The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Takako Kato

London, British Library, Cotton Nero E. i, part 2, fols 181-84

MS Items

fol. 182r/col. 1, fol. 182r/col. 1, fol. 182r/cols 1-2, Fols 182r/col. 2-82v/col. 1, fol. 182v/cols 1-2, fol. 182v/col. 2, fol. 182v/col. 2, fol. 183r/col. 1, fol. 183r/col. 1, fol. 183r/cols 1-2, fols 183r/col. 2-183v/col. 1, fol. 183v/col. 1, fol. 183v/cols 1-2, fol. 183v/ col. 2, fol. 184r/col. 1, fol. 184r/cols 1-2, fol. 184r/col. 2, fol 184r/ col. 2, fols 184r/col. 2-84v/col. 1, fol. 184v/ col. 1, fol. 184v/col. 1, fol. 184v/col. 1, fol. 184v/cols 1-2, fol. 184v/col. 2, fol. 181r/col. 1, fol. 181r/cols 1-2, fol. 181v/col. 1, fol. 181b/cols 1-2, fol. 181v/col. 2 and fol. 181v/col. 2.

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

Worcester Cartulary

Date: s. xi2

Summary:

Four leaves of records containing charters of the kings of Mercia, bishops of Worcester and others. On fol. 184v, a list of Worcester Cathedral estates and their royal donors was added. They were originally copied into Worcester Cathedral's Bible under the direction of Bishop Wulfstan II. Now part (fols 181-84) of a two-volume large composite manuscript, containing legendaries in Latin (s. xi2-xiii) and a Law Code in Old English (s. x/xi) (British Library Catalogue). The Latin legendaries have glosses and directions to a reader in Old English written in s. xi and xi2 (See CCCC 9 + BL Cotton Nero. E. i, part 1 and part 2, fols 1-180, 87 and 88).

A further part of the same cartulary was discovered in 1911, and now is BL Add. 46204. According to Ker 1948, the original order of leaves were: Nero E. i, pt. 2, fol. 182; Add. 46204, full leaf; Nero, fols 183, 184, 181; Add. a fragment. Also known as The St. Oswald Cartulary, The Nero-Middleton Cartulary, or The St. Wulfstan Cartulary (See Herold 2004). Textually it contains the same collection of documents as Tiberius A. xiii, but in an abbreviated version (Ker 1948, p. 66).

Gneuss 2001 dates the manuscript to s. xiex.

Manuscript Items:

Item: fol. 182r/col. 1
Item: fol. 182r/col. 1
Item: fol. 182r/cols 1-2
Item: Fols 182r/col. 2-82v/col. 1
Item: fol. 182v/cols 1-2
Item: fol. 182v/col. 2
Item: fol. 182v/col. 2
Item: fol. 183r/col. 1
Item: fol. 183r/col. 1
Item: fol. 183r/cols 1-2
Item: fols 183r/col. 2-183v/col. 1
Item: fol. 183v/col. 1
Item: fol. 183v/cols 1-2
Item: fol. 183v/ col. 2
Item: fol. 184r/col. 1
Item: fol. 184r/cols 1-2
Item: fol. 184r/col. 2
Item: fol 184r/ col. 2
Item: fols 184r/col. 2-84v/col. 1
Item: fol. 184v/ col. 1
Item: fol. 184v/col. 1
Item: fol. 184v/col. 1
Item: fol. 184v/cols 1-2
Item: fol. 184v/col. 2
Item: fol. 181r/col. 1
Item: fol. 181r/cols 1-2
Item: fol. 181v/col. 1
Item: fol. 181b/cols 1-2
Item: fol. 181v/col. 2
Item: fol. 181v/col. 2

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Support: Parchment

Extent:

392 mm x 279 mm (dimensions of fols 181-84 - size of leaves)

356 mm x 253 mm (dimensions of fols 181-84 - size of written space)

Collation: The order of leaves in their original manuscript context was fol. 182; Add. 46024, complete leaf; fol. 183, fol. 184, fol. 181; and Add. 46204, strips (Ker 1948, p. 66).

Foliation and/or Pagination:

Current foliation is '1-222' in 1884 pencil.

Pre-1731 and later ink foliation '207-428'

Every tenth leaf marked in ink, s. xviiiin: 3v, 23v, 33v, 53v, 63v, 73v, 83v, 93v, 103, 123v, 133v, 143v, 153v, 164v, 174v, 196v, 206v.

Condition: Parchment is warped from the fire in 1731 and inlaid in modern parchment.

Layout description:

Layout:

Layout type: LO20
Columns: 2
Written Lines: 44
Dimensions: ca. 345 mm x ca. 95 mm; ruled

Double columns, 44 lines. The outer pricking is visible. The large capital letters are placed in the double lines on the left side of the writing space.

See diagram.

Hand description:

Number of hands:

Hand:

Scope: Major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Description: fols 181-84v/col. 2, line 7.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
æ has e higher than a.
Insular d is round-backed and its ascender is horizontal.
Insular f; the end of the descender curves to the left.
Insular g is 5-shaped.
Insular h.
Larger N is used at the end of the line to fill in the space.
Insular r.
Insular s is used, as well as long s, which has an extended head. The descender of long ssometimes stops on the writing line.
þ is used.
ð has a tall ascender, and its cross-bar is mostly a straight horizontal line which extends only to the right of the ascender. The cross bar sometimes curls downwards at the right end.
y is dotted, and its descender extends to the left under the previous letter.
descenders are straight and shorter than the height of the body of the letter, and slightly curve to the left at the very end.
Abbreviations:
˥ mark is high and extends to the length of the descender. The horizontal head is straight or slightly curved backward.
The cross-bar of þ for 'þæt' abbreviation ia a straight horizontal line, which extends only to the right of the ascender.
Punctuation: · is used.

