The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Orietta Da Rold

London, British Library, Cotton Otho A. xiii

[Homilies]

Date: Uncertain

Summary:

Fragments of a manuscript which was destroyed by the Cotton fire and now contains only Latin texts. However, Wanley 1703 transcribes the incipits and explicits of thirteen Old English homilies which appeared on fols 202-216: 'Collectio Sermonum sive Homiliarum Normanno-Saxonice, circa tempora Henrici II. scripta'. Ker 1957 also notes that Richard James transcribed a selection from four of the homilies and a charm, in Latin, against smallpox, written 'ad finem homiliarum' (see Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. James 27; the charm is printed in Dickins and Wilson 1937, p. 72).

Manuscript Items:

1. Item: Destroyed by the Cotton fire

   Title: Collection of saints’ Lives and visions, including Uita sancti Fursei, Uisio Baronti, and Heito, Uisio Wettini (imperfect)

   Text Language: Now contains only Latin texts

   Bibliography:

   Contreni 2003, p. 698

   Ker 1957, item 173

   Wanley 1705

Physical Description:

Binding Description:

Nineteenth century.

History:

Origin:

Unknown.

Provenance:

Ker 1957 notes the heading by Richard James, who consulted the manuscript 'Ex homiliis Saxonicis quas habuit Dominus Cottonus ex dono Episcopi de Kelfanore. script. et comp. temp. Hen. 2di', he adds that 'the see of Kilfenora was held by Bernard Adams 1606-17, John Steere 1617-21, William Murray 1621-8, and James Heygate 1630-8'.

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 Johanna Green (2010; 2013).

Bibliography:

Contreni, John J., '"Building Mansions in Heaven": The "Visio Baronti", Archangel Raphael, and a Carolingian King', Speculum, 78.3 (2003), 673-706

Dickins, Bruce, and R. M. Wilson, 'Sent Kasi', Leeds Studies in English, 6 (1937), 67-73.

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 351

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 173

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

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

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