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Cotton MS Nero A II
- Record Id:
- 040-001102582
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001246.0x00037c
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100064359517.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Nero A II
- Title:
-
Pseudo-Jerome, Psalter of St Jerome (fragment); Leaf from a Book of Hours, reused as a Cottonian frontispiece; Calendar; Computistical texts; Hymns and prayers; Sermons; Augustine, De Fide Catholica (Sermon 233); De Litteris; Chronicle from Creation to 728; Augustine, Sermo de Symbolo (excerpt); Origin, In Lucam homiliae (excerpt Sermon 12); Ratio de cursus; Fortunatianus of Aquileia, Commentary on the Gospels (excerpts); John Cassian, Collationes (excerpt); Jerome, Contra Vigilantium; Defensor of Ligugé, Liber scintillarum (imperfect); Bede the Venerable, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (excerpt); Translatio et Miracula Sancti Cuthberti (imperfect); Excerpta de Vita et Miraculis Sancti Cuthberti
- Scope & Content:
-
This composite manuscript consists of five parts (f. 1; f. 2; ff. 3-13; ff. 14-45; ff. 46-108) that were produced separately between the 8th and 15th centuries and joined together in the library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631). The manuscript contains a wide variety of theological, computistical, devotional and hagiographical materials. The fourth part (ff. 14-45), produced in the late 8th century or early 9th century (perhaps in Northern Italy), contains the only surviving copy of the Ratio de Cursus qui Fuerunt Eius Auctores (Explanation of the Liturgies, About Who Were Its Authors): a mid-8th century treatise that defends the Irish and Gallic liturgies against the claim of the advisers of Pepin the Short (b. 752, d. 768) that their liturgy was the only authentic Roman liturgy (see Mews, 'Apostolic Authority' (2017), pp. 123-24). This part of the manuscript also contains theological texts that can also be found in Arundel MS 213 and Zürich, Zentralbibliothek, MS C 64. Its contents and style of decoration suggest that it was copied from an Irish exemplar (see Dorfbauer, 'Der Codex Zürich, Zentralbibliothek C' (2017), p. 126).
Contents:
ff. 1r-1v: Pseudo-Jerome, Psalter of St Jerome, fragment (includes Psalms 30:17-18; 33:2-4; 34:2-3; 34: 22-23; 35:11-12; 37:22-23; 38:13-14; 39:13).
f. 2r: A 15th-century decorated initial 'V', followed by a 17th-century inscription: '[V]olumen hoc fragmentorum a Roberto Cotton collectum, continent diversos tractatus quae proxima in pagina sequuntur'.
ff. 3r-8v: Calendar, with the so-called Dog Days (dies canicularis).
f. 9r: A computistical table.
f. 9v: Instructions for the computus, beginning: ‘Si vis scire quot concurrentes in anno sunt’.
f. 10r: Instructions for calculating the age of the moon, beginning: ‘Hec sunt .vii.tem etates lune’.
ff. 10v-11v: A poem in praise of King Æthelstan, beginning 'Carta dirige gressus’.
ff. 11v-12v: A prayer, beginning: ‘Domine deus omnipotens rex regum et dominus dominantium’.
f. 13r: A hymn to St Dunstan, with neumes, beginning: ‘O inclite confessor Christi’.
f. 13v: A hymn to St Æthelberht, with neumes, beginning: ‘Inclite martir ovans te plebs venerator in oda’.
ff. 14r-27r: Anonymous, sermon on the Works of Mercy, beginning ‘Isaias propheta dicit ille vobis qui jungitis agrum ad agrum’; excerpt from a sermon ('Venus, A Man') against the observance of pagan customs (see Levison, England and the Continent (1946), pp. 303-304 (as ‘C’)); partly based on the work of Caesarius (b. c. 470, d. 542), bishop of Arles.
ff. 27r-29v: Anonymous, sermon on the mountains Gerezim and Ebal in the Book of Deuteronomy, beginning ‘Jordane transmissum precepit Moyses Domino jubente populum’.
ff. 30r-31r: Anonymous, allegorical tract on parables, beginning, ‘Hic Divis populus Judaicus intelligitur’.
ff. 31r-33v: St Augustine (b. 354, d. 430), Bishop of Hippo, Sermon, 233, De Fide Catholica (On Catohlic Faith), beginning 'credimus in unum verum deum patrem et filium et spiritum' [Patrologia Latina, cols 2175-2176].
ff. 33v-34v: Anonymous treatise on Grammar, beginning ‘Littera quid est? elimentum [sic] vocis articulati’.
