The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Mark Faulkner

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 155

MS Items

Fols 1r/16-52v/14, Fols 52v/15-54v/20, Fols 54v/21-55v, Fols 56r-88v/14, Fols 88v/17-20-92r, Fols 92v-93r, Fols 93v-144r, Fols 144v-145r/11, Fols 145r/12-146r, Fols 146v-182r, Fols 182v-196r, Fol. 196v/1-5 and Fol. 196v/6-20.

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

Latin Gospel-Book; containing Barking documents, List of Lands

Date: s. x/xi; s. xi/xii

Summary:

An English record (s. xi/xii) is among documents relating to the nunnery of Barking copied on the final leaf of a Latin Gospel-Book (s. x/xi).

The Gospel-Book, which is written in insular minuscule, includes miniatures of the seraphim positioned before the gospels of Luke (fol. 93v) and John (fol. 146v).

The Gospel-Book is now mutilated at the beginning, and is also missing a leaf, presumably containing another miniature, before the Gospel of Mark.

Manuscript Items:

Item: Fols 1r/16-52v/14
Item: Fols 52v/15-54v/20
Item: Fols 54v/21-55v
Item: Fols 56r-88v/14
Item: Fols 88v/17-20-92r
Item: Fols 92v-93r
Item: Fols 93v-144r
Item: Fols 144v-145r/11
Item: Fols 145r/12-146r
Item: Fols 146v-182r
Item: Fols 182v-196r
Item: Fol. 196v/1-5
Item: Fol. 196v/6-20

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: codex

Support: parchment

Extent: iii + 196 + i

262 mm x 198 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

Foliation and/or Pagination:

There are two foliations. The pencil foliation, which only runs as far as 68, counts one leaf before fol. 1 (either the present fol. iii or a now lost leaf) and skips from 55 to 57. The ink foliation, followed here, runs i-iii, 1-197.

Collation:

Quires:

Signatures:

Quire 2 (fol. 16v): .ii.

Quire 3 (fol. 24v): .iii.

Quire 4 (fol. 32v): .iiii.

Quire 5 (fol. 40v): .u.

Quire 6 (fol. 48v): .ui.

Quire 8 (fol. 64v): .uiii.

Quire 9 (fol. 71v): .ix.

Quire 10 (fol. 79v): .x.

Quire 11 (fol. 87v): .xi.

Quire 12 (fol. 95v): .xii.

Quire 13 (fol. 103v): .xiii.

Quire 14 (fol. 111v): .xiiii.

Quire 15 (fol. 119v): .xu.

Quire 16 (fol. 127v): .xui.

Quire 17 (fol. 135v): .xuii.

Quire 18 (fol. 143v): .xuiii.

Quire 19 (fol. 151v): .xuiiii.

Diagram:

diagrammatic representation

Condition:

The manuscript is generally in excellent condition, though it was partly despoiled of its illustrations. Stephen Batman (1542-1584) added a bifolium at the beginning of the manuscript to supply the missing opening of Matthew's Gospel (fol. iii). The vellum used was of good quality (though note the hole on fol. 124).

Layout description:

Layout:

Layout type: LO14
Columns: 1
Written Lines: 26
Dimensions: 216mm x 110mm; ruled
Dimensions: 216mm x 17mm; gutter
Dimensions: 225mm x 115mm; written
Overview: Ruled in drypoint on hair side of parchment. Prickings in outer margin only (ca. 9 mm apart). Single bounding lines on both sides. Writing above top line. See diagram

Layout:

Layout type: LO13
Columns: 2
Written Lines: 26
Locus: Fols 100v-100r
Dimensions: 204 x 55; first column
Dimensions: 204 x 8; gutter
Overview: The genealogy of Christ (Luke 3:23-38) and the remaining text on fol. 101r (Luke 4:1-4) is presented in two columns. See diagram.

Hand description:

Number of hands:

Summary:

Methods of Alteration:

Hand:

Scope: major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Description: Fols 2r-7v. and fols 8r-196r. 'Round' insular minuscule, early eleventh century.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
a generally round; a Caroline form is sometimes used at the beginning of words.
Both tall and round-backed d are found.
e very often has a projecting tongue.
The tongue of f sits on the base line and is often disproportionately long.
The lower member of g begins at the right edge of the crossbar. The lower loop is often closed.
Uncial n sometimes used at the beginning of words.
q is proportionally larger than other letters, and the lobe is quite square.
Round, tall and low s used in all positions. Tall s is the least frequent form, but is often found in 'spiritus'.
The toe of t is often curled up, particularly at the end of words.
y is invariably straight limbed.
Ascenders have prominent wedges to the left.
Punctuation: Punctuation by low, mid and high point only.
Ligatures:
st ligatures rare, but found at the beginning of words.

Hand:

Scope: major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Description: Fol. 1r-v. and fol. 8r-v. Square minuscule, late tenth-century.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
a generally square; a Caroline form is sometimes used at the beginning of words. Alpha-shaped a and open-headed a also occur.
e has a prominent spur.
The lower member of g begins at the left edge of the crossbar. The lower loop is open.
Uncial n sometimes used at the end of words.
Round, tall and low s used in all positions. Low s is often split-topped.
There is often an oblique serif on the left-hand end of the crossbar of t.
y is round limbed.
Two forms of z; the regular Caroline form, and a form where the connecting stroke is extended dramatically beneath the base line.
Ligatures:
high e ligatures found regularly.

