Abstract
The paper studies a German-Prussian and Prussian-German dictionary, known from the manuscripts of Simon Grunau's "Prussian Chronicle" (written before 1529), in the context of the regional tradition of bilingual hanseatic lexicography in the South-Eastern Balticum. The analysis comes to a conclusion that an earlier lexicographic source, which young Hanseatic sprakelereres had compiled as a learning device and a tool for successful trade implementation in the second half of the 13th century (after Elbląg had joined the Hanseatic League), was used in the historiographical compilation of the 16th century.
The phrase book can be reconstructed by means of vertical reading of the entries placed next to each other; the latter were supposed to be distributed linearly in early parchment records. The analysis of the dictionary allows to reveal traces of Russian functional style that does not appear in the Old Russian language corpus: a German-Prussian mercantile sociolect of the second half of the 13th century.