The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

described by Takako Kato

Cambridge, University Library, Hh. 1. 10

Summary

MS Items

Grammer fols 2r-93v/7, Glossary fol. 93v/8-26 and Additions fols 2v-93v interlinear & margin.

Physical Description

Object Description

Hand Description

Decoration Description

Additions

Binding Description

Accompanying Material

History

Additional Information

Administration Information

Surrogates

Bibliography

Back to List of MSS and Descriptions

Ælfric's Grammar and Glossary

Date: s. xi3/4-xiiiin

Summary:

Ælfric's Grammar and Glossary, which 'shows a clear and unified structure' (Lucas 2008). Copied in Exeter by five scribes (including the scribe who, according to Drage 1978, worked very closely with Leofric, bishop of Exeter 1050-72), all trained to write in Exeter style script. Some alterations and glosses in French, Latin and English are added to the text by contemporary and later hands. In the sixteenth century this manuscript was probably bound together with the Christ Church manuscript Domitian viii, which now contains an Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

Ker 1957 and Lucas 2008 date it as s. xi2, but it can probably be dated more specifically to s. xi3/4 as Drage 1978, Robinson 1988 and Gneuss 2001 suggest.

Manuscript Items:

Item (1): fols 2r-93v/7
Item (2): fol. 93v/8-26
Item (1-2.b): fols 2v-93v interlinear & margin

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Support: Leaf ordering is hard to tell, but most of quires seem to be arranged HFHF. The flyleaves are paper of the date of binding.

Extent: Fols 1-93

204 x 140 (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

c. 155 x c. 98 (dimensions of all - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination: A paper flyleaf without foliation, from the most recent binding + paper flyleaves numbered i-vi + folios 1-93, in pen and pencil + paper flyleaves foliated vii-viii.

Collation:

Quires:

A paper flyleaf, no foliation

6 paper flyleaves (fols i-vi)

Quire 18 wants the first leaf, probably blank (fols 1-7)

Quires 2-118 (fols 8-87)

Quire 128 wants 7 and 8 after fol. 93 (fols 88-93)

2 paper flyleaves (fols vii-viii)

Signatures:

Catchwords:

Diagram:

See the diagram

Condition:

The manuscript contained 290 pages (145 leaves) in 1574, i.e., 52 leaves more than at present; and Ælfric's Glossary was followed by 'Historia Angliæ Saxon'. See the printed list of Parker's donation to the University, found in some copies of his De antiquitate Britannicæ Ecclesiæ Cantuariensis (1572/04).

Quire 12 now lacks its last two leaves, but there were present in the 16th century when Jocelyn included words excerpted from them in London, Lambeth Palace 692, fols 9v-10r.

A piece of parchment (5 cm x 1.5 cm) has been cut from the outer top corner of fol. 1.

Moderate cropping presumably occurred on the occasion of the earlier binding, as ink foliation numbers and the 17th-century annotations have suffered.

Layout description:

Layout:

Layout type: LO11
Columns: 1
Written Lines: 23-27
Locus: fols 1-93
Dimensions: 154-58 x 103-11; ruled
Overview: Ruled in dry point for 26 (quires 7-12) or 27 (quires 1-6) long lines. See a typical layout of a page with 27 lines: LO11_a. Double horizontal and vertical boundary lines. As prickings exist only in the outer margins of the manuscript, the leaves were pricked before folding. (Drage 1978, p. 175).
Quire 6 has the same-sized frame as others, but is ruled for 27 (1 and 8; fols 40 and 47), 25 (2 and 7; fols 41 and 46) and 23 (3-6; fols 42-45) long lines.

Some leaves might have been originally ruled for a different book: fols 18 and 21, for example, had a wider frame than other leaves, but a vertical line was added so that the widths of written space would be unified with the rest of the leaves (see LO11_b). Fols 24 and 31, on the other hand, seemed to have had only 26 lines originally, with another line added at the bottom (see LO11_c).

