The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

Helen Foxhall Forbes

Oxford, Bodleian, Junius 121

Oxford , Bodleian , Junius 121

MS Items

Fols iii r-v , Fol. v r , Fol. vi r, Fol. vi r, Fol. vi r, Fol. 1r/1-2 , Fol. 1v/1-5 , Fol. 1v/5-23, Fol. 2r/1-6 , Fols 2r/7-2v/10 , Fols 2v/10-3r/10 , Fols 3r/11-4r/10 , Fols 4r/11-4v/18 , Fols 5r/1-8r/13 , Fols 9r/1-7, Fols 9r/8-10r/22, Fols 10r/22-10v/16, Fols 10v/16-11r/19, Fols 11r/20-12v/2, Fols 12v/3-13v/6, Fols 13v/6-15r/3, Fols 15r/3-16, Fols 15r/16-15v/3, Fols 15v/4-17r/10, Fol. 17r/10-17v/13, Fols 17v/13-18r/17, Fols 18r/17-18v/3, Fols 18v/3-19r/22, Fol. 19r/22-19v/7, Fol. 19v/7-13, Fol. 19v/13-19v/23, Fol. 20r/1-20v/12, Fols 20v/12-23v/3, Fols 23v/3-24r/21, Fols 24r/22-25v/6, Fols 25v/7-31v/9, Fols 31v/10-32r/14, Fols 32r/14-34r/3, Fols 34r/3-35v/17, Fols 35v/17-42r/18, Fols 42r/18-55v/20 , Fols 55v/20-57v/19, Fols 57v/19-59r/8, Fol. 59r/9-59*r/9, Fols 59*r/9-61v/13, Fols 61v/13-62v/23, Fols 63r/1-64r/17, Fols 64r/17-65v/14 , Fols 65v/14-66v/9, Fols 66v/9-67r/7, Fols 67r/7-67v/17, Fols 67v/17-69v/8, Fols 69v/8-87r/11, Fols 87r/11-101r/7, Fols 101r/7-15, Fols 101r/15-18, Fols 101v/1-10v/23, Fols 111r/1-24r/18, Fols 124r/18-30v/1 , Fols 130v/3-36v/9, 136v/9-37v/17, Fols 138r/1-42r/7, 142r/8-48v/9 , Fols 148v/10-54v/12, Fols 154v/13-57r/3 and Fols 157r/4-60r/15.

Physical Description

Object Description

Hand Description

Decoration Description

Binding Description

History

Additional Information

Administration Information

Surrogates

Bibliography

Back to List of MSS and Descriptions

Ecclesiastical Institutes, Homilies

Date: s. xi2; s. xiii1

Summary:

A book for episcopal use, including canonical, penitential, and homiletic texts, many associated with Archbishop Wulfstan (d. 1023) and his commonplace book tradition (see Bateson 1895; Sauer 2000). The manuscript was produced in Worcester a generation or so after Archbishop Wulfstan's death, during the episcopate of St Wulfstan (1062-95), and compiled c. 1060-72, with Hatton 113 and Hatton 114 (Franzen 1998, p. 55-56). Glosses added by the Tremulous Hand.

Manuscript Items:

