The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Orietta Da Rold

London, British Library, Additional 34652

Rule of Chrodegang fragment

Date: s. xi2

Summary:

A collection of fragments from manuscripts and facsimiles. Item 2 contains part of a bilingual copy of the Rule of Chrodegang of Metz, in which Old English is followed by the Latin, chapter by chapter, a practice also found in CCCC 191. Letters of the text missing due to trimming. Chapter 59, 'De Clericis', is perhaps textually similar to the passage in Nero A i, fol. 127 (British Library Catalogue). Chapter 60 of the English version begins: 'nan ne gebidað', ends in the Latin of chapter 62 'Dolos et coniurationes' (Ker 1957, p. 161).

Manuscript Items:

1. Item: A fragment

   Title (B.10.4.3): Chrodegang of Metz, Regula Canonicorum: chs 60-62

   Incipit: LXI. [Þa duncengeor]nan ne gebidað hi heofona rice.

   Explicit: [Þearfena] gast þæt hi rihtlice magon [cƿeðan]. [...] His ignitur lege patrum cauetur [...]

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: fragment

Extent:

c. 175 mm x c. 100 mm (dimensions of fragment - size of leaves)

131 mm x 77 mm (dimensions of fragment - size of written space)

Note:

A fragment used in binding as a pastedown which is trimmed all around. 22 long lines out of a possible 29 lines remain. Running chapter numberson the recto and verso of the header: .LXI. and .LXII.

Hand description:

Number of hands: 1

Hand: main text
• Scope: sole
• Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
• Ker reference: Ker 128
• Description: 3. An insular minuscule in the English text and Caroline in the Latin text, regular rounded script. Ker labelled it as a 'small upright script' (Ker 1957, p. 161).
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• descenders: a hair-line slopes up from the ends of the descenders.
• Titles in red rustic capitals.
• Date: s. xi2

Decoration Description:

Rubric in red of chapter 61.

History:

Origin:

Unknown

Provenance:

Unknown

Acquisition:

Used in binding as a pastedown. Belonged to Thomas Astle and bought at the sale of his books at Puttick's, 19th June 1894, part of lot 121.

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Orietta Da Rold with the assistance of Hollie Morgan and Johanna Green (2010; 2013).

Surrogates:

EM Project facsimile

Bibliography:

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 Medieavl and Renaissance Studies, 2001), item 288

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 128

Manuscripts Catalogue (British Library, http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/manuscripts/; accessed in 2010)

Napier, Arthur S., 'The Rule of Chrodegang in Old English', Modern Language Notes, 18 (1903), 241

Scragg, Donald, Alexander Rumble, and Kathryn Powell, C11 Database Project (Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies, http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/mancass/c11database/; accessed in 2009)