The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Orietta Da Rold

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. F. 4. 32 (2176)

Classbook of St. Dunstan

Date: s. xi2; s. xi/xii

Summary:

The manuscript is composite, made up of four independent parts:

Part 1: fols 1-9 contain part of a grammatical work by Eutyches, written in the mid ninth century and glossed in Latin and Old Breton (Hunt 1961, p. v).

Part 2: fols 10-18 contain an Old English homily 'in predominantly SE dialect' (Lucas and Wilcox 2008, p. 79) on the Invention of the Cross: 'Geherað ge nu hwæt ic eow secgan wille ymbe þa halgan rode...', dated s. xi2, and with alterations probably s. xi/xii (Ker 1957, p. 355).

Part 3: fols 19-36 contain a collection of mainly liturgical material known as the Liber Commonei. According to Lucas and Wilcox (2008, p. 79), it can perhaps be dated to the year 817, using the Easter table (fol. 21r).

Part 4: fols 37-47 contain the first book of Ovid's Ars amatoria, probably from the ninth century. An Old English scribble is found on fol. 47: 'her segð hu se halga apostol paulus lærð ælcum mæssepreoste þe godes folce to lare byð gesett'. Another hand has added 'þæt he beo ƿær' (Ker 1957, p. 355).

Manuscript Items:

1. Item: fols 10-18

   Title (B.3.3.6): Anonymous Homilies, Homilies for Specified Occasions, Sanctorale: Invention of the Cross

   Incipit: (fol. 10r) GEHERAÐ GENYH ÞÆT IC EOǷ SECGAN ǷILLE | ymbe þa halgan rode þe crist on þroƿode | hu heo on þeosne dæg gefunden ƿæs.

   Explicit: (fol. 18v) si him | simble þac þæs þe he for us þroƿode | ˥ part illegible, probably 'si him simbl'e lof ˥ ƿuldor ealre | his godnesse þe he mancynne gecyd | part illegible, probably 'hæfð a on eal're ƿurulda ƿuruld a | on ecnesse AMEN:

   Text Language: English

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1957, p. 355

   Lucas and Wilcox 2008

2. Item: fol. 47r

   Title (B.27.3.30.1.EM): Scribbles

   Addition: (fol. 47r) her segð hu se halga apostol paulus lærð ælcum | mæssepreost þe godes folce to lare byð gesett

   Text Language: English

   Date: s. xi

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1957, p. 355

   Lucas and Wilcox 2008

3. Item: fol. 47r

   Title (B.27.3.30.2.EM): Scribbles

   Addition: (fol. 47r) þæt he beo ƿær

   Text Language: English

   Date: s. xi

   Note: Line added in a different hand to Item 2 above.

   Bibliography:

   Ker 1957, p. 355

   Lucas and Wilcox 2008

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: codex

Extent: Fols 10-18

243 mm x 150-170 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

210 mm x 110 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination: iii + 47 + i, foliated i-ii (iii), 1-48. The manuscript as a whole is foliated throughout in ink on the upper right of the rectos in the hand of Gerard Langbaine (1609-1657/8) (Wilcox 2008, p. 81).

Collation:

Quires: The four individual parts each form a single quire. Collation of fols 10-18: 28+1 fol. 18 added

Note:

The parchment is thick and discoloured, probably evidence of circulation as an independent unit, see fol. 18v (Wilcox 2008, pp. 82-83). Part 2 arranges the parchment HFHF, 20 lines, frame is ruled in dry point with single bounding lines (Wilcox 2008, p. 82).

Hand description:

Number of hands: several

Summary: Several hands: Part 1 has one main hand in a mid-ninth-century French Caroline minuscule, with the writing of 'St. Dunstan', labelled 'Hand D'. Part 2 is written in a single hand in insular minuscule of s. xi2. It includes corrections by the main scribe and two other hands, one of which is datable to s. xi2 and the other to s. xi/xii (Ker 1957 and Wilcox 2008, p. 82). Part 3 was written in Wales in the early ninth century, with corrections by Hand D. Part 4 is written in a Welsh minuscule probably of the late ninth century. Two hands, s. xi, annotate it in Old English (See: Ker 1957, p. 355, Hunt 1961 and Wilcox 2008, p. 82-84)

Hand: main text
• Scope: major
• Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
• Ker reference: Ker 295 Scribe 1
• Description: Fols 10-18. A round large hand, irregular in aspect, which is described by Ker as 'Ugly angular script' (1957, p. 355). The scribe combines insular and Caroline features.
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• a Caroline in form.
• h Caroline in form.
• s round s occurs.
• s: the high, long form has a pronounced, curved, hook-like top.
• descenders curve to the left or are seriffed at the ends.
• Date: s. xi2

Hand: addition
• Scope: minor
• Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
• Ker reference: Ker 295 Scribe 2
• Description: Fol. 47v. Another round, more casual hand with insular letter forms (Ker 1957, p. 355).
• Date: s. xi2

Decoration Description:

Capital in red on a capital 'G' on fol. 10r/2.

Additions:

A fifteenth-century inscription on fol. 47v 'In s=custodia f[rat]is H. Langley''. Another inscription is written on the top left of fol. 1r: 'Tho. Allen Dono Dedit'.

