The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Takako Kato

London, British Library, Royal 7 C. iv

Continuous gloss; Scribbles

Date: s. ximed; xii/xiii

Summary:

Continuous interlinear gloss to the Defensor's Liber scintillarum. The main text is s. xiin, the gloss mainly in a hand of s. ximed.

The originally blank page (fol. 106v) at the end of Liber scintillarum contains several scribbles and some drawings (a face and a trial of a court of arms). One of the scribbles is a couple of lines of the Poema Morale, partly erased. Ker 1957 also reports six Latin lemmata with Old English glosses, partly illegible.

Manuscript Items:

1. Item: fols 1r/1-100v/16

   Title (C.15): Gloss to Defensor, Liber Scintrillarum

   Bibliography:

   EM Project facsimile, BL. Royal 7. iv, fol. 31v and fol. 70r

   Doane 1997, p. 49

   Getty 1969

   Ker 1957, item 256, art. 1

   Rhodes 1889, pp. 1-222

2. Item: fols 100v/17-102r/18

   Title (C.6): Gloss to Bible, Ecclesiasticus extracts

   Bibliography:

   Doane 1997, p. 49

   Ker 1957, item 256, art. 2

   Rhodes 1889, pp. 223-26

3. Item: fols 102r/19-106r

   Title (C.20): Gloss to Isidore, Sententiae

   Note: Book 2, Chapters 6, 17-21.

   Bibliography:

   Doane 1997, p. 49

   Ker 1957, item 256, art. 2

   Rhodes 1889, pp. 226-36

4. Item: fols 106v-07v

   Title (B.27.3.23): Scribbles

   Note: One of the scribbles is a couple of lines of the Poema Morale, partly erased, 'elde me is bestolen on er[.....] Ne mæg ic geseo before me [.....]' (lines 17 and 18).

   Bibliography:

   Doane 1997, p. 50

   Ker 1957, item 256, art. 3

   Meritt 1961, p. 449

   Pulsiano 1984

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Support: Parchment is very thin. Original flyleaves are in paper, s. xvi and later.

Extent:

316 mm x 196 mm (dimensions of full-size leaves - size of leaves)

224 mm x ca. 120 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination: Fols iv + 107 + iv. Foliated (i-iv), 1-107, (108-11).

Collation:

Quires: According to Ker 1957, the collation of fols 1-107 is as follows:

• 18 wants 1, fols 1-7
• 2-38, fols 8-23
• 48, fols 24-31; the proper order of the leaves is 28-30, 24, 31, 25-27
• 5-88, fols 32-63
• 98 wants 3-6 after fol. 65
• 10-128, fols 68-91
• 138, fols 92-99; the proper order is 92, 93, 97, 94, 95, 98, 99, 96
• 148, fols 100-07.

Condition:

Original flyleaf in paper (fol. iv) is now mounted in modern paper. The side and bottom margins of many pages have been trimmed away with some loss to the text.

Layout description:

26 lines.Prickings are visible, but dry-point rullings are very faint. Double binding vertical lines are visible in some pages, but horizontal lines are not very clear.

Hand description:

Number of hands: 3 or more from 1060-1220

Summary: The text is by a xi1 hand, 'admirably written'. The gloss is mainly in one hand, but there is 'the earlier stratum of glosses' too (Ker 1957). Scribbles in English were added at the end of the book.

