The Friends of the Thesaurus linguae Latinae (TLL) exists to provide support for continuing work to bring to completion the 130-year-old project to compile a comprehensive dictionary of all the surviving sources of Latin from the earliest evidence until the emergence of its Romance heirs. We aim to complement the support provided by the German government and the state of Bavaria, the long-term funders of the project through the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. We have three principal goals:

1. To ensure the continuation of an annual American fellow at the TLL, following the end of the support for this fellowship provided by the Society for Classical Studies with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the past four decades. These fellowships not only help the TLL advance; they also provide an experience that transforms the fellows’ subsequent research and teaching. For this goal we must raise the annual cost of the fellowship (currently $62,000) and ultimately, we hope, endow it (see under #3).

2. To provide stable employment to normal retirement age for one of the Americans on the permanent staff of the TLL, whose work cannot be continued as an employee of the government and on government funding after 2029 because of restrictions in German labor law; another employer and funding source must therefore be found to retain this scholar, since productivity in such a specialized discipline as lexicography is in direct proportion to experience. For this goal we must raise the annual cost of a scientific researcher from 2030 to 2054 at the cost of $120,000 p.a. or create an endowment (see under #3).

3. To look beyond the end of the government support for the TLL in mid-century, in order to complete the dictionary, including additions to the database from newly found texts, and, more broadly, to sustain its quarters in Munich as a center of scholarship on the Latin language and the training of early-career philologists. For this goal we will seek to establish a large permanent endowment fund. A first step towards this would be to raise a capital sum of $1,750,000, which would endow the annual fellowship, described under #1, at a modest increase to $70,000 p.a. A further step would be to raise a capital sum of $3 million, which would endow the permanent position described under #2. The Friends of the TLL is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed to raise funds to support the progress of the TLL and, ultimately, ensure its survival as the single most important center for the study of Latin worldwide. You may make your gift at the DONATE button on this page or make out a check to Friends of the TLL and send it to: Friends of the TLL, P. O. Box 380030, Cambridge, MA 02238. ​ To make gifts of stock, please e-mail us at info@friendsoftll.org; alternatively, you may use this button, but please first read the instructions posted below.