ff. 34v-36r: A computation of the years elapsed since Creation to 728 (entitled 'chronica de tempore mundi'), beginning ‘Ab exordio mundi usque ad diluvium anni sunt duo milia ducenti quadraginta et duo’; based on the Chronicon (Chronicle) of Eusebius of Caesarea (b. c. 260, d. 339), as translated by St Jerome.
ff. 36r-37r: ? St Augustine [here attributed to John Chrysostom (b. c. 347, d. 407), patriarch of Constantinople], tract opening with an excerpt from his Sermo de Symbolo (Sermon on the Creed), beginning, ‘E[rit enim ibi sine dubio compensatio] bonorum operum et malorum velut in statera posita utraque pars’.
f. 37r: Origen (b. c. 185, d. c. 254), In Lucam Homiliae (Sermons on Luke), excerpt of Sermon 12 [here attributed to St Jerome], excerpt, beginning ‘Unicuique autem homini duo adsistunt angeli alter iustitiae et alter iniquitatem’.
ff. 37r-42r: Ratio de Cursus qui Fuerunt Eius Auctores, beginning ‘In exordium repperimus decantatum fuisse non sicut aliqui inperti fidae vel variae obieccione pertulerunt’ [see Semmler, 'Ratio de cursus' (1963), 77-91].
f. 42r: De Septem Damnationis Peccatorum (On the Seven Deadly Sins), beginning ‘Prima damnacio id est a sanctis separacio’ (see Dorfbauer, 'Der Codex Zürich, Zentralbibliothek C' (2017), p. 145).
ff. 42r-42v: De Septem Remunerationis (On the seven rewards of the righteous), beginning ‘Prima remuneracio id est resurrectio’ (see Dorfbauer, 'Der Codex Zürich, Zentralbibliothek C' (2017), p. 145).
ff. 42v-43v: John Cassian (b. c. 360, d. 435), abbot of Marseilles, Collationes (Conferences), 1, 5, Chapter 2 [Tract on the Eight Principal Virtues], beginning ‘Primum gastromargia quod sonat'.
ff. 43v-44r: St Jerome (b. c. 347, d. 420), Contra Vigilantium (Against Vigilantius), excerpt, beginning ‘Nec nos negamus cunctis pauperibus’.
ff. 45r-45v: Defensor of Ligugé (fl. late 7th century), Benedictine monk of St Martin's Abbey in Ligugé, Liber scintillarum (Book of Sparks), imperfect; beginning ‘Dominus dicit in Evangelium majorem caritatem nemo habet’.
ff. 46r-47r: Bede the Venerable (b. 672/3, d. 735), Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People), Book 4.32 [healing miracle of St Cuthbert].
ff. 47r-85v: Translatio et Miracula Sancti Cuthberti (Translation and Miracles of St Cuthbert), imperfect; beginning ‘'[D]eus omnipotens iuste misericorde et misericorditer iustus gentem Anglorum' [Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina, no. 2029].
ff. 86r-108v: Excerpta de Vita et Miraculis Sancti Cuthberti (Excerpts from the Life and Miracles of St Cuthbert), beginning: ‘[V]enerabilis igitur domini famulus Cuthbertus’ [Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina, no. 2031].
The manuscript contains a later addition:
f. 2v: A table of contents, added by the so-called ‘stylized hand’: an unknown scribe who added tables of contents in Cotton’s most important manuscripts.
[ff. [1a]recto, [1a]verso, [1b]recto, [1b]verso, 44v, [45a]recto, [45a]verso are blank].
Decoration:
Part 1 (ff. 1r-1v):
Small gold initials in red frames.
Part 2 (ff. 2r-2v):
A large initial in yellow (imitation gold) on a grey ground with a full strew border; Cotton's heraldic arms added in the 17th century.
Part 3 (ff. 3r-13v):
Medium-size initials in black ink. Rubrics on ff. 3r-6v, 8r-8v. Neumes on ff. 13r-13v.
Part 4 (ff. 14r-45v):
2 large initials with knot-work decoration in brown ink (ff. 27v, 45r). 12 medium initials in brown ink, some highlighted in yellow or with foliate motifs (ff. 30r, 30v, 31r, 33v, 34v, 36v, 37r, 37v, 42r (x2), 42v, 43v) display script in brown ink (ff. 27v, 45r). Rubrics in black ink.
