Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Royal MS 12 C XXIII
- Record Id:
- 040-002106736
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000277.0x0002dc
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100058099710.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 12 C XXIII
- Title:
- Julian of Toledo's Prognosticon futuri saeculi, with Latin glosses and an Old English gloss; riddles by various authors, including Aldhelm, Symphosius, Eusebius, and Tatwine, with Latin and Old English glosses; Pseudo-Smaragdus, Opus monitorium and monitory poems; Versus cuiusdam Scotti de alphabeto
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains a collection of texts, especially riddles, all copied and decorated in Southern England (possibly at Christ Church, Canterbury) in the late 10th or early 11th century. It includes:
f. 1r: blank apart from some library numbers and markings;
ff. 1v-79v: Julian of Toledo's Prognosticon futuri saeculi, with Latin glosses and an Old English gloss. In between folio 1 and folio 2, there an unfoliated leaf has been inserted with a circular hole cut out in its lower corner to accomodate a circle of red wax which has been added to f. 2r;
ff. 79v-103v: verse riddles by Aldhelm, with prose and verse prologues, with Latin and Old English glosses, some of which were written by the same scribe as the main text;
ff. 104r-113v: verse riddles by Symphosius, with glosses;
ff. 113v-121v: verse riddles by Eusebius, with glosses;
ff. 121v- 127r: verse riddles by Tatwine, with glosses;
ff. 127r-132r: Pseudo-Smaragdus's Opus monitorium;
ff. 132r-137r: Pseudo-Smaragdus's monitory poems;
ff. 137v-138: badly damaged verses entitled, 'Versus cuiusdam Scotti de alfabeto'.
Syntactic marks or glosses using a system of dots and dashes have been used.
Decoration: text in red and green (ff. 2r, 6r-v, 23v, 49r, 83r, 84r); large initials with zoomorphic interlace with foliate details (ff. 2r, 6v, 23v, 29r, 83r, 84r); numbers in red (ff. 5v-6r, 22r-23v, 46v-48v); rubrics in red (throughout); initials in red and green (throughout). The answers to the riddles are usually given in red before each riddle.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002106736 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 12 C XXIII : Julian of Toledo's Prognosticon futuri saeculi, with Latin glosses and an Old English gloss; riddles by various… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[0956]/040-002106736
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100058099710.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Old
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0960
- End Date:
- 1099
- Date Range:
- Late 10th century-early 11th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment and ink.
Measurements: 260 x 190 mm (250 x 140 mm).
Foliation: ff. 138 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end and 1 unfoliated modern paper leaf inserted between f. 1 and f. 2, with a hole cut out in the lower corner to protext the stamped was on f. 2r).
Binding: BM/BL in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ? Christ Church Canterbury, Canterbury: the manuscript's Anglo-Caroline Script has been associated with that produced at Christ Church, Canterbury (see Bishop, 'Notes' (1959—63), p. 42).
Provenance:
? The Benedictine Abbey of St Mary, Glastonbury: possibly noted in the catalogue of Glastonbury abbey of 1247/48, no. 263 as 'Libri pronosticorum iiº. In altero sunt enigmata sancti Aldelmi vetusti' (see English Benedictine Libraries (1996), B39.263); noted by John Leland in his list of books in Glastonbury abbey, before 1533 (see Joannis Lelandi (1970), IV p. 154). Such an entry could also refer to the contents of Cambridge, University Library, Gg. 5. 35 (1567), or to a lost exemplar; however, the former manuscript seems to have been copied at St Augustine's Canterbury and to have remained there when Leland saw it in the sixteenth century (Carley, 'Two Pre-Conquest Manuscripts' (1987), pp. 202-03; Joannis Lelandi, ed. T. Hearne (1774) iv, pp. 7-8).
Later medieval glosses throughout.
Patrick Young (b. 1584, d. 1652), librarian and scholar: glossed throughout; collated with Royal 15 A XVI (see note on Royal 15 A XVI, f. 59v).
Thomas Howard, 14th earl of Arundel, 4th earl of Surrey, and 1st earl of Norfolk (b. 1585, d. 1646), art collector and politician: probably to be identified with a manuscript in his possession collated with Royal 15 A XVI, and mentioned in a note by Patrick Young, reading 'hunc librum / collatum esse ad ms / codicem co/mitis Arun/dell' (Royal 15 A XVI, f. 59v).
An old number '109' (f. 1).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Royal seal of a ship, 17th century (f. 2); included in the 1698 catalogue of the library of St James's Palace (see [Bernard], Catalogi librorum, no. 8660).
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.
- Publications:
-
Joannis Lelandi antiquarii de rebus Britannicis collectanea, ed. by T. Hearne, 6 vols, 3rd edn (London, 1774) IV, pp. 7-8.
