The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Elaine Treharne

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 178

Marginal notes

Date: s. xi2; xiiiin

Summary:

Two notes attributed to Coleman in a manuscript made up of two books of homilies, mostly by Ælfric, s. xi1 and the Rule of St. Benedict, s. xi1 (Ker 1957, p. 60).

Page 97 contains the note 'Bysne be drymannum ˥ be anum godan men macharius gehatæn', referring to the text printed in Skeat (1881, I, pp. 470-72).

On page 229, next to Ælfric's comment excusing himself for providing sermons for Thursday, Friday and Saturday of Holy Week, as the custom of the church forbids it, is a note signed 'cplfmbn', 'a slightly disguised form' of 'Coleman' 'contrived by substituting consonants for vowels' (Ker 1949, p. 29): 'Ac þis is ne þynceð no us ƿell gesæd. forðy on ælcne timan mon h to læranne ˥ to tihtanne folc to bereoƿsunge. ˥ to ƿirceanne ures drihtenes ƿillan ˥ allra sƿiðost folce is to reoƿsienne on ðissum ðrim dagum. þonne hi gehyrað. hu ure drihten hælend crist ðroƿade for us. Eac biscepas æt heora bisceopstole sæcgað larspel þonne hi lædað in penitentes. ˥ hi doð absolutionem. ˥ sume sæcgað spell of þære crismhalgunge ˥ of þæm balsome' (Ker 1949, p. 29; Wanley 1705, p. 121). More notes in this manuscript have recently been attributed to Coleman (Johnson 2010).

Numerous glosses and additions in the 'Tremulous Hand'.

Manuscript Items:

1. Item: p. 97

   Title (B.27.1): Directions to Readers by Coleman

   Addition: (p. 97) Bysne be | drymannum 7 be anum godan | men macharius | gehatæn .

   Text Language: English

   Hand: Coleman

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1949, p. 29

2. Item: p. 229

   Title: Directions to Readers by Coleman

   Incipit: (p. 229) Ac þis ne þynceð no us well gesæd .

   Explicit: (p. 229) 7 sume sæcgað spell of þære | crismhalgunge 7 of þæm balsome

   Text Language: English

   Hand: Coleman

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1949, p. 30

3. Item: passim

   Title (B.27.4.16.EM): Glosses and alterations by Tremulous Hand

   Text Language: Latin and English

   Hand: The Tremulous Hand

   Bibliography:

   Parker Library on the Web

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Extent:

c. 287 mm x 195 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaf)

c. 225 mm x 130 mm (dimensions of pp. 1-270 - size of written space)

c. 220 mm x 132 mm (dimensions of pp. 287-457 - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination: Paginated in Parkerian red pencil on rectos, s. xvi: (i-x), 1-75, 79-269, 287-457, (459-464)

Collation:

Quires: Collation of pp. 1-30, 33-458: 1-188, 19-268, 2710, 288, 294.

Note:

Pages i-iv, 461-4, are paper flyleaves of the date of binding. Pages v-vi, 459-464 are parchment cut from an account roll, s. xvi. Pages vii and viii are medieval, a waste half-sheet ruled for 22 lines, so possibly taken from the unused leaves of the last quire. The eleven leaves between pages 30 and 33 are now in CCCC 198. Pages 31-32 are a supply leaf, s. xvi.

Layout description:

22-31 long lines.

Hand description:

Number of hands: 2 from the period 1060 to 1220

Hand: marginal notes
• Scope: minor
• Scribe: Coleman
• Script: Rustic capitals
• Description: pp. 97, 299.
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand: Coleman's notes are generally written in rustic capitals (Ker 1949, p. 30).
• Language: According to Ker, all but three of Coleman's notes are in Old English (1949, p. 30).
• Other manuscripts: Other manuscripts containing notes attributed to Coleman:
  • CCCC 265, pp. 41, 74, 77, 78
  • CUL Kk. 3. 18, fols 84v, 85, 87v
  • Hatton 113 + 114, fols 70v, 78, 78v, 108v
  • Worcester CL. F. 48, notes in Latin on fols 87, 150v, 153v, 154v

Hand: additions
• Scope: minor
• Scribe: Tremulous Hand
• Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
• Description: Extensive additions by the Tremulous Hand.
• Date: xiii1

Additions:

Underlining and markings in red pencil on pp. 50-54, 163 and a table of contents on p. xii by Parker.

Binding Description:

Rebound in 1953. The previous binding was of s. xviii.

History:

Origin:

The manuscript and the marginal notes are from Worcester (Ker 1957, p. 60).

Provenance:

Belonged to Parker.

Acquisition:

Bequeathed by Parker to Corpus Christi College in 1575.

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Elaine Treharne with the assistance of Hollie Morgan and Sanne Van Der Schee (2010; 2012).

Surrogates:

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Stanford University, Parker Library on the Web (http://parkerweb.stanford.edu/parker/; accessed in 2010)

Bibliography:

Assmann, Bruno, ed., Angelsächsischen Homilien und Heiligenleben, Bibliotek der angelsächsischen Prosa, 13 (Kassel: Wigand, 1889; repr. 1964)

Belfour, A. O., ed., Twelfth-Century Homilies in MS. Bodley 343, EETS, OS 118 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1909)

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Stanford University, Parker Library on the Web (http://parkerweb.stanford.edu/parker/; accessed in 2010)

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), items 54-55

Johnson, David F., and Winfried Rudolf, 'More Notes by Coleman', Medium Ævum, 79 (2010), 1-13

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 41

---, 'Old English Notes Signed "Coleman"', Medium Ævum, 18 (1949), 27-30

Kluge, F., Angelsächsiches Lesebuch, 2nd edn (1897)

---, 'Fragment Eines angelsachsischen Briefes', Englischen Studien, 8 (1885), 62-63

Morris, Richard, ed., Old English Homilies of the 12th and 13th Centuries, EETS, 29, 34 (London: Oxford University Press, 1867-68; repr. as one volume, 1988)

Napier, A. S., 'Ein altenglisches Leben des heiligen Chad', Anglia, 10 (1888), 131-56

---, ed., Wulfstan: Sammlung der ihm zugeschriebenen Homilien nebst Untersuchungen uber ihre Echtheit, Sammlung englischer Denkmaeler in Kritischen Ausgaben, 4 (Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1883)

Schröer, Arnold, Die angelsächsischen Prosabearbeitungen der Benedictinerregel (Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa, 1885-8), vol. 2

Skeat, W. W., ed., Ælfric’s Lives of Saints, EETS, OS 76, 82, 94, 114 (London and Oxford: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1881-1900; repr. as 2 vols, 1966)

Thorpe, B., ed., The Sermones Catholici or Homilies of Ælfric, Ælfric Society, 2 vols (London: Ælfric Society, 1844-46)

Unger, C. R., 'Fragment af en allitereret angel-saxisk Homili', Annaler for nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 6 (1846), 67-81

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