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Royal MS 6 A VII
- Record Id:
- 040-002106141
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000277.0x000199
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100056064710.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 6 A VII
- Title:
-
John the Deacon, Vita Sancti Gregorii Magni
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains the Vita Sancti Gregorii Magni (Life of St Gregory the Great) by John the Deacon of Rome (b. c. 825; d. 880).
Contents:
ff. 2r-3r: A preface for the Vita Sancti Gregorii Magni, beginning: 'Incipit Vita Gregorii papae urbis Romae. Beatissimo ac felicissimo domino Iohanni sanctae catholice et apostolice Romanae ecclesiae...'
ff. 3r-v: A table of chapters of the first book.
ff. 4r-25v: First book of the Vita Sancti Gregorii Magni.
ff. 25v-27r: Table of chapters of the second book.
ff. 27r-58v: Second book of the Vita Sancti Gregorii Magni.
ff. 58v-59v: Table of chapters of the third book.
ff. 60r-100r: Third book of the Vita Sancti Gregorii Magni.
ff. 100r-103v: Table of chapters of the fourth book.
ff. 103v-162v: Fourth book of the Vita Sancti Gregorii Magni. The explicit is followed by an alphabet in Caroline minuscule and capital letters.
The manuscript contains a few additions:
f. 1r: An extract of an antiphon with Anglo-Norman neumes and later musical notations, beginning 'Orbata pontifice Wigorna erga (sic) hunc dei civem hunc sibi presulem hunc sibi petit doctorem [...]', added in the late 11th or early 12th century (see K. D. Hartzell, Catalogue of Manuscripts (2006), p. 139) followed by an alphabet and an extract of the prefatory letter of Gregory's homilies on Ezekiel in a late 12th-century hand.
Decoration:
1 zoomorphic initial in brown and red of Wormald's type I (see Wormald, 'Decorated Initials' (1945), p. 134) with a large mask head and interlace decoration, at the beginning of the text (f. 2r). Initials and chapter numbers in Roman numerals in red. Four added sketches in the margin (ff. 113v, 123r).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Royal Collection - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002106141 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 6 A VII : John the Deacon, Vita Sancti Gregorii Magni - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[0380]/040-002106141
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100056064710.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1000
- End Date:
- 1024
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 11th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 295 x 220 mm (text space: 220 x 135 mm).
Foliation: ff. 162 (+ 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); f. 1 is a medieval parchment flyleaf.
Script: English Caroline minuscule.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house: 19th-century white parchment binding made for the Royal collection with the initials M B (Museum Britannicum) gold-tooled on the upper cover. The spine features gold-tooled crown and rose motifs. End-leaves of blue paste paper.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Worcester, Southwestern England.
Provenance:
Unknown 11th- and 12th-century owner: added notated responsory from an antiphon in the late 11th or early 12th century (f. 1r); added Gregory the Great's prefatory letter to the homilies on Ezekiel, late 12th century (f. 1r); added a marginal drawing of two human figures in the (?) 12th century (f. 123r).
An unknown 14th-century English owner: added annotations in a 14th-century semi-cursive English hand throughout (e. g., ff. 13v; 23v passim).
The Benedictine cathedral priory of St Mary, Worcester, founded in 680: included in Patrick Young's catalogue of the Worcester library, no. 36 (see Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum bibliothecae Wigorniensis made in 1622-1623 by Patrick Young, Librarian to King James I, ed. by J. Atkins and N. R. Ker (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1944), and noted by John Leland (see J. Lelandi antiquarii de rebus Britannicis Collectanea: Cum Thomæ Hearnii præfatione notis et indice ad editionem primam, 6 vols (Farnborough: Gregg International Publishers, 1970), IV, p. 160).
John Theyer (bap. 1598, d. 1673), antiquary: included in the catalogue of his library left to his grandson Charles Theyer (b. 1651): see E. Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 3 vols. (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697', but 1698?), II, no. 6423.
Robert Scott (b. c. 1632, d. 1709/10), London bookseller: included in the catalogue of John Theyer’s manuscripts in his possession, made in 1678 by William Beveridge and William Jane, Royal Appendix, 70, no. 77.
Charles II (b. 1630, d. 1685), king of England, Scotland, and Ireland: purchased from Robert Scott together with other 311 manuscripts from Theyer's library.
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:
-
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.
F. Wormald, 'Decorated Initials in English Manuscripts from A.D. 900 to 1100', Archeologia, 91 (1945), 107-35 (p. 134).
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 208.
T. A. M. Bishop, English Caroline Minuscule (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), p. xx, no. 22.
Elzbieta Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 2 (London: Miller, 1976), no. 60.
David N. Dumville, English Caroline Script and Monastic History, Studies in Benedictinism, A.D. 950-1030, Studies in Anglo-Saxon History, 6 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1993), pp. 52, 55.
Richard Gameson, ‘Book Production and Decoration at Worcester in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries’, in St Oswald of Worcester: Life and Influence, ed. by Nicholas Brooks and Catherine Cubitt, Studies in the Early History of Britain, The Makers of England, 2 (London: Leicester University Press, 1996), pp. 194-243 (p. 214).
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), nos 464.9, 465.
K. D. Hartzell, Catalogue of Manuscripts Written or Owned in England up to 1200 containing Music (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2006), no. 175 (p.319).
Richard Sharpe and James Willoughby, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain (Oxford: The Bodleian Libraries, 2015) »http://mlgb3.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/mlgb/book/5984/?search_term=Royal%20MS%206%20A.VII&page_size=500« [accessed 8 August 2016].
- 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.