The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Orietta Da Rold

London, British Library, Cotton Domitian ix

Chronicle; Names of Runes

Date: s. xi/xii; xii1

Summary:

A collection of fragments comprising 19 items, of which the following are in English:

Item 2, fol. 9: one leaf from a Chronicle beginning with: the annal for 1113 'sƿa þæt hig uneaðe' (opening fol. 9v) and ending with the annal for 1114 'on rofecestre' (Zupitza 1878, p. 195; Plummer 1952, p. 243). Ker notes that the differences in colour of ink and in writing, and the change of ink during the 1114 annal at 'Her æfter he ferde', would suggest that these are 'contemporary entries written up at short intervals' (Ker 1957, p. 188).

Item 4, fol. 11: one surviving leaf from the end of a manuscript which has not yet been identified. The recto contains three extracts from the translation of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica (s. xin). The verso contains thirty-five runic letters with transliteration and name of each rune in Anglo-Saxon script. The runes appear in three lines, the last of which comprises six runes in the tenth-century hand; according to Ker (1957, p. 189) the others were probably added in s. xi/xii. Each line of runes has underneath it two more lines: one giving the Anglo-Saxon script value of each rune, and a second giving the rune names in Old English. Bateley (1992, p. 38) notes that some of the runes are partly covered by Talbot's annotations.

Manuscript Items:

1. Item: fols 4r and 7r

   Title (C.31.5): Gloss to Aldhelm, Epistola ad Ehfridum

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1957, item 149

   Napier 1900, no.13

2. Item: fol. 9r

   Title (B.17.4): Chronicles and Historical Texts: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

   Incipit: (fol. 9r) sƿa þæt hig uneaðe

   Explicit: (fol. 9r) on rofecestre

   Note: A single leaf from a chronicle beginning imperfectly in the annal for 1113 adn ending imperfectly in the annal for 1114

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1957, item 150

   Zupitza 1878, p. 195

   Plummer 1892-99, p. 243

3. Item: fol. 11r

   Title (B.9.6): Bede, History of the English Church and Nation

   Bibliography:

   Zupitza 1886, p. 185

   Miller 1890-98, i p. xx

4. Item: fol. 11r

   Title (B.25.1.1): English Runic Futhorcs

   Addition: (fol. 11r) feoh

   Addition: (fol. 11r) gar

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Single leaves

Support: Parchment

Extent: Fols 9, 11

205 mm x 127-130 mm (dimensions of fols 9 and 11 - size of leaves)

162 mm x 112 mm (dimensions of fol. 9 - size of written space)

180 mm x 97 mm (dimensions of fol. 11 - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination:

Collation:

Quires: Single leaves

Signatures: On fol. 11v '.XIII' at the center of the bottom margin.

Note:

Written in long lines, ruled on the recto. According to Bateley (1992, p. 37), 'Repaired and bound in on the repair [...] The presence of the quire signature ".xiii." at the foot of the verso in the middle suggests that it was once the last leaf of a quire and that it formed part of a fairly extensive manuscript'.

Hand description:

Number of hands: 2 from the period 1060 to 1220

Summary: Fol. 9: one hand s. xii1 is responsible for the chronicle. The main hand of fol. 11 is datable to s. xin, and a later hand added most of the runes, s. xi/xii.

Hand: main text
• Scope: Major
• Script: English Vernacular Minuscule I
• Ker reference: Ker 50 SC1
• Description: Fol. 9. A large hand of the beginning of the twelfth-century, despite Ker's notes: 'The hand is fairly large, of a kind found in late-eleventh-century vernacular manuscripts' (1957, p. 188). Ker offers the following features:
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• a: Caroline.
• d: insular. Smaller than ð and shaped differently.
• e: horned and open at the top.
• f: insular.
• g: insular.
• h: Caroline.
• r: insular.
• s: long.
• descenders long.
• Proper names begin with a capital letter.
• Abbreviations:
• The mark of abbreviation is curved.
• Date: s. xii1

Hand: additions
• Scope: minor
• Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
• Ker reference: Ker 151 Scribe 2
• Description: Fol. 11v. This hand mixes Caroline letter-forms with insular features.
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• þ: used.
• ƿ: used.
• r: insular in 'rad'.
• Date: s. xi/xii

Decoration Description:

Fol. 9v, one red capital - O of 'On' at the beginning of annal 1114.

Fol. 11r, tinted capitals in red. Ornamental capitals, zoomorphic: Þ, a serpent with a head and tail. Pen dots around all initials.

History:

Origin:

Composite manuscript with several unidentified origins.

Provenance:

Used by Robert Talbot (Wanley 1705, p. 239). Sisam (1953, p. 18) assigns the verso entry to Kent, though Whitelock (1981) suggests St. Paul's London.

Acquisition:

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

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Orietta Da Rold with the assistance of Hollie Morgan and Mary Swan; additional notes by Owen Roberson and Mary Swan (August 2010); manuscript items added by Johanna Green (2012).

Surrogates:

Hempl, G., 'Hickes's Additions to the Runic Poem', Modern Philology, 1 (1903-04), 135-41

Bately, Janet M., ed., The Tanner Bede: The Old English Version of Bede's Historia Ecclesia, Oxford, Bodleian Library Tanner 10, together with the Mediaeval Binding Leaves, Oxford, Bodleian Library Tanner 10 and the Domitian Extracts, London, British Library Cotton Domitian A. IX fol. 11, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, 24 (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1992)

Bibliography:

Bately, Janet M., ed., The Tanner Bede: The Old English Version of Bede's Historia Ecclesia, Oxford, Bodleian Library Tanner 10, together with the Mediaeval Binding Leaves, Oxford, Bodleian Library Tanner 10 and the Domitian Extracts, London, British Library Cotton Domitian A. IX fol. 11, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, 24 (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1992)

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 Medieaval and Renaissance Studies, 2001), items 329- 330

Hempl, G, 'Hickes's Additions to the Runic Poem', Modern Philology, i (1903-4), 135

Hickes, George, Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus Grammatico-Criticus et Archaeologicus, 5 vols (Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1705)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), items 150, 151

Laing, Margaret, Catalogue of Sources for a Linguistic Atlas of Early Medieval English (Woodbridge: Brewer, 1993), p. 75

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

Miller, T., ed., The Old English Version of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of The English People, EETS, OS 95, 96, 110, 111, 4 pts, 2 vols (1890-98; London: Oxford University Press, 1959-63)

Napier, A. S., Old English Glosses, Anecdota Oxoniensia, Mediaeval and Modern Series, xi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900)

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

Plummer, Charles, ed., Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, repr. with a bibliographical note by Dorothy Whitelock, 2 vols (1892-99; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952)

Sisam, Kenneth, Studies in the History of Old English Literature (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953)

Wanley, Humfrey, Antique literature septentrionalis liber alter (Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1705)

Whitelock, Dorothy, Some Anglo-Saxon Bishops of London, Chambers Memorial Lecture (London, 1975; repr. London: Variorum, 1981)

Zupitza, Julius, 'Drei alte Excerpte aus Älfreds Beda', ZfdA, 30 (1886), 185-86

---, 'Fragment einer Englischen Chronik aus den Jahren 1113 und 1114', Anglia, i (1878), 195