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TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The newest addition to Indiana State University's library is a 520-year-old dictionary that includes some unexpected surprises in its pages.
The book, called "Vocabularius," was published in 1495 and is one of the first known examples of a German-to-Latin dictionary.
Each page of the 382-page book recently added to ISU's Cordell Collection was hand-numbered in ink, presumably by its owner.
Cordell Collection curator emeritus David Vancil says the tome includes a definition for pancakes fried in blood that provides some social context for the German people of the 15th century. Vancil says, "This tidbit opens a small window on a food eaten by Germans at the time."
Library special collections chair says the newly acquired dictionary is the only copy of the book in the nation.
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