The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Orietta Da Rold

Gloucester, Cathedral Library, 35

Homilies and lives of saints

Date: s. ximed-xi2

Summary:

A collection of seven folios from bindings containing fragments of homilies and lives of saints, including Ælfric's texts, copied in s. xi1 and ximed. Some items were added later in s. xi2 (See, Ker 1957, Art. 1-5.).

Manuscript Items:

1. Item: fols 1-3v

   Title (B.1.3.22): Third Series of Homilies [Lives of Saints]: Saint Swithun

   Incipit: (fol. 1r-fol. 3r) ond oferworht [...] Þa sǽde se [...] hwæt [...] sibbe

   Date: s. xi1

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1957, item 117

   Earle 1861, pp. 2-12

   Skeat 1881-1900, i, p. 422

2. Item: fols 4r-6v

   Title (B.3.3.23): Anonymous Homilies [ Sanctorale]: Mary of Egypt

   Incipit: (fol. 4r) [...]s [...] adune as[...] [...] weardre [...] þ[a] þ[a] [...]

   Explicit: (fol. 6r) ƿæs genyrƿed [...] ende. Amen

   Date: ximed

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1957, item 117

   Earle 1861, pp. 102-12

   Magennis 2002

   Skeat 1881-1900, ii.14

3. Item: fol. 6v

   Title (B.10.3.1): Benedict, Rule

   Incipit: (fol. 6v) [Æ]rest mon sceal god lufian of ealre heortan

   Explicit: (fol. 6v) on criste. þonne.

   Date: s. xi2

   Note: Fragment of chapter 4.

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1957, item 117

   Earle 1861, p. 112

   Schöer 1888, pp. 16-18

4. Item: fol. 7r/1-3

   Title (B.1.1.28): First Series of Homilies [Catholic Homilies I]: Passion of Peter and Paul

   Incipit: (fol. 7r) [...]uð is geond [...]

   Explicit: (fol. 7r) [.]y ƿuldor

   Date: s. xi1

   Note: Three incomplete lines, the end of the text.

   Bibliography:

   Godden 1979, p. 222

   Ker 1957, item 117

   Thorpe 1844-46, i, p. 384

5. Item: fol. 7r/6-7v

   Title (B.1.2.31): Second Series of Homilies [Catholic Homilies II]: Peter and Paul, In festiuitate Sancti Petri

   Incipit: (fol. 7r) [...]ge þæt [...] andƿear[d]an [...]

   Explicit: (fol. 7r) Heo soðlice mid worde ge fæstnode þæt hit swa wæreond

   Date: s. xi1

   Note: Fragment, fifty-five lines of the beginning of the text.

   Bibliography:

   Godden, 1979, p. 221

   Ker 1957, item 117

6. Item: fol. 7v

   Title (B.27.4.17.EM): Additions, translation of Acts 12.15 [marginal]

   Addition: Heo soðlice mid ƿorde gefæstnode þæt hit sƿa ƿære. 7

   Note: This is a translation of Acts 12: 15 added in the margin, next to 'engel'.

   Date: s. xi2

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1957, item 117

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Collection of fragments

Support: Parchment

Extent: fol. 1 and most of the leaves

294 mm x 223 mm (dimensions of most - size of leaves)

269 mm x 165 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)

Extent: fol. 7

273 mm x 94 mm (dimensions of fol. 7 - size of leaf; this folio is part of a leaf)

Collation:

Quires: Seven half-sheets. According to Ker, fols 1, 2 were probably adjacent. He also suggests that 'probably three leaves separated fol. 2 from fol. 3. Two leaves separated fol. 4 from fol. 5 and four leaves separated fol. 5 from fol. 6.' (1957, p. 154).

Note:

The folios have uneven measures. Ruling is visible on the rectos of fols 1, 5 and the versos of fols 2-4, 6. 30 long lines.

Hand description:

Number of hands: 3 from 1060 to 1220

Summary: These fragments are written by at least three hands. Ker notes that fols 1-3 and 7 are copied in a hand of s. xi1; a hand of s. ximed copied fols 4-6v; fol. 6v is completed by another hand of s. xi2; and an addition in the margin of fol. 7v is from s. xi2 (1957, p. 154).

Hand: main text
• Scope: Major
• Script: Insular Minuscule
• Ker reference: Ker 117 scribe 1
• Description: fols 1-3, 7.
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• a of squarish proportion.
• e with a raised head in clusters such as æg and æt
• y: 'the left stroke rises higher than the right' (Ker, 1957).
• Date: s. xi1

Hand: main text
• Scope: Major
• Script: Insular Minuscule
• Ker reference: Ker 117 SC2
• Description: fols 4r-6v. A round, close-set hand (Ker, 1957, p. 154).
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• e prominently horned, with a raised head in clusters such as æ.
• descenders: the ends of the descenders curve to the left.
• Date: s. ximed

Hand: main text
• Scope: Major
• Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
• Ker reference: Ker 117 SC3
• Description: fol. 6v.
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• ð curved cross-bared ascender 'which touches, but does not transect, the back'.
• Date: s. xi2

Hand: addition
• Scope: Minor
• Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
• Description: fol. 7v. An addition in the margin.
• Date: s. xi2

History:

Origin:

Unknown

Provenance:

Fols 1-3 were found in the Register of Abbot Braunche (1500-10) and Abbot Newton (1510-14). Fols 1, 3 were pastedowns which left offset of writing on the binding boards. Fol. 2 was a flyleaf. Fols 5-6 were pastedowns in another unknown volume (Ker 1957, p. 155).

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Orietta Da Rold with the assistance of Hollie Morgan, Johanna Green and Takako Kato (April 2010; September 2012), and with reference to facsimiles and published scholarship.

Surrogates:

Earle, John, ed., Gloucester Fragments (London: Longman, 1861) - Facsimiles of fols 1-3v and 6r.

Bibliography:

Earle, John, ed., Gloucester Fragments (London: Longman, 1861)

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 262

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 117

Magennis, Hugh, ed., The Old English Life of St Mary of Egypt: An Edition of the Old English Text with Modern English Parallel-Text Translation (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2002)

Schröer, Arnold, ed., Die Winteney-version der Regula S. Benedicti (1888)

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)

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)