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Royal MS 1 B VII
- Record Id:
- 040-002105751
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000224.0x00033f
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 1 B VII
- Title:
-
Gospel-book ('The Royal Athelstan Gospels')
- Scope & Content:
-
The four Gospels, in Jerome's translation.
Detailed contents:
(1) Epistle of Jerome to Damasus, incipit: 'Nouum opus facere', f. 1r;
(2) Prologue to Jerome's commentary on Matthew's Gospel, incipit: 'Plures fuisse', f. 2v;
(3) Epistle of Eusebius to Carpianus, incipit: 'Eusebius Carpiano fratri salute[m] in d[omi]no....', f. 3v;
(4) Prologue to Matthew's Gospel, incipit: 'Mattheus in Iudea', f. 4v;
(5) Table of 88 chapters (the number is accidentally omitted from the last), f. 5r;
(6) Table of festivals on which portions of Matthew's Gospel should be read, incipit: 'Pridu (sic) natale Domini', f. 8r;
(7) Tables of Eusebian canons, f. 9r;
(8) Gospel of Matthew, f. 15r;
(9) Prologue to Mark's Gospel, incipit: 'Marchus evangelista Dei', f. 52r;
(10) Table of 46 chapters, f. 52v;
(11) Table of festivals on which portions of Mark's Gospel should be read, beginning: 'Sabbato sancto mane', f. 54v;
(12) Gospel of Mark, f. 55r;
(13) Table of festivals on which portions of Luke's Gospel should be read, entitled 'secundum Lucam', beginning: 'In ieiunium sancti Iohannis', f. 78r;
(14) Prologue to Luke's Gospel, beginning: 'Lucas Syrus Antiochensis', f. 78v;
(15) Table of 94 chapters; before no. 88 is the rubric, 'Quod prope pascha legendum est' and at the end are two other rubrical directions, f. 79r;
(16) Gospel of Luke, f 84r;
(17) Prologue to John's Gospel, beginning 'Iohannes evangelista unus', f. 128r;
(18) Table of 45 chapters, with one folio after f. 128r, containing chapters 9-26 missing; after no. 45 is a note, incipit: 'Quae lectio cum in natali sancti Petri legitur', explicit: 'uerum est testimonium eius', f. 128r;
(19) Table of festivals on which portions of John's Gospel should be read, entitled 'secundum Iohannem', incipit: 'In sancti Iohannis apostoli', f. 130r;
(20) Gospel of John, f. 130v.
Decoration:
4 large initials in colours with interlace and bird's head decoration, and display script, at the beginning of Matthew, the capitula to Matthew, Mark, and Luke (ff. 15, 15v, 55, 84). Smaller initials in ink with interlace decoration at the beginning of John, prologues, and other lists of capitula (ff. 1, 2v, 3v, 4v, 5, 8, 52, 128, 130v). Canon Tables with arcades decorated with human, animal, or bird heads, and interlace motifs (ff. 9-14). Initials and first line of each chapter in red.
It contains a text of a manumission by King Athelstan (f. 15v), one of the earliest of the Anglo-Saxon examples of the practice of inserting records in sacred books. It was believed to be the book on which Athelstan swore his coronation oath in 925 in Canterbury Cathedral, but no certain evidence supports this hypothesis (see discussion in Keynes, 1985). Humphrey Wanley suggested that it belonged to Christ Church, Canterbury (see 'Antiquæ literaturæ Septentrionalis liber alter', in George Hickes ~Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus Grammatico-Criticus et Archæologicus~, 2 vols (Oxford: Sheldonian, 1703-1705), p. 181).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
Royal Manuscripts Digitisation Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002105751 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 1 B VII : Gospel-book ('The Royal Athelstan Gospels') - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[0027]/040-002105751
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_1_B_VII (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Old
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0700
- End Date:
- 0749
- Date Range:
- 700-749
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Dimensions: 275 x 215mm (220/30 x 160/70mm)
Foliation: ff. 155 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end).
