The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220

described by Orietta Da Rold

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud 509

Ælfric's translation of parts of Pentateuch and Joshua, letter to Wulfgeat and Libellus de veteri testamento et nouo

Date: s. xi2

Summary:

A manuscript containing Ælfrician and other anonymous material (Ker 1957, pp. 422-3): fols 1r-3r, Ælfric's Preface to Genesis ; fols 3r-98v include partial translations of the Pentateuch by Ælfric and other anonymous translators: fols 3r-37r, Genesis , fols 37r-65v, Exodus , fols 65v-72r, Leviticus , 72r-82v Numbers , fols 82v-98v, Deuteronomy (Jost 1927, pp. 218-9; Raith 1952; Morrell 1965, pp. 12-13; Marsden 2000; Marsden 1994; Doane 2002, p. 72. For the text, see Crawford 1922, p. 76 passim, and Pope 1967-8, 85). Fols 98v-107r contain a translation of Joshua. Fols. 108v-115v, Ælfric's homily on Judgeswhich is followed by Ælfric's letter to Wulfgeat (fols 115v-120v, see Assmann 1889). On fols 120v-141v, Ælfric's Libellus de veteri testamento et nouo adressed to Sigeweard (Crawford (1922), pp 15-75).

Latin glosses have been added on many leaves in a hand of s. xi/xii, as well as the English title word 'bǽcelinge', written above 'coctum in clibano' which itself glosses the Old English 'ofebacene hlafas' on fol. 66v (Lev. 24) .

This manuscript once formed a single volume with Vespasian D. xxi, fols 18-40, which was separated by Cotton between 1603 and December 1606 (Tite 1992, pp. 136-7).

Physical Description:

Object Description:

Form: codex

Support:

Extent:

211 x 138 (dimensions of all - size of leaves)

155 x 90 (dimensions of all - size of written)

Foliation and/or Pagination:

Fols iv + 141+ ii.

Collation:

Quires: 110 wants 6, fols 1-9; 2-78, fols 10-57; 88 3 and 6 are half-sheets (fols 60-63), fols 58-65; 98, fols 66-73; 10-118 3 and 6 are half-sheets (fols 76-79/84-87), fols 74-81/82-89; 128 3 and 6 are half-sheets (fols 93-95), fols 90-97; 1310 5 and 6 are half-sheets (fols 102-103), fols 98-107; 148, fols 108- 115; 158 3 and 6 half-sheets (fols 118-122), fols 116- 123; 168 3 and 6 half-sheets (fols 126-139), fols. 124- 131; 1710 1 and 10 are half-sheets.

Note:

Pricked and ruled for 29 lines on fols 1-33 and 26 lines on fols 34-141. Double bounding lines on the flesh side and in dry point. Outer marginal pricking to guide ruling 6 mm apart.

Hand Description:

Number of hands: 3

Summary: Mainly in one hand. A second hand wrote fol. 15/8-21 and fol. 15v/1-10 and a third wrote fol. 17/11-23.

Hand: main text
• Scope: major
• Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
• Ker reference: Ker 344 SC1
• Description: fols 1-141, except fols 15r/8-21, 15v/1-10 and 17r/11-23. A small and regular rounded hand. wo
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• e: open-headed
• s low or long s used. The long s is used initially and medial, and has a broken shaft made in two strokes. The descender curves to the left.
• ð has a long upstroke tagged to the left at the top, the cross-stroke not transecting the upstroke.
• d: a small round back with a short tapered ascender curved to the right.
• Wedged ascenders.
• Tapered descenders to the left.
• Vespasian D. xxi, fols 18-40
• Date: s. xi2

Hand: additions
• Scope: minor
• Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
• Ker reference: Ker 344 SC2
• Description: Fols 15r/8-21, 15v/1-10.. Another small and regular rounded hand, very similar to the main hand.
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• s short or long s used. The long s is used initially and medially, and the descender curves to the left. Short s with a hook-like ascender, stopping on the writing line.
• ð has a long upstroke occasionally tagged to the left at the top, occasionally it curves to the right.
• d: a small round back with a short tappered ascender curved to the right.
• Wedged ascenders.
• descenders curving to the left with a serif .
• Date: s. xi2

Hand: additions
• Scope: minor
• Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
• Ker reference: Ker 344 SC3
• Description: Fol. and 17r/11-23. A fairly large rounded hand.
• Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
• ð has a long upstroke tapered and curved to the right at the top.
• d: a small round back with a short ascender curved to the left.
• Long s with a flat foot.
• Wedged ascenders.
• Tapered descenders, which turn to the left.
• Date: s. xi2

Decoration Description:

Plain green, red, purple initials with occasional decorations in green, fol. 65v. Black initials are also used (fol. 56). Red titles by the main hand. Titles are in red in the script and hand of the text, although the shade of red seems different, for instance on fol. 65v (Ker 1957, p. 424).

Additions:

L'Isle corrected the manuscript from British Library, Cotton Claudius B. iv. He also annotated the manuscript, noting a misbound leaf, fol. 133, supplying catchwords on fols 132v, 133v, and numbered chapters and verses of Genesis up to fol. 12v (Doane 2002, p. 74). Modern signatures B, C, D, E, F are visible on the first recto of quire 2, 3, 4 and 5. Others can still be visible after the trimming by the binder on quire 10 and11. A table of content, s. xvi, had been bounded upside down.

