The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Elaine Treharne

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 302

MS Items

pp. 11-22, pp. 22/15-26/13, pp. 26/13-33/7, pp. 33/8-40/15, pp. 40/15-42, pp. 43/1-50/21, pp. 50/21-57/14, pp. 57/14-66/30, pp. 66/30-71/7, pp. 71/7-73/14, pp. 73/15-78/3, pp. 78/4-83/2, pp. 83/3-90/1, pp. 90/2-91/20, pp. 91/20-97/19, pp. 97/19-104/20, pp. 104/20-112/9, pp. 112/10-120/6, pp. 120/7-125/26, pp. 125/26-129/28, pp. 129/28-137/5, pp. 137/5-142/7, pp. 142/7-151/14, pp. 151/14-155/28, pp. 155/28-163/12, pp. 163/12-173, pp. 174/1-182/23, pp. 182/24-88, pp. 189/1-198/23, pp. 198/24-205/30, pp. 205/31-212, pp. 213/1-221/2, pp. 221/2-230/2 and pp. 230/2-232.

Physical Description

Object Description

Hand Description

Decoration Description

Additions

Binding Description

Accompanying Material

History

Additional Information

Administration Information

Surrogates

Bibliography

Back to List of MSS and Descriptions

Ælfric: Hexameron, Homilies

Date: s. xiiin

Summary:

The manuscript contains Remaining Homilies by Ælfric: Hexameron and homilies for Sundays and feast days in the Temporale arranged according to the church year from the First Series of Homilies [Catholic Homilies I]: First Sunday in Advent to Wednesday in Rogationtide. The manuscript is incomplete at the end, but the missing text is supplied on pp. 233-42 by a sixteenth-century hand, which emulates the insular minuscule forms of the original. Corpus 302 has a number of texts (items 9-34) in common with Faustina A. ix; perhaps these texts in both manuscripts derive from a common exemplar. Dated by Ker 1957 s. xi/xii, although can probably be assigned to the early twelfth century; probably the first decade of the century.

Manuscript Items:

Item: pp. 11-22
Item: pp. 22/15-26/13
Item: pp. 26/13-33/7
Item: pp. 33/8-40/15
Item: pp. 40/15-42
Item: pp. 43/1-50/21
Item: pp. 50/21-57/14
Item: pp. 57/14-66/30
Item: pp. 66/30-71/7
Item: pp. 71/7-73/14
Item: pp. 73/15-78/3
Item: pp. 78/4-83/2
Item: pp. 83/3-90/1
Item: pp. 90/2-91/20
Item: pp. 91/20-97/19
Item: pp. 97/19-104/20
Item: pp. 104/20-112/9
Item: pp. 112/10-120/6
Item: pp. 120/7-125/26
Item: pp. 125/26-129/28
Item: pp. 129/28-137/5
Item: pp. 137/5-142/7
Item: pp. 142/7-151/14
Item: pp. 151/14-155/28
Item: pp. 155/28-163/12
Item: pp. 163/12-173
Item: pp. 174/1-182/23
Item: pp. 182/24-88
Item: pp. 189/1-198/23
Item: pp. 198/24-205/30
Item: pp. 205/31-212
Item: pp. 213/1-221/2
Item: pp. 221/2-230/2
Item: pp. 230/2-232

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Support:

Texts are on membrane; leaves arranged HHFF. Flyleaves mixture of paper and parchment. See 'Accompanying Material' below.

Extent:

ca. 250 mm x ca. 160 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

ca. 200 mm x 113-120 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination:

viii + 111 + x leaves. Pagination in red pencil occurs at top right of rectos, i-vi, 1-247, 249-52. Earlier, paler ink foliation is evident on some top right corners of the rectos (fols 1, 2, 3, etc.) but many of these have been excised. The foliation of the Parkerian table of contents on p. 9 (See 'Additions' below) corresponds to the actual manuscript foliation and not to the pagination scheme.

Collation:

Collation is as Ker 1957: 1-118 (pp. 11-188), 128 wants 2 after p. 188 (pp. 189-200), 13-148 (pp. 201-232); 3 and 6 in Quire 14 are half-sheets. Indeterminate number of pages missing at end.

Signatures:

Condition:

Quality of leaves varies from thick and suede-like to thin parchment, but general condition of leaves and ink is very good throughout with only minor damage (wormholes present in Quire 1 excising small portions of text; holes original to the animal in Quire 2 are written around; light brown stains on p. 49; pp. 51, 79, 82-83, 97, 99, 155, 177, 183, 206, 214, and 225 show contemporary repairs to parchment). Generally, the ink is very dark brown and occasionally bleeds slightly when the substrate is particularly thick and textured.

