The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Takako Kato

London, British Library, Cotton Caligula A. xv

MS Items

fols 125v–26r, fol. 126v, fol. 127r-v, fol. 129r-v, fol. 130r, fol. 130r, fol. 130r, fols 130v-31r, fol. 131r, fol. 131r, fol. 131r, fol. 131r, fol. 131r, fol. 131v, fol. 131v, fol. 131v-32r, fol. 132r, fol. 132v-38v, fol. 139v, fol. 140r, fo. 140r, fol. 140v, fol. 142r-v, fols. 142v-43r, fols. 143r-43v and fols. 144r-53v.

Physical Description

Object Description

Hand Description

Decoration Description

History

Additional Information

Administration Information

Surrogates

Bibliography

Back to List of MSS and Descriptions

Computistica, etc.; Ælfric's rendering of Bede's De temporibus anni

Date: s. xi2; xi/xii; xii1

Summary:

A composite manuscript.

Fols 3-117 are material from the eighth and ninth centuries (see Ramsay 1998). The manuscript has a North-Eastern French provenance, and was in England by s. ix/x (Gneuss 2001, item 311).

The eleventh-century material (fols 120-53) once formed a single volume with BL Egerton 3314, some of which was written by Salomon, monk of Christ Church, Canterbury (Willetts 1966). This portion of the manuscript is made up of two parts:

Part A (fols 120-41), s. xi2, contains notes on computus and the calculation and observance of church services; a table of years and annals of Christ Church, Canterbury; lunar prognostics; charms and other notes, mostly in Old English. In the annals (fols 133-37) the Conquest was not noticed by the original annalist for 1066, who wrote 'Her forðferde eadward kyng'. A later hand added '˥ her com willelm'.
Part B contains extracts from Bede's De temporibus (fols 142, 144-53v), a note of the ferial regulars and concurrents (fols 142v-43r) and a note on epacts (fol. 143) (Ker 1957, pp. 175-76).

Manuscript Items:

Item: fols 125v–26r
Item: fol. 126v
Item: fol. 127r-v
Item: fol. 129r-v
Item: fol. 130r
Item: fol. 130r
Item: fol. 130r
Item: fols 130v-31r
Item: fol. 131r
Item: fol. 131r
Item: fol. 131r
Item: fol. 131r
Item: fol. 131r
Item: fol. 131v
Item: fol. 131v
Item: fol. 131v-32r
Item: fol. 132r
Item: fol. 132v-38v
Item: fol. 139v
Item: fol. 140r
Item: fo. 140r
Item: fol. 140v
Item: fol. 142r-v
Item: fols. 142v-43r
Item: fols. 143r-43v
Item: fols. 144r-53v

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Support: Parchment. Original flyleaves (fols 1-2) are in parchment; with two modern paper flyleaves.

Extent:

217 mm x 170 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

180-190 mm x c. 120 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)

Collation:

Part A (fols 120-41): 1-28, 36. Two parchments are inserted before this part and attached to fol. 120.

Part B (fols 142-53): five bifolia (fols 143-52), preceded and followed by singletons (fols 142 and 153).

Layout description:

Single column.

Part A: 36 long lines. Pricking and rulings are visible on all folios. Fol. 141v has an additional line outside the rulings, and has 37 lines of the text. Pricking for the vertical lines are sometime visible on pages with tables (for example, fol. 121r).

Part B: pricked for 38 long lines, but only fols 142-43, 146-49 and 152 are ruled for 38 lines and only fols 142-43 are actually written in 38 long lines. On fols 146-49 and 152 the scribe wrote on every alternate line. On fols 144-45 and 150-51, 19 lines are ruled in pencil. On fol. 153 ruling is not visible.