Hand description:

Number of hands:

Summary:

Drage 1978

Methods of Alteration:

fol. 77v/24 ge byriað ˥ se nama hæfð þa þing þe him gebyriað. þonne he oðer dæl ys oðer is eal | dor. (The descender of ˥ is used to mark the insertion point.)
fol. 80v/19 is participiū ; ˥ uisus . ge syhð . is name . Auditus . gehyred . is . participū ˥ auditus . hlist .

Hand:

Scope: Major
Script: Anglo-Saxon Insular miniscule and Caroline miniscule
Description: fols 1r-10v, 13r-17v, 19r-20v, 22r-64v. This is a typical script used in Exeter under Leofric. There is a careful distinction of script according to the language, i.e., Caroline minuscule for Latin and Insular minuscule for Old English. Ink is dark brown.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
Insular single compartment a is slightly triangular, but rounded. Caroline a varies in the length of the head stroke; sometimes very short, and sometimes extending to the left end of the lobe. The shape of the lobe is often triangular, and sometimes an elongated square.
The height of a and e in Insular æ are almost the same, whereas e in Latin is often higher than a.
Insular d is round-backed, with the short upstroke at 45º. Caroline d has a straight back. The ascender is wedged, and it finishes with a serif to the right.
The bow of both Insular and Caroline e is small and placed high. Insular e is mostly round with a very small horn and a small tongue. Its shape is sometimes elongated and shapes a left shoulder. Caroline e is round, and without a horn or a tongue.
ę is occasionally used for Latin: the tail consists of a 'c'-shaped curve and a straight slanting line from the upper right to the lower left, which has a serif to the right.
Insular f has a curvy and round shoulder, and a tongue is placed on the writing line; Caroline f has a descender which extends below the writing line, curving slightly to the left and finishing with a serif to the upper right. It also has a pronounced crossing bar.
Insular g has a straight top often with a downward serif to the left. The vertical stroke joins the horizontal bar at the middle, and the lower lobe is usually closed. Caroline g has a round lobe on the top, and the loop starts from the middle of the lobe and is left open but there is an upwards serif to the right. The lobe has a tongue to the right from the upper right corner.
Insular h has the second limb turned outwards. Both limbs have serifs to the right, and the ascender is wedged and split. The second limb of Caroline h turns inwards and often finishes above the writing line; the ascender is wedged and round.
minims, both in English and Latin, have distinct serifs to the right.
p has a round lobe, and the descender has pronounced serifs both at the top and the bottom.
The descender of Insular r tapers to the left. The descender of Caroline r mostly has a serif on the writing line. Occasionally '2'-shaped r at the end of a word, for example, 'eorum'.
Insular long s tapers to the left, and its head sometimes curves inwards. Insular low s also often tapers to the left, and is usually used at the end of a word. Descender of Caroline short s finishes on the writing line with a pronounced serif. The junction of the first and the second strokes is also more pronounced than that of the Insular long s.
t, both in English and Latin, is round-backed, and its head stroke is horizontal. The back stroke joins the head stroke slightly left of than the middle.
The split-topped ascender of þ is longer than the descender, which tapers to the left.
ð has a long ascender at 45º and its top often has a left-down serif. The cross bar has a pronounced upward serif at the right top.
y is dotted, and its descender curves to the left and tapers. The scribe also occasionally used rounded y: the two strokes forming the upper part of the letter are diverging and curved. The descender goes straight down, curving to the left at the very end.
ƿ has a descender which tapers to the left, and the top of the descender has a serif. The lobe is slightly triangular but rounded.
The height of the ascenders in Caroline minuscule is equal to that of the body of the letter. The head of a Caroline ascender is round and wedged-shaped, whereas the head of Insular ascender is split at the top and developed into a calligraphic feature, typical of the Exeter script.
The length of the descenders in Caroline minuscule is equal to that of the body of the letter. The foot of a Caroline descender usually has a small serif to the upper right. The end of Insular descenders, except p, turn to the left.
accents are sometimes used for vowels.
Abbreviations:
In Latin, abbreviations are frequently used. For example, mo, pro, per, ƚ, 9 (for 'us'), 2 (for 'ur'), ÷ (for 'est'), qd, and so on.
macrons are used both in English and Latin.
þ with a stroke through the ascender is used for 'þæt' in English.
Very occasionally, ne of þonne with a distinct zig-zag shaped contraction mark (for example, fol. 34r).
& in Latin; and ˥, which extends below the writing line, in English.
Punctuation:
hyphens, on a level with the writing line and unusually long, are used to split a word at the end of a line.
punctus is usually placed above the writing line.
Occasional use of punctus interrogativus.
Ligatures:
ct and st ligatures in Latin. The top of tall r of rt ligature is pointy and creates a wavy line at the top of t (50r).
Litterae Notabiliores: Rustic capitals with some calligraphic features are used for the beginnings of the new sections, and sometimes at the end of the sections.
Other manuscripts: No other manuscript is known to have been copied by this scribe.