Item: Fols iii r-v
Item: Fol. v r
Item: Fol. vi r
Item: Fol. vi r
Item: Fol. vi r
Item: Fol. 1r/1-2
Item: Fol. 1v/1-5
Item: Fol. 1v/5-23
Item: Fol. 2r/1-6
Item: Fols 2r/7-2v/10
Item: Fols 2v/10-3r/10
Item: Fols 3r/11-4r/10
Item: Fols 4r/11-4v/18
Item: Fols 5r/1-8r/13
Item: Fols 9r/1-7
Item: Fols 9r/8-10r/22
Item: Fols 10r/22-10v/16
Item: Fols 10v/16-11r/19
Item: Fols 11r/20-12v/2
Item: Fols 12v/3-13v/6
Item: Fols 13v/6-15r/3
Item: Fols 15r/3-16
Item: Fols 15r/16-15v/3
Item: Fols 15v/4-17r/10
Item: Fol. 17r/10-17v/13
Item: Fols 17v/13-18r/17
Item: Fols 18r/17-18v/3
Item: Fols 18v/3-19r/22
Item: Fol. 19r/22-19v/7
Item: Fol. 19v/7-13
Item: Fol. 19v/13-19v/23
Item: Fol. 20r/1-20v/12
Item: Fols 20v/12-23v/3
Item: Fols 23v/3-24r/21
Item: Fols 24r/22-25v/6
Item: Fols 25v/7-31v/9
Item: Fols 31v/10-32r/14
Item: Fols 32r/14-34r/3
Item: Fols 34r/3-35v/17
Item: Fols 35v/17-42r/18
Item: Fols 42r/18-55v/20
Item: Fols 55v/20-57v/19
Item: Fols 57v/19-59r/8
Item: Fol. 59r/9-59*r/9
Item: Fols 59*r/9-61v/13
Item: Fols 61v/13-62v/23
Item: Fols 63r/1-64r/17
Item: Fols 64r/17-65v/14
Item: Fols 65v/14-66v/9
Item: Fols 66v/9-67r/7
Item: Fols 67r/7-67v/17
Item: Fols 67v/17-69v/8
Item: Fols 69v/8-87r/11
Item: Fols 87r/11-101r/7
Item: Fols 101r/7-15
Item: Fols 101r/15-18
Item: Fols 101v/1-10v/23
Item: Fols 111r/1-24r/18
Item: Fols 124r/18-30v/1
Item: Fols 130v/3-36v/9
Item: 136v/9-37v/17
Item: Fols 138r/1-42r/7
Item: 142r/8-48v/9
Item: Fols 148v/10-54v/12
Item: Fols 154v/13-57r/3
Item: Fols 157r/4-60r/15

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: Codex

Support: Parchment

Extent: vii + 161 + i

265 mm x 155 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

Foliation and/or Pagination:

Foliated. An earlier foliation in Joscelyn's hand starts from 1 on fol. 102 and ends at 59 on fol. 160. (Franzen 1998, pp. 56, 58)

Collation:

Quires:

Signatures:

Hatton 113

Condition: The first folios of the manuscript have wormholes, but mostly the condition is very good. There are more holes in parchment towards the end of the book. Fol. 9 has the bottom right (recto) cut away. Fol. 81 has been mended with paper.

Layout description:

Layout:

Columns: 2
Written Lines: 22
Locus: Fols 1-8
Dimensions: 198 mm x 108 mm; ruled
Overview: 23 lines of two columns for table of contents, with double bounding lines right, left, and centre.

Layout:

Columns: 1
Written Lines: 22
Locus: Fols 9-127; 138-45
Dimensions: 198 mm x 106 mm; ruled
Overview: 23 long lines with double bounding lines, right and left.

Layout:

Columns: 1
Written Lines: 21
Locus: Fols 128-137 (Quire 17)
Dimensions: 187 mm x 904 mm; ruled
Overview: 22 long lines with double bounding lines, right and left.

Hand description:

Number of hands:

Summary:

Hand:

Scope: major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Ker reference: Ker 338 SC1
Description: Fols 5-137. Ker describes this as a Worcester script; this hand is also found in other Worcester manuscripts including CCCC 178 (1957, p. 417: see also item 41). The 'possible change of hand' on fol. 111 seems to be simply a thicker pen, although ð is slightly different; the overall appearance is similar to Hand 2.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
same occasional high a
The shape of the second element of æ is influenced by the letter which succeeds it.
e is round-backed or horned depending on its place in the word and the following letter.
Wide tail on g.
s is slightly wedgier.
The descender of þ is notched.
Most ascenders except that of þ are clubbed, but some ascenders have wedged clubs and some are wedged; for example, on h and b, in English and Latin.
Correcting technique: Some erasures, some additions: found throughout the manuscript.
- gesƿr⁁aecan Added interlinearly. The colour of the added letter a is paler than the main text. It might have been added at a later stage.
Language: English and Latin
Other manuscripts: The same hand as in Hatton 113 and probably Junius 121

Hand:

Scope: major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Ker reference: Ker 338 SC1
Description: Fols 1v-2v. This is very like the main hand; in fact, since the first folios are in Latin and much of Hand 1 is written in Old English, the two are not always directly comparable. Where Hand 1 writes in Latin there are similar features: some mixing of clubs and wedges; slant on Caroline h, wedgy p, wide open g.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand: Some letters are distinct enough to suggest that these are two separate hands:
more of a wedge on long s has a long descender in this hand.
x has a long descender in this hand.

