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Cotton MS Otho A VI
- Record Id:
- 040-001102832
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001273.0x0001e2
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100064361917.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Otho A VI
- Title:
-
Old English prose and verse translation of Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae; Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita Sancti Edwardi Regis et Confessoris; fragment of an account of a pilgrimage to Edward the Confessor's shrine
- Scope & Content:
-
This composite manuscript contains two parts, bound together in the 17th century.
Contents:
ff. 1r-129v: the only surviving copy of an Old English translation of Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae in alternating prose and verse. These folios were copied in the mid-10th century.
ff. 130r-168v: Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita Sancti Edwardi Regis et Confessoris, which was copied in the second half of the 12th century.
f. 169r: a damaged, 13th-century fragment of an account of a group from Norfolk's pilgrimage to Edward the Confessor's shrine.
According to Smith's 1696 catalogue of Cotton's library, the manuscript once also contained a separate account of one of Edward the Confessor's miracles. This appears to have been lost when the manuscript was damaged in the Ashburnham House fire of 1731.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102832 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Otho A VI : Old English prose and verse translation of Boethius, De consolatione philosophiae; Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita Sancti Edwardi… - Contains:
- Cotton MS Otho A VI, ff 1–129 : Old English translation of Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae
Cotton MS Otho A VI, f 169 : Fragment of an account of a pilgrimage to St Edward the Confessor's shrine
Cotton MS Otho A VI, ff 130–168 : Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita Sancti Edwardi Regis et Confessoris
Click here to View / search full list of parts of Cotton MS Otho A VI - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0730]/040-001102832
- 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_100064361917.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Old
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0950
- End Date:
- 0974
- Date Range:
- 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 10th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Condition: leaves damaged by fire in 1731 .
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 285 × 220 mm (text space: approximately 160 x 100 mm).
Foliation: ff. 169 (+ 4 unfoliated modern flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end).
Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound in 1844.
- Custodial History:
-
Provenance:
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: cited in Cotton's catalogues (see Tite, Early Records (2003), p. 108); table of content written by his librarian Richard James (f. 3r); his arms (front outside cover).
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.
- Publications:
-
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story (London: The British Library, 2018), no. 97 [exhibition catalogue].
Bibliotheca Hagiographica Antiquae et Mediae Aetatis, Subsidia Hagiographica, 6, 2 vols (Brussels, 1898–1901; repr. 1992), no. 2423.
Dumville, David, 'English Square minuscule script: the mid-century phases', Anglo-Saxon England, 23 (1994), 133-64 (p. 147).
Freeland, J.P. (trans.), Aelred of Rievaulx: The Historical Works, ed. by M.L. Dutton, Cistercian Fathers Series, 56 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2005), p. 36.
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. 347.
Godden, Michael and Susan Irvine, The Old English Boethius: An Edition of the Old English Versions of Boethius's De Consolatione Philosophiae, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), especially vol I, pp. 18-24.
Godden, Michael and Susan Irvine, The Old English Boethius: with verse prologues and epilogues associated with King Alfred, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, 19 (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2012).
Irvine, Susan, ‘Fragments of Boethius: The Reconstruction of the Cotton Manuscript of the Alfredian Text’, Anglo-Saxon England, 34 (2005), 169-81.
Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), no. 167.
Kiernan, Kevin S., 'Alfred the Great's Burnt Boethius', in The Iconic Page in Manuscript, Print, and Digital Culture, ed. by George Bornstein and Theresa Tinkle (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1998), pp. 7-32.
Murray, Kylie. 'Books beyond Borders: Fresh Findings on Boethius's Reception in Twelfth-Century Scotland', Medievalia et Humanistica: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Culture, New Series, Number 41, ed. by Eva von Contzen and Luuk Houwen (London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016), pp. 7-44 (p. 22).
Smith, Thomas, Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Cottonianæ (Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1696), p. 66.
- Exhibitions:
- Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, British Library, London, 19 October 2018 - 19 February 2019
- 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.