The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Orietta Da Rold

London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius C. iii

Macer glosses, Pseudo-Apuleius, Herbarium, Macrobius, etc.

Date: s. xii

Summary:

A composite manuscript which comprises four parts, Parts 1 and 2 contain items in English, Part 3 contains Macrobius, "Saturnalia" and Part 4 includes Cotton's notes (see, British Library Catalogue, and Doane 1994, pp. 20-25).

Part 1, fols 5-10, contains text copied in s. xii hands: Fols 5r-10: Peter of Poitiers, Compendium Historiae in Genealogia Christi. Fol. 10v, chapter titles of Macer, De viribus herbarum. Chapters 10, 11, 13-19, 22 and 37 are glossed in English in a different hand, s. xii, to that of the main text. There are also some annotations in Anglo-Norman (see, Doane 1994, p. 21; Ker 1957, p. 283; Gough 1974, pp. 285-87; Bierbaumer 1976, p. xxi).

Part 2, fols 11-85: the table of contents, the translation of the enlarged Herbarius Apuleii and of the Medicina de quadrupedius are from s. xi1. Part 2 also contains: Fol. 11r, s. xii, annotations around a hole (Doane 1994, p. 21; Voigts 1976, p. 258). Fols 12r-18v, table of content of the 'Herbarius', followed by 185 chapters of the translation of Herbarius Apuleii, titled '[H]ERBARIVM | APVL[EI] [P]LAT[ONICI] | QVOD AC[CE]PIT AB E|SCOLA[P]IO ET [A] CH[I]RONE CENTAVRO: MAGISTRO | ACHILLIS' on fols 19v-74v, and a translation in Old English of Medicina de quadrupedibus beginning 'SAGAÐ ÐÆT ÆGYP | ta cyning idpartus ƿæs haten' on fols 75-82v (de Vriend 1984 and Cockayne 1864-66). A s. xii hand probably added the chapters in the table of contents: I- CLXXIX and, as Ker 1957 notes, the chapter numbers in the upper margin of most pages are also in this hand.

Fol. 17v contains a note in Old English, s. xii, 'Se unbrade þistel he havat | ƿiplete (?) hauod' (Ker 1957, p. 284, and Doane 1994, p. 22). Fol. 18v is partially blank and contains recipes in Old English Ad uertiginem, 'Num betonica ˥ ƿæll sƿyðe on ƿin | oþþa on ald ealað' and Ad pectoris dolorem, 'Num horsellens ˥ eft geƿænen bare' s. xi2 (Ker 1957, p. 284, Cockayne 1864-66, 1, 378). Fols 82v-83 contain four recipes in Old English in three hands. The first two recipes, fols 82v/21-83r/11, 'Ðis is seo seleste eah salf' and, fol. 83r/12-19, 'Ðis mæg to eah salfe', are in the same hand as that of the recipes on fol. 18v. Fols 83r/20-31, the third recipe is in a s. xi hand, 'ƿið lungen adle' (Cockayne 1864-66, 1, 374). Fols 83r/1-15, the fourth is in a s. xii hand 'ƿið fot adle' (Cockayne 1864-66, 1, 376). On fol. 83, eight Latin recipes, and two chams in a s.xiiiin hand. On fol. 83r/27, 'warantię' is glossed 'ƿret' (Ker 1957, pp. 284-85 and Doane 1994, p. 22)

Manuscript Items:

1. Item: Fol. 10v

   Title (C.99.1.EM): Occasional Glosses

   Text Language: English and Latin

   Note: 78 titles of the viribus herbarum glossed in Old English.

   Bibliography:

   Doane 1994

   Ker 1957, pp. 283-85

2. Item: Fols 12r-74v

   Title (B.21.1.1.1.EM): Pseudo-Apuleius: Herbarius, Medicina de Quadrupedibus: 'Herbarium'

   Incipit: (Fol. 12r) ƿið unhyrum nihtgengum ˥ ƿið egeslicum gesyhþum ˥ sƿefnum

   Explicit: (Fol. 74v) ƿið hramman genim þysse ylcan | ƿyrte sæd gecnucud syle | drincan on ƿætere. hyt helpeþ | se sylfa drenc eac sƿylce on

   Text Language: English

   Note: Ending seems imperfect.

   Bibliography:

   Doane 1994

   Ker 1957, pp. 283-85

3. Item: Fol. 17v

   Title (B.21.1.1.2.EM): Pseudo-Apuleius: Herbarius, Medicina de Quadrupedibus: Note on the main text

   Addition: (Fol. 17v) Se unbrade þisel he hevat

   Text Language: English

   Bibliography:

   Doane 1994

   Ker 1957, pp. 283-85

4. Item: Fol. 18v

   Title (B.21.5.8.1.1): Recipe

   Rubric (initial): (Fol. 18v) Ad uertiginem

   Incipit: (Fol. 18v) Num betonica ˥ ƿæll sƿyðe on ƿin | oþþe on ald ealað

   Explicit: (fol. 18v) nim siððon þa ƿyrtas ƿær | ma alla ƿiðutan sauina ˥ bind | to þam heafde alla niht

