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Cotton MS Otho B X

Record Id:

040-001102864

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-001101582

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001273.0x0001f6

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Cotton MS Otho B X

Title:

Collection of fragmentary works in Old English, including Ælfric of Eynsham's Hexameron, saints' Lives and homilies, Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, and Gregory the Great's Regula pastoralis

Scope & Content:

Cotton MS Otho B X was badly damaged in the Ashburnham House fire of 1731, and only fragments of around 53 of its leaves now remain. Following extensive restoration work undertaken at the British Museum by Sir Frederic Madden (b. 1801, d. 1873) and his assistant N. E. S. A. Hamilton, the fragments were arranged out of their original order, with several inserted into the volume either reversed (e.g. ff. 13, 34, 36) or upside down (e.g. ff. 26, 27), and bound together with fragments from other manuscripts in the Cotton collection of varying dates and origins, which were also damaged in the fire.

The surviving fragments can now be divided into six parts. The first and principal part of the manuscript (ff. 1r-28v, 31r-50v, 52r-54v, 56r-57v, 59r-60v, 65r-v, and 67r-v) comprises fragments of leaves that were original to the volume. These fragments date to the first half of the 11th century and contain the Hexameron of Ælfric of Eynsham (b. c. 955, d. c. 1010), together with a number of Old English saints' Lives and homilies, most of which were also authored by him. An additional fragment from this part of the manuscript (now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson Q. E. 20), containing Ælfric's Life of St Basil, was retrieved in the aftermath of the fire by the antiquary Browne Willis (b. 1682, d. 1760) and given by him to Thomas Hearne (b. 1678, d. 1735) on 15 November 1731. For a description and suggested reading order for the surviving fragments, see Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts (1957), pp. 224-29 (no. 177).

The second part (ff. 29r-30v) dates to the middle of the 11th century and contains fragments of two homilies based on the story of Judith and Holofernes, and of Malchus, written in Old English. The homilies formerly occupied twelve leaves in the manuscript before the fire, and also included a letter of Christ sent to Jerusalem. The fragments feature interlinear glosses written by the 13th-century scribe and annotator known as the 'Tremulous Hand of Worcester'. For a description of the surviving fragments, see Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts (1957), p. 229 (no. 178).

The third part (f. 51r-v) comprises a single leaf from a Gospel-book (comprising Mark 13:11-24) in an Old English translation dating from the 1st quarter of the 11th century and which originally belonged to Cotton MS Otho C I/1. For a description and suggested reading order for the surviving fragments, see Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts (1957), pp. 234-35 (no. 181).

The fourth part (ff. 55r-v, 58r-v, 62r-v) dates to the middle of the 10th century and contains fragments of an Old English translation of the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (History of the English Peoples) by the English monk and historian Bede (b. 673/4, d. 735). The fragments originally belonged to Cotton MS Otho B XI. An additional leaf from this manuscript, detached before the 1731 fire, is now Add MS 34652, f. 2. For a description and suggested reading order for the surviving fragments, see Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts (1957), pp. 230-34 (no. 180).

The fifth part (ff. 61r-v, 63r-64v) dates between the second half of the 10th century and 1st quarter of the 11th century and contains fragments of an Old English translation of Gregory the Great's Regula Pastoralis. The fragments originally belonged to Cotton MS Otho B II. For a description and suggested reading order for the surviving fragments, see Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts (1957), pp. 222-23 (no. 175).

The sixth part (f. 66r-v) dates to the 1st quarter of the 11th century and comprises a single fragment from an Old English translation of the Life of St Machutus (b. c. 250, d. 621), also known as St Malo. The fragment originally belonged to Cotton MS Otho A VIII, f. 9. For a description and suggested reading order for the surviving fragments, see Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts (1957), pp. 218-19 (no. 168).

Two surviving descriptions of the original volume and its contents were made before the 1731 fire: the first by the English scholar Thomas Smith (b. 1638, d. 1710) as part of his catalogue of the Cotton Library published in 1696 (see Smith, Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Cottoniae (Oxford, 1696), p. 70), and the second by the Harley librarian Humfrey Wanley (b. 1672, d. 1726) as part of his catalogue of Old English manuscripts published in 1705 (see Wanley, Librorum Veterum Septentrionalium Catalogus (Oxford, 1705), p. 190), in which he also transcribed the incipits and explicits of each text.

