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Cotton MS Nero A V
- Record Id:
- 040-001102598
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001246.0x00037f
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100062419814.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Nero A V
- Title:
- Philippe de Thaon, Comput; Bestiarius; Elias of Evesham, Quadrilogus de Vita Sancti Thome Cantuariensis
- Scope & Content:
-
This composite manuscript is composed of two parts. The first part (ff. 1r-82v), dating to the 2nd half of the 12th century, contains two Anglo-Norman works by Philippe de Thaon (fl. 1113-1150), the first Anglo-Norman poet. The first work is his Comput (Computus)−the oldest extant scientific text in the vernacular−which he composed in 1113. The second work is his Bestiarius (Bestiary)−the oldest bestiary in French–which he composed between 1121 and 1135. Cotton MS Nero A V is one of three manuscripts that contain the Bestiarius and one of six manuscripts that contain the Comput.
The manuscript's second part (ff. 83r-118v), dating to the 13th century, contains the Quadrilogus de Vita Sancti Thome Cantuariensis (Tetralogy on the Life of St Thomas of Canterbury) by Elias (fl. c. 1200), a Benedictine monk of the Benedictine abbey of Evesham. The first part originates from and was possibly also produced at the Cistercian abbey of St Mary the Virgin at Holme Cultram in Cumbria. The origin of the second part is unknown, but the two parts were most likely joined together in the library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631).
Contents:
ff. 1r-39r: Philippe de Thaon, Comput.
ff. 40v-41r: Two short Latin texts on the Computus.
ff. 41r-82v: Philippe de Thaon, Bestiarius.
ff. 83r-118v: Elias of Evesham, Quadrilogus de vita sancti Thome Cantuariensis.
The manuscript contains a few later additions:
f. 118v: A list of readings for liturgical feasts (‘oblaciones’) with folio numbers, added in a 13th-century script.
f. 1*recto: A table of contents, added by Richard James (b. 1592, d. 1638), librarian for Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631).
[ff. 1*verso, 39v, 40r, [82a]recto, [82a]verso, are empty].
Decoration:
See the descriptions of part 1 and part 2.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102598 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Nero A V : Philippe de Thaon, Comput; Bestiarius; Elias of Evesham, Quadrilogus de Vita Sancti Thome Cantuariensis - Contains:
- Cotton MS Nero A V, ff 1–82 : Philippe de Thaon, Comput; Bestiarius
Cotton MS Nero A V, ff 83–118 : Elias of Evesham, Quadrilogus de Vita Sancti Thome Cantuariensis
Click here to View / search full list of parts of Cotton MS Nero A V - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0608]/040-001102598
- 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_100062419814.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Anglo-Norman
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1130
- End Date:
- 1270
- Date Range:
- Mid 12th century-Mid 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Condition: outer edges of leaves damaged by fire in 1731.
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 160 x 120 mm (text space: approximately 130 x 85 mm [ff. 1r-82v]; approximately 125 x 95 mm [ff. 83r-118v]).
Foliation: ff. 1* + 118 ( + 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves and 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the end); 1 unfoliated parchment leaf between f. 82 and f. 83 (f. [82a]); f. 1* originally was a flyleaf; 1 parchment stub between f. 2 and f. 3; 2 paper stubs between f. 89 and f. 90; a paper pastedown (with bibliographical notes) on f. [ii]recto; old pagination (crossed out) on ff. 83r-118v (pp. 1-72).
Script: Protogothic (ff. 1r-82v); Gothic (ff. 83r-118v).
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house: gold-tooled brown half-leather binding (1908); Cotton’s bookplates gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers, the spine inscribed in gold: ‘P. DE THAN, LIBER DE CREATURIS ET BESTIARIUS. QUADRILOGUS’; the gold-stamped bookplates from the original Cottonian binding have been pasted on the inside of the upper and lower covers; marbled endpapers.
- 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; original bookplates on the insides of the upper and lower covers; f. 1*r contains a table of contents, added by Richard James (b. 1592, d. 1638), librarian for Cotton; perhaps Cotton's note in the lower margin of f. 83r: ‘This quier must be twise sewed’; the quire marks in the first part (ff. 1r-82v) have been added in his library; the manuscript is listed in his catalogues (see Colin G.C. Tite, The Early Records (2003), p. 131).
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), p. 1187 (no. 8194).
A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library Deposited in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1802), pp. 202-03.
Careri, Maria, Christine Ruby, and Ian Short, Livres et écritures en français et en occitan au XIIe siècle: Catalogue illustré (Rome: Viella, 2011), pp. 74-77 (no. 33).
Dean, Ruth J., and Maureen B. M. Boulton, Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts, Anglo-Norman Text Society: Occasional Publication Series, 3 (London: Anglo Norman Text Society, 1999), pp. 190-91 (no. 346) [Comput]; pp. 191-92 (no. 347) [Bestiaire].
Hasenohr, Geneviève, ‘Écrire en latin, écrire en roman: réflexions sur la pratique des abréviations dans les manuscrits français des XIIe et XIIIe siècles’, in Langages et peuples d’Europe: Cristallisation des identités romanes et germaniques (VII e -XI e siècle): colloque international organisé par le Centre européen d'art et de civilisation médiévale de Conques et l'Université de Toulouse-Le Mirail (Toulouse-Conques, juillet 1997), ed. by Michel Banniard (Toulouse: CNRS, 2002), pp. 79–110 (pp. 101-03, 106-08).
Lawrence-Mathers, Anne, Manuscripts in Northumbria in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Woodbridge: Brewer, 2003), pp. 215 n. 86, 267.
Le Bestiaire de Philippe de Thaün, ed. by Emmanual Walberg (Lund: Malmström, 1900), esp. pp. i-v, x-xvii.
Li Cumpoz Philipe de Thaün: Der Computus des Philipp von Thaun mit einer Einleitung über die Sprache des Autors, ed. by Eduard Mall (Strasbourg: Trübner, 1873), pp. 1-2.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil Ripley Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 102.
McCulloch, Florence, Medieval Latin and French Bestiaries, University of North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, 33 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1962), p. 48.
Morson, John, ‘The English Cistercians and the Bestiary’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library Manchester, 39:1 (1956), 168-69.
Muratova, Xenia, ‘The Decorated Manuscripts of the Bestiary of Philippe de Thaon’, in Third International Beast Epic, Fable and Fabliau Colloquium: Münster 1979, ed. by Jan Goossens and Timothy Sodmann (Cologne: Böhlau, 1981), pp. 217-46 (pp. 219-20).
O’Donnell, Thomas, ‘The Gloss to Philippe de Thaon’s Comput and the French of England’s Beginnings’, in The French of Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, ed. by Thelma Fenster and Carolyn P. Collette (Cambridge: Brewer, 2017), pp. 13-37 (p. 13 n. 3).
Philippe de Thaon: Comput (MS BL Cotton Nero A.V), ed. by Ian Short, Anglo-Norman Text Society: Plain Texts Series, 2 (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1984), passim.
Saeculum XII: S. Thomae Cantuariensis Archiepiscopi et Martyris nec non Herberti de Boseham clerici ejus a secretis Opera Omnia, ed. by J. A. Giles, D., Patrologiæ Cursus Completus, Series Latina, 190 (Paris: Garnier, 1854), cols 1-363.
Tite, Colin G. C., The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), p. 131.
Wright, Thomas, Popular Treatises on Science Written during the Middle Ages in Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, and English (London: Taylor, 1841), pp. xi-xii, 20-73.
- 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.