Part 5 (ff. 45r-108v):
Small (one-line) initials highlighted in red. Unfilled spaces for large and medium initials throughout. Rubrics in red. Line-fillers in brown and red. Paraphs in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102582 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Nero A II : Pseudo-Jerome, Psalter of St Jerome (fragment); Leaf from a Book of Hours, reused as a Cottonian frontispiece;… - Contains:
- Cotton MS Nero A II, f 1 : Pseudo-Jerome, Psalter of St Jerome (fragment)
Cotton MS Nero A II, f 2 : Leaf from a Book of Hours, reused as a Cottonian frontispiece
Cotton MS Nero A II, ff 3–13 : Calendar; Computistical texts; Hymns and prayers
Cotton MS Nero A II, ff 14–45 : Sermons; Augustine, De Fide Catholica (Sermon 233); De Litteris; Chronicle from Creation to 728; Augustine, Sermo…
Cotton MS Nero A II, ff 46–108 : Bede the Venerable, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (excerpt); Translatio et Miracula Sancti…
Click here to View / search full list of parts of Cotton MS Nero A II - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0605]/040-001102582
- 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_100064359517.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0775
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 8th century-2nd half of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Condition: Outer edges of leaves damaged by fire in 1731.
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 155 x 110 mm (text space: 85 x 55 mm [ff. 1r-1v]; 85 x 55 mm [f. 2r]; 140 x 100 mm [ff. 3r-13v]; 150 x 80 mm [ff. 14r-45v]; 115 x 70 mm [ff. 46r-108v]).
Foliation: ( + 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf and 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the end); 2 unfoliated early modern parchment endleaves between f. 1 and f. 2 (ff. [1a], [1b]); 1 between f. 45 and f. 46 (f. [45a]); f. 2 consists of two parchment leaves that have been pasted together; the quires have been mounted on paper guards; 1 paper pastedown on f. [ii] verso and f. [iii] recto (bibliographical notes).
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house: re-bound in 1984. Brown half leather binding; Cotton’s bookplate gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers, the spine inscirbed at the British Museum: ‘THEOLOGICAL TRACTS’
- Custodial History:
-
Provenance:
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: his bookplates gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers; his heraldic arms painted on f. 2r; his name (‘Ro: Cotton’) inscribed on f. 3r and f. 14r (cropped); his pressmark on f. [ 1a]verso; his binding instructions (‘[...] claspes’) on f. 1r; the table of contents on f. 2v was added by the so-called ‘stylized hand’: an unknown scribe who added tables of contents in Cotton’s most important manuscripts; the manuscript is listed in his catalogues (see Tite, The Early Records (2003), pp. 130-31).
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:
-
Bibliotheca Hagiographica Antiquae et Mediae Aetatis, Subsidia Hagiographica, 6 (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1898–1901; repr. 1992).
Bischoff, Bernhard, Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of Charlemagne, trans. and ed. by Michael Gorman, Cambridge Studies in Palaeography and Codicology, 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 48 n. 139 [originally published in Mittelalterliche Studien: Ausgewählte Aufsätze zur Schriftkunde und Literaturgeschichte,1-3 (Stuttgart: Hieresmann, 1966-1981)].
Bischoff, Bernhard, Katalog der festländischen Handschriften des neunten Jahrhunderts, 3 vols (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998-2014), II (2004): Laon-Paderborn, ed. by Birgit Ebersperger, p. 107 (no. 2421).
Bond, Edward Augustus, Edward Maunde Thompson and George Frederic Warner, The Palaeographic Society: Facsimiles of Manuscripts and Inscriptions, Second Series (London: Cloves and Sons, 1884-1894), II, pl. 35.
Borst, Arno, Der karolingische Reichskalender und seine Überlieferung bis ins 12. Jahrhundert, 2 vols (Hannover: Hahn, 2001), I, pp. 94-95.
Brown, Michelle P., ‘Sir Robert Cotton, Collector and Connoisseur?’, in Illuminating the Book: Makers and Interpreters. Essays in Honour of Janet Backhouse, ed. by Michelle P. Brown and Scot McKendrick (London: The British Library, 1998), pp. 289–90 (fig. 171).
Bullough, D. A., ‘Roman Books and Carolingian Renovatio’, Studies in Church History, 14 (1977), 23-50 (p. 33 n. 21).
A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library Deposited in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1802), p. 202.
Chardonnens, Laszlo Sándor, Anglo-Saxon Prognostics, 900-1100: Study and Texts, Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History, 153; Brill’s Texts and Sources in Intellectual History, 3 (Leiden: Brill, 2007), pp. 512, 550.
Codices Latini Antiquiores, ed. by Elias Avery Lowe, 11 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934-1966), II (1935): Great Britain and Ireland, no. 186.
Colgrave, Bertram, ‘The Post-Bedan Miracles and Translations of St Cuthbert’, in The Early Cultures of North-West Europe (H. M. Chadwick Memorial Studies), ed. by Cyril Fox and Bruce Dickins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950), pp. 305-32 (p. 319 no. 8).