Among the notable contents of the manuscript, now lost, was a Life of St Margaret and the Old English Rune Poem, an 8th- or 9th-century verse text comprising stanzas on 29 characters from the futhorc, the runic alphabet. Although Cotton MS Otho B X was the sole surviving manuscript recording the work, a facsimile was published by the English scholar George Hickes (b. 1642, d. 1715) in 1705, upon which all subsequent editions of the poem are now based (see Hickes, Linguarum Veterum Septentrionalium Thesaurus Grammatico-Criticus et Archaeologicus (Oxford, 1705), p. 135).

Contents:

ff. 1r-28v, 31r-50v, 52r-54v, 56r-57v, 59r-60v, 65r-v, 67r-v: Ælfric of Eynsham, Hexameron, with a collection saints' Lives and homilies, most also authored by him, written in Old English.

ff. 29r-30v: Homilies based on the story of Judith and Holophernes, and of Malchus, written in Old English, with interlinear glosses by the 13th-century scribe known as the 'Tremulous Hand of Worcester'.

f. 51r-v: Leaf from a Gospel-book, written in Old English, the text comprising Mark 13: 11-24.

ff. 55r-v, 58r-v, 62r-v: Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, written in Old English.

ff. 61r-v, 63r-64v: Gregory the Great, Regula pastoralis, written in Old English.

f. 66r-v: Life of St Machutus, written in Old English.

Decoration:

Initials and nota highlighted in red.

Rubrics.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Cotton Collection

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-001101582
040-001102864

Is part of:

Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts

Cotton MS Otho B X : Collection of fragmentary works in Old English, including Ælfric of Eynsham's Hexameron, saints' Lives and homilies,…

Hierarchy:

032-001101582[0750]/040-001102864

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English, Old

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

0930

End Date:

1070

Date Range:

Middle of the 10th century-Middle of the 11th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Condition: Leaves damaged by fire in 1731.

Dimensions: Approximately 310 × 245 mm.

Foliation: ff. 67 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and end).

Script: English vernacular minuscule.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Brown half-leather binding with the Cotton arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers. Rebound 8 April 1963.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England (ff. 1-28, 31-50, 52-54, 56-57, 59-60, 65, 67); Worcester, England (ff. 29-30); ?Malmesbury, England (f. 51); Winchester, England (ff. 55, 58, 62); South-East England, possibly London (ff. 61, 63-64); Canterbury or Winchester, England (f. 66).

Provenance:

John Joscelyn (b. 1529, d. 1603), English clergyman and antiquarian: described as 'A Saxon book of diuers saints liues and the Alphabett of the old Danish letter amonghs Mr Gocelins' in the early catalogue of Cotton's collection (Harley MS 6018, f. 162v); Abbo's preface to the Life of St Edmund, written in Joscelyn's hand in a marginal inscription (f. 42r); Joscelyn's notes referencing his ownership of the manuscript in an 11th-century set of glosses and reader directions (now Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 9), written against Latin Lives of St Basil ('Habeo saxonice f. 26'), SS Julian and Basilissa ('Habeo saxonice'), St Sebastian ('Habeo anglice f. 49') and St Agnes ('Habeo anglice f. 57'); see Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts (1957), p. 229.

Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: listed in his catalogues (Add MS 36789, ff. 22r-23r; Add MS 36682); loaned to William Camden (b. 1551, d. 1623), English antiquarian and historian, between 1612 and 1616 (see Harley MS 6018, f. 162v). 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:

Acker, Paul, 'Three Tables of Contents, One Old English Homiliary, in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 178', in Old English Literature in its Manuscript Context, ed. by Joyce Tally Lionarons (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2004), p. 129.

Assmann, Bruno, ed., Angelsächsische Homilien und Heiligenleben (Gottlingen: Kassel, 1899), pp. xxvii-xxviii.

