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Cotton MS Vitellius C V
- Record Id:
- 040-001103009
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001273.0x000249
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100058094394.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Vitellius C V
- Title:
- Old English Homilies, including the first series of Ælfric, Catholic Homilies
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains the first series of Ælfric's Catholic Homilies copied in last quarter of the 10th century or 1st quarter of the 11th century. In the 1st half of the 11th century, further sermons, including sermons from the second series and other homilies in the style of Ælfric, were interpolated throughout the volume following the order of the liturgical year. The interpolator also numbered the sermons and added a table of contents (f. 1v).
The manuscript was badly damaged by fire and some of its leaves are now out of order. Folio 1 seems to have been reversed, and the text order suggests that f. 14 should come after f. 15, f. 115 after f. 116, and f. 236 after f. 238 (see Ker, Catalogue (1957), p. 285). Folios 2r-3v contain a 16th-century copy of the text on ff. 1, 4-5 (see Ker, Catalogue (1957), p. 286).
Decoration: Initials in blue (ff. 1r, 71v, 96r, 132v, 139r, 177v). Numbers in red (f. 1v). Initials and rubrics in red. Initials in brown or degraded red (f. 12r, 50r). Initial in green (f. 172r). Small initials in black and brown.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001103009 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Vitellius C V : Old English Homilies, including the first series of Ælfric, Catholic Homilies - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0833]/040-001103009
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100058094394.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Old
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0975
- End Date:
- 1049
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 10th century-1st half of the 11th 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 and ink.
Dimensions: binding 300 × 260 mm (text space approximately 250 x 170 mm).
Foliation: ff. 254 (+ unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).
Binding: BM/BL in-house, rebound in 1962.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ? South-West or ? South-East England: the spelling of Old English words uses non-West Saxon forms (see Scragg, 'Compilation' (1994), p. 333).
Provenance:
? The Benedictine Abbey of St Mary and St Rumon, Tavistock: an inscription in the flyleaf of another collection of homilies (Cambridge, University Library Ii.4.6) mentions a similar book which belonged to Tavistock and later Francis, earl of Bedford, which Wanley identified with this manuscript (Wanley, Antiquae, p. 208).
? Francis Russell, 2nd earl of Bedford (d. 1585): an inscription in the flyleaf of another collection of homilies (Cambridge, University Library Ii.4.6) mentions a similar book which belonged to Tavistock and later Francis, earl of Bedford, which Wanley identified with this manuscript (Wanley, Antiquae (1705), p. 208).
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: inscribed with a fragment of his signature (f. 1r). 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:
-
Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, ed. by A.N. Doane and others, 17 (Binghamton, New York, and Tempe, Arizona, 2008), no. 254.
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts.
- Publications:
-
Clemoes, P. (ed.), Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: the First Series, Text, Early English Text Society, Supplementary Series, 17 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) [includes edition, with this manuscript collated as 'H'].
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. 403.
Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), no. 220.
Ker, N. R. (ed.), Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, 2nd edn (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 188.
Scragg, D., 'The Compilation of the Vercelli Book', in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: Basic Readings, ed. by Mary P. Richards (New York: Garland, 1994),pp. 317-44 (p. 333).
Stokes, Peter A., English Vernacular Minuscule from Æthelred to Cnut circa 990-1035 (D.S. Brewer: Cambridge, 2014), pp. 13, 32, 127, 137, 146, 162, 163, 201.
Tite, Colin, The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton's Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: British Library, 2003), p. 163.
Wanley, H., Antiquae Literaturae Septentrionalis Liber Alter (Oxford, 1705), p. 208.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)