Binding Description:

Binding is from the mid-nineteenth century (Hunt 1961, p. xvii and Wilcox 2008, p. 81).

History:

Origin:

Unknown

Provenance:

The four parts can be associated with Glastonbury and were together by 1601, but according to Wilcox (2008, p. 79), it is possible that three of the four manuscripts were held in the same library by the tenth century. However, nothing is known of the provenance of Part 2 containing the Old English homily. Part 4, containing the Old English scribbles, can be placed to Glastonbury as Hunt (1961, p. xv) notes that 'In s=custodia f[rat]is H. Langley'' is found another Glastonbury book: Laud Lat. 4, fol. 272 (on the Glastonbury provenance of these parts and the connection with St Dunstan's cult see also Wilcox 2008, p. 80; Dumville 1993, and Budney 1992, p. 125).

Acquisition:

The complete manuscript was given by Thomas Allen of Gloucester Hall, Oxford, to the Bodleian Library in 1601 as a foundation gift (Wilcox 2008, p. 80).

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Orietta Da Rold with the assistance of Hollie Morgan and Sanne van der Schee with reference to published scholarship (2012).

Surrogates:

Lucas, Peter J., and Jonathan Wilcox, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2008), vol. 16: Manuscripts Relating to Dunstan, Ælfric, and Wulfstan; the "Eadwine Psalter" Group

Images of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. F. 4. 32, in LUNA (http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/luna/servlet; accessed August 2010)

Bibliography:

Alberto, Paulo F., ed., Eugenii Toletani: Opera Omnia, CCSL, 114 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2005)

Bishop, Terence Alan Martyn, and Albinia Catherine De la Mare, English Caroline Minuscule, Oxford Palaeographical Handbooks (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971)

Bodden, Mary-Catherine, ed., The Old English Finding of the True Cross (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1987)

Budny, Mildred, ''St Dunstan's Classbook' and its Frontispiece: Dunstan's Portrait and Autograph', in St Dunstan: His Life, Times and Cult, ed. by Nigel Ramsay, Margaret Sparks and Tim Tatton-Brown (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1992), pp. 103-42

Bradshaw, Henry, Collected Papers of Henry Bradshaw (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1889)

Derolez, R., Runica Manuscripta: The English Tradition, Rijksuniversiteit te Gent (Brugge: De Tempel, 1954)

Dumville, D. N., English Caroline Script and Monastic History: Studies in Benedictinism, A.D. 950-1030, Studies in Anglo-Saxon History, 6 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1993)

Fischer, Bonifatius, 'Die Lesungen der Römischen Ostervigil unter Gregor d. Gr.' in Beiträge zur Geschichte der Lateininschen Bibeltexte, Versus Latina ("Colligere Fragmenta: Festschrift Alban Dold zum 70. Geburstag", ed. B. Fischer and V. Fiala, 1440-59. Beuron: Beuroner Kunstverlag, 1952.; Freiburg: Herder, 1986), vol. 12, pp. 18-51

Friedlein, G., 'Der Calculus des Victorius', Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik, 16 (1871), 58-79

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 538

Haddan, Arthur West, and William Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, 3 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1869)

Hultsch, Friedrich, Metrologicorum Scriptorum Reliquae, 2 vols (Leipzig: Teubner, 1864-66)

Hunt, R. W., ed., Saint Dunstan's Classbook from Glastonbury: Codex Biblioth. Bodleianae Oxon. Auct. F.4/32., Umbrae Codicum Occidentalium 4 (Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company, 1961)

Jones, Charles W., ed., Bedae Opera de Temporibus (Cambridge: Cambridge Medieval Academy MA, 1943)

Keil, Heinrich, Grammatici Latini, 7 vols (Leipzig: Teubner, 1857-80)

Kenney, E. J., ed., P. Ovidi Nasonis Amores, Medicamina Faciei Femineae, Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amatoris. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 297

Lapidge, Michael, 'St. Dunstan's Latin Poetry', in Anglo-Latin Literature (from Anglia 98 (1980): 101-09; London: Hambledon, 1993), vol. 1, pp. 151-56

Lindsay, W. M., ed., Isidori Hispalensis episcopi Etymolohiarum sive Originum , 2 vols (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1911)

Lucas, Peter J., and Jonathan Wilcox, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies (Tempe, AZ.: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2008), vol. 16: Manuscripts Relating to Dunstan, Ælfric, and Wulfstan; the "Eadwine Psalter" Group

LUNA (http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/luna/servlet; accessed August 2010)

McKee, Helen, The Cambridge Juvencus Manuscript Glossed in Latin, Old Welsh, and Old Irish: Text and Commentary (Aberystwyth: Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies, 2000)

Morris, Richard, ed., Legends of the Holy Rood, EETS, OS 46 (London: Trübner, 1871)

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Robinson, Pamela R., 'Self-Contained Units in Composite Manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Period', in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: Basic Readings, ed. by Mary P. Richards (New York and London: Routledge, 1994), pp. 25-35

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Vollmer, Friderick, ed., Fl. Merobaudis Reliquiae; Blossii Aemilii Dracontii Carmina; Euginii Toletani Episcopi Carmina; Eugenii Toletani Episcopi Carmina et et Epistolae, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctorum Antiquissimorum (Berlin Weidmann, 1905), 14

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