The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Elaine Treharne

London, British Library, Cotton Cleopatra B. xiii, fols 1-58

MS Items

fols 2-7v, fols 7v/19-12, fols 13-31r, fols 31-38, fols 38-43, fols 44-55v, fols 56-57, fol. 57v, fol. 58r and fols 58r-v.

Physical Description

Object Description

Hand Description

Decoration Description

Binding Description

Accompanying Material

History

Additional Information

Administration Information

Surrogates

Bibliography

Back to List of MSS and Descriptions

Homilies; Coronation oath; Paternoster and Creed

Date: s. xi3/4

Summary:

A collection of homilies and other pieces, that used to be in the same manuscript as, Lambeth 489, and possibly CCCC 421. It includes items from Ælfric's first series of Catholic Homilies (fols 7v-12, 13-31), sermons and dedications and a version of the Paternoster and Creed: '[Ð]u ure fæder....sy hit swa. Ic gelyfe on god fæder almihtigne...' (fol. 58r-v).

Now bound with the revised version of the Vita S. Dunstani by 'B', s. xi1, and a chronicle attributed to Peter of Ickham.

The manuscript, as it now exists, show signs of having been disordered at some point in its history. The sequencing of texts was disrupted when the manuscript came into the hands of sixteenth-century antiquarians, and it is still incorrectly sequenced.

Manuscript Items:

Item: fols 2-7v
Item: fols 7v/19-12
Item: fols 13-31r
Item: fols 31-38
Item: fols 38-43
Item: fols 44-55v
Item: fols 56-57
Item: fol. 57v
Item: fol. 58r
Item: fols 58r-v

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Support: Parchment

Extent: i + 58

184 mm x 125 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

170 mm x 80 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination:

foliated in ink 1-55*, 56-58.

Formerly paginated in Parkerian red pencil on rectos of fols 2-58, marking 1-115.

Collation:

Quires:

1-68,

78 wants one leaf after fol. 55; fol. 56 is a singleton now bound with this quire,

82 (two singletons, fols 57 and 58, now bound into the beginning of the next quire).

Signatures:

Condition:

The leaves have been cropped by the binder.

Note:

Ruling in drypoint for 19 lines per page, except fol. 57 with 23 lines and fol. 58 with 28 lines. Double bounding lines on both sides scored to the edge of the page, as are the first and last two lines. The quality of the parchment makes hair and flesh sides hard to distinguish, but it appears to be HFHF. A wormhole on fols 56-57, larger on fol. 57 than on fol. 56, does not appear on fol. 58, so it is unlikely to be in its original position. Leaves have been mended with pieces of a document, s. xvi.

Hand description:

Number of hands:

Summary:

Leofric

Hand:

Scope: major
Scribe: Ker 144 SC1
Script: Late eleventh century
Description: Fols 2r/1-31r; 57v/1-21.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
ascenders are tall and split.
descenders are long, and curve to the left.
a is generally round but occasionally Caroline.
The first element of æ dominates with the second element only slightly higher.
d has a very large bowl but tiny ascender.
e is tall with a relatively small head.
The right leg of h turns in slightly 'but not sufficiently to be called caroline' (C11 project) .
s is usually low but occasionally long initially.
ð has a large bowl and a finishing stroke on the ascender.
H is very distinctive. The foot of the second leg curves in slightly but barely drops below the line.
descenders turn to the left.
Other manuscripts:
- BL, Add. 28188
- BL, Cotton Vitellius A. vii
- Harley 863
- Harley 2961

Hand:

Scope: major
Scribe: Ker 144 SC3
Script: Late eleventh century
Description: Fols 31r/1-38r/3.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
descenders curve gently to the left.
The ascender of d is quite short with a slight downward curve.
g has an unusually large bowl.
Litterae Notabiliores:
The descender for ˥ has a slight curve to the left.
Other manuscripts: Probably the same as Scribe 1 above (Ker 1957, p. 184: this is Ker's scribe 2)