Hand:

Scope: Major
Script: Anglo-Saxon Insular miniscule and Caroline miniscule
Description: fols 11r-12v, a supply sheet. Similar script to that of Hand 1 above. Ker 1957 and Lucas 2008 consider that this stint was also copied by Hand 1, but Drage 1978 thinks differently: this is Drage's Scribe 11. The script is smaller and more closely-written than Hand 1. The only characteristics particular to this scribe which allow us to distinguish this hand from Hand 1 are listed below. In darker ink than Hand 1, almost black.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
Insular a is often triangular with a pointed head, and Caroline a is more consistent than that of Hand 1: its head is usually slightly shorter than the left end of the lobe, and the lobe is an elongated circle.
Insular g is '5'-shaped, and the lower loop does not close. The lower loop of Caroline g has a shallower curve than that of Hand 1.
The ascender of ð is at about 50º, shorter and more upright than that of Hand 1. The crossbar often begins only to the right of the ascender.
Dotted y usually has a shorter descender.
Abbreviations:
There is no ˥, whereas & is used.
Other manuscripts:
- Additional 28188, fols 1-75r/3; 77r-99v/10; 127r-154v
- Bodley 579, fol. 341/1-14 (in Latin)

Hand:

Scope: Major
Script: Anglo-Saxon Insular miniscule and Caroline miniscule
Description: fols 18r-v and 21r-v, a supply sheet. Robinson 1988 and S C11 Database ascribe 18v to Hand 1, but 18v is by Hand 3. This Hand, Drage's Scribe 12, also conforms to an Exeter type script. This hand is much rounder and tends to lean slightly backwards. Dark brown. The only characteristics particular to this scribe which allow us to distinguish this hand from Hand 1 are listed below.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
Insular a is oval. Caroline a is regular in shape, its head extends to the left end of the lobe, and its lobe is mostly an elongated circle.
Insular d is round-backed and the upstroke is curved back over the bowl horizontally. It sometimes flicks upwards and to the right at the end.
e has a small, high bowl in relation to the bow.
The head of Insular g is straight and unseriffed, and the vertical stroke joins the head toward the left end.
The arch of Caroline h is round and its right limb often touches the writing line.
The left-down serif at the top of ascender of ð is consistently distinct.
descenders are shorter than the body of the letter, and straight. They sometimes taper slightly to the left.
Abbreviations:
Both ˥ and & are used.
The cross bar of ƚ begins at the very top of l and extends upper right of the letter with some calligraphic effect.
Other manuscripts:
- Exeter, Dean and Chapter, MS 2071
- Harley 863, fols 117v/8-23v
- Harley 2961, fols 234r-56v

Hand:

Scope: Major
Script: Anglo-Saxon Insular miniscule and Caroline miniscule
Description: fols 65r-72r. Broad and round script also conforms to an Exeter type. Dark brown. The only characteristics particular to this scribe which allow us to distinguish this hand from Hand 1 are listed below.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
e is occasionally very high in the combination æ.
The bow of d is very round. The ascender of its Insular form is at 45º and reaches above the letter to its left; the ascender of its Caroline form sometimes has a foot.
e is mostly round; the Insular form sometimes has a tongue.
The sizes of the upper and lower bows of Insular g are almost identical. It is in the shape of an unfinished '8', with the right hand side of the upper bow being open. Caroline g is similar to that of Hand 1, but the lower bow is much rounder.
Insular h has distinct feet with the right limb curving inwards first.
minims usually have feet to the upper right (but sometimes finish without serifs).
The descender of þ is often shorter than the height of the body of the letter. It sometimes has a foot.
ð is tagged to the left at the top. The ascender of ð is about 45º, but does not extend more than the height of other ascenders. The crossbar often begins only to the right of the ascender, and it turns upwards at the end of the stroke.
ascenders are slightly longer than the height of the body of the letter. The split of ascenders in Insular form is not very deep; the ascenders of Caroline form have wedges, of about the same height as those of Insular letters.
descenders of Insular letters are short. They sometimes finish with a foot. The ends of descenders, except p, turn to the left.
Other manuscripts: According to Drage 1978, this stint 'appears' to have been written by the scribe that copied the following manuscripts. The three manuscripts in the following list marked with '(?)' also, according to Drage, 'appear' to have been written by the same scribe:
- CCCC 190A, pp. 131 and 365 (?)
- CCCC 191, in its entirety
- CCCC 201, pp. 179-269, in its entirety
- CCCC 421, fols 3r-93v (?)
- CCTC B. 11. 2, fol. 121v, the donation inscription
- London, Lambeth 489, fols 25-31 (?)
- Auct D. 2. 16, fol. 6v, the donation inscription
- Auct F. 1. 15, fols 1-77v
- Auct F. 3. 6, fol. iiiv
- Bodley 579 (The Leofric Missal), additional material in fols 30r-33v, 34v-37v, 43r, 44v, 156v-57v, 337r-41r, 344v, 371r-72r, 374v-75r, 58v; also Leofric's donation inscription in fol. 1r.

Hand:

Scope: Major
Script: Anglo-Saxon Insular miniscule and Caroline miniscule
Description: fols 72v-93v. This is much smaller than the script of Hand 1, i.e., similar in size with that of Hand 2. This is Drage's Scribe 15. In brown ink. The only characteristics particular to this scribe which allow us to distinguish this hand from other scribes in this manuscript are listed below.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
a is in the rounded Insular form; Caroline a has an undeveloped head, which is often just a small flick to the left.
The e component of æ is slightly higher.
Insular d has round back, and its short ascender is sometimes at 45º, so that it is similar to the shape of ð; sometimes the ascender is almost horizontal.
The bow of e is often high.
The tongue of Insular f goes through the vertical line, and it is placed below the writing line.
Insular g has a straight head, and the vertical line meets at the very left end of the head. The lower bow, which looks like the lower part of '8', is larger than the upper part. The lower loop of Caroline g creates a half circle to the right, and it is unusual in that it does not have any serif at the end.
Both limbs of h are seriffed.
Long and low s are used, the latter usually at the end of a word.
The ascender of ð is short and at 45º, without a split or serif at the top. Its crossbar is a simple line, which extends only to the right of the ascender. The crossbar sometimes has a small downward serif at the right end.
The descender of dotted y is also shrot and straight, with a very small serif to the right at the end.
ascenders are shorter than the height of the body of the letter, and hardly split.
descenders are shorter than the height of the body of the letter.
Other manuscripts:
- CCCC 190 B, pp. 295-308/6, a homily in English

Decoration Description:

Initials; coloured: Large initials are mostly in either red or metallic red, and are two or three lines high. They are either placed in the left margin, or the main text is indented slightly so that one-third of the letter will be placed in the text. The initials in other colours are:

Black: fol. 1r, 'E'.
Green: fols 2r and 3v, 'S' and 'P'.