Hand:

Scope: major
Scribe: possibly Hemming
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Description: Fols 148v/10-22; 150r; 150v/16-151r; 152r-3v; 154r/17-154v/12. This hand is angular and upright, the letters are quite narrow, it is possibly the hand of Hemming (Ker 1948, p. 417).
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
The top of e in æ is very high.
d has a very short and tiny ascender.
g has an open bowl.
h has very tiny feet.
Long s is sometimes almost flat-topped.
Abbreviations:
The orum abbreviation slants downwards.

Hand:

Scope: major
Script: Caroline
Ker reference: Ker 338 SC4
Description: Fols 3-4. This is quite a rounded Caroline script, wedges and clubs are not mixed (unlike in other hands in this manuscript).
Abbreviations:
The orum abbreviation is straight.

Hand:

Scope: major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Ker reference: Ker 338 SC5
Description: Fols 4r-v. This hand has long loopy descenders and wedges.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
Occasionally a big loopy Caroline a.

Hand:

Scope: major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Ker reference: Ker 338 SC6
Description: Fols 138r-48v. This is quite like Hand 2, and just possibly could be the same as it, except that this hand seems less practised. This hand is rounder than Hand 1 and sometimes leans to the right slightly.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
ð tends to flick to the right.

Hand:

Scope: major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Ker reference: Ker 338 SC7
Description: Fols 149r-v; 150v/1-15; 151v. This hand has wedges on the feet of minims. ˥ is almost at right-angles. The descenders don't usually have wedges on their feet. On fol 150v/1-15 possibly a thinner pen.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
y: curves to the left noticeably.
g: has a closed bowl.
Long s: very high and has quite a long descender, too. Very wedgy. This is similar to Hands 1 and 2, but quite thick.

Hand:

Scope: major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Ker reference: Ker 338 SC8
Description: Fols 154r/1-16. Uneven hand. The letters are not always firmly on the ruled line.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
Ascender on d very short long.
Has a high e, slightly left-leaning.
a few.
Odd ð where the scribe has drawn o and then added an ascender.
Closed bowl on g.
Long descenders.

Hand:

Scope: major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Ker reference: Ker 338 SC9
Description: Fols 154v-157. This scribe is not good at writing on the lines. This is a left-leaning, flowing script.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
a: round.
æ: round.
Open g.
High long s sometimes with descender drooping below the line.
˥ is high.
The top of ð curls round to the right. The bottoms of the descenders flick to the left
y long and left-flicking
Chunky feet on minims.

Hand:

Scope: major
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Ker reference: Ker 338 SC10
Description: Fols 157-60. This hand is quite square and wedgy.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
d the ascender is short.
y is long and flicks to the left
The bowl of g is open.

Hand:

Scope: minor
Scribe: Tremulous Hand
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Description: There are several layers of glosses by the Tremulous Hand in Latin and English.
Date: xiii1

Decoration Description:

Some blue initials, e.g. fol. 124v; also numerous green and red intials, often used alternately in a text (presumably to highlight sections for reading).

Binding Description:

Bound, s. xviii, in blind-tooled brown leather (Ure 1957, p. 3)

History:

Origin:

Worcester

Provenance:

Acquisition:

Francis Junius

Bodleian Library

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Helen Foxhall Forbes with the assistance of Hollie Morgan (September 2010).

