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Royal MS 6 A VI
- Record Id:
- 040-002106140
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000277.0x000198
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100058105339.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 6 A VI
- Title:
-
Commentaries on the Song of Salomon and a theological treatise; Aldhem's letter to Heahfrid, Epistola ad Heahfridum with glosses; Aldhem, De laudibus Virginitatis with glosses.
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains:
ff. 1r-4v: flyleaves taken from a 13th century manuscript, two of them are commentaries on the Song of Salomon and the other are from a theological treatise. Note that ff. 1 and 4 are bounded upside down.
ff. 5r-9r: Aldhem's letter to Heahfrid, Epistola ad Heahfridum, with interlinear and marginal glosses. Aldhem (b. 639, d. 709), bishop of Sherborne, was an alumnus of the school of Theodore and Hadrian in Canterbury. This letter was written to dissuade a certain Heahfrith from studying in Ireland. Aldhem also parodied Irish Latin to demonstrate the superiority of English learning to that of the Irish.
ff. 9v-109r: Aldhem, De laudibus Virginitatis with interlinear and marginal glosses. The glosses are mainly in a hand similar to that of the text (see Neil R. Ker, Catalogue of manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon, p. 322). Syntactic marks or glosses using a system of dots and dashes have been used. There is a list of chapters on ff. 9v-12v. Chapter 39 is included in the table of chapters, but omitted in the text. One leaf has been replaced after f. 106 in a 16th century hand. Aldhem wrote this treatise on virginity in 60 chapters for the nuns of Barking and their abbess, Hildelith.
At the end of the De laudibus virginitatis are two hexameters from a metrical proverb on the copyist's labours: 'Tres digiti scribunt totum corpusque laborat/ Scribere qui nescit nullum putat esse laborem'. These lines are also found in Harley 3012 which has glosses very similar to those in this manuscript(see Gwara 1993) Some of the same glosses are also found in Royal 5 E xi and Salisbury Cathedral MS 38 (see Ker 1957). The scribe is identified in other Christ Church manuscripts. f. 107 is a leaf which is missing and has been replaced in a 16th-century hand.
f. 109v: Verses on the death of Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester (d. 1171), were added in the 12th century on the original blank page left. These verses are headed 'Ricardus Vuigornensis'.
Decoration:
Large initial in black with zoomorphic and interlace decoration in red and black (f. 5). Large decorated initials in green (ff. 13, 36, 78) or red (f. 13v) with interlocked rubrics in red or green capitals. Numerous smaller initials in red or green. Chapter numbers in red. Letters highlighted in red (f. 109v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002106140 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 6 A VI : Commentaries on the Song of Salomon and a theological treatise; Aldhem's letter to Heahfrid, Epistola ad Heahfridum with… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[0379]/040-002106140
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex, 109 folios.
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100058105339.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Old
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0975
- End Date:
- 1049
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter 10th century- 1st half of 11th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 280 x 155 mm (text space: 200 x 90/100 mm)
Foliation: ff. 109 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end).
Script: Caroline minuscule.
Binding: Post-1600. White leather with gold-tooling; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England, S. E. (Christ Church, Canterbury?)
Provenance:
Latin and Old English glosses, mostly in a contemporary hand, some in a slightly later hand (ff. 42v-46). Some are the same as glosses found in Royal 5 E XI and Salisbury Cathedral 38, a manuscript from Canterbury (see Neil Ker, Catalogue of manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon, 1957).
The Benedictine cathedral priory of Christ Church, Canterbury: lines on the death of Henry of Blois (d. 1171) added in the late 12th century (f. 109v) by a scribe of Christ Church, Canterbury.
4 parchment flyleaves (ff. 1-4) have been taken from three 13th century manuscripts containing the Songs of Solomon and a theological treatise (see Warner and Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections (1921), p. 129).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): perhaps included in the catalogue of 1666 (see Carley, The Libraries of King Henry VIII, 2000, p. xxxvi n. 48).
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: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
Arthur S. Napier, Old English Glosses, Anecdota Oxoniensa, Medieval and Modern Series, 4 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900), part xl, pp. 156-63.
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, p. 129, IV, pl. 45b.
Neil R. Ker, A Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957), no. 254.
Terence A. M. Bishop, English Caroline Minuscule (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), p. 7.
Louis Goossens, The Old English Glosses of MS Brussels, Royal Library 1650 (Aldhelm's 'De laudibus virginitatis') (Brussels: Paleis der Academien, 1974), p. 19.
Elzbieta Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 2 (London: Harvey Miller, 1976), no. 30 (xi).
Aldhelm, The Prose Works, ed. and trans. by Michael Lapidge and Michael Herren (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1979), pp. 11-19, 51-136, 160-64 [a translation of the text].
Michael Korhammer, 'Mittelalterliche Konstruktionshilfen und Altenglishe Wortstellung', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 34 (1980), 18-58 (pp. 27, 55).
D. R. Howlett, 'Aldhelm and Irish Learning', Bulletin du Cange, 52 (1994), 37-76 (on the text).
Scott Gwara, 'Literary Culture in late Anglo-Saxon England and the Old English and Latin glosses to Aldhelm's Prosa de Virginitate' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Toronto, 1992), pp. 133-38.
Scott Gwara, 'Unpublished OE Inked Glosses from MSS of Aldhelm's Prosa de Virginitate', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 95.3 (1994), 267-71 (pp. 268-69).
Scott Gwara, 'A record of Anglo-Saxon Pedagogy. Aldhelm's Epistola ad Heahfridum and its gloss', Journal of Medieval Latin, 6 (1996), 84-134 (on the text).
Patrizia Lendinara, Anglo-Saxon Glosses and Glossaries (Ashgate: Variorum, 1999), pp. 22 n. 64; 180 n. 14.
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.
Helmut Gneuss, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100 (Tempe: Arizona Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001), no. 464.
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story (London: The British Library, 2018), no. 22 [exhibition catalogue].
- Exhibitions:
- Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, British Library, London, 19 October 2018 - 19 February 2019
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)