Layout description:

Layout:

Columns: 1
Written Lines: 31
Overview: Single column writing grid with 31 lines per page. Drypoint ruling completed before folding with double vertical and double horizontal bounding lines (Quire 7 has antepenultimate and ultimate horizontal lines ruled; Quires 13 and 14 have single vertical bounding lines).

Hand description:

Number of hands:

Summary:

Ker 1957

Hand:

Scope: main
Description: The main hand is regular, relatively rounded, and though often upright, usually tends to lean backwards. Characteristics are a great compression of the script and relatively meagre interlinear space. In many respects, the aspect of this hand resembles that of the scribe of the later manuscript Faustina A. ix
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
a is often single-compartment, and occasionally has a small upstroke rising above the bowl. Sometimes Caroline a is used.
æ is very regular, with both components of the same size, and the e component has a slightly extended tongue.
Insular d tends to be the same size as ð and is formed with two strokes, the left-hand side of the bowl and the upstroke.
e is generally very rounded with a slightly protruding tongue.
Insular f has a shorter mid-stroke than topstroke, and a descender that tapers a little to the left.
The downstroke of insular g is formed from towards the left of the headstroke, and curved down into a rounded open tail.
h is insular, with a clubbed ascender.
Serifs on the feet of minims generally sit on the line, though often they do not occur at all.
p sometimes has an angular top to the bowl and a flick to the right of the descender.
The shoulder of insular r is often very angular; its descender curves to the left a little.
Insular s and uncial s are used, and more rarely, long s. Also notable is the occurrence of the superscript s, used throughout the twelfth century, particularly in informal hands in Latin manuscripts, to save space (p. 113, line 17).
t is slightly forward-leaning.
ð tends to be either the same size as d or has a slightly longer back; the crossbar of ð finishes with a short upwards serif to the left.
þ has a distinctively clubbed ascender, often very close to the bowl; its descender is usually straight.
ƿ has an angular bowl and the descender curves very slightly to the left.
y is found in two forms: rounded and straight-limbed, and both forms are dotted.
ascenders are often clubbed, or have a serif to the left or a small wedge at the top.
descenders are straight or curve gently to the left at the very end.
accents occur on some long vowels as acute hairline strokes.
Abbreviations:
The crossbar of the stroke through þ in the abbreviation for þæt finishes with a short serif to the left; the macron for omitted nasals is curved unevenly.
The ˥ with its horizontal bar frequently occurs immediately before the following letter, or is made to appear close to it because of the decorative red stroke added to the descender.
Punctuation:
Punctuation is by punctus placed above the line and horizontal hyphens on the line at line-ends.
Ligatures:
The absence of ligatures, most significantly that of st, is notable.

Hand:

Scope: main
Description: This scribe has a larger and more rounded hand than the main scribe, and appears to find it difficult to write in a consistent size.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
The bow of Caroline a is more developed than that of the main hand.
æ shows the extended tongue of e.
d is insular. The upstroke is much longer than that of the main hand, and leans backward at 45 degrees. There is a slight curve in the upstroke, and its top ends in a very pronounced flick down to the left (a feature of some Exeter manuscripts some thirty or more years earlier). There is one example, at line 1, of straight-backed d and it has a pronounced flag at the top left of the upstroke.
e is very rounded with an extended tongue, particularly at line-ends.
f has a curved topstroke, and a midstroke that varies in length but curves up.
g has a curved tail that flicks slightly to the right at the end.
h is insular with serifs to the right of the limbs.
minims have well-defined serifs to the right on the line.
r is insular with a rounded shoulder and descender that curves to the left.
s is insular, with one example of a decorative long s in initial position, with a hooked terminal at the top.
t shows the slightest hint of the upstroke bisecting the headstroke.
The upstroke of ð is much longer than that of the main hand, and is slightly curved. The top of the upstroke ends in a distinctive tag to the left. The crossbar ends in a short downward stroke to the right. The top quadrant of the whole graph is thus a 45 degrees cross.
þ has a long ascender with a wedged end and the descender curves to the left.
ƿ has a descender that curves to the left.
y is straight-limbed and dotted, with a tail that curves to the left.
ascenders are wedged or split.
descenders generally curve to the left and fill the interlinear space.
Abbreviations:
The only abbreviation is an erroneous abbreviated þ at line 8, where the cross-stroke finishes in a serif to the left.
Punctuation:
punctuation is by punctus low on the line.

Decoration Description:

Ink is very dark brown and occasionally made slightly fuzzy by thick parchment. Titles in red rustic capitals with red and/or purple, or green decorated litterae notabiliores.

Additions:

Some contemporary and thirteenth-century English glosses (see above).