Hand description:

Number of hands:

Summary:

Canterbury

Hand:

Scope: Major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Ker reference: Ker 139
Description: Fols 120r-134v (up to 137r for the table), 139v-415. The annals from 988 to 1073 (fols 133r-134v) are in the same hand and ink as the rest of this part of the manuscript. The next annal, 1076, is in the same hand, but a different ink. No further annals are entered until 1085.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand: 'A firm, bold hand' (C11 project).
a is broad, almost square and 'flat-topped, which appears in other Christ Church, Canterbury manuscripts' (Ker 1957, p. 176). Sometimes open at the top. Final a usually has a long finishing-stroke and the stress-mark, when used, is long, slanting up to the right then sometimes turning down at the end.
e is open at the top.
g is insular, and has a closed loop.
o is sometimes open at the top.
s is always long, even when doubled.
The cross-bar of ð turns over at one or both ends. The ascender is generally curved.
ascenders are wedged or split.
descenders curves to the left at the end.
Abbreviations:
The macron indicating a missing m or n turns over at one or both ends.
The abbreviation for 'þæt' turns over at one or both ends (C11 project).
Punctuation:
The head of the ˥ is generally curved.
Punctuation is by low point.
Date: Soon after 1073
Place: Christ Church, Canterbury
Other manuscripts: The hand seems to be the same as that which wrote the first series of Canterbury privileges in British Library, Cotton Claudius A. iii, fols 4-6 (Ker 1957, p. 176).

Hand:

Scope: Major
Script: Various hands
Description: Fols 135r-38r. Annals both in English and Latin were added by various contemporary hands. Ker (1957) says that some of them are of the 'Canterbury type', and insular g and r are still in use in the latest Old English entry, 1130. The annals added in fols 138v-39r are all in Latin by much later hands.
Date: 1085-1130 or later

Hand:

Scope: Major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Description: Fols 142r/9-143v.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand: Round script. As the C11 project says, this is 'small but very clear', and many of the capitals are the same height as the minuscule letter.
The ascender of d is short and horizontal and turns up at the end.
e has a round back.
f is insular
g is insular
h is insular; both limbs with distinct feet.
t is insular
The ascender of ð is at 45º, and its horizontal crossbar extends only to the right and turns up at the end.
The left leg of x is extended, but not greatly.
The e component of Æ is minuscule.
Date: s. xi2

Hand:

Scope: Major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscle
Description: Fols 144r-153v.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand: According to the C11 project, this is larger and darker than the others in the manuscript.
a is insular.
The two elements of æ are almost equal in height.
The descender of d is very short and curls upwards.
g is insular with a closed loop.
When the final letter in a line is n it frequently appears as a rustic capital in a minuscule context.
Insular e is horned and has a tongue.
The cross-stroke of ð does not always bisect the ascender, and usually flicks upwards at the right end.
In Æ, the E component is small and set low down.
Enlarged e often used in place of E.
The right leg of N does not extend far below the line. The left leg has a serif. Enlarged n often used in place of N.
ascenders are twice the minim height and wedged at the top.
descenders are of minim length and turn to the left.
Date: s. xi/xii

Decoration Description:

Tables (fols 120r, 20v-22r) and diagrams use red and green (fols 120-22).

The image of the saints in pen drawing is coloured in red and green (fols 122v-23r).

Capital letters are red, green, black and blue. Some rubrics are in red.

History:

Origin:

Christ Church, Canterbury

Ker 1957

Acquisition:

British Museum

Cotton

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Takako Kato with the assistance of Zoë Enstone, Molly Hogan, Hollie Morgan and George Younge (2010; 2013).