Hand: Interlinear gloss
• Scope: Major
• Script: Insular minuscule
• Ker reference: Ker 256 art 1
• Description: Fols 1-100v.
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• Insular a is triangular.
• Insular d has a rounded back, and its short ascender is at 45º.
• e is insular, sometimes with a horn and a tongue.
• Insular f.
• g is insular with a straight top. The vertical stroke joins the horizontal bar at the left end, and the stroke makes a 'c'-like curve first. The loop of g closes in a round bowl. The lower loop is approximately the same size as the upper loop.
• Insular r: its left limb is straight or curves slightly to the left; its right limb often curves to the left, and sometimes almost touches the left limb.
• ð has a taller ascender than d, and its crossbar extends only to the right. The end of the crossbar turns downwards.
• Date: 1060-70

Hand: Interlinear and marginal gloss
• Scope: Minor
• Script: Insular minuscule
• Ker reference: Ker 256 art 1
• Description: Fols 24, 31, 35. There is the 'earlier stratum of glosses on the originally adjacent leaves' (Ker 1957).
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• Insular d has a rounded back, and its short ascender is at 45º.
• Open-headed insular e; its tongue has a downwards serif.
• Insular f.
• g is insular. Its bottom loop is larger than the top loop.
• ð has a taller ascender than d, and its crossbar turns upwards to the left end and downwards at the right end.
• y has a dot.
• Date: s. ximed

Hand: Scribbles
• Scope: Minor
• Script: Gothic
• Ker reference: Ker 256 art 3a
• Description: Fol. 106v.
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• f is insular, its back is curving backwards and the top stroke rises at 30º and turns back.
• g is insular, its head is wavy and the vertical stroke joins the middle of the head. The loop is open.
• Insular r; its head is a bow.
• Date: s. xii/xiii

History:

Origin: According to Doane 1997, the original text was probably written at Christ Church, Canterbury (p. 48).

Provenance: Located at Christ Church, Canterbury. According to Ker 1957, it is identifiable in a medieval catalogue of the library at Christ Church, Canterbury.

Acquisition: Owned by Lord John Lumley. The manuscript went to the Royal collection probably as a gift after his death in 1609.

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Takako Kato with the assistance of Hollie Morgan (August 2010; 2013).

Surrogates:

EM Project facsimile, BL. Royal C. 7. iv, fol. 31v and fol. 70r

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:

Derolez, R., 'Some Notes on the Liber scintillarum and Its Old english Glos (B.M, Ms. Royal 7 C iv)', in Philological Essays: Studies in Old and Middle English Language and Literature in Honour of Herbert Dean Merritt, ed. by James L. Rosier (The Hague: Mouton, 1970), pp. 142-51

Doane, A. N., '290. London, British Library, Royal 7 C. iv', 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. 48-51

Getty, Sarah S., 'An Edition, with Commentary, of the Latin/Anglo-Saxon Liber Scintillarum' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1969)

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 470

Jayne, Sears, and Francis R. Johnson, eds, The Lumley Library: The Catalogue of 1609 (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1956)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 256

Marsden, Richard, The Text of the Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon England, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England, 15 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995)

Meritt, Herbert Dean, 'Old English Glosses, Mostly Dry Point', Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 60 (1961), 441-50

Pulsiano, Philip, 'A New Anglo- Saxon Gloss in the Liber Scintillarum', Notes and Queries, 31, no. 2 (1984), 151-53

Rhodes, E. W., ed., Defensor's Liber Scintillarum, with an Interlinear Anglo- Saxon Version Made Early in the Eleventh Century, EETS, OS 93 (London: Trübner, 1889)

Rochais, H.-M., ed., Defensor de Ligugé. Livre d'étincelles, Sources Chrétienne, 77, 86. Série des Textes Monastiques d'Occident, 7, 9, 2 vols (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1961-62)

Rochais, Henricus M., ed., Defensoris Locogiacensis Monachi. Liber scintillarum., Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, 117.1 (Turnholt: Brepols, 1957)

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)

Verdonck, J., 'Notes on Some Problematic glosses in the Liber Scintillarum Interlineation (Ms. London, BM Royal 7 C. IV)', English studies, 57 (1976), 97-102

---, 'The Old English Glosses of MS. London, B.M. Royal 7 C. iv (Defensor's Liber Scintillarum with an Appendix De Vitiis et Peccatis) Edited with an Introduction, Notes and Indexes' (unpublished, State University of Ghent, 1974)

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