Binding Description:

Leather binding of s. xvii1 bearing Laud's arms. The front and back covers have become detached (Doane 2002, p. 74). Graham (2000) suggests that the fragments of pasteboard stuck to the verso of fol. iv indicate that it served as a pastedown in the Cottonian binding. He argues that L'Isle removed Cotton's binding and had it rebound, retaining the Cottonian endleaves but turning them over and around in the process (p. 293).

History:

Origin: Unknown.

Provenance:

In the 1542 catalogue of the old Royal Library, it was number 159 (fol. 2, top), and it is described as 'the pentatuik and saints Lyues'. It belonged later to Cotton (see Ker 1938, p. 132). Cotton 'lent the part now at Oxford, ''Liber Genesis et pentatuchum Saxonice' bound withe my arms and clapses in 4to' to 'Mr. Lyll of Cambrig' before 32rd of April 1621, as appears from the list of Cotton's loan of books in MS. Harley 6018, fol. 148v' (Ker 1957, p. 424).

Acquisition:

Kere notes: 'The dates of ownership and gift suggest that Laud obtained the manuscript from L'Isle (cf. Laud misc. 201, 381, 636). Former Bodleian pressmark Laud E. 19' (Ker 1957, p. 424).

Additional Information:

Administration Information:

Manuscript described by Orietta Da Rold with the assistance of Hollie Morgan (August 2010)

Surrogates:

Doane, Alger Nicolaus, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies (Series) (Tempe, Ariz.: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002), vol. 7: Anglo- Saxon Bibles and "The Book of Cerne"

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), plt. VI, fol. 134v

Marsden, Richard, ed., The Old English Heptateuch and Ælfric's Libellus de Veteri Testamento et Novo, 330 (Early English Text Society, 2008) fol. 72r

Images of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud. Misc. 509 are available on Luna at the Bodleian Library, details of fols 3r, 5v, 24r, 37r, 58v, 80r, 100v.

Bibliography:

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

Barnhouse, Rebecca, and Benjamin C. Withers, eds, The Old English Hexateuch: Aspects and Approaches, Publications of the Richard Rawlinson Center (Kalamazoo, Michigan Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2000)

Carley, James C. , 'The Royal Library as a Source for Cotton's Collections: A Preliminary List of Acquisitions', British Library Journal, no. 18.1 (1992), 52-73

Crawford, S. J., ed., The Old English Version of the Heptateuch, Aelfric's Treatise on the Old and New Testament, and his Preface to Genesis, EETS OS 160 (London: Oxford University Press, 1922)

Doane, Alger Nicolaus, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, Medieval & Renaisance Studies (Series) (Tempe, Ariz.: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2002), vol. 7: Anglo- Saxon Bibles and "The Book of Cerne"

Graham, Timothy, 'Early Modern Users of Claudius B. iv: Robert Talbot and William L'Isle ', ed. by Rebecca and Withers Barnhouse, Benjamin C. (2000), pp. 271-316

Jost, K., 'Unechte Ælfrictexte (Fortsetzung)', Anglia, 51 (1927), 177-219

Ker, N. R. , 'Membra Disiecta', in British Museum Quarterly 12 (1937-38), pp. 130-35

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 344

Lisle, William, Divers Ancient Monuments (1623)

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

Marsden, Richard, 'Old Latin Interventions in the Old English 'Heptateuch'', in Anglo-Saxon England 23 (1994), pp. 229-64

---, 'Translation by Commitee? The 'Anonymous' Text of the Old English Hexateuch', in Haxateuch, ed. by Rebecca and Withers Barnhouse, Benjamin C. (2000), pp. 41-85

---, 'Latin in the Ascendant: The Interlinear Gloss of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 509', in Latin Learning and English Lore: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature for Michael Lapidge, ed. by K. O'Brien O'Keeffe and A. Orchard (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), vol. 2, pp. 132-52

--- ed., The Old English Heptateuch and Ælfric's Libellus de Veteri Testamento et Novo, 330 (Early English Text Society, 2008)

Morrell, Minnie Cate., A Manual of Old English Biblical Materials. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1965)

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

Raith, Joseph, 'Ælfric's Share in the Old English Pentateuch', in Review of English Studies (1952), vol. 3, pp. 305-14

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)

Smith, Andrea B., The Anonymous Parts of the Old English Hexateuch: A Latin-Old English / Old English-Latin Glossary (Cambridge and Dover, 1985)

Thwaites, Edward, ed., Heptateuchus, Liber Job, et Euangelium Nicdemi: Anglo-Saxonice; Historiæ Judith Fragmentum: Dano-Saxonice, edidit nunc primum ex MMS codicibus. (Oxford Sheldonian Theatre, 1698 )

Tite, Colin G.C, '"Lost or Stolen or Strayed":A Survey of Manuscripts Formerly in the Cotton Library', The British Library Journal, 18, no. 2 (1992), 107-47

Wanley, Humfrey, Antique literature septentrionalis liber alter (Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1705)

Wilcox, Jonathan, ed., Aelfric's Prefaces, 9 (Durham: Durham Medieval Texts, 1994)

Withers, Benjamin C., 'Unfulfilled Promise: The Rubrics of the Old English Prose Genesis', Anglo- Saxon England, 28 (1999), 11-39