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Cotton MS Titus A IV
- Record Id:
- 040-001103480
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001273.0x000313
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100101103194.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Titus A IV
- Title:
- Bilingual Rule of St Benedict and other texts
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 2r-117v are dated to the mid-11th century:
ff. 2r–107r: St Benedict of Nursia (b.c. 480, d. 543 or 547), Regula sancti Benedicti or The Rule of St Benedict, in a bilingual version, with the Old English translation, attributed to St Æthelwold ((b. 904/9, d. 984), Bishop of Winchester, following the Latin, chapter by chapter; consisting of a prologue and 73 numbered chapters, preceded by a table of contents in Latin (the entries for Chapters LXIII-LXV were inserted in the lower margin in a 15th-century hand);
ff. 107r–111r: Capitula of Aachen, 817, (here dated 917), measures for the application of the Rule of St Benedict in monastic orders in the Carolingian Empire;
ff. 111r–117v: Memoriale qualiter in monasterio conversare debemus, a supplement to the Rule of St Benedict, ascribed to Benedict of Aniane (b. 751, d. 821);
f. 117v: De festivitatibus anni.
The texts on ff. 107r-117v are found also in and were probably copied from Harley MS 5431, though most of the De festivitatibus anni has been erased there (see Ker Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (1990).
ff. 118r–123v are dated to the 2nd half of the 12th century or the 1st quarter of the 13th century:
ff. 118r-121r: Regula sancti Benedicti, consisting of the latter half of chapter 48 and chapter 49, in Latin;
ff. 121r–123v: An Anglo-Norman French version of the same portion of the Rule of St Benedict copied in Latin on ff. 118r-121r.
Decoration:
Initials in red, blue or green with decoration in the same colour at the beginning of lines (ff. 2r-3r, 107r-111r) or chapters (ff. 3v-106v). Roman numerals (ff. 107r- 111r) and rubrics in red. No decoration on ff. 118-123.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001103480 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Titus A IV : Bilingual Rule of St Benedict and other texts - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[1035]/040-001103480
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex, 123 folios
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100101103194.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Anglo-Norman
English, Old
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1050
- End Date:
- 1224
- Date Range:
- Mid-11th century-1st quarter of the 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
-
Letter of introduction required to use this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: parchment.
Dimensions: 190 × 120 mm (text space: 145 x 80mm).
Foliation: ff. 123 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 1 parchment flyleaf at the beginning and 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves and 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end + 2 unfoliated parchment leaves between ff. 117 and 118).
Script: English Caroline minuscule (ff. 1-118); Gothic (ff. 118-123).
Binding: BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1915.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: (?)Winchester or (?)St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury.
Provenance:
Thomas Allen of Oxford (d. 1632), his name inscribed on f. 2 and in his catalogue of 1622, Bodleian MS Wood F. 26, f. 26 (see Andrew G. Watson, 'Thomas Allen of Oxford and his Manuscripts' in Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts and Libraries: Essays presented to N.R. Ker ed. by Michael B. Parkes and Andrew G. Watson (London: Scolar, 1978), pp. 279-314).
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: included in his handlist of manuscripts in his collection, dated c.1616, Additional MS 35213, f. 43 and in the catalogue of his library 1631-32, Additional MS 36789, f. 17v (see: The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), pp. 10, 11, 190). Inscribed with the number '34' (f. 1r).
Patrick Young (Junius) (b. 1584, d. 1652), librarian and scholar, transcribed the text in Oxford, Bodleian MS Junius 52, ff. 1-64. Cotton’s collection was augmented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (b. 1594, d. 1662), 2nd baronet, and his grandson, 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 of 1701. 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:
-
Dean, Ruth J., and Maureen B. M. Boulton, Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts, Anglo-Norman Text Society, Occasional Publications Series, 3 (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999), no 710.
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. 379.
Gretsch, Mechthild, ‘Æthelwold’s translation of the Regula Sancti Benedicti and its Latin exemplar’, Anglo-Saxon England, 3 (1975), 125–51.
Gretsch, Mechthild, Die Regula Sancti Benedicti in England und ihre altenglische Übersetzung Munich: Fink, 1973), pp. 35-37, 68-87.
Hunt, Tony, Teaching and Learning Latin in thirteenth-century England (Cambridge: Brewer, 1991), pp. 27-28.
Jayatilaka, Rohini, ‘The Old English Benedictine rule: writing for women and men’, Anglo-Saxon England, 32 (2003), 147–87 (pp. 149-50, 154, 157, 168, 173, 182, 185).
Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), no. 200.
Lopez, Francisco J. A., 'The Manuscripts of the Old English RSB: A methodological approach to the study of English Benedictine manuscripts' in Weaving New Perspectives Together: Some reflections on Literary Studies, ed. by Maria Alonso Alonso and others (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012), pp. 2-18 (pp. 5-9, 12, 13).
Mordek, Hubert, Bibliotheca capitularium regum Francorum manuscript: Uberlieferung und Traditionszussammenhang der frankischen Herrschererlasse, (Munich: Monumenta Germaniae Historica, 1995), ms L4, pp. 225-226.
[Planta, J.], A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library Deposited in the British Museum (London, 1802), p. 511.
Roberts, Jane, Guide to Scripts used in English Writings up to 1500 (London: British Library, 2005), no. 19.
Scragg, Donald G., A Conspectus of Scribal Hands writing English, 960-1100 (Cambridge: Brewer, 2012), nos 587, 589.
Wormald, Patrick, 'Æthelwold and his Continental counterparts: contact, comparison, contrast', in York, Barbara, ed., Bishop Æthelwold: his career and influence (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1988), pp. 13-42 (pp. 6, 31, n. 72).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)