Brown, Michelle, The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality and the Scribe (London: British Library, 2003), p. 136.

Cameron, Angus Fraser, 'Middle English in Old English Manuscripts', in Chaucer and Middle English Studies in Honour of Rossell Hope Robbins (London: Allen and Unwin, 1974), p. 221.

Clayton, Mary and Hugh Magennis, ed., The Old English Lives of St Margaret (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 41 n.2, 58-61, 94-95.

Clemoes, Peter, ed., Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: The First Series. Text (Oxford: Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 1997), pp. 60-61, 183-86, 187-88.

Collins, Rowland L., and Peter Clemoes, 'The Common Origin of Ælfric Fragments at New Haven, Oxford, Cambridge, and Bloomington', in Old English Studies in Honour of John C. Pope, ed. by Robert Bradford Burlin and Edward Burroughs Irving (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974), pp. 285-326 (p. 322).

Corona, Gabriella, ed., Ælfric's Life of Saint Basil the Great: Background and Context (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006), pp. 130-32.

Crawford, Samuel John, ed., Exameron Anglice or The Old English Hexameron, Bibliothek der angelsachsischen Prosa 10(Hamburg: 1921), pp. 61-65.

Crawford, Samuel John, ed., The Old English Version of the Heptateuch, Ælfric's Treatise on the Old and New Testament and his Preface to Genesis, edited from all existing MSS and Fragments, with the Text of Additional Manuscripts transcribed by N. R. Ker (London: Oxford University Press, 1969), pp. 5-6.

Derolez, Rene, Runica Manuscripta: The English Tradition (Bruges: 'De Tempel, 1954), pp. 16-18.

Fowler, Roger, ed., Wulfstan's Canons of Edgar (London: Published for the Early English Text Society by Oxford University Press, 1972), pp. xxii-xxiv.

Franzen, Christine, The Tremulous Hand of Worcester: A Study of Old English in the Thirteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), pp. 53-54.

Gameson, Richard, 'St Wulfstan, the Library of Worcester and the Spirituality of the Medieval Book', in St Wulfstan and his World, ed. by Julia Barrow and Nicholas Brooks (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), pp. 59-104 (p. 93).

Gneuss, Helmut, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 241 (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001), nos. 348, 353, 355, 356, 357, 358.

Godden, Malcolm, ed., Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: The Second Series, Text (London: Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 1979), pp. lvii-lviii.

Haines, Dorothy, ed., Sunday Observance and the Sunday Letter in Anglo-Saxon England (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2010), pp. 63, 72-74.

Heyworth, P. L., ed., The Letters of Humfrey Wanley: Palaeographer, Anglo-Saxonist, Library, 1672-1726 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), p. 15.

Hickes, George, Linguarum Veterum Septentrionalium Thesaurus Grammatico-Criticus et Archaeologicus (Oxford, 1705), p. 135.

Hudson, Alison, Bishop Æthelwold, His Followers, and Saints' Cults in Early Medieval England: Power, Belief, and Religious Reform (Martlesham: The Boydell Press, 2022), pp. 204-05.

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), nos. 175, 177, 178, 179, 180.

Kiernan, Kevin, Brent Seals and James Griffioen, 'The Reappearance of St. Basil the Great in British Library MS Cotton Otho B. X', The Computer and the Humanities, 36 (2002), 7-26.

Laing, Margaret, Catalogue of Sources for a Linguistic Atlas of Early Medieval English (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1993), p. 79.

Lapidge, Michael, The Cult of St Swithun (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003), p. 580.

Lee, S. D., 'Two fragments from Cotton MS Otho B.X', British Library Journal, 17 (1991), 83-87.

Lionarons, Joyce Tally, The Homiletic Writings of Archbishop Wulfstan: A Critical Study (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2010), pp. 12, 20, 116-17, 127, 133.

Magennis, Hugh, ed., The Anonymous Old English Legend of the Seven Sleepers (Durham: Durham Medieval Texts, 1994), pp. 13-19.