Collation: i8(ff. 1-8), ii6(ff. 9-14), iii-viii8(ff. 15-70), ix8-1(ff. 71-77), x-xiii8(ff. 78-109), xiv10(ff. 110-119), xv8(ff. 120-127), xvi8-1(ff. 128-134), xvii8(ff. 135-142), xviii4(ff. 152-155); numbering on the last verso, except in gatherings ii, vi and vii. The second gathering (ff. 9-14, containing the cannon tables) is omitted from the numbering.
Layout: Written in two columns of 30 lines.
Script: Insular half-uncial. Written by 2 or more scribes.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house. Rebound in 1983.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England, N. (Northumbria)
Provenance:
Added corrections 'diens', and 'ferebant' correcting 'dicebant', 9th century caroline minuscule (ff. 55r, 75r); and added punctuation (ff. 73r-77v).
Added Old English text of manumission by King Athelstan of c. 925, stating that King Athelstan freed Eadhelm very soon after he first became king, in the presence of five witnesses: Aelfheah, a priest, probably the future Bishop of Wells from 926, Aelfric, the reeve, Wulfnoth, the whist, Eanstan, the provost, and Byrnstan, a priest, probably to be identified with future Bishop of Winchester from 931, 10th-century square minuscule (f. 15v).
Added sketches of a standing figure between columns (f. 4r) and hands (f. 112r) in dry point, 12th century.
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal library): included in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71, f. 3; and in the 1698 catalogue of the library of St James's Palace (see [Edward Bernard], Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697', but 1698?), no. 7897).
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript on Digitised Manuscripts: http/www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
The text of the lectionaries is printed by W. W. Skeat (The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, &c., 1871-1887) and by Dom Morin in Liber Comicus, pp. 426-431 (Anecdota Maredsolana, vol. i, 1893) [see Warner and Gilson 1921].
[E. Maunde Thompson and G. F. Warner], Catalogue of Ancient Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1881-1884), Part II Latin, pp. 19-20, pl. 7.
Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, 4th edn, ed. by Edward Miller, 2 vols (London: George Bell & Sons, 1894), II, p. 75.
F. C. Kenyon, Facsimiles of Biblical Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1900), no. XII.
M. R. James, The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cambridge, 1903), p. 532.
British Museum Bible Exhibition 1911: Guide to the Manuscripts and Printed Books exhibited in Celebration of the Tercentenary of the Authorized Version (London: British Museum, 1911), no. 13.
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), I, pp. 10-11.
H. H. Glunz, History of the Vulgate in England from Alcuin to Roger Bacon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1933), p. xiii.
Codices Latini Antiquiores, ed. by E. A. Lowe, 11 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934-1966), II: Great Britain and Ireland (1935), no. 213.
Theodor Klauser, Das römische capitulare evangeliorum: Texte und Untersuchungen zu seiner ältesten Geschichte, Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen und Forschungen, 28 (Munster: Aschendorffschen, 1935), p. XXXII, no. 13.
G. L. Micheli, L’enluminure du haut moyen age et les influences irlandaises (Brussels: Editions de la connaissance, 1939), pp. 26, 46, 103, 128, 215.N. R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), no. 246.
Patrick McGurk, Latin Gospel Books from A. D. 400 to A. D. 800 (Paris: Érasme, 1961), no. 28.
J. J. G. Alexander, Insular Manuscripts: 6th to the 9th Century, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 1 (London: Harvey Miller, 1978), no. 20.
Bonifatius Fischer, Lateinische Bibelhandschriften im frühen Mittelalter, Vetus Latina, 11 (Freiburg: Herder, 1985), pp. 69, 173.
Simon Keynes, 'King Athelstan's Books', in Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies Presented to Peter Clemoes, ed. by Michael Lapidge and Helmut Gneuss (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 143-201 (pp. 185-89, pl. XI).
Bonifatius Fischer, Die Lateinischen Evangelien bis zum 10. Jahrhundert, 4 vols (Freiburg: Herder, 1988-1991), I: Varianten zu Matthäus, Vetus Latina die Reste der Altlateinischen Bible: Aus der Geschichte der Lateinischen Bibel, 13, p. 15 (as 'Nr').
Christopher D. Verey, ‘The Gospel Texts at Lindisfarne at the Time of St Cuthbert’, in St Cuthbert: His Cult and His Community to AD 1200, ed. by Gerald Bonner, David Rollason, and Clare Stancliffe (1989), pp. 143-50 (pp. 148).
