The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Elaine Treharne

Cambridge, Trinity College, B. 15. 34

MS Items

pp. 3-18, pp. 18-26, pp. 26-35, pp. 35-51, pp. 51-79, pp. 79-90, pp. 90-103, pp. 103-18, pp. 118-35, pp. 135-56, pp. 156-79, pp. 179-98, pp. 198-211, pp. 211-32, pp. 232-44, pp. 244-49, pp. 241-89, pp. 281-95, pp. 295-310, pp. 310-19, pp. 337-50, pp. 350-63, pp. 363-76, pp. 376-87, pp. 387-98, pp. 398-414 and pp. 415-32.

Physical Description

Object Description

Hand Description

Decoration Description

Binding Description

History

Additional Information

Administration Information

Surrogates

Bibliography

Back to List of MSS and Descriptions

Homilies

Date: s. ximed, xi2 and xii2

Summary:

Homilies for the Temporale Sundays and feast-days from Easter to the eleventh Sunday after Pentecost. As Ker 1957 notes (p. 130), CUL Ii 4. 6 also has texts ina similar order to those here, up to Pentecost. Over half of the twenty-eight homilies are derived from Ælfric's Sermones Catholici I and II. The main text is s. ximed, with some alterations of s. xi2 and linguistically significant alterations and glosses from s. xii2.

Manuscript Items:

Item: pp. 3-18
Item: pp. 18-26
Item: pp. 26-35
Item: pp. 35-51
Item: pp. 51-79
Item: pp. 79-90
Item: pp. 90-103
Item: pp. 103-18
Item: pp. 118-35
Item: pp. 135-56
Item: pp. 156-79
Item: pp. 179-98
Item: pp. 198-211
Item: pp. 211-32
Item: pp. 232-44
Item: pp. 244-49
Item: pp. 241-89
Item: pp. 281-95
Item: pp. 295-310
Item: pp. 310-19
Item: pp. 337-50
Item: pp. 350-63
Item: pp. 363-76
Item: pp. 376-87
Item: pp. 387-98
Item: pp. 398-414
Item: pp. 415-32

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Extent:

c. 247 mm x 165 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

200 mm x 100 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination: Fols iii + 126 + i + ii. The medieval leaves are paginated in red pencil on the rectos 1-431.

Collation:

Quires:

Note:

Ker 1957

Hand description:

Number of hands:

Summary:

med

Eclogues

Junius 85

Methods of Alteration:

Ker 1957

Hand:

Scope: major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Ker reference: Ker 86 SC1
Description: pp. 3-432. This hand is upright and relatively angular. The mise-en-page allows for generous interlinear space, which this scribe fills with length ascenders, especially of þ and ð.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
a is Caroline, but often has an undeveloped head.
e is often high in the combination æ.
c is horned.
e is horned both in Latin and Old English.
f is insular; the middle stroke, which is longer than the headstroke, sits flat on the line.
Insular g has a flat headstroke; the tail descends from the left of the headstroke into a curved and closed tail.
High and low s are used in all positions. The former has a distinctive onset stroke; the latter, a split shoulder.
ð has a cross-bar which transects the upstroke. The cross-bar curves down at the end. The upstroke frequently ends with a small blob down to the right.
ascenders are long in proportion to x-height, and sometimes have a tag to the left.
descenders are relatively short and have a very slight curve to the left.
Punctuation: Punctuation is generally a punctus, slightly above base-line. The punctus versus is used to close major clauses, and is consistently followed by a red enlarged initial.
Other manuscripts: Written by the same scribe as London, BL, Harley 2892.

Hand:

Scope: minor
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Ker reference: Ker 86 SC2
Description: The general aspect is upright; the duct angular. The signe de renvoi used for the squeezing in of corrections in the margins is a backward c with a dot on either side. s. xii.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
a is Caroline.
Round-backed d with an upstroke the same size as ð is used.
f is Caroline.
Insular g is used for the spirant.
h is Caroline.
Long s is used.
ð has a straight crossbar which transects the upstroke.
u is used for WS y, as in 'ufelnesse', 'sunfullan.'
ascenders are split wedges.
Ligatures: de is ligatured in this hand: a true 'biting' de.

Decoration Description:

p. 1 contains a full-page drawing of Christ in a mandorla (Wormald 1952, no. 15).
At the end of each homily there is a mark consisting of a group of four or five dots with four strokes radiating out of them (Ker 1957, p. 132).
Large initials are in red or olive-green.
Sentences begin with a smaller red initial.
The first line of each homily is in large, black capitals. On p. 337, they are surrounded by red dots.
Titles are in red rustic capitals.

Binding Description:

Sixteenth-century binding of brown leather, elaborately tooled and gilded, with decorated clasps on the front. The cover of the binding is stamped at a later date with the arms of Archbishop Whitgift. Top, bottom and foredge are gilded, and '26' is written on the foredge. Front board of binding has had the pastedown removed, allowing an examination of the sewing, consisting of three thongs in the boards. The original binding was attached by four thongs, though. On the board 'Omilia. Saxon 26' is written; this seems to be a typical Parkerian designation. The unpasted pastedown is a sixteenth-century accounts page.

History:

Origin:

The script and illumination suggest that it was produced in Canterbury.

Provenance:

Unknown. The alterations of s. xii appear not to be in a south-eastern dialect.

Acquisition:

Presumably belonged to Archbishop Matthew Parker. It then belonged to his son, John Parker, whose signature is on the pastedown: it is no. 44 in the list of John Parker's manuscripts in London, Lambeth Palace, 737. Bequeathed to Trinity College by Archbishop Whitgift. A note by Professor Timothy Graham in the folder explains that many of the pencil markings in the manuscript are in the hand of William L'Isle. At pages iii-viii is a Abraham Wheelocke index with a title 'Homiliae quaedam Saxonice' at the top middle of p. iii. The index continues at pages 434-438, some of it overwriting an accounts page.

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Elaine Treharne with the assistance of Hollie Morgan and Sanne van der Schee (2010; 2013).

Surrogates:

A facsimile of p. 1 is in James, M. R., The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge: A Descriptive Catalogue (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1900), vol. 1: Containing an Account of the Manuscripts Standing in Class B, pl. 11

Keynes, Simon, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Trinity College, Old English Newsletter Subsidia 18 (Binghampton: CEMERS, 1992), item xxiib

Wilcox, Jonathan, '80. Cambridge, Trinity College B.15.34 (369) Homilies by Ælfric', in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, ed. by Peter J. Lucas, Jonathan Wilcox, Alger Nicolaus Doane and Ian Campbell Cunningham (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1997), vol. 16: Manuscripts Relating to Dunstan, Ælfric, and Wulfstan; the "Eadwine Psalter" Group , pp. 17-26

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)

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 177

Greg, Walter W., Facsimiles of Twelve Early English Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1913)

James, M. R., The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge: A Descriptive Catalogue (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1900), vol. 1: Containing an Account of the Manuscripts Standing in Class B

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 86

Keynes, Simon, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Trinity College, Old English Newsletter (Binghampton: CEMERS, 1992), vol. Subsidia 18

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)

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

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)

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

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

Wormald, Francis, English Drawings of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries (London: Faber and Faber, 1952)