Surrogates:

EM Project facsimile

Roberts, Jane, Guide to Scripts Used in English Writings up to 1500 (London: British Library, 2005), p. 113 (fol. 137r)

Talbot Rice, David, English Art: 871-1100 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952), plate 67a (fol. 122v)

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 145 (fols 122v, 123r)

Watson, Andrew George, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts, c. 700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts, the British Library, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1979), plate 50 (fol. 140v)

Wormald, Francis, English Drawings of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries (London: Faber & Faber, 1952), plate 34a, b (fols 122v and 123r)

Bibliography:

Baker, Peter S., ed., The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition, MS F (Cambridge: Routledge, 2000), vol. 8

British Library, Manuscripts Catalogue (British Library, http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/manuscripts/; accessed in 2010), see also the description of Egerton 3314

Cockayne, Oswald, Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, Being a Collection of Documents for the most Part never before Printed, Illustrating the History of Science in this Country before the Norman Conquest, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores 35, 3 vols (London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office, 1864-66; repr. Wiesbaden: Kraus, 1965)

Crawford, S. J., Byrhtferth's Manual, EETS, OS 117 (London: Oxford University Press, 1929)

Dickins, Bruce, and R. M. Wilson, 'Sent Kasi', Leeds Studies in English, 6 (1937)

Förster, Max, 'Beitrage zur Mittelalterlichen Volkskunde VI', Archiv Für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen , 128 (1912-VI), 55-71

---, 'Beitrage zur mittelalterlichen Volkskunde VIII', Archiv für das Studium der Neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, 129 (1912-VIII), 16-49

---, 'Die altenglischen Traumlunare', in Englische Studien 60 (1925-1926), 58-93

---, 'Die altenglischen Verzeichnisse von Glücks- und Unglückstagen', in Studies in English Philology, A Miscellany in Honor of Fredrick Klaeber, ed. by K. Malone and M. B. Ruud (Minneapolis, Minn: University of Minnesota Press, 1929), p. 258

---, 'Die Weltzeitalter bei den Angelsachen', in Neusprachliche Studien: Festgabe Karl Luick zu seinem 60. Geburtstage, ed. by Friedrich Wild (Marburg: Elwert, 1925), pp. 198-99

Gameson, Richard, The Earliest Books of Canterbury Cathedral (London: British Library, 2008)

---, 'English Manuscript Art in the Late Century: Canterbury and its Context', in Canterbury and the Norman Conquest: Churches, Saints and Scholars, 1066-1109, ed. by Richard Eales and Richard Sharpe (Rio Grande, OH: Hambledon Press, 1995), pp. 95-143

---, The Manuscripts of Early Norman England (c. 1066-1130) (Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1999)

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 311; see also item 411

Henel, H., ed., Ælfric's 'De Temporibus Anni', EETS, OS 213 (London: Oxford University Press, 1942; repr. 1971)

---, Studien zum altenglischen Computus , Beitrage zur englischen Philologie (leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1934)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 139

Lowe, E. A., Codices Latini Antiquiores: A Palaeographical Guide to Latin Manuscripts prior to the Ninth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972)

Napier, A. S., 'Altenglische Kleinigkeiten', Anglia, xi (1889)

Planta, J., A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library, Deposited in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1802)

Ramsay, Nigel, MS British Library Cotton Caligula A. xv (http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/cotton/mss/cal1.htm, 1998; accessed 2010)

Roberts, Jane, Guide to Scripts Used in English Writings up to 1500 (London: British Library, 2005)

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)

Smith, Thomas Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library, ed. by Colin Gerald Calder; introductory essays translated by Godfrey E. Turton (1696; Cambridge: Brewer, 1984)

Storms, G., ed., Anglo-Saxon Magic (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1948; repr. Folcroft, PA: Folcroft Library Editions, 1975)

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

Watson, Andrew George, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts, c.700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts, the British Library, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1979)

Webber, Teresa, 'Script and Manuscript Production at Christ Church, Canterbury, after the Norman Conquest', in Canterbury and the Norman Conquest: Churches, Saints and Scholars, 1066-1109, ed. by Richard Eales and Richard Sharpe (Rio Grande, OH: Hambledon Press, 1995), pp. 144-56

Willetts, P. J., 'A Reconstructed Astronomical Manuscript from Christ Church Library Canterbury', British Museum Quarterly, 30 (1966), 22-30

Wormald, Francis, English Drawings of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries (London: Faber and Faber, 1952)