   Text Language: English

   Bibliography:

   Doane 1994

   Ker 1957, pp. 283-85

5. Item: Fol. 18v

   Title (B.21.5.8.1.2): Recipe

   Rubric (initial): (Fol. 18v ) Ad pectoris dolorem

   Incipit: (Fol. 18v ) Num horsellens ˥ eft geƿænen bare

   Explicit: Fol. 18v Eft ƿið þæt ilce nim readstalede harhuna | ˥ ysopo ˥ stemp ˥ do ænne neoƿna | pott an flering of ða harhuna | 7 oðer of ysope ˥ dridde | of fersc | butur ˥ eft þa ƿyrt ˥ sƿa þa butra | forð þæt se pott beo full ˥ eoð hig | sƿyðe togædra tironian ƿring siððen þurh

   Text Language: English

   Note: Ending seems incomplete.

   Bibliography:

   Doane 1994

   Ker 1957, pp. 283-85

6. Item: Fols 75r-82v

   Title (B.21.1.1.3.EM): Pseudo-Apuleius: Herbarius, Medicina de Quadrupedibus: 'Medicina de quadrupedibus'

   Incipit: ( Fol. 75r ) SAGASÐ ÐÆT ÆGYP | ta cyning idpartus ƿæs haten

   Explicit: ( Fol. 82v ) Ƿit hunda reðnusse and ƿiðerræð | nysse se þe hafæth hundes heor | tan mid him ne beoð ongean hine | hundas cene.

   Text Language: English

   Bibliography:

   Doane 1994

   Ker 1957, pp. 283-85

7. Item: Fols 82v-83r

   Title (B.21.5.8.2.1): Recipe

   Incipit: ( Fol. 82v ) Ðis is seo seleste eah salf

   Explicit: ( Fol. 83r ) ˥ ðeos salf | help ƿið æghƿylcum gesƿelle | to þicganne ˥ to smyrianne | in sƿa hƿylcum lime sƿa hit | on bið:

   Text Language: English

   Bibliography:

   Doane 1994

   Ker 1957, pp. 283-85

8. Item: Fol. 83r

   Title (B.21.5.8.2.2): Recipe

   Incipit: ( Fol. 83r ) Ðis mæg to eahsalfe

   Explicit: ( Fol. 83r) þis is afandan læce | cræft

   Text Language: English

   Bibliography:

   Doane 1994

   Ker 1957, pp. 283-85

9. Item: Fol. 83r

   Title (B.21.5.8.2.3): Recipe

   Incipit: ( Fol. 83r ) Ƿið lungenadle

   Explicit: ( Fol. 83r ) hit is | haluƿende bote

   Text Language: English

   Bibliography:

   Doane 1994

   Ker 1957, pp. 283-85

10. Item: Fol. 83

    Title (B.21.5.8.2.4): Recipe

    Incipit: ( Fol. 83r ) Ƿið for adle

    Explicit: ( Fol. 83r ) syle þan | men drincan oþ ðæt he hal sy.

    Text Language: English

    Bibliography:

    Doane 1994

    Ker 1957, pp. 283-85

11. Item: Fol. 83r

    Title (C.99.2.EM): Occasional Glosses

    Addition: (Fol. 83r ) 'ƿret' glossing 'Warantie'

    Text Language: English and Latin

    Note: An Old English gloss in a Latin recipe.

    Bibliography:

    Doane 1994

    Ker 1957, pp. 283-85

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Extent:

ca. 250/260 mm x 190 mm (dimensions of all - size of the best preserved leaves; damaged by fire)

220-250 mm x 150-170 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination: 75 fols, but an earlier foliation starts on fol. 5.

Collation: The manuscript was damaged in the fire in the Cotton library in 1731, and each leaf is mounted separately. Some folios are misbound, and the correct order is fols 11-61, 64, 63, 74, 65-67, 62, 71, 70, 68, 72, 73, 69, 75-85, after fol. 18 one folio missing (de Vriend 1984, p. xviii)

Layout description:

Part 1, fols 5-10, ruled for 64 long lines in two columns, column width 83 mm, in brown crayon, with inner and outer double bounding lines, three bounding lines between columns. Part 2, fols 11-85, rules 31 lines in two columns, except for fols 12-18, 30 lines, column width 65/70 mm, with inner and outer double bounding lines, three bounding lines between columns.

Hand description:

Number of hands: several

Summary: The hands of at least nine annotators can be found in this manuscript. Part 2, fols 11-85, is copied by one hand in a square insular script of s.xi1. Both parts are annotated and glossed in English by twelfth-century hands. The hand which annotates more extensively appears on part 1, fols 5r-10.

Hand: glosses
• Scope: minor
• Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
• Ker reference: Ker items 218 and 219
• Description: Fols 5-10. The hand of the English glosses is an English Vernacular Minuscule with insular letter forms.
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• þ: used.
• ƿ: used.
• Date: s. xii

Decoration Description:

Fols 11v, 19r/v of the Herbarium contains full-page colour illustrations, and painted plants are included at the beginning of each section (see, Voigts 1976, pp. 42-55). The plant and animal illustrations are included in the Medicina de quadrupedibus (see, de Vriend 1984, p. xvi).

