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Cotton MS Tiberius C II
- Record Id:
- 040-001102237
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001246.0x000259
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100066462066.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Tiberius C II
- Title:
-
Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (imperfect)
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains a decorated copy of the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) by Bede the Venerable (b. 672, d. 735). Sometimes known as the 'Tiberius Bede', it was made in the south of England in late 8th or early 9th century. In the 9th and 10th century, some Latin and Old English glosses were added to the manuscript in ink (ff. 5r-5v, 10v, 34v, 60v, 67r, 124v, 125r).
Contents:
ff. 3r-157v: Bede the Venerable, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, beginning: 'Gloriosissimo regi Ceoluulfo Beda famulus Christi et presbyter historiam gentis Anglorum ecclesiasticam, quam nuper edideram'.
The original f. 1 and f. 158, containing leaves from a 14th-century Psalter, have been removed and placed in Royal MS 13 D I*, ff. 27, 29
Decoration:
Several initials in red, green, and yellow with interlace and beasts' heads (ff. 5v, 34v, 60v, 94r, 126r) at the beginning of each book; initials with penwork (throughout).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102237 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Tiberius C II : Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (imperfect) - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0458]/040-001102237
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100066462066.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Old
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0800
- End Date:
- 0849
- Date Range:
- 1st half of the 9th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Condition: leaves damaged by fire in 1731.
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 275 x 215 mm (text space: 225 x 195 mm).
Foliation: ff. 156 (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 at the end). The original f. 1 and f. 158, which contained leaves from a 14th-century Psalter, have been removed and are in Royal MS 13 D I*, ff. 27, 29).
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house. Rebound in 1962.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ?Canterbury, Southern England.
Provenance:
?Christ Church Cathedral, Canterbury: although Plummer suggested that the manuscript was made for the community of St Cuthbert due to the interlineation of 'nostro' before 'et antistite cudberchto' (Plummer, Bedae (1896), I, p. xciii) because the decoration of the 'Tiberius Bede' is very similar to a group of Southumbrian manuscripts. The scholars have suggested that it was made in Canterbury (see Brown, 'Paris' (1986), p. 135). Brown has proposed a 'Tiberius Group' based on similarities to this manuscript. Within the 'Tiberius Group', the closest relations of Cotton MS Tiberius C II have been debated. Mildred Budny suggested that it was written in the same scriptorium, and even by the same scribe, as Royal MS 1 E VI (Budny, 'London' (1985)), while Brown has linked its production to that of Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 10861 and to the scriptorium at Christ Church (Brown, 'Paris' (1986), p. 136).
Glosses in a southern hand added in the 9th and the 10th centuries.
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: inscribed with his name (f. 3r).
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:
-
Alexander, J. J. G., Insular Manuscripts, 6th to the 9th Century (London: Harvey Miller, 1978), no. 33.
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story (London: The British Library, 2018), no. 18 [exhibition catalogue].
Brown, Michelle P., 'Bede's Life in Context', in The Cambridge Companion to Bede, ed. by Scott DeGregorio (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 16.
Brown, Michelle P., The Book of Cerne: Prayer, Patronage and Power in Ninth-Century England (London: British Library, 1996), p. 9, 17, 62, 118, 168-78.
Brown, Michelle P., 'Female Book-Ownership and Production in Anglo-Saxon England: The Evidence of the Ninth-Century Prayerbooks', in Lexis and Texts in Early English: Studies Presented to Jane Roberts, ed. by C. J. Kay and L. M. Sylvester (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001), pp. 45-67 (pp. 51).
Brown, Michelle P., ‘Mercian manuscripts? The “Tiberius” group and its historical context’, in Mercia: An Anglo-Saxon Kingdom in Europe, ed. by Michelle P. Brown and Carol A. Farr (London: Leicester University Press, 2001), pp. 279–90.
Brown, Michelle P., 'Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, lat. 10861 and the scriptorium of Christ Church, Canterbury', Anglo-Saxon England, 15 (1986), 119-37 (pp. 135-36).
Budny, M. O., 'London, British Library MS Royal 1.E.vi: the Anatomy of an Anglo-Saxon Bible Fragment', (unpublished doctoral dissertation, London University, 1985).
Catalogue of Ancient Manuscripts in the British Museum, II, Latin (London, 1884), pp. 78–79.
Colgrave, Bertram and R. A. B. Mynors (eds and trans), Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), p. xlii [includes edition where Tiberius C.ii is collated as C].
Doyle, Kathleen and Charlotte Denoël, Medieval Illumination: Manuscript Art in England and France 700-1200 (London: British Library, 2018), also published as Enluminures Médiévales: Chefs-d'oeuvre de la Bibliothèque nationale de France et de la British Library, 700-1200 (Paris : BnF Éditions, 2018), pp. 19, 162.
The Cradle of European Culture. Early Medieval Irish Book Art, ed. by Cornel Dora and Franziska Schnoor (St Gallen: Verlag am Klosterhof, 2018), p. 87.
von Euw, Anton, St. Galler Buchkunst vom 8. bis zum Ende des 11. Jahrhunderts, 2 vols (St Gallen: Verlag am Klosterhof, 2008), I, pp. 322-23.
Gneuss, Helmut and Michael Lapidge, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), no. 37.
Hartzell, K. D., Catalogue of Manuscripts written or owned in England up to 1200 containing Music (Woodbridge, 2006), no. 141.
Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), no. 198.
Ker, N. R. and Andrew G. Watson (eds), Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books. Supplement to the Second Edition (London, 1987), p. 46.
Laistner, M. L. W. and H. H. King, A Hand-List of Bede Manuscripts (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1943), p. 97.
Lowe, E. A. (ed.), Codices Latini Antiquiores: A Palaeographical Guide to Latin Manuscripts Prior to the Ninth Century, II, Great Britain and Ireland, 2nd edn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), no. 191.
Meritt, Herbert Dean (ed.), Old English Glosses (London, 1945), pp. xi, 6–14.
Morrish, Jennifer, ‘Dated and datable manuscripts copied in England during the ninth century: a preliminary list’, Mediaeval Studies, 50 (1988), pp. 528–29, 537.
Nees, Lawrence, ‘The European context of manuscript illumination in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, 600–900’, in Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Cultures and Connections, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story with Eleanor Jackson (Dublin: Four Courts, 2021), pp. 45-65 (pp. 57, 63; fig. 4.10).
Plummer, C., Baedae Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum: Venerabilis Baedae opera historica, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896) [includes edition where Tiberius C.ii is collated as C].
- Exhibitions:
- Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, British Library, London, 19 October 2018 - 19 February 2019
British Library Treasures, (online), 27 February 2016- - 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.