Old English Glosses Chiefly Unpublished, ed. by Arthur Napier (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900), pp. 194-95 [includes edition of the Old English glosses].
Aldhelmi Opera Omnia, ed. by Rudolph Ehwald, Monumenta Germania Historica: Auctorum Antiquissimorum, 15 (Berlin: Weidmann, 1919), 59-149; available online at [http://www.dmgh.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb00000827_meta:titlePage.html?sort=score&order=desc&divisionTitle_str=&hl=false&fulltext=enigmata+aldhelmi&sortIndex=010:010:0015:010:00:00&context=enigmata%20aldhelmi] (accessed 25 February 2016) [includes edition of Aldhelm's riddles].
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), II, pp. 35-36.
The Enigmas of Symphosius, ed. and trans. by Raymond T. Ohl (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1928) [includes edition of Symphosius' riddles].
Francis Wormald, 'Decorated Initials in English Manuscripts from A.D. 900 to 1100', Archaeologia, 91 (1945) 107-35 (p. 135).
N. R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), no. 263.
T. A.M. Bishop, 'Notes on Cambridge Manuscripts, Part II: The Early Minuscule of Christ Church Canterbury', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 3 (1963), 413-23 (pp. 413-23, 421-22).
Variae Collectiones Aenigmatum Merovingicae Aetatis, ed. by F. Glorie, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 133 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1968), pp. 165-208, 209-271, 359-540, 611-723, 729-41 [includes edition of Tatwine's, Eusebius's, Aldhelm's, and Symphosius's riddles and 'Versus cuiusdam Scotti'].
Sancti Iuliani Toletanae Sedis Episcopi Opera, ed. by J.N. Hillgarth, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 115 (Turnhout, Brepols, 1976), pp. 11-126 [includes edition of Julian's Prognosticon].
Elzbieta Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 2 (Harvey Miller: London, 1976), no. 30 (iii).
D. Schaller and E. Könsgen, Initia Carminum Latinorum saeculo undecimo Antiquiorum (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1977), nos 7810, 10988, 12594.
Michael Korhammer, 'Mittelalterliche Konstruktionshilfen und altenglische Wortstellung', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 34 (1980), 18-58 (p. 55).
Aldhelm, The Poetic Works, ed. by Michael Lapidge and James Rosier (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1985, repr. 2009), pp. 59-94 [includes translation of Aldhelm's riddles].
James P. Carley, 'John Leland and the Contents of English Pre-Dissolution Libraries: Glastonbury Abbey', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 40 (1986), 107-20 (pp. 116-17).
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, Supplement to the Second Edition, ed. by Andrew G. Watson, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 15 (London: The Royal Historical Society, 1987), p. 38.
J. P. Carley, 'Two Pre-Conquest Manuscripts from Glastonbury Abbey', Anglo-Saxon England, 16 (1987), 197-212 (pp. 201-04).
David N. Dumville, 'Beowulf Come lately: Some Notes on the Palaeography of the Nowell Codex', Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen, 225 (1988), 49-63 (51, n. 13).
Nancy Porter Stork, Through a Gloss Darkly: Aldhelm's Riddles in the British Library MS Royal 12.C.xxiii (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1990) [includes edition of Aldhelm's riddles and the associated glosses].
The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600-900, ed. by Leslie Webster and Janet Backhouse (London: British Museum, 1991), no. 60.
David N. Dumville, English Caroline Script and Monastic History, Studies in Benedictinism, A.D.950-1030, Studies in Anglo-Saxon History, 6 (Suffolk: Boydell, 1993), p. 93.
S. Gwara, 'The Continuance of Aldhelm Studies in Post-Conquest England and Glosses to the Prosa de Virginitate in hereford, Cath. Lib. Ms P.I.17', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 48 (1994), 18-38 (p. 19).
Andy Orchard, The Poetic Art of Aldhelm (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 156, 239.
Clavis Patrum Latinorum, ed. E. Dekkers and A. Gaar, 3rd edn (Steenbrugge, 1995), no. 1258.
English Benedictine Libraries: The Shorter Catalogues, ed. by R. Sharpe and others, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 4 (London: British Library, 1996), B39.263.
Helmut Gneuss 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. 478.
Mercedes Salvador-Bello, Isidorean Perceptions of Order: The Exeter Book Riddles and Medieval Latin Enigmata (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2015), pp. 21, 32, 35-37, 38-39, 40-41, 55, 75-76, 82-83, 85, 86, 126n92, 130-31, 134, 141n157, 173, 175n275, 178n283, 179, 182n297, 182n300, 184n305, 190n321, 196n334, 199, 207, 221-22, 223n403, 229n413, 234, 235, 248-49, 339, 341, 349, 455.
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story (London: The British Library, 2018), no. 23 [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)