Numerous later glosses, notes and marginalia in pencil and pale ink:

pp. 1, 11, 23, 25, 30: the latter three pages have pencil underlining with crosses in the margins at pp. 23/11-24; 25/8-9, 11-13, 29-31; 29/28-30, possibly by Abraham Wheelock
p. 151: pen-trials
pp. 159, 161, 189, 213: German and Latin notes on the Lord’s Prayer
pp. 215, 218 (German), 224.

At p. 215, a sixteenth-century note reads 'id est | that is, | si thin nama gehalgod', corresponding to 'sancti ficetur nomen tuum' in the text.

pp. 1-10 paper flyleaves (sixteenth-century). pp. 1-9 blank except for old pressmark (S. 9) and title; p. 10 contains table of contents.

A Parkerian table of contents occurs on p. 9 and identifies 33 articles (a nineteenth-century[?] hand has added 'Be there halgan clennisse'' with an accompanying asterisk at article 9). The foliation of the table of contents corresponds to the actual manuscript foliation and not to the pagination scheme.

Additional Parkerian marking in red crayon occurs on p. 83 (lower right hand corner, 'se hælend cwæð þæt heofon'a' rice')
p. 177 (two red crosses in margin; 'læuel' and '˥ þar an' underlined in red)
p. 183 (red crayon slash at end of line 27)
p. 189 (illegible red crayon note in top margin may indicate that text is missing before p. 189)

Illegible scratched gloss at p. 88/3, margin.

Sixteenth-century: pp. 233-42 the missing text at the end is supplied by an emulative hand.

Binding Description:

Rebound in light brown leather in 1954.

Accompanying Material:

pp. i-iv and 249-252 are modern paper flyleaves; pp. v-vi, 1-10 paper of sixteenth-century; pp. 233-242 paper and parchment supply leaves of sixteenth-century; pp. 243-248 parchment flyleaves of sixteenth-century.

History:

Origin:

The origin and medieval provenance of this manuscript is unknown. It is one of four manuscripts about whose previous history nothing is known.

Provenance:

In Archbishop Parker’s possession after 1565 as his ‘Quintus liber homiliarum’ (S. 9).

Acquisition:

Bequeathed by Parker to Corpus Christi College in 1575.

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

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

Surrogates:

EM Project facsimile

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)

Bazire, J., and J. E. Cross, eds, Eleven Old English Rogationtide Homilies, Toronto Old English Series (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982)

Bethurum, Dorothy, ed., The Homilies of Wulfstan (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957)

Clemoes, Peter, ed., Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: The First Series. Text, EETS, SS 17 (London: Oxford University Press, 1997)

---, Exameron Anglice, or the Old English Hexameron, Bibliotek der angelsächsischen Prosa (Hamburg: Grand, 1921), vol. 10

Godden, Malcolm, ed., Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: The Second Series; Text, EETS, SS 5 (London: Oxford University Press, 1979)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 56

Morris, Richard, ed., The Blickling Homilies, EETS, OS 58, 63, 73 (1697 and repr. London: Oxford University Press, 1874, 1876, 1880)

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

Page, R. I., Matthew Parker and his Books, Sandars Lectures in Bibliography (Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University, Medieval Institute Publications, 1993)

Pope, John C., ed., Homilies of Ælfric: A Supplementary Collection, EETS, OS 259, 260 (London: Oxford University Press, 1967-68)

Scragg, D. G., ed., The Vercelli Homilies and Related Texts, EETS OS 300 (Oxford: Published for the Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1992)

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)

Teresi, Loredana, 'Ælfric's or Not? The Making of a Temporale Collection in Late Anglo-Saxon England', in The Old English Homily: Precendent, Practice and Appropriation, ed. by Aaron J. Kleist, Studies in the Early Middle Ages, 17 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007), pp. 284-310

---, 'A Computer-Assisted Analysis of Spellings in Two Vernacular Manuscripts of the Transition Period: MS Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 302 and MS London, British Library, Cotton Faustina A. ix' (unpublished, University of Manchester, 1998)

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

Treharne, Elaine, 'Reading from the Margins: The Uses of Homiletic Manuscripts in the Post-Conquest Period', in Beautus Vir: Early English and Norse Manuscript Studies in Memory of Phillip Pulsiano, ed. by A. N. Doane and Kirsten Wolf (Tempe: Arizona, 2006), pp. 329-58

---, 'The Production and Script of Manuscripts containing English Religious Texts in the First Half of the Twelfth Century', in Rewriting Old English in the Twelfth Century, ed. by Mary Swan and Elaine M. Treharne (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 11-39

Willard, Rudolph, 'The Address of the Soul to the Body', Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 50 (1935), 957-83