The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Elaine Treharne

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 190

MS Items

p. 17, p. 130, p. 246, pp. 265-66, p. 320, pp. 320-36, pp. 336-37, pp. 337-49, pp. 349-50, p. 350, pp. 366-84, p. 384, pp. 384-86, pp. 387-413, pp. 413-14, pp. 414-16, pp. 416-18, p. 365, pp. 418-20, pp. 295-308, pp. 308-14, pp. 314-19, pp. 351-53 and pp. 353-59.

Physical Description

Object Description

Hand Description

Decoration Description

Binding Description

History

Additional Information

Administration Information

Surrogates

Bibliography

Back to List of MSS and Descriptions

Ecclesiastical institutes, etc.

Date: s. ximed- xi2

Summary:

A miscellany of ecclesiastical law and custom. 'Two probably distinct manuscripts', one in Latin mainly in s. xi1 with some OE notes and glosses, the other in English written mainly in s. ximed were bound together at an early date, at least before 1327, if not earlier (Ker 1957, p. 70).

The English part of the manuscript consists of 'an older nucleus' (Ker 1957, p. 71) of s. ximed, containing mainly letters of Ælfric to Wulfstan and two penitentials, to which some quires were added s. xi2.

The originally blank recto of the first leaf of Quire 6 and the blank space at the end of Quire 9 contain s. xi2 additions including a form of confession, 'Ic andette þe drihten ælmihtig god' and a form of absolution 'Gemyltsige eow se ælmihtiga god' (p. 365), two articles entitled 'Be mercena lage' (p. 418), and one article entitled 'Be gehádendra áðe. ˥ be hádbote' (p. 420).

The contents of the three quires added to the 'older nucleus' include Ælfric's letter to Wulfsige, bishop of Sherborne (pp. 295-308), one of Ælfric's homilies (pp. 315-19) and two sermons (pp. 351-53, 353-59), the Latin versions of which occur in the Latin section of the manuscript (Ker 1957, pp. 72-73).

Manuscript Items:

Item: p. 17
Item: p. 130
Item: p. 246
Item: pp. 265-66
Item: p. 320
Item: pp. 320-36
Item: pp. 336-37
Item: pp. 337-49
Item: pp. 349-50
Item: p. 350
Item: pp. 366-84
Item: p. 384
Item: pp. 384-86
Item: pp. 387-413
Item: pp. 413-14
Item: pp. 414-16
Item: pp. 416-18
Item: p. 365
Item: pp. 418-20
Item: pp. 295-308
Item: pp. 308-14
Item: pp. 314-19
Item: pp. 351-53
Item: pp. 353-59

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Support: Large size book. Parchment generally in good condition; seems well used if limpness at corners is an indication. Fols iii + 153 + 64 + iv. Two unnumbered paper leaves at each end are of the date of binding. Pages i, ii are medieval parchment flyleaves.

Extent:

c. 288 mm x 185 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

230-220 mm x 132 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination:

Collation:

Quires:

Layout description:

Generous interlinear space. 28 long lines (27 lines on pp. 303-18; 25 lines on pp. 351-64). Blind ruled with double vertical bounding lines and single lines at first and last of horizontal axis.

Hand description:

Number of hands:

Summary:

Ker 1957

Hand:

Scope: Major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule I
Ker reference: Ker 45 Gneuss G59.5
Description: pp. 418-20, 295-359. Very like the hand in CCCC 421, pp. 3-96, 209-24 (Ker 1957, p. 73). Script is familiar Exeter style with rounded letter forms. Black ink and often suedey parchment. Very few interventions in Old English section of s. xi2. All insular forms in OE. Interesting spellings (wirhtan, p. 309). Can easily be read from 1 metre away.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
Long ascenders, split, with elaborate flags to left and right
Less long descenders (than ascenders), many curving to left
e of æ slightly higher than e
Very low rounded d, sometimes finished with a little curved flick upwards
Occasional horned e
f with crossbar longer than headstroke, flat on line, curved descender
g with sweeping and closed tail that emerges from the far left of headstroke
i used almost indifferently to y. i is often altered to y in the text of the sermons (pp. 351-59)
Long s with notable onset stroke and sweep to leftward curve at tail-end. Also low s. End of long s sometimes curls round at top
ð distinctively hooked downwards at end. Cross-stroke through ascender with flagged flick up to the left at the end. Double ð has one long cross-stroke
Straight limbed y with dot. y used almost indifferently to i
No offset initials
Coloured enlarged initials, and coloured in-fill of some initials and notae occasionally (e.g., p. 314)
Accents at 45 degrees, with blob at end, often slightly high. Occasional use of c-shaped accent (might be added?); e.g., p. 309. accents a total of about 80 c-shaped accents over short vowels are to be found in this hand.
Punctuation: Punctus low on line. Punctus versus and interrogativus. Hyphens used-the latter low and flat at both end of line and beginning of next
Abbreviations: Few abbreviations and indicated with flat macron curving slightly upwards to left and downwards to right. Abbreviations notable include b with line through it for 'biscop'. 90 degrees ˥ descends below line.