Incipits and chapter numbers; coloured: Mostly in red or metallic red. Some of the letters are dark silver.

Capital letters; coloured: Often in red or metallic red.

Additions:

s. xiii/xiv: Ornamental 'I' in brown ink on fol. 71v (beside text corresponding to Zupitza 1880: 233/2-11) serves no purpose in the text.

Early modern catchwords in pencil on bottom last verso of each quire.

Binding Description:

The present binding is of 1969 from the binding shop of Douglas Cockerell & Son of Grantchester. The cover is brown, and the title of the book and the manuscript number, 'AELFRIC GRAMMATIC Hh. I. 11', are given in gold letters on the spine of the book.

Ker records a s. xviii binding like that of CUL. Ii. 1. 33. The current binding incorporates the pastedown from an earlier binding, being a page from a s. xvi printing of Paulus de Sancta Maria, bishop of Burgos, Scrutinum Scripturarum (Paris, Anthonius Bonne Mere, colophon is dated 1472; but it was actually printed c. 1515). It also has the CUL seal, with number '5412'.

There are binding strips or guards around every quire, with leaf 8 of quire 1 (fol. 7) and leaf 1 of quire 12 (fol. 88) attached by them, while folios iii-vi occur in a single binding strip.

Accompanying Material:

Marginalia in the hand of Robert Talbot (d. 1558) are throughout, showing a special interest in place-names. His note on fol. 93v, 'Vide librum de legibus anglorum et danorum' refers probably to CCCC 383, which he possed or at least used.

Other marginalia are by Joscelyn. See, for example, the marginalia on fol. 11r where the larger hand is Talbot and the smaller one Joscelyn.

On fol. 41v there is a marginal annotation by Parker.

History:

Origin:

Ker (1964) and Watson (1987) assign it to s. xi Exeter on the grounds of the scripts (p. 36). Drage 1978 also agrees: 'Though not identifiable in the 1327 or 1506 inventories, it probably remained at Exeter until the sixteenth century.' (p. 338)

Provenance:

Ker's ascription to Christ Church, Canterbury rests on the assumption that Cotton Domitian viii (fols 30-70) which is from that house, is the Historia Angliæ Sax., which, according to Parker's list of gifts to the University printed at the end of some copies of his De antiquiate Britanniae ecclesiae Cantuariensis in 1574, followed the Grammar and Glossary. Both Domitian viii and CUL Hh. 1. 10 are annotated by Robert Talbot. Parker, however, seems to have bound together manuscripts of different origins and provenance (for example, CCCC 190 and 201. See Drage 1978, p. 338), so this may have been the case here too. According to Treharne, other manuscripts of the Grammar can be localized to Canterbury (Durham, Cathedral B III. 32), and potentially Worcester ('Producing A Library', p. 162).

The manuscript was also used by John Joscelyn in s. xvi.

Acquisition:

Given by Archbishop Parker in 1574 no. 23 in the list of his gifts, 'Libri Scripti'. Subsequently lost, and recovered by Abraham Wheloc, Librarian 1629-53, according to a note on fol. 1.

It was used as the exemplar for the s. xvi supply leaves (fols 1-2) in CTrinity College R. 9. 17 (819).

Former Cambridge marks are: 'D. Ө. i' and '459' (Wanley, 1705, p. 152).

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Described by Takako Kato with the assistance of Owen Roberson and Hollie Morgan (August 2010).

