · Alcuin of York · c. 796-804 · commentary

Latin · domain: latin-carolingian-exegesis · researched 2026-11-14

no English translation located. No published English translation of this text was located in the catalogues and series checked. Where only a non-English rendering or a translation of a daughter version exists, it is recorded below and does not close the gap. Treat this as a gap candidate, not as proof that no translation exists; the evidence names every source checked.

Why this is in the register

HOLLIS Primo (2026-11-14) returns the Compendium only in Latin contexts, notably the 1638 London edition in which it is printed with Gilbert Foliot's 'Expositio in Canticum canticorum' (title and contents note both in HOLLIS), and in Migne's PL 100. The Corpus Christianorum in Translation query for Alcuin returns only the anonymous Cambridge Apocalypse gloss (CCT 36, 2020), and no English-language record of the Compendium itself appears in the Alcuin English-language set. No English translation was located.

A short exposition of the Song of Songs, one of the most copied Carolingian treatments of that book before the twelfth century. Its allegorical method is a standard point of reference in work on early medieval exegesis of the Canticle, yet no English version exists.

Existing translations recorded

None recorded in English. Non-English versions, where they exist, are named in the evidence above.

Electronic text

Source and licence
archive.org · PDF scan · public domain (Migne, Patrologia Latina, 1844-1880 printing) patrologiaecur100mign

Scanned witnesses

Scan search: not checked. Not searched in the scan pass: this dossier was outside the 121-work scan target set.

Harvard Hollis

Hollis query: Alcuin of York Compendium on the Song of Songs — 1 record(s); match basis author_title_unquoted.

Record	Citation
Gilberti Foliot Episcopi Londinensis, Expositio in Canticum canticorum , una cum Compendio Alcuini. Nunc primùm è Bibliotheca Regia in lucem prodiit, opera & studio Patricii Junii Bibliothecarii Regii Foliot, Gilbert, -1188 · MDCCXXXVIII. 1638 · lat	Foliot, Gilbert, -1188. "Gilberti Foliot Episcopi Londinensis, Expositio in Canticum canticorum , una cum Compendio Alcuini. Nunc primùm è Bibliotheca Regia in lucem prodiit, opera & studio Patricii Junii Bibliothecarii Regii." Londini : Ex typographio Regio [Robert Barker and the assignes of John Bill, MDCCXXXVIII.…

Sources checked

Cite: Tergwame, “Compendium on the Song of Songs” (latin gap dossier), 2026. https://naxiai.com/christian/gaps/latin-alcuin-compendium-in-canticum-canticorum