Hand:

Scope: major
Scribe: Ker 144 SC8
Script: Late eleventh century
Description: Fol. 58r/12- 58v/11.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand: The general aspect of this hand is rounded and upright, with a tendency to use the full height and depth of the interlinear space, though this is hardly a distinguishing characteristic, since it is part of all these Exeter scribes' repertoire.
ascenders are split at the top.
descenders curve to the left.
The second element is occasionally high in the combination æ, especially before g and t, when a ligature is formed, and particularly when æ is in initial position.
The ascender of d is very short but frequently turns up to the right.
The tail of g swoops round to the right before curving to the left; the tail is usually closed.
Long s and low s are used, though the long form tends not to be used finally. According to Ker 1957 (p. 345), long s followed by low s is used in the combination ss, and this distinguishes the scribe at fols 1-20r. This feature occurs in this manuscript at fols. 25-31, and again, in Cleopatra B. xiii. It is thus a distinguishing characteristic of this scribe in the revised sequence of stints attributed to him by Bishop 1955 (and agreed by Treharne 2009).
ð is the single most distinctive letter-form, and the graph which changes most dramatically between stints of this single scribe (or, in fact, identifies for Ker 1957 and Drage 1978 a different scribe). In the earlier folios, the cross-bar bisects the up-stroke, tagged to the left at the top end; the up-stroke itself finishes with a marked movement of the pen to the left. In the later folios, the cross-bar does not pierce the up-stroke, though the graph is otherwise the same.
Straight-limbed y is used but it curves in a relatively shallow fashion, often ending with a tick upwards to the right.
accents are sometimes used with long vowels.
Abbreviations:
Nota The headstroke of the ˥ nota is straight, and the descender curves round slightly to the left.
that The abbreviation for 'þæt' is distinctive: the ascender of thorn is crossed by a horizonal bar which is quite distinctive since the left tag of the split ascender often almost touches the bar.
Punctuation:
hyphens are level with the base-line and occur both at the end of one line and the beginning of the next.
Ligatures:
There are very few ligatures.
Other manuscripts: Almost certainly identical to the main scribe of Lambeth 489; that is, the scribe who writes all of Lambeth 489 except fols 20v-24v. This is not the view of Ker 1957 (p. 345), or of Drage 1978; it is the view of Bishop 1955 and Treharne 2009.

Decoration Description:

Rubrics are written in red ink and enlarged initial letters are written in green or red, with some other prominent initials in green or red. Capital letters are touched in red (fading to black) inconsistently, fols 34r- 38r, 41v-44r and 57r. Blank space has been left in between the main items.

The rubrics on fols 56r-58v are not in coloured ink. The initial 'S' of fol. 57v/1 is written in red ink, and on fol. 58r there are spaces left for two enlarged coloured initials and one regular coloured initial which were never entered.

Binding Description:

A binding of September 1875 was replaced by a new binding in 1970, recorded in a pencilled note on the inside back cover dated to 24th April 1970.

Accompanying Material:

There is much evidence that the manuscript was used by Archbishop Matthew Parker: on fol. 1v is a table of contents by one of his scribes; there is a note by his secretary, John Joscelyn on fol. 13r and the signature of his son, John Parker is written in red pencil on fol. 2r.

History:

Origin:

Exeter

According to Ker 1957, 'the script, the use of c-shaped accents, the format and the number of lines to the page associate this manuscript with CCCC 419 + 421 and Lambeth 489: like them it is almost certainly from Exeter' (p. 184).

Provenance:

A provenance was recorded to Richard James in s. xvii1, in his note in Oxford, Bodleian Library, James 27 (Sum. Cat. 3864), p. 91: 'Here is se geleafa ˥ gebed ˥ bletsung lǽwedum mannum. ðe þǽt leden ne cunnnon in codice Exon. bibliothecǽ' refers to this manuscript. It cannot have been at Exeter as late as this, since it was used by Archbishop Parker. Presumably James was copying from a sixteenth-century transcript; perhaps one of Joscelyn's. Belonged to Robert Cotton in 1621 (Wanley 1705, p. 201)

Acquisition:

Acquired by the British Museum along with the rest of the Cotton collection.

