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Cotton MS Vespasian D XI
- Record Id:
- 040-001103327
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001273.0x0002d7
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100062419968.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Vespasian D XI
- Title:
- Lawrence of Durham, Consolatio de Morte Amici; Hypognosticon; Oratio pro Laurentio; Oratio pro Naufragis; Oratio pro Iuvenibus Compeditis (imperfect); Oratio pro Milone (imperfect); Maledictio
- Scope & Content:
-
This 12th-century manuscript contains works by Lawrence of Durham (b. c. 1110, d. 1154), poet, hagiographer, and prior of Durham Cathedral Priory. The manuscript primarily contains the Hypognosticon (‘Abbreviation’), a poem that recounts the biblical history of mankind from its creation until present. Lawrence wrote the poem as he served at the court of Rufus, bishop of Durham, between 1133 and 1141.
Contents:
ff. 2r-16v: Lawrence of Durham, Consolatio de Morte Amici (Consolation on the Death of a Friend).
ff. 16v-100r: Lawrence of Durham, Hypognosticon, with a Prologue, Books I-IX.
ff. 100r-102v: Lawrence of Durham, Oratio pro Laurentio (Prayer for Lawrence).
ff. 102v-105v: Lawrence of Durham, Oratio pro Naufragiis (Prayer for the Shipwrecked).
ff. 105v-107v: Lawrence of Durham, Oratio pro Juvenibus Compeditis (Prayer for Young Prisoners), imperfect.
ff. 108r-108v: Lawrence of Durham, Oratio pro Milone (Prayer for Milo), imperfect.
The manuscript contains a number of additions:
ff. 108v-109r: A malediction, beginning ‘Ex Auctoritate dei patris omnipotentis, et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, atque ex vice beati Petri apostoli excommunicamus’, added in a 12th-century script.
f. 1r: A table of contents, added by Richard James (b. 1592, d. 1638), librarian for Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631).
f. 18r: A Latin saying, added in a 15th-century script: ‘Vt ver, dat flores : flos, fructum: fructus, odores: / Sic studium, mores: mos, senssum : senssus, honores / Q[uod] W[e?]nkuslys’.
f. 18r: A copy of the 15th-century inscription, in a 16th- or 17th-century script, perhaps added by Richard Amadas.
f. 18v: An excerpt from the Gesta Romanorum (Deeds of the Romans), Chapter 163 (De timore inordinato), ‘Nexus ovem geminam per spinam traxit equinam’, added in a 12th-century script.
f. 109v: A prayer for the deceased (‘Deus, cujus miseracione animae requiescunt famulis et familabus tuis omnibus hic et ubique in Christo quiescentibus, da propitius veniam peccatorum, ut a cunctis reatibus absoliti, tecum sine sine laetentur - per dominum’), added in the 14th or 15th century.
f. 109v: A prayer for the deceased from the Office of the Dead (‘Deus, qui inter Apostolicos sacerdotes famulos tuos pontificali seu sacerdotali fecisti dignitate vigere: praesta quaesumus: ut eorum quoque perpetuo aggregentur consortio – per Christum’), in the 14th or 15th century.
[f. 1v is empty].
Decoration:
Large and medium initials in green, ochre and red, sometimes with arabesque motifs in the same colour and penwork decoration in another colour. Rubrics in red or red and ochre. Catchwords in red. Line-fillers in red. Quotation marks, underlining, paraph markers, and quire marks (first folios) in brown ink; ff. 69r-72v only: small (one-line) initials highlighted in red and green; quotation marks in brown, green and red. A drawing of a man added in brown ink to the upper margin of f. 102v.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001103327 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Vespasian D XI : Lawrence of Durham, Consolatio de Morte Amici; Hypognosticon; Oratio pro Laurentio; Oratio pro Naufragis; Oratio… - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0975]/040-001103327
- 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_100062419968.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1150
- End Date:
- 1199
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Condition: intact.