Magennis, Hugh, ed., The Old English Life of St Mary of Egypt: An Edition of the Old English Text with Modern English Parallel Text Translation (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2002), pp. 15-16, 34-43.

Marsden, Richard, ed., The Old English Heptateuch and Ælfric's Libellus de Veteri Testamento et Novo (Oxford: Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 2008), pp. lvi-lix.

Page, Raymond, An Introduction to English Runes (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1999), p. 63.

Planta, Joseph, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library, Deposited in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1802), p. 365.

Prescott, Andrew, 'The Ghost of Asser', in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts and their Heritage, ed. by Phillip Pulsiano and Elaine M. Treharne (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1988), pp. 255-93 (pp. 227, 276).

Pulsiano, Phillip, ed., 'The Passion of St Christopher', in Early Medieval English Texts and Interpretations: Studies Presented to Donald G. Scragg (Tempe: Arizona Centre, 2006), pp. 167-99 (p. 167).

Rowley, Sharon M., The Old English Version of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2011), p. 163.

Scragg, Donald, 'The Corpus of Vernacular Homilies and Prose Saints' Lives before Ælfric', Anglo-Saxon England, 8 (1979), 223-77 (p. 263).

Scragg, Donald, 'The Corpus of Anonymous Lives and their Manuscript Context', in Holy Men and Holy Women: Old English Prose Saints' Lives and their Contexts, ed. by Paul E. Szarmach (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1996), pp. 209-34 (p. 221).

Scragg. Donald, A Conspectus of Scribal Hands writing English, 700-1100 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2021), pp. 9, 53-54 (nos. 69.6, 515, 517-527, 530).

Skeat, Walter, ed., Ælfric's Lives of Saints, 2 vols (London: Trübner for the Early English Text Society, 1881-1900).

Smith, Thomas, Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Cottoniae (Oxford: 1696), p. 70.

Stokes, Peter, English Vernacular Minuscule from Æthelred to Cnut, c. 990-c 1035 (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 2014), pp. 13, 19, 29-30, 75, 87-88, 96-97, 102, 106, 107, 136, 145, 147, 149, 174.

Thomson, Rodney M., 'Identifiable Books from the Pre-Conquest Library of Malmesbury Abbey', Anglo-Saxon England, 10 (1982), 1-19 (p. 16).

Thomson, Simon C., Communal Creativity in the Making of the 'Beowulf' Manuscript: Towards a History of Reception for the Nowell Codex (Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. 18-19.

Tite, Colin G. C., The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton's Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), p. 151.

Upchurch, Robert K., ed., Ælfric's Lives of the Virgin Spouses (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2007), pp. xii, 52.

Wanley, Humfrey, Librorum Veterum Septentrionalium Catalogus (Oxford, 1705), pp. 190-95.

Withers, B. C., 'Unfulfilled Promise: The Rubrics of the Old English Prose Genesis', Anglo-Saxon England, 28 (1999), 111-39 (pp. 111, 112-18, 128, 129, 130, 131, 133).

Withers, B. C., The Illustrated Old English Hexateuch, Cotton MS Claudius B iv (London: British Library, 2007), pp. 62, 229-31, 233, 261-63.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Bede the Venerable, Saint, c 673-735,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000120962352,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/61539765
Gregory I, Saint, Pope; also known as 'the Great', c 540-604,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000121451132,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/100184667
Joscelyn, John, English clergyman and antiquarian, 1529-1603,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000025460098,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/64029615
Ælfric of Eynsham, Abbot of Eynsham, c 955-c 1010,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000118377445,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/262214286

Places:

England

Related Material:

At least eight fragments now bound as part of Cotton MS Otho B X originally belonged to other volumes in the Cotton collection, as follows:

f. 51 belonged to Cotton MS Otho C I/1; ff. 55, 58, and 62 belonged to Cotton MS Otho B XI (an additional leaf from this volume is now Add MS 34652, f. 2); ff. 61 and 63-64 belonged to Cotton MS Otho B II; f. 66 belonged to Cotton MS Otho A VIII, f. 9.

Related Archive Descriptions:

Cotton MS Otho B II