Beyond Huguitio we may go back to Papias, a learned Lombard (fl. 1051), whose Vocabulary was still in use in the fifteenth century, and was printed at Milan in 1476.  The editions of it are far fewer than those of the Catholicon; a fact which presumably points to the superiority of the later work.  Papias also used the alphabetical principle; and his lengthy explanation of it, which lacks, however, the lucidity of Balbi’s, probably implies that his predecessors had adopted the etymological arrangement by derivations, or the divisions of Isidore according to subjects.  In a few cases he makes concession to etymology, by giving derivatives under their root, e.g. under ago come all the words derived from it:  but he has regard to the weak, and places them also in their right alphabetical position.  Not many derivations are given; but one of them is well known.  Lucus is defined as ’locus amenus, vbi multae arbores sunt.  Lucus dictus [Greek:  kata antiphrasin] quia caret luce pro nimia arborum vmbra; vel a colocando crebris luminibus (aliter uiminibus), siue a luce, quod in eo lucebant funalia propter nemorum tenebras.’  This in the hands of Balbi becomes ‘per contrarium lucus dicitur a lucendo’, or, as we say popularly, ‘lucus a non lucendo.’  December, again, is derived from decem and imbres ‘quibus abundare solet’; and so too the other numbered months.

It is noticeable that Papias has some knowledge of Greek, for derivations in Greek letters occur, e.g.  ’Acrocerauni:  montes propter altitudinem & fulminum iactus dicti.  Graece enim fulmen [Greek:  keraunos] ceraunos dicitur, et acra [Greek:  akra] sumitas’; and a great many Greek and Hebrew words are given transliterated into Latin, ballein, fagein, Ennosigaeus.  Like Balbi, Papias travels outside the limits of a mere dictionary, and his interests are not restricted to theology.  Aetas draws him into an account of the various ages of the world, regnum into a view of its kingdoms.  Carmen provokes 7 columns, 31/2 folio pages, on metres; lapis 2 columns on precious stones.  Italy receives 2 columns, and 3/4 of a column are given to St. Paul.  Contrariwise there is often great brevity in his interpretations:  ‘Samium locus est’, ‘heroici antiqui’, ‘mederi curare’.  His treatment of miraculum is interesting; ’A miracle is to raise the dead to life; but it is a wonder (mirabile) for a fire to be kindled in the water, or for a man to move his ears.’  The next heading is mirabilia, for which his examples are taken from the ends of the earth.  He begins:  ’Listen.  Among the Garamantes is a spring so cold by day that you cannot drink it, so hot at night that you cannot put your finger into it.’  A fig-tree in Egypt, apples of Sodom, the non-deciduous trees of an island in India—­these are the other travellers’ tales which serve him for wonders.