Hand:

Scope: minor
Script: Anglo-Saxon Insular minuscule
Description: Anglo-Saxon insular minuscule, s. xi/xii, preserving most insular letter forms. The small, tall script is written in a pale brown ink. Broken strokes have replaced curves. Word division is erratic.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand: Uses insular æ, d, f, g, h, r, þ and ƿ, but Caroline a and s.
The lower part of ȝ connects to the left-hand end of the cross-bar.
p has a rounder bowl than wynn.
Round-limbed y in which the lower member is also curved to the left.
þ has a slightly concave back.
Ascenders are finished with an angled serif.
Descenders are finished with an angled serif.

Hand:

Scope: minor
Script: Caroline Minuscule
Description: Caroline minuscule, s. xii1, in appearance rather similar to the contemporary script of Christ Church, Canterbury. Insular characters (þ and ð but also insular g) are used only in some Anglo-Saxon names.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
p has a pronounced neck.
r has a pronounced neck.
þ is used only in 'æþelburgae' (fol. 196v/10). It is a very tall letter, exceeding the height of the other ascenders.
ð is used only in 'edgiða'
Two forms of w.
Round-limbed y.
Ascenders are finished with angular serifs, which are sometimes lazily formed and appear split.
Descenders are finished with angular serifs which are sometimes lazily formed and appear split..
Abbreviations: The common mark of abbreviation is finished with serifs at either end and set at an oblique angle.

Decoration Description:

Three- or four-line plain red initials at the beginning of each gospel, with the first line of text in black majuscules. Two-line red initials at the beginning of text sections, and one-line black initials to signal subdivisions. Running titles (e. g. 'SECUNDUM LUCAM'), across openings. Ammonian sections in red and black in left hand margin.

Additions:

Sixteenth-century: Bifolium (fols ii, iii) inserted by Stephen Batman (1542-1584). Fol. iii(r) carries the inscription 'Stephan batman the tru onor of thys | booke Which coste xx Nouum testa | menti Euangelium Dei Saxonice' and a miniature of an angel. Fol. iii(v) supplies the text missing from the mutilated fol. 1. Batman's script is partly imitative, and uses insular d, g, r and (sometimes) tall s.

Binding Description:

Soft bound, s. xvii (?) in polished white leather. Sewn on three thongs. Remains of two pins on upper cover.

Accompanying Material:

Fols. i, 197 are modern paper flyleaves, contemporary with the binding. Fols. ii, iii are a vellum bifolium introduced into the manuscript by Batman.

History:

Provenance:

The records on fol. 196v are most likely to have been added at Barking Nunnery.

Provenance:

The manuscript was purchased by Stephen Batman (1542-1584), as is evident from the inscription on fol. iii(r).

Acquisition:

Acquired by the Bodleian before 1602, probably from Sir Walter Cope (1553?-1614).

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Described by Mark Faulkner (September 2009)

Surrogates:

EM Project facsimile

Saxl, F., and R. Wittkower, British Art and the Mediterranean (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1948), 21b (reduced facsimiles of fol. 93v)

Temple, Elzbieta, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, 900-1066, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 2 (London: Harvey Miller, 1976), ills 177, 178 (reduced facsimiles of fols 93v, 146v)

Wormald, Francis, English Drawings of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries (London: Faber and Faber, 1952), reduced facsimiles of fols 93v and 146v

Bibliography:

Alexander, Jonathan, and others, eds., The York Gospels, Roxburghe Club (London, 1986), no. 14 (p. 44)

Alexander, J. J. G., Anglo-Saxon Illumination in Oxford Libraries, Bodleian Library Picture Books Special Series, 1 (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 1970), nos. 21, 22 (details of Ox. Bodl. 155)

Backhouse, Janet, D. H. Turner, and Leslie Webster, The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art, 966-1066 (London: British Museum for the Trustees of the British Museum and the British Library Board, 1984), no. 35 and pl.

Exh., Latin Liturgical Manuscripts and Printed Books (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 1952), no. 6 (details of Ox. Bodl. 155)

Frere, Walter Howard, Studies in Early Roman Liturgy: II The Roman Lectionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1934), pp. 194-98

Gneuss, Helmut, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001)

Hart, C. R., 'An Early Charter of Adam of Cockfield, 1100-1118', English Historical Review, 72 (1957), 466-69

---, Early Charters of Essex: The Norman Period, Department of English Local History Occasional Papers (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1957), 25

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

Madan, Falconer, and others, A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1895-1953), no. 1974

Ohlgren, Thomas H., Carl T. Berkhout, and William I. Bormann, Insular and Anglo-Saxon Illuminated Manuscripts: An Iconographic Catalogue, c. A.D. 625 to 1100, Garland reference library of the humanities, 631 (New York; London: Garland, 1986)

Pächt, O., and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, 4 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966-1973), iii, no. 41 and pl. IV

Temple, Elzbieta, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, 900-1066, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 2 (London: Harvey Miller, 1976), ills 177, 178 (reduced facs. of fols 93v, 146v), no. 59 (p. 78) and ills. 177, 178

Wormald, Francis, English Drawings of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries (London: Faber and Faber, 1952), no. 47 and pls. 5b, 7