Hand:

Scope: Major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Description: fol. 184v/col. 2, lines 8-44. According to Ker, 'a typical Worcester hand of the second half of the eleventh century' (Ker 1948, p. 66).
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
Insular d has a round back and horizontal ascender.
Insular g has a straight top, the loop closes in a round bowl, and the vertical stroke mostly joins the horizontal bar at the middle. When the vertical stroke joins the horizontal bar at the middle, the stroke is straight down.
Insular h has a serif at the end of the left leg.
Long s has an extended head.
ð has a round lobe, and its ascender goes up to the left at an angle of 45º, extending further than the left end of the lobe. The top of the ascender has a long downward serif to the left. The crossbar has a small serif pointing downwards to the right.
w is used. All the strokes have serifs to the left.
ascenders are twice the height of the body of the letter.
descenders are straight and either curl to the left or have a serif at the end.

Decoration Description:

Rubrics and secondary initials are in red.

Binding Description:

Rebound in 1969 by the British Museum, stamped with the Cotton arms (British Library Catalogue).

Accompanying Material:

Modern pastedowns, the upper with the pressmark '691 E' and the lower stamped 'B.M. 1969', five modern paper upper endleaves, the first stamped 'COTTON MS. NERO E. I PART II', three modern paper lower endleaves, the first with a note recording 428 fols struck through then replaced with 222 fols One bibliographical slip recording five items.

History:

Origin:

Written in Worcester under the direction of Bishop Wulfstan II. It was probably once bound with the Offa Bible, an early eighth century Bible given to Worcester by King Offa (See Atkins and Ker 1940, pp. 77-79; Atkins 1940; Stevenson 1911).

Provenance:

Unknown.

Acquisition:

Belonged to Robert Cotton. The British Museum acquired it along with the rest of the Cotton collection.

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Described by Takako Kato with the assistance of Hollie Morgan (2010; 2013).

Surrogates:

EM Project facsimile

Herold, Jonathan, 'The Wulfstan Cartulary a.k.a. The Nero-Middleton Cartulary, or The St. Oswald Cartulary', in Early Medieval Record Keeping: Exploring the Preservation of Medieval Memoranda, ed. by Jonathan Herold (2004; http://individual.utoronto.ca/emrecordkeeping/Pages/StWulfstanCartMain.html; accessed in 2010)

Bibliography:

Atkins, Ivor, 'The Church of Worcester from the Eighth to the Twelfth Century, Part II', The Antiquaries Journal, 20 (1940), 1-38, 203-29

---, 'The "Oswald" Cartulary', Antiquaries Journal, 20 (1940), 220-22

Atkins, Ivor, and Neil R. Ker, eds, Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Made in 1622-1623 by Patrick Yound Librarian to King James I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1944)

Birch, Walter de Gray, ed., Cartularium Saxonicum : A Collection of Charters Relating to Anglo-Saxon History (London: Whiting and Company; Chas J. Clark, 1883-1893)

Bischoff, Bernhard, and Virginia Brown, 'Addenda to Codices Latini Antiquiores', Medieaval Studies, 47 (1985), 317-66

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

Brown, Michelle, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1991)

Brown, Michelle P., The Book of Cerne: Prayer, Patronage and Power in Ninth- Century England (London: British Library, 1996)

---, The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality and the Scribe (London: University of Toronto Press, 2003)

---, 'Mercian Manuscripts? The "Tiberius" Group and its Historical Context', in Mercia: An Anglo-Saxon Kingdom in Europe, ed. by Michelle P. Brown and Carol Farr (London: Continuum, 2001), pp. 279-90

Davis, G. R. C., Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain: A Short Catalogue (London: Longmans Green, 1958)

Dugdale, W., Monasticon Anglicanum, 6 vols (1817-30)

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

---, 'Alfred the Great and the Destruction and Production of Christian Books', Scriptorium, 49 (1995), 180-210

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 344.5

Haddan, Arthur West, and William Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, 3 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1869)

Kemble, John M., Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, 6 vols (London: Sumptibus Societatis, 1839-48)

Ker, N. R., 'Hemming's Cartulary: A Description of the Two Worcester Cartularies in Cotton Tiberius A. xiii', in Studies in Medieval History Presented to Frederick Maurice Powicke, ed. by R. W. Hunt, W. A. Pantin and R.W. Southern (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1948), pp. 49-75

---, 'Membra Disiecta', British Museum Quarterly, 12 (1937-38), 130-35

---, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 29

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

Marsden, Richard, 'Manus Bedae: Bede's Contribution to Ceolfrith's Bibles', Anglo- Saxon England, 27 (1998), 65-85

Robertson, A. J, Anglo-Saxon Charters, 2nd edn (1939; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956)

Sawyer, P. H., Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography (London: Royal Historical Society, 1968)

---, and Simon Keynes, The Electronic Sawyer: Online Cataogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters (CCH, King's College London, http://www.esawyer.org.uk/, 2013)

Stevenson, W. H., Report on the MSS. of Lord Middleton (Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1911)

Thomson, Rodney Malcolm, and Michael Gullick, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts in Worcester Cathedral Library (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Published on behalf of the Dean and Chapter of Worcester Cathedral by Brewer, 2001)

Tinti, Francesca, 'From Episcopal Conception to Monastic Compilation: Hemming's Cartulary in Context', Early Medieval Europe, 2.3 (2002), 233-61

Tite, Colin G.C, The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton's Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: British Library, 2003)

Turner, C. H., Early Worcester MSS: Fragments of Four Books and a Charter of the Eighth Century Belonging to Worcester Cathedral. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1916)

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

Webster, Leslie, and Janet Backhouse, eds, The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600-900 (London: British Museum Press for the Trustees of the British Museum and the British Library Board, 1991)