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 200 x 145 mm (text space: 150/155 x 75/90 mm).
Foliation: ff. 109 ( + 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves and 1 parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the end); 1 parchment stub between f. 9 and f. 10; f. 107 and f. 108; and f. 108 and f. 109; numerous parchment stubs throughout the manuscript; the outer margins of f. 12 and f. 13, and the lower margin of f. 14, have been repaired with new parchment; 17th-century foliation throughout the manuscript only.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown half leather binding; Cotton’s bookplate gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers, the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: ‘LAWRENCE OF DURHAM WORKS ETC.’; re-bound on 21 February 1962.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Abbey Dore, Southwestern England.
Provenance:
The Cistercian abbey of St Mary, Abbey Dore, founded in 1147: its ownership inscription, added in a (?) 15th-century script on f. 2r: ‘Hic est liber sancte Marie vall[is] dore’ (see Ker, Medieval Libraries (1964), p. 58).
Richard Amadas (d. ? 1629), rector of Hallingbury Magna in Essex (his will, dated to 18 December 1626, was proved on 26 June 1629): his name-signature (‘Richarde Amadas’) is inscribed twice, once in a 16th- and once in a (?) 17th-century hand, on f. 2r; also owned Cotton MS Titus D XVI (name inscribed on f. 1r) and Cambridge, University Library, Ff. 4. 42. Oates has identified Amadas as the author of inscriptions in the latter manuscript (see Oates, ‘Notes’ (1982), pp. 81-87), but he has previously not been identified as the owner of the two Cotton manuscripts: Tite does not identify ‘Richarde Amadas’ in his description of Titus D XVI (see Tite, The Early Records (2003), pp. 199-200) and notes that the inscriptions on f. 2r of Cotton MS Vespasian D XI have yet to be transcribed (see Tite, The Early Records (2003), p. 183). However, a comparison between the inscriptions in the Cotton manuscripts and the Cambridge manuscript leave no doubt that these were added by the same Richard Amadas. Amadas is likely to have passed Cotton MS Vespasian D XI on to his wife (unidentified): in his will (Greater London Record Office, DL/C/420/-) he bequeaths his library (‘all my bokes that I have’) to his wife (see Oates, Cambridge University Library (1986), p. 347).
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: his bookplates gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers; his shelfmark inscribed on f. 1r; the table of contents on f. 1r was added by his librarian Richard James (see Colin G.C. Tite, The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), p. 183).
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:
-
A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library Deposited in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1802), p. 476.
Daub, Susanne, Gottes Heilsplan - verdichtet: Edition des Hypognosticon des Laurentius Dunelmensis (Erlangen: Palm, 2002), p. 49 (as 'L3').
Hoste, Anselm, ‘A Survey of the Unedited Work of Laurence of Durham: With an Edition of his Letter to Aelred of Rievaulx’, Sacris Erudiri, 11 (1960), 249-65 (p. 256).
Kindermann, Udo, Laurentius von Durham: Consolatio de morte amici: Untersuchungen und kritischer Text (Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nuremberg, 1969), pp. 113-16 (as ‘C’).
Kindermann, Udo, ‘Die fünf Reden des Laurentius von Durham’, Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 8 (1973), 108-41 (pp. 125-141 ['as C']).
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. 58.
Mistretta, Mary Liguori, The Hypognosticon of Lawrence of Durham: A Preliminary Text with an Introduction (New York: Fordham University, 1941).
Oates, John Claud Trewinard, ‘Notes on the Later History of the Oldest Manusript of Welsh Poetry: The Cambridge Juvencus’, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, 3 (1982), 81-87 [on Richard Amadas].
Oates, John Claud Trewinard, Cambridge University Library: A History from the Beginnings to the Copyright Act of Queen Anne (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 346-47 [on Richard Amadas].
Tite, Colin G. C., The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), p. 183.
- 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.