Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Cotton MS Tiberius B XIII
- Record Id:
- 040-001102231
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001246.0x000257
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100063646258.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Tiberius B XIII
- Title:
- Gerald of Wales, Speculum Ecclesiae; Gerald of Wales, De Rebus a Se Gestis; Roger of Ford, Speculum Ecclesiae
- Scope & Content:
-
This composite manuscript contains two parts. The first part (ff. 1-185), copied in the first quarter of the 13th century, contains the only surviving copy of the Speculum Ecclesiae (Mirror of the Church) that Gerald of Wales (b. c. 1146, d. c. 1223), author and ecclesiastic, is thought to have written around 1220. It also contains one of the two extant copies of Gerald’s autobiography, De Rebus a Se Gestis (About the Deeds Done by Him). The second part (f. 186r-237v), copied in the second half of the 13th century, contains the unique copy of the Speculum Ecclesiae of Roger of Ford, abbot of Glastonbury (r. 1252-1261).
Both parts originate from different manuscripts, but may have been written and joined within the same religious institution, possibly Llanthony Secunda Priory in Gloucestershire. It is also possible that they were joined together by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631).
Contents:
ff. 1r-153v: Gerald of Wales, Speculum Ecclesiae [featuring a Middle English lyric on f. 95v].
ff. 154r-185v: Gerald of Wales, De Rebus a Se Gestis.
ff. 186r-237v: Roger of Ford, Speculum Ecclesiae.
Decoration:
ff. 1r-185v: 1 medium initial in red (ff. 138v). Rubrics in red. Manicules added in brown ink in the margins. Display script (capitals in brown ink) highlighted in red. Small (one-line) initials highlighted in red.
ff. 186r-237v: 1 medium puzzle initial in red and blue (f. 186r). Medium initials in red or blue with pen-flourishing in the other colour. Small (one-line) initials highlighted in red. Paraph markers in blue or red. Underlining in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102231 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Tiberius B XIII : Gerald of Wales, Speculum Ecclesiae; Gerald of Wales, De Rebus a Se Gestis; Roger of Ford, Speculum Ecclesiae - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0456]/040-001102231
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100063646258.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1200
- End Date:
- 1299
- Date Range:
- 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: parchment.
Dimensions: approximately 250 x 165 mm (text space: 200 x 110 mm, in 2 columns [ff. 1r-153v]; 180 x 105 mm, in 2 columns [ff. 154r-185v]; 195 x 125, in 2 columns [186r-237v]).
Foliation: ff. 237 (+ 1 unfoliated modern paper flyleaf at the beginning + 2 at the end); a paper pastedown on f. [i]recto (bibliographical notes) and f. 237 (note of foliation); leaves damaged by fire in 1731; early modern foliation throughout the manuscript.
Script: Protogothic; Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown half leather binding, Cotton’s bookplate gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers, the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: ‘GERALDI CAMBRENSIS DISTINCTIONES SPECULUM ECCLESIÆ, ETC.’; re-bound in May 1957; gilt fore-edge.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
The Augustinian Priory of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist, Llanthony Secunda, Gloucestershire: according to Henry Parry (see below); Llanthony Secunda Priory is known to have owned a copy of the Speculum Ecclesiae, since it incorporated one of its chapters in a chronicle about the house’s history, now Cotton MS Julius D X, ff. 31-53 (see Hunt, ‘The Preface’ (1977), p. 193).
Henry Parry (d. 1629), son of Henry Parry (d. 1616), Bishop of Worcester, in 1619: the antiquary Brian Twyne (b. 1581, d. 1644) copied excerpts from this manuscript (extant in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Twyne XXII, ff. 162-167) and noted that he consulted a manuscript from Llanthony that was owned by Henry Parry in 1617; Twyne certainly consulted Cotton MS Tiberius B XIII, since he has added running headers, chapter numbers and notes throughout the manuscript (see Hunt, ‘The Preface’ (1977), p. 190).
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: his bookplate gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers; listed in his catalogue Add MS 36682, and loan lists Harley MS 6018, nos 2.82 and 10.7; and Add MS 5161, no. 155.3 (see Tite, The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library (2003), p. 108); excerpts from the manuscript were copied by Richard James (b. 1592, d. 1638), librarian to Robert Cotton, and survive in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MSS James 2 (p. 55) and 18 (p. 133). James’s page references to the manuscript correspond with the early modern pagination of the Cotton manuscript (Hunt, ‘The Preface’ (1977), p. 191).
Cotton’s collection was augmented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (b. 1594, d. 1662), 2nd baronet, and his grandson, Sir John Cotton.
Sir John Cotton (b. 1621, d. 1702), 3rd baronet: bequeathed the entire Cotton collection of books and manuscripts to trustees ‘for Publick Use and Advantage’, 12 and 13 William III, c. 7. Formed one of the foundation collections of the British Museum in 1753.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Barber, Richard, ‘Was Mordred Buried at Glastonbury? Arthurian Tradition at Glastonbury in the Middle Ages’, in Glastonbury Abbey and the Arthurian Tradition, ed. by James P. Carley, Arthurian Studies, 45 (Cambridge: Brewer, 2001), pp. 145-59; 617-28 (pp. 622-24).
Boffey, Julia, and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: British Library, 2005), no. 1940.5.
Brewer, John Sherren, James F. Dimock, and George F. Warner, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, 8 vols, Rolls Series, 21 (London: Longman, 1861-1891), I (1861): De Rebus a Se Gestis, Libri III; Invectionum Libellus; Symbolum Electorum, ed. by J. S. Brewer, pp. 1-122; IV (1873): Speculum ecclesiae; De vita Galfridi archiepiscopi Eboracensis sive Certamina Galfridi Eboracensis archiepiscopi, ed. by J. S. Brewer, pp. 1-354.
A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library Deposited in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1802), p. 37.
Hunt, Richard W., ‘The Preface to the “Speculum Ecclesiae” of Giraldus Cambrensis’, Viator, 8 (1977), 189-213.
Ker, N. R., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, 2nd edition (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 112.
'Look now friar' [DIMEV 3178; IMEV 1940.5; NIMEV 1940.5], The Digital Index of Middle English Verse [accessed 17 April 2018].
Tite, Colin G. C., The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), p. 108.
Wright, Thomas, and James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, Reliquiae Antiquae: Scraps from Ancient Manuscripts Illustrating Chiefly Early English Literature and the English Language, 2 vols (London: Pickering, 1841), I, pp. 147-49.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.