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Cotton MS Vespasian B VI/1

Record Id:

040-003353265

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-001101582

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100036681009.0x000001

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100058674176.0x000001

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Cotton MS Vespasian B VI/1

Title:

‘Metrical calendar of York’ (imperfect); Tables of Greek and Roman Numerals; lists of Popes and apostles; Anglo-Saxon episcopal lists; Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies

Scope & Content:

These three bifolia were copied in the 9th century in Southern England, possibly in the kingdoms of Mercia or Kent. Their script shares similarities to the Book of Cerne (see Brown, Book of Cerne (1996), pp. 170-2). These bifolia were originally part of the volume Cotton MS Vespasian B VI, but they have now been taken out and mounted in frames.

Contents:

ff. 104r-v: Metrical Calendar of York (incomplete).

ff. 104r-v: tables of Greek and Roman Numerals.

f. 104r: chronological note on the death of King Æthelbald.

ff. 105r-106r: the ages of the world.

ff. 106r-107r: a miscellany of biblical, natural and other notes, linked to the encyclopaedic tradition of Isidore of Seville's Etymologies. These include the symbolic dimensions of the Temple, the Tabernacle, the Church of St Peter, Noah's Ark, the Noah's ark, number of verses in the Psalter, number of bones, veins, teeth in a human body etc.

f. 107v: list of popes from St Peter to Leo III with contemporary additions.

ff. 107v-108r: names of the 72 disciples of Jesus Christ.

ff. 108r-109r: Anglo-Saxon episcopal lists with additions.

f. 109r-v: Anglian collection of royal genealogies.

Decoration: Some letters highlighted in blue (f. 104r).

In the viewer for Digitised Manuscripts, each bifolium appears twice, so that each half of bifolium (i.e., each folio) appears in text order once. The image numbering system is as follows:

f104r: image for bifolium containing ff. 109v, 104r.

f104v: image for bifolium containing ff. 104v, 109r.

f105r: image for bifolium containing ff. 108v, 105r.

f105v: image for bifolium containing ff. 105v, 108r.

f106r: image for bifolium containing ff. 107v, 106r.

f106v: image for bifolium containing ff. 106v, 107r.

f107r: image for bifolium containing ff. 106v, 107r.

f107v: image for bifolium containing ff. 107v, 106r.

f108r: image for bifolium containing ff. 105v, 108r.

f108v: image for bifolium containing ff. 108v, 105r.

f109r: image for bifolium containing ff. 104v, 109r.

f109v: image for bifolium containing ff. 109v, 104r.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Cotton Collection

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-001101582
040-003353265

Is part of:

Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts

Cotton MS Vespasian B VI/1 : ‘Metrical calendar of York’ (imperfect); Tables of Greek and Roman Numerals; lists of Popes and apostles;…

Hierarchy:

032-001101582[1376]/040-003353265

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Single parchment folios mounted separately in frames.

Digitised Content:

https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100058674176.0x000001

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

0800

End Date:

1599

Date Range:

9th century -16th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: parchment.

Dimensions: 250 x 180 mm (text space: 210 x 145 mm).

Script: Insular cursive minuscule.

Custodial History:

Origin: England, Southern (? Mercia or Kent): one main scribe and several additions in 9th-century hands (see Keynes, 'Between Bede', (2005), pp. 47-67).

Provenance:

Several additions in 9th-century English hands (f. 140r).

John Joscelyn (b. 1529, d. 1603), Old English scholar and Church of England clergyman: his annotations and notes (ff. 78r; 110r-v).

Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician. Cotton’s collection was augmented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (b. 1594, d. 1662), 2nd baronet, and grandson, Sir John Cotton (b. 1621, d. 1702), 3rd baronet, who bequeathed the entire collection of books and manuscripts to trustees ‘for Publick Use and Advantage’, 12 and 13 William III, c. 7. Formed one of the foundation collections of the British Museum in 1753.

Former Internal References:

Cotton MS Vespasian B VI, ff. 104-109

Information About Copies:

Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.

Publications:

Catalogue of Ancient Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Library,1881–84), II, pp. 79–80.

Brown, Michelle P, The Book of Cerne: Prayer, Patronage and Power in Ninth-century England (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1996), pp. 170-2.

Dumville, David N., ‘The Anglian collection of royal genealogies and regnal lists’, Anglo-Saxon England, 5 (1976) 24–5, 38–41.

Gneuss, Helmut, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100 (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2001), no. 285.

Keynes, Simon, ‘Between Bede and the Chronicle: London, BL, Cotton Vespasian B. vi, fols. 104-9’, in Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe and Andy Orchard (eds.), Latin Learning and English Lore: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature for Michael Lapidge, 2 vols (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), I, pp. 47–67.

Morrish, Jennifer, ‘Dated and datable manuscripts copied in England during the ninth century: a preliminary list’, Mediaeval Studies, 50 (1988), 517, 522, 537.

Watson, Andrew G., Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), no. 568.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Related Material:

The folios are now laminated and mounted separately between Perspex as Cotton MS Vespasian B VI/1. They originally formed ff. 104r-109v of the codex Cotton MS Vespasian B VI.