Capitals in alternating red and blue (see, Doane 1994, p. 22).

Additions:

A fifteenth-century hand annotated Latin plant names, see fol. 21v.

Two sixteenth-century hands wrote on fol. 76r 'Richerd Hollond thys boke' and fol. 11r 'elysabet colmore'. This Elizabeth Colmore may be the wealthy gentrywoman from the Birmingham Colmore family.

Binding Description:

Rebound in 1977.

History:

Origin:

The manuscript has been ascribed to several places. James 1903 postulated that parts 1 and 2 may be identified with a Canterbury, Christ Church manuscript: Herbarius anglice depictus, no. 308 in Prior Eastry's catalogue (p. xxv). Ker refutes the suggestion as 'the twefth-century writing in the manuscript is not of the Canterbury type' (1957, p. 285). Rochester has also been associated with Vitellius C. iii (Flom 1941, Voigts 1977, n. 16, 44 and Doane 1994, p. 20).

Provenance:

The names 'Richerd Hollond/ and 'elysabet colmore' are written in a s. xvi hand. The manuscript is included in Cotton's catalogue in 1621, British Library, Harley 6018 (Wanley 1705, p. 217).

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 Sanne van der Schee, and additional notes by Owen Roberson (2010; 2013). Thanks are due to Klaus-Dietrich Fischer for his helpful suggestions and feedback after the description was initially published in 2010.

Surrogates:

Cockayne, Oswald, Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, Being a Collection of Documents For the Most Part Never Before Printed, Illustrating the History of Science in this Country Before the Norman Conquest, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores 35, 3 vols (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1864-66; repr. Wiesbaden: Kraus, 1965), fol. 49v.

D'Aronco, M. A., and M. L. Cameron, The Old English Illustrated Pharmacopoeia. British Library Cotton Vitellius C III., Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, 27 (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1998)

Doane, Alger Nicolaus, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1994), vol. 1

Roberts, Jane, Guide to Scripts Used in English Writings up to 1500 (London: British Library, 2005), fol. 27r.

Bibliography:

Beccaria, Augusto, I Codici di Medicina del periodo presalernitano (Secoli IX, X e XI) (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1956)

Bierbaumer, P., Der botanische Wortschatz des Altenglischen. II Teil: Lacnunga, Herbarium Apulei, Peri Didaxeon, Grazer Beiträge zur englischen Philologie 2 (Bern/Frankfurt am Main/München: Lang, 1976)

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

Choulant, L., ed., Macer Floridus de Viribus Herbarium (Leipzig: Vossius, 1832)

Cockayne, Oswald, Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, Being a Collection of Documents For the Most Part Never Before Printed, Illustrating the History of Science in this Country Before the Norman Conquest, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores 35, 3 vols (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1864-66; repr. Wiesbaden: Kraus, 1965)

D'Aronco, M. A., and M. L. Cameron, The Old English Illustrated Pharmacopoeia. British Library Cotton Vitellius C III., Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, 27 (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1998)

de Vriend, Hubert Jan, ed., The Old English Herbarium and Medicina de Quadrupedibus, EETS, 286 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984)

Doane, Alger Nicolaus, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1994), vol. 1

Flom, George T., 'On the Old English Herbal of Apuleius, Vitellius C. III', JEGP, 40 (1941), 29-37

Flood, Bruce P. Jr., 'The Medieval Herbal Tradition of Macer Floridus', Pharmacy in History, 18 (1976), 62-66

Frisk, Gösta, 'A Middle English Translation of Macer', Manitius, 2 (1949), 539-47

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 Medieavl and Renaissance Studies, 2001), item 402

Gough, J. V., 'Some Old English Glosses', Anglia, 91 (1974), 273-90

Hollis, Stephanie and Wright, Michael, Old English Prose of Secular Learning, Annotated Bibliographies of Old and Middle English, 4 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer 1992)

James, Montague Rhodes, The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 1903)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), items 218 and 219

Moore, Philip S., 'The Works of Peter of Poitiers, Master of Theology and Chancellor of Paris (1193-1205)' (unpublished doctoral thesis, Catholic University of America, 1936)

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

Roberts, Jane, Guide to Scripts Used in English Writings up to 1500 (London: British Library, 2005)

Temple, Elzbieta, ed., Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, 900-1066, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 2 (London: Harvey Miller, 1976)

Voigts, Linda E., 'Anglo-Saxon Plant Remedies', ISIS, 70 (1979), 250-68

---, 'A New Look at a Manuscript Containing the Old English Translation of the Herbarium Apulei', Manuscripta, 20 (1976), 40-60

---, 'One Anglo-Saxon View of the Classical Gods', Studies in Iconography, 3 (1977), 3-16

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

Willis, James, ed., Ambrosii Theodosii Macrobii Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis (Leipzig: Teubner, 1970)