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Cotton MS Caligula A VII
- Record Id:
- 040-001102323
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001246.0x00029e
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100058502458.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Caligula A VII
- Title:
-
Heliand and a charm
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains one of only two non-fragmentary surviving manuscripts of the poem Heliand, an account of the life of Jesus in Old Saxon epic verse. It ends imperfectly, in the middle of the account of the journey to Emmaus. The volume includes:
f. 1: part of a memorandum dated 1371-72 written in Anglo-Norman French, with instructions in English for binding a manuscript written underneath in an early modern hand. There are two unfoliated leaves between ff. 1 and 2.
f. 2: early modern table of contents.
ff. 3-10, containing leaves from a Psalter, have been removed and are now contained in Cotton MS Caligula A VII/1.
ff. 11-175v: Heliand, an Old Saxon Biblical epic copied perhaps in England in the middle or 2nd half of the 10th century. There is an unfoliated, blank leaf between ff. 175 and 176.
ff. 176r-178r: a charm for fields and to ensure fruitful land (Æcerbot), copied in the 1st half of the 11th century.
Decoration: Zoomorphic initials in blue, red, yellow, pink and green (ff. 11r, 21v, 35r, 36v, 39r, 41v, 43v, 132r). Zoomorphic initial in black (f. 46r). Display capitals in red on yellow and blue backgrounds (ff. 11r, 132r). Initials with red and yellow fills and decoration (ff. 13r, 15r, 17r). Initials in black, some with penwork decoration (ff. 19v, 24r, 26v, 28v, 30v, 32v, 49r, 51v, 54r, 56v, 58r, 60r, 62v, 64v, 66v, 68v, 70r, 72r, 74r, 77r, 79r, 81v, 84r, 87r, 89r, 91v, 93v, 95r, 96v, 99r, 101v, 105r, 107r, 109v, 112r, 114r, 116v, 119v, 122r, 124v, 127r, 129v, 134v, 137v, 139v, 142v, 145v, 148v, 150v, 152v, 154v, 157r, 159v, 162v, 165r, 167v, 170v, 172r, 174v). Small initials in red (f. 12v) and black (f. 112v). Capitals filled in red and yellow (ff. 11r-19r, 36v, 132r). Numbers in red (ff. 13r, 15r, 17r). Numbers in red on blue or yellow backgrounds (ff. 35r, 36v, 39r, 41v, 43v, 132r). Numbers in black (ff. 19v, 21v, 24r, 26v, 28v, 30v, 32v, 46r, 49r, 51v, 54r, 56v, 58r, 60r, 62v, 64v, 66v, 68v, 70r, 72r, 74r, 77r, 79r, 81v, 84r, 87r, 89r, 91v, 93v, 95r, 96v, 99r, 101v, 105r, 107r, 109v, 111v, 114r, 116v, 119v, 122r, 124v, 127r, 129v, 134r, 137r, 139v, 142v, 145v, 148v, 150v, 152v, 154v, 157r, 159v, 162v, 165r, 167v, 170v, 172r, 174v). Stylized letters at the end of text blocks (ff. 40v, 74r, 74v, 175v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102323 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Caligula A VII : Heliand and a charm - Contains:
- Cotton MS Caligula A VII, f 1 : Medieval memorandum, dated 1371–72; early modern instructions for binding
Cotton MS Caligula A VII, ff 11–175 : Heliand
Cotton MS Caligula A VII, ff 176-178 : Æcerbot charm
Click here to View / search full list of parts of Cotton MS Caligula A VII - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0495]/040-001102323
- 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_100058502458.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Anglo-Norman
English, Old
Latin
Saxon, Old - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0950
- End Date:
- 1374
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 10th century - the 3rd quarter of the 14th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 220 x 140 mm (text space: 195 x 105 mm).
Foliation: fos. ii + 178 (where ff. i-ii, 2 are early modern endleaves and ff. 3-10 have been removed + 4 unfoliated flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end).
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house. Rebound in 1932.
- Custodial History:
-
Provenance:
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: number 26 in a list of his books (Harley MS 6018).
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:
-
Cathey, James, Heliand: Text and Commentary (Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press, 2002).
Cathey, James, 'The Historical Setting of the Heliand, the Poem, and the Manuscripts', in Perspectives on the Old Saxon Heliand: Introductory and Critical Essays, with an Edition of the Leipzig Fragment, ed. by Valentine A. Pakis (Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press, 2010), pp. 3-33 (pp. 26-33).
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. 308.
Gretsch, Mechthild, The Intellectual Foundations of the English Benedictine Reform (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 389.
Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), no. 137 (p. 172).
McKendrick, Scot, and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London: British Library, 2007), fig. 36.
Mertens, Andre, The Old English Lives of St Martin of Tours (Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2017), p. 121.
Murphy, G. Ronald, The Heliand: The Saxon Gospel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992) [includes translation].
Priebsch, R., The Heliand Manuscript, Cotton Caligula A. VII, in the British Museum (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925).
Remley, Paul G., Old English Biblical Verse: Studies in Genesis, Exodus and Daniel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 17-18.
Roberts, Jane, A Guide to Scripts Used in English Writings Up to 1500 (London: The British Library, 2005), p. 59.
Rudolf, Winfried, ‘On the Italian provenance of the Vercelli Book’, 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. 154-167 (p. 166).
Schmid, Hans Ulrich, ' Ein neues 'Heliand'-Fragment aus der Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig', Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 135 (2006), 309-23.
Sievers, Eduard (ed.), Heliand (Halle: Waisenhaus, 1878) [includes edition].
Stokes, Peter A., English Vernacular Minuscule from Æthelred to Cnut circa 990-1035 (D.S. Brewer: Cambridge, 2014), p. 160.
Taeger, Burkhard, Der Heliand: Ausgewählte Abbildungen zur Überlieferung (Goppingen: Kümmerle Verlag, 1985), p. viii.
- 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.