Michelle Brown, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (London: British Library, 1991), pls 45, 53.
The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600-900, ed. by Leslie Webster and Janet Backhouse (London: British Museum, 1991), no. 84 [exhibition catalogue].
David N. Dumville, Wessex and England from Alfred to Edgar: Six Essays on Political, Cultural and Ecclesiastical Revival, Studies in Anglo-Saxon History, 5 (Woodbgidge: Boydell, 1992), pp. 93-94, 157, n. 103, 191-92.
Patrick McGurk, ‘The Disposition of Numbers in Latin Eusebian Canon Tables’, in Philologia Sacra: Biblische und patristische Studien für Hermann J. Frede und Walter Thele zu ihrem siebzigsten Geburtstag, ed. by Roger Gryson (Freiburg: Herder, 1993), pp. 242-58 (p. 248).
Biblical Commentaries from the Canterbury School of Theodore and Hadrian, ed. by Bernhard Bischoff and Michael Lapidge, Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England, 10 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 156-58, 160 n. 118.
Richard Gameson, ‘The Royal 1 B VII Gospels and English Book Production in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries’, in The Early Medieval Bible: Its Production, Decoration and Use (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 24-52.
Michael Gorman, 'Theodore of Canterbury, Hadrian of Nisda and Michael Lapidge', review of Biblical Commentaries from the Canterbury School of Theodore and Hadrian, ed. by Bernard Bischoff and Michael Lapidge, Cambridge Studies of Anglo-Saxon England, 10 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 50 (1996), 184-92 (p.186).
Carol Farr, The Book of Kells: Its Function and Audience (London: British Library, 1997), p. 120.
Richard Marsden, 'Ask What I am Called': The Anglo-Saxons and Their Bibles', in The Bible as Book: The Manuscript Tradition, ed. by John L. Sharpe III and Kimberly Van Kampen (London: British Library, 1998), pp. 145-76 (p.173).
Michelle P. Brown and Patricia Lovett, The Historical Source Book for Scribes (London: British Library, 1999), pl. on p. 52.
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library. 2000), p. xxxvi, n. 48.
Michelle P. Brown, 'Female Book-Ownership and Production in Anglo-Saxon England: the Evidence of the Ninth-Century Prayerbooks', in Lexis and Texts in Early English: Studies presented to Jane Roberts, ed. by Christian J. Kay and Louise M. Sylvester, Costerus New Series, 133 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2001), pp. 45-68 (p. 55).
Helmut Gneuss, 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), no. 445.
Michelle P. Brown, The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality and the Scribe (London: British Library, 2003), pp. 48, 55, 56, 151, 167-8, 171-178, 182-188, 190-191, 196n, 197n, 198n, 224, 236, 240, 246, 258, 265, 275, 300, 301, 316, 350, 401, figs. 25, 67.
Michelle P. Brown, Painted Labyrinth: The World of the Lindisfarne Gospels (London: British Library, 2003), pl. on p. 20, p. 46.
Michelle P. Brown, 'Preaching with the Pen: the Contribution of Insular Scribes to the Transmission of Sacred Text, from the 6th to 9th Centuries', University of London Annual Palaeography Lecture, January 2004, School of Advanced Study, Institute of English Studies, University of London, Centre for Manuscript and Print Studies, Courses & Events,[http://www2.sas.ac.uk/ies/cmps/Events/Lectures/2003/fulltext.htm], p. 13, 18 [accessed 3 April 2006].
K. L. Brown and R. J. Clark, ‘The Lindisfarne Gospels and Two Other 8th Century Anglo-Saxon/Insular Manuscripts: Pigment Identification by Raman Microscopy.’ Journal of Raman Spectroscopy 35 (2004), pp. 4-12.
Michelle P. Brown, Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age (London: British Library, 2007), pls 34-35.
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London: British Library, 2007), p. 27, fig. 14.
St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, ed. by B. C. Barker-Benfield, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 13, 3 vols (London: British Library, 2008), p.1830.
Richard W. Pfaff, The Liturgy in Medieval England: A History (Cambridge: University Press, 2009), p. 40.
Scot McKendrick, John Lowden, and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 1.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)