Surrogates:

EM Project facsimile

Franzen, Christine, 'Oxford, Bodleian Junius 121 (5232): Ecclesiastical Institutes, Homilies', in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile (Tempe, AZ: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1998), pp. 55-67

Images of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 121 are available on LUNA at the Bodleian Library

Bibliography:

Assmann, Bruno, ed., Angelsächsischen Homilien und Heiligenleben, Bibliotek der angelsächsischen Prosa, 13 (Kassel: Wigand, 1889; repr. 1964)

Atkins, Ivor, and Neil R. Ker, eds., Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Made in 1622-1623 by Patrick Young Librarian to King James I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1944)

Bateson, Mary, 'A Worcester Cathedral Book of Ecclesiastical Collections', English Historical Review, 10 (1895), 712-31

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)

Crawford, S. J., 'The Worcester Marks and Glosses of the Old English Manuscripts in the Bodleian, together with the Worcester Version of the Nicene Creed', Anglia, 52 (1928), 1-25

Cross, J. E., and A. Hamer, eds, Wulfstan's Canon Law Collection (Woodbridge, UK: Brewer, 1999)

Dobbie, Elliott van Kirk, ed., The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 6 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1942)

Fehr, Bernard, ed., Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics, Bibliothek der angelsächsicschen Prosa, 9 (Hamburg: Henri Grand, 1914; repr. with a supplement to the introduction by Peter Clemoes, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1966)

Fowler, Roger, 'A Late Old English Handbook for the Use of a Confessor', Anglia, 83 (1965), 1-34

---, ed., Wulfstan's Canons of Edgar, EETS, OS 266 (London: Oxford University Press, 1972)

Foxhall Forbes, Helen, 'Squabbling Siblings: Gender and Monastic Life in Late Anglo-Saxon Winchester', Gender and History, 23.3 (2011), 653-84

Frank, Roberta and Angus Cameron, A Plan for the Dictionary of Old English (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973)

Frantzen, Allen J., Penitentials: A Cultural Database (http://www.anglo-saxon.net/penance/, 2010)

---, The Tremulous Hand of Worcester: A Study of Old English in the Thirteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991)

Frere, Walter Howard, ed., The Winchester Troper, HBS, 8 (London: Harrison, 1894)

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 644

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

Jost, K, ed., Die 'Institutes of Polity, Civil and Ecclesiastical', Swiss Studies in English, 47 (Bern: Francke, 1959)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 338

---, 'Old English Notes Signed "Coleman"', Medium Ævum, 18 (1949), 27-30

Liebermann , F., ed., Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1903 )

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

Mansi, J. D., ed., Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova et amplissima collectio (Florence: Antonius Zatta, 1775), 20

McIntyre, E. A., 'Early Twelfth Century Worcester Cathedral Priory, with special reference to the manuscripts written there' (unpublished DPhil dissertation, University of Oxford, 1978)

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)

Parker, Matthew, De antiquitate Britannicae Ecclesiae (London: John Day, 1572)

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

Raith, Joseph, ed., Die altenglische Version des Halitgar'schen Bussbuches, Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa, 13 (Hamburg: H. Grand, 1933)

Sauer, H., 'The Transmission and Structure of Archbishop Wulfstan's "Commonplace Book"', in Old English Prose: Basic Readings, ed. by Paul C. Szarmach (New York: Garland, 2000), pp. 339-93

Spelman, Henry, Concilia, Decreta, Leges, Constitutiones, in Re Ecclesiarum orbis Britannici (London: Typis R. Badger, 1664)

Spindler, Robert, ed., Das altenglische Bussbuch (Sog. Confessionale Pseudo- Egberti) (Liepzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1934, 1934)

Thorpe, B., ed., Ancient Laws and Institutes of England (London: George Eyre and Andrew Spottiswoode, 1840)

---, ed., The Homilies of the Anglo- Saxon Church: the First Part, Containing the Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of Ælfric (London: Ælfric Society, 1844; repr. New York: Johnson Reprint, 1971)

Ure, James M., ed., The Benedictine Office (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1957)

Whitelock, Dorothy, M. Brett, and Christopher N. L. Brooke, eds, Councils and Synods with Other Documents Relating to the English Church: A.D. 871-1204, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981)