Decoration Description:

Initials in blue, red and green. Titles in red rustic capitals.

Binding Description:

Rebound in 1953; the previous binding was eighteenth-century.

History:

Origin:

According to Ker 1957 (p. 73) the script suggests that the first part of the manuscript was added to in Exeter, and the part containing English was written there. The two parts were probably combined in s. xi.

Provenance:

The two parts may be the 'canon on leden 7 scriftboc on englisc' that Bishop Leofric (d. 1072) gave to Exeter (Chambers 1933, p. 27). The whole manuscript is certainly the 'Penitentiale uetus et alia plura cum anglico in fine quod sic incipit In principio prec' xij d' in the Exeter catalogue of 1327 (Oliver 1861, p. 309). A note by Parker on fol. 111 of BL. Harley 3013 refers to it as a book of the Church of Exeter.

Acquisition:

In the list of manuscripts bequeathed by Archbishop Parker to Corpus Christi College (Wanley 1705, p. 110).

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Elaine Treharne with the assistance of Hollie Morgan, Owen Roberson and Johanna Green (2010; 2013)

Surrogates:

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

Bibliography:

Bateson, Mary, 'A Worcester Cathedral Book of Ecclesiastical Collections', English Historical Review, 10 (1895), 715

Berbner, W., Sprache und Heimat des altenglischen 'Scriftboc' im Ms. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 190 (Bonn: P. Hanstein's, 1907)

Bethurum, Dorothy, 'Archbishop Wulfstan's Commonplace-book', Publications of the Modern Languages Association, 57 (1942), 916-29

Chambers, R. W. , ed., The Exeter Book and Its Donor Leofric, The Exeter Book of Old English Poetry: Facsimile (London: for the Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral by Humphries, 1933)

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 Stationary Office, 1864-66; repr. Wiesbaden: Kraus, 1965)

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

D'Achéry, Spicilegium Sive Collectio Veterum Aliquot Scriptorum (Paris, 1723)

Fehr, Bernard, ed., Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics, Bibliothek der angelsächsicschen Prosa, 9 (Hamburg: Henri Grand, 1914; repr. with a supplement to the introduction by Peter Clemoes, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1966)

Förster, Max, 'Zur Liturgik der angelsächsischen Kirche: III. Ein ae. Apostelgebet', Anglia, 66 (1942), 48-49

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 59.5

James, Montague Rhodes, Matthew Parker, and A. Rogers, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1912)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 45

Liebermann, F., ed., Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1903), I: Text und Übersetzung

McBryde, J. M, 'Charms to Recover Stole Cattle', Modern Language Notes, 21 (1906), 180

Napier, Arthur S., ed., The Old English Version of the Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang together with the Latin Original; An Old English Version of the Capitula of Theodulf together with the Latin Original; An Interlinear Old English Rendering of the Epitome of Benedict of Aniane, EETS, OS 150 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1916)

Oliver, George, Lives of the Bishops of Exeter: And a History of the Cathedral (Exeter: Roberts, 1861)

Raith, Joseph, ed., Die altenglische Version des Halitgar'schen Bussbuches, Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa, 13 (Hamburg: H. Grand, 1933)

Rhodes, E. W., Defensor's Liber Scintillarum, EETS, 93 (Trübner, 1889)

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)

Schmitz, H. J., ed., Die Bußbücher (Düsseldorf, 1898)

Spindler, Robert, ed., Das altenglische Bussbuch (Sog. Confessionale Pseudo- Egberti) (Liepzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1934)

Storms, G., ed., Anglo-Saxon Magic (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1948; repr. Folcroft, PA: Folcroft Library Editions, 1975)

Thorpe, B., ed., Ancient Laws and Institutes of England (London: George Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode, 1840)

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