The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Takako Kato

London, British Library, Cotton Faustina A. v + Dublin Trinity College 114 (A. 5. 2)

Bede's Death Song

Date: s. xii1

Summary:

A composite manuscript. It contains items copied in various centuries, s. xii1-s. xv. Items from s. xii1 are Symeon of Durham, Liber de exordio atque procursu Dunelmensis ecclesiae (fols 25r-97r), Pseudo-Bede, De Quindecim Signis (fols 99r-99v) and Pseudo-Augustine De Antichristo quomodo et ubi nasci debeat (fols 99v-102r).

'Bede's Death Song' in OE (West Saxon Version) is part of Symeon of Durham's 'Liber', and appears on fol. 43r/7-11.

This manuscript originally made up a volume together with Dublin, Trinity College 114, which contains Clement of Llanthony (s. xivmed) and Sermons (s. xvmed).

Manuscript Items:

1. Item: fol. 43r/7-11

   Title (A.33.3): Bede's Death Song: West Saxon Version

   Incipit: (fol. 43r) For þam neodfere nenig wyrþeð

   Bibliography:

   Lucas 1997, art. 191, pp. 42-47

   Ker 1957, item 152

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Support: Fols ii + 104 + v. Arrangement of HF is irregular.

Extent:

c. 240-42 mm x c. 178 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

190 mm x 135 mm (dimensions of range - size of written space)

188 mm x 143/136 mm (dimensions of range - size of written space)

195 mm x 166 mm (dimensions of range - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination: Pencil foliation starts on fol. i and ends on fol. 106. Two flyleaves are not foliated, nor is fol. 207.

Layout description:

The ruling patterns varies. Mostly single column, except Quire II (fols 31-24). According to Gullick 1998, the ruling scheme is very similar to that in Durham, University Library Cosin V. II. 6 (124), which contains corrections by Symeon of Durham.

Bede's Death Song is 'written out like prose with pointing at the end of verse-lines' (Lucas 1997, p. 44). Fol. 43r has single bounding lines at both sides, and double horizontal bounding lines which are two-line height, 26 lines. See a representative diagram.

Hand description:

Number of hands: 1 for Old English

Hand: 1
• Scope: Major
• Script: English Vernacular Minuscule for English
• Description: According to Ker 1957 (pp. 189-90), Bede's Death Song (fol. 43r/7-11) was written by the main hand which copied the whole of Symeon of Durham's 'Liber de exordio atque procursu Dunelmensis ecclesiae' (fols 25r-97r). This scribe uses 'the special insular letter-forms' for Bede's Death Song (fol. 43r/7-11. ).
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• a is in Caroline form.
• æ, a and e are the same height; e has a hairline.
• d is insular; the top of the ascender curls backwards. d and ð are 'of the same shape and size'.
• e in 'gehiggene' and the first 'heonen' are in caroline form with a hairline-like tongue;
• f is insular form.
• g is insular; the top is sometimes wavy, and the loop is open and finishes with upwards hairline stroke to the right.
• Both Caroline and insular forms of h.
• r is insular.
• s both in insular and Caroline. The Caroline long s sometimes extends below the writing line, sometimes stops at the writing line.
• þ is used.
• ð is used.
• y is insular and dotted.
• The top of ascenders are split.
• The ends of descenders turn to the left.

Additions:

There is an inscription by Thomas Allen in a flyleaf.

Binding Description:

Modern brown binding. The quires are mounted in guards.

History:

Origin: Symeon of Durham's Liber, which includes Bede's Death Song, was originally written at Durham. It is 'an early witness of Symeon of Durham's 'Historia Dunelmensis ecclesiae' (Lucas 1997, p. 42).

Provenance: The manuscript was originally together with Dublin, Trinity College 114. Henry Savile the Elder (1547-1622) dismembered it and gave this part to Thomas Allen (1542-1632) of Oxford in 1589. Allen then gave it to Cotton (Allen's promise to Cotton is recorded in Harley 6018, fol. 150v, dated as 30 April 1621). See Lucas 1997, p. 42.

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Described by Takako Kato (2010; 2013).

Surrogates:

EM Project facsimile

Microfiche in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1997), vol. 5: Latin Manuscripts with Anglo-Saxon Glosses

Bibliography:

Speculum Spiritualium ... Additur Insuper et Opusculum Ricardi Hampole de Emendatione Vite (London: St. Paul's Churchyeard, for Henry PepWell, 1510)

Allen, Hope Emily, Writings Ascribed to Richard Rolle Hermit of Hampole (New York: Heath, 1927)

Arnold, Thomas, Symeonis monachi opera omnia, Rolls Series, 75, 2 vols (London: Longman, 1882-85)

Caie, Graham D., The Judgment Day Theme in Old English Poetry, Publications of the Department of English, University of Copenhagen, 2 (Copenhagen: Nova, 1976)

Dobbie, Elliott van Kirk, ed., The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 6 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1942)

Fabri, Johann, D. Richardi Pampolitani Anglosaxonis Eremitae ... in Psalterium Davidicum (Cologne: Novesianus, 1536)

Foster, Michael, 'Thomas Allen, Gloucester Hall and the Bodleian Library', The Downside Review, 100 (1982), 116-37

Gilson, J. P., 'The Library of Henry Savile, of Banke', Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 9 (1908), 126-210

Gullick, Michael, 'The Two Earliest Manuscripts of the Libellus de Exordio', in Symeon of Durham: Historian of Durham and the North, ed. by David W. Rollason (Stamford: Shaun Tyas, 1998), pp. 106-19

Heist, William W., The Fifteen Signs before Doom (East Lansing, MI: Michigan State College Press, 1982)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 152

---, 'Thomas Allen's Manuscripts', The Bodleian Library Record, 2 (1948), 211-15

La Bigne, Margarinus de, Magna Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum et Antiquorum Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum, 15 vols (Cologne: Hieratus, 1622)

---, Maxima Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum et Antiquorum Scriptorum Ecclesiastiorum, 27 vols (Lyons: Anissonios, 1677)

Lucas, Peter J., '115. Dublin, Trinity College 114 (A. 5. 2), Clement of Llanthony: "Concordia quatuo evangelistarum" (Formerly belonged with BL Cotton Faustina A. v)', in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1997), vol. 5: Latin Manuscripts with Anglo-Saxon Glosses, pp. 8-10

---, '191. London, British Library, Cotton Faustina A. v.: "Bede's Death Song"', in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1997), vol. 5: Latin Manuscripts with Anglo-Saxon Glosses, pp. 42-47

Mynors, R. A. B., Durham Cathedral Manuscripts to the End of the Twelfth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1939)

Rollason, David, ed., Symeon of Durham: Libellus de Exordio atque Procursu istius hoc est Dunhelmensis Ecclesie, Tract on the Origins and Progress of this the Church of Durham, Oxford Medieval Texts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000)

Stevenson, Joseph, 'A History of the Church of Durham', in The Church Historians of England, 5 vols. (London, 1853-1858), III 621-700

Watson, Andrew G., The Manuscripts of Henry Savile of Banke (London: Bibliographical Society, 1969)

---, 'Thomas Allen of Oxford and his Manuscripts', in Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts & Libraries: Essays Presented to N. R. Ker, ed. by Malcolm B. Parkes and Andrew G. Watson (London: Scolar Press, 1978), pp. 279-314

Watson, Nicholas, Richard Rolle and the Invention of Authority (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)

---, ed., Richard Rolle Emendatio Vitae, Toronto Medieval latin Texts, 21 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1995)