Dorfbauer, Lukas J., 'Der Codex Zürich, Zentralbibliothek C 64 und seine Bedeutung für die Überlieferung von Fortunatians Evangelienkommentar', in Fortunatianus redivivus: Bischof Fortunatian von Aquileia und sein Evangelienkommentar, ed. by Lukas J. Drofbauer, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Extra Series (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017), pp. 113-60 (pp. 126, 145).
Fortunatianus Aquileiensis: Commentarii in evangelia, ed. by Lukas J. Dorfbauer, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, 103 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017), pp. 26-28 [on the text].
Gasquet, Abbot and Edmund Bishop, The Bosworth Psalter (London: Bell, 1908), pp. 165-76.
Gneuss, Helmut, ‘Liturgical Book in Anglo-Saxon England and Their Old English Terminology’, in Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies Presented to Peter Clemoes, ed. by Michael Lapidge and Helmut Gneuss (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 91-141 (p. 140).
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 Anglo-Saxon Series 15 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), pp. 267-68 (no. 342).
Haddan, A. W. and W. Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland, 3 vols (Oxford, 1869-1971), I, pp. 138-40 [Ratio de cursus].
Hartzell, K. D., Catalogue of Manuscripts Written or Owned in England up to 1200 containing Music (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2006), pp. 245-46 (no. 135).
Hillaby, Joe, 'Early Christian and Pre-Conquest Leominster: An Exploration of the Sources', Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, 45:3 (1987), 628-54.
Hillaby, Joe, ‘Leominster and Hereford, the Origins of the Diocese’, in Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology at Hereford, ed. by D. Whitehead, British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions, 15 (Routledge: London, 1995), pp. 1-14 (pp. 6-8).
Hodgson-Hinde, Symeonis Dunelmensis Opera et Collectanea, 1, The Publications of the Surtees Society, 51 (Durham: Andrews, 1868), pp. 223-33 [‘Brevis relatio de sancto Cuthberto’].
Lapidge, Michael, ‘Some Latin Poems as Evidence for the Reign of Athelstan’, Anglo-Saxon England, 9 (1981), 61-98 (pp. 84-86).
Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), pp. 198-201 (no. 157).
Ker, N. R., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, 2nd edition (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 202 and n. 7.
Levison, Wilhelm, England and the Continent in the Eight Century: The Ford Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford in the Hilary Term, 1943 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946), pp. 303-04 (as ‘C’).
Liuzza, Roy Michael, Anglo-Saxon Prognostics: An Edition and Translation of Texts from London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius A.iii (Cambridge: Brewer, 2011) p. 36, n. 128.
Mews, Constant J., 'Apostolic Authority and Celtic Liturgies', in St Samson of Dol and the Earliest History of Brittany, Cornwall and Wales, ed. by Lynette Olson (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2017), pp. 115-36 (pp. 123-24).
Muir, Bernard James, A Pre-Conquest English Prayer-Book (BL MSS Cotton Galba A.xiv and Nero A.ii (ff. 3-13)), Henry Bradshaw Society, 103 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1988), passim. pp. ix-xvii, 3-23.
Rushforth, Rebecca, An Atlas of Saints in Anglo-Saxon Calendars, ASNC Guides, Texts, and Studies, 6 (Cambridge: Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, 2002), pp. 26-27 (no. 16).
Semmler, Joseph, 'Ratio de cursus qui fuerunt eius auctores', in Initia consuetudinis Benedictinae: Consuetudines saeculi octavi et noni, ed. by K. Hallinger, Corpus Consuetudinem Monasticarum, 1 (Siegburg: Schmitt, 1963) 1, pp. 77-91.
Smith, William, The Use of Hereford: The Sources of a Medieval English Diocesan Rite (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), pp. 52, 612 n. 25, 618 n. 62, 618 n. 62, 668-69 n. 53, 703.
Stokes, Peter A., English Vernacular Minuscule from Æthelred to Cnut, c. 990-c. 1035 (Cambridge: Brewer, 2014), 47, 5-51, 65.
The Early Lives of St Dunstan, ed. and trans. by Michael Winterbottom and Michael Lapidge (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2012), pp. cxxxvi-cxxxvii.
Thompson, E. Maunde and G. F. Warner, Catalogue of Ancient Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1881-1884), II, Latin, p. 54.
Wormald, Francis, English Kalendars before A.D. 1100, Henry Bradshaw Society, 72 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1934; repr. 1988), pp. 29-41.
- 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.