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Add MS 82931
- Record Id:
- 032-001976724
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001976724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000053.0x00001d
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 82931
- Title:
-
Liber de Hyda or Liber Abbatiae: a chronicle-cartulary of Hyde Abbey, AD 455-1023, compiled from earlier sources
- Scope & Content:
-
Content:
The present manuscript contains copies of twenty-three Anglo-Saxon charters, seven Anglo-Saxon wills, and one set of Anglo-Saxon bounds. Hyde Abbey was founded by Edward the Elder as the New Minster, Winchester in 901, and refounded by King Edgar in 964. The abbey was removed to Hyde, outside the city of Winchester, in 1110 and was dissolved in 1539. The documents include the only two wills of Anglo-Saxon kings in existence, namely those of Alfred of Wessex (871-899) (ff. 8v-12r: Sawyer 1507) and Eadred of England (946-955) (ff. 22r-23r: Sawyer 1515). Eadred's will survives uniquely in this manuscript; that of Alfred is also found in an eleventh-century copy in the Liber Vitae of the New Minster, Winchester (Stowe MS 944, ff. 29v-33r). In the 'Liber de Hyda', both royal wills are presented in Old English, Middle English and Latin versions.
The documents are connected by a narrative of Anglo-Saxon history, composed in the 15th century, and commencing with the legends of Albina and Brutus. It ends imperfectly in the year 1023, in the middle of a sentence, 'Hiis primum queritur contra Dunelmium episcopum Edmundum, quo iure ipse Hangus ...' (f. 39v). In addition to the royal wills, the documents include the refoundation charter of the New Minster, Winchester, 966 (ff. 27r-29r: Sawyer 745); charters of Kings Edward the Elder (899-924), Athelstan (924-939), Edmund (939-946), Eadred (946-955), Eadwig (955-959), Edgar (959-975) and Æthelred the Unready (978-1016); and the will of Ælfsige, consecutively Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 959) (ff. 19v-20r: Sawyer 1491). Apart from Eadred's will, a significant number of other Anglo-Saxon documents survive uniquely in this manuscript (Sawyer 365-66, 379, 505, 526, 641, 648, 660, 842, 869, 877, 1418-20, 1491, 1496, 1498, 1505, 1509, 1515, 1589).
Decoration:
Major initials in pink, blue, green and gold with a full-page border (f. 1r) or partial borders (ff. 4v, 12r). Unfinished initials (ff. 23v, 25r, 30r). Secondary initials to f. 16r, and thereafter only gold has been applied as far as f. 24v. Rubricated throughout. Manicula (f. 7).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-001976724", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 82931: Liber de Hyda or Liber Abbatiae: a chronicle-cartulary of Hyde Abbey, AD 455-1023, compiled from earlier sources" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001976724
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-001976724
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex, 39 folios.
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_82931 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
English, Old
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1430
- End Date:
- 1470
- Date Range:
- Mid 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 440 x 300mm (text space: 345 x 225mm).
Foliation: ff. 39 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end). The manuscript is lacking one or more leaves at the end.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown calf leather with gold tooling, with the title 'CHRONICA REGUM SAXONICORUM' on the spine.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England, S.
Provenance: Owned by Sir Henry Spelman, historian and antiquary (b. 1562, d. 1641), parts reproduced in his Concilia Ecclesiastica Orbis Britannici (1639), p. lxxxiv.
Walter Clavell, F. R.S. (elected 1704, d. 1740), his sale: 29 March 1742, lot 72, bought by John Heath, bookseller of Exeter Exchange in the Strand.
The Earls of Macclesfield, Shirburn Castle: their book plate on the inside cover with the family crest and motto 'Sapere aude'; inscribed 'North Library, pressmark 24.G.9'.
Purchased by the British Library from the Countess of Macclesfield, 29 March 2007.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
British Library MS Lansdowne 717, copy made by John Stowe in 1572.
British Library MS Stowe 58, copy made in the 16th-17th century.
- Publications:
-
Liber Monasterii de Hyda; comprising a chronicle of the affairs of England, from the settlement of the Saxons to the reign of King Cnut; and a chartulary of the abbey of Hyde, in Hampshire, A.D. 455-1023, ed. by Edward Edwards, Rolls Series (London: Rolls Commission, 1866).
Walter de Gray Birch, ed., Cartularium Saxonicum: A collection of charters relating to Anglo-Saxon history, 3 vols and index (London: Whiting & Co, 1885-1893; reprinted New York: Johnson, 1964.), nos. 553-55, 596-98, 604, 635, 648-54, 692, 748, 803-06, 824-27, 912-14, 988-91, 1000, 1045, 1190-94.
Select English historical documents of the ninth and tenth centuries ed. by Florence E. Harmer (Cambridge: University Press, 1914), pp. 15-19, 34-35, 49-53, 64-65 [an edition and translation of the wills of Alfred and Eadred].
P. H. Sawyer, Anglo Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography (London: Royal Historical Society, 1968), nos. 360, 365-66, 374, 379, 418, 470, 505, 526, 641, 648, 660, 745-46, 842, 845, 865, 869, 877, 1417-20, 1491, 1496, 1498, 1505, 1507, 1509, 1515, 1589.
Kathryn Lowe, '"As fre as thowt"? Some medieval copies and translations of Old English wills' in English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 4 (1993), pp. 1-23, at 15-19.
Simon Keynes, facs. ed., The Liber Vitae of the New Minster and Hyde Abbey, Winchester: British Library Stowe 944, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, xxvi (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1996), p. 74, nn. 13, 16.
Peter J. Lucas, 'Scribal imitation of earlier handwriting: "bastard Saxon" and its impact', in Marie-Clotilde Hubert, Emmanuel Poulle & Marc H. Smith (eds.), Le Statut du scripteur au Moyen Age: Actes du XIIe colloque scientifique du Comité international de paléographie latine (Cluny, 17-20 juillet 1998) (Paris: École des chartes, 2000), pp. 151-160.
Sean Miller, ed., Charters of the New Minster, Winchester, Anglo-Saxon Charters, IX (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. xl-xlv and nos. 1, 3-5, 7-32.
Alexander R. Rumble, Property and Piety in Early Medieval Winchester: Documents relating to the topography of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman city and its minsters (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002), p. 13 and nos. ii, iv, ix, xviii.
G. R. C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain and Ireland, revised edition, rev. by Claire Breay, Julian Harrison and David Smith (London: British Library, 2010), no. 1051.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)