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Elaine Treharne with the assistance of Molly Hogan, Hollie Morgan, Owen Roberson and Takako Kato (2010; 2013)

Surrogates:

Wilcox, Jonathan, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2000), vol. 8

Bibliography:

Bazire, J., and J. E. Cross, eds., Eleven Old English Rogationtide Homilies, Toronto Old English Series (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982)

Belfour, A. O., ed., Twelfth-Century Homilies in MS. Bodley 343, EETS, OS 118 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1909)

Bishop, T. A. M., 'Notes on Cambridge Manuscripts; Part III: MSS. Connected with Exeter', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 2.2 (1955), 192-99

Bethurum, Dorothy, The Homilies of Wulfstan (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957)

Clemoes, Peter, ed., Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: The First Series. Text, EETS, SS 17 (London: Oxford University Press, 1997)

Drage, Elaine M., 'Bishop Leofric and the Exeter Cathedral Chapter, 1050–1072: A Reassessment of the Manuscript Evidence” (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Oxford, 1978)

Hardy, Thomas Duffus, Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the End of the Reign of Henry VII, Rolls Series, 26 (London: Longman, 1871), vol. 3

Kato, Takako, 'Exeter Scribes in Cambridge University Library Ii.2.11 + Exeter Book fols 0, 1–7', New Medieval Literatures, 13 (2012 for 2011), 5-21

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 144

Lapidge, Michael '"B. and the Vita S. Dunstani" ', in St Dunstan: His Life, Times and Cult, ed. by Margaret Sparks and Tim Tatton-Brown Nigel Ramsay (Woodbridge The Boydell Press, 1992), pp. 247-59

Liebemann, F., ed., Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen , 3 vols (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1903), vol. 1: Text und Übersetzung

Luiselli Fadda, Anna Maria, ed., Nuove omelie anglosassoni della rinascenza benedettina, Filologia germanica. Testi e studi, 1 (BL. Cleo. B. xii; Firenze: F. Le Monnier, 1977)

Napier, Arthur Sampson, ed., Wulfstan: Sammlung der ihm zugeschriebenen Homilien nebst Untersuchungen uber ihre Echtheit, Sammlung englischer Denkmaeler in Kritischen Ausgaben, 4 (Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1883)

----, 'A Sign used in Old English MSS. to Indicate Vowel- shortness', Academy, 909 (1889)

Pope, John C., ed., Homilies of Ælfric: A Supplementary Collection, EETS, OS 259 and 260 (London: Oxford University Press, 1967-68)

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)

Scragg, D. G., ed., The Vercelli Homilies and Related Texts, EETS, OS 300 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992)

Strongman, Sheila, ed., John Parker's Manuscripts: An Edition of the Lists in Lambeth Palace MS 737 (Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 1977-80), vol. 7

Stubbs, William, Memorials of Saint Dunstan: Archbishop of Canterbury, Rolls Series 63 (London: Longman, 1874)

Szarmach, Paul E., Vercelli Homilies IX-XXIII, Toronto Old English Series 5 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981)

Thorpe, B., ed., The Sermones Catholici or Homilies of Ælfric, Ælfric Society, 2 vols (London: Ælfric Society, 1844-46)

Treharne, Elaine M., 'The Bishop's Book: Leofric's Homiliary and Eleventh-Century Exeter', in Stephen Baxter, Catherine Karkov, Janet Nelson, David Pelteret, eds., Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald (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, Humfrey, Antique literature septentrionalis liber alter (Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 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)

Wilcox, Jonathan, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2000), vol. 8

Winterbottom, M. and M. Lapidge, ed., The Early Lives of St. Dunstan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Forthcoming)

Wright, T., and J. O. Halliwell, Reliquiæ Antiquæ, 2 vols (1841-43)