Surrogates:

A black and white microfilm is available in the CUL

Robinson, Pamela R., Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 737-1600 in Cambridge Libraries, 2 vols (Woodbridge: Brewer, 1988), plates 20(a), (b), (c) (fols 11, 14, 21)

Sandys, John Edwin, A History of Classical Scholarship, 3 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1903-1908; repr. Bristol: Thoemmes, 1998), I, p. 494 (reduced facsimile of fol. 33)

Thompson, E. M., and others, eds., Facsimiles of Ancient Manuscripts, Etc, Series 1, New Palaeographical Society, 2 vols (London: Hart, Oxford University Press, 1903-12), plate 137 (fols 40r and 49v)

Bibliography:

A Catalogue of the Manuscripts Preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge, 5 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1856-57; München: Kraus Reprint, 1980)

Bishop, Terence Alan Martyn, 'Notes on Cambridge Manuscripts, Part III: Mss. Connected with Exeter', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 2.2 (1955), 192-99

Buckalew, Ronald E., 'Nowell, Lambarde, and Leland: The Significance of Laurence Nowell's Transcript of Ælfric's Grammer and Glossary', in Anglo-Saxon Scholarship: The First Three Centuries, ed. by Carl T. Berkhout and Milton McC. Gath (Boston: Hall, 1982), pp. 19-50

Clemoes, P., ed., Manuscripts from Anglo-Saxon England: An Exhibition in the University Library Cambridge to Mark the Conference of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists August 1985 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, 1985)

Conner, Patrick W., Anglo-Saxon Exeter: A Tenth-Century Cultural History (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1993)

Corradini, Erika, 'Leofric of Exeter and his Lotharingian Connections: A Bishop's Books, C 1050-72' (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Leicester, 2008)

Drage, E., 'Bishop Leofric and the Exeter Cathedral Chapter, 1050-1072: A Reassessment of the Manuscript Evidence' (unpublished D. Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1978)

Gameson, Richard, and Fiona Gameson, 'Review of Anglo-Saxon Exeter: A Tenth-Century Cultural History, by Patrick W. Conner', Notes and Queries, 240 (1995), 228-30

Gneuss, Helmut, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100 (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001), item 13

Jost, K, ed., Die 'Institutes of Polity, Civil and Ecclesiastical', Swiss Studies in English, 47 (Bern: Francke, 1959)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 17

---, and Andrew G. Watson, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books (Supplement to the Second Edition), Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks (2nd edn, 1964; London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1987)

Lucas, Peter, J., 'Cambridge University Library, Hh.1.10: Ælfric's "Grammar" and Fragment of the "Glossary"', in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, 16: Manuscripts Relating to Dunstan, Ælfric, and Wulfstan; the 'Eadwine Psalter' Group (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2008), pp. 61-64

Robinson, Pamela R., Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c.737-1600 in Cambridge Libraries, 2 vols (Woodbridge: Brewer, 1988)

Sandys, John Edwin, A History of Classical Scholarship, 3 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1903-1908; repr. Bristol: Thoemmes, 1998)

Scragg, Donald, and others, MANCASS C11 Database Project(http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/mancass/c11database/; accessed Feb 2009)

Thompson, E. M., Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1912)

Thompson, E. M., and others, eds., Facsimiles of Ancient Manuscripts, etc, Series 1, New Palaeographical Society, 2 vols (London: Hart, Oxford University Press, 1903-12)

Treharne, Elaine M., 'The Bishop’s Book: Leofric’s Homiliary and Eleventh-Century Exeter', in Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald, ed. by Stephen Baxter, and others (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 521-37

---, 'Producing a Library in Late Anglo-Saxon England: Exeter, 1050-1072', Review of English Studies, 54 (2003), 155-72

Wanley, H., Librorum Veterum Septentrionalium Catalogus (1705)

Warren, F. E., The Leofric Missal as used in the Cathedral of Exeter during the episcopate of its first bishop, A.D. 1050-1072. Together with some account of the Red book of Derby, the Missal of Robert of Jumièges, and a few other early manuscript service books of the English church (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1883)

Wright, Thomas, ed., Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies, 2 vols (London: Trübner and Ludgate Hill, 1883-84)

Zupitza, Julius, ed., Aelfrics Grammatik und Glossar: Text und Varianten, 2nd edn (1880; Berlin: Weidmannsche Verlagsbuchhandlung Max Niehans Verlag, 1966)