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...
Cotton MS Tiberius B V/1
- Record Id:
- 041-001102212
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001630.0x000111
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Tiberius B V/1
- Title:
- Computistical, historical and astronomical miscellany with added documents from Ely and Exeter
- Scope & Content:
-
This codex contains a collection of texts related to timekeeping, astronomy and geography, possibly made at Canterbury in the mid-11th century, with some later additions. Into this collection have been inserted a series of 10th- and 11th-century documents pertaining to Ely and Exeter, written on parts of 8th-century gospel-books. This codex contains:
ff. 1r-v: early modern table of contents;
ff. 2r–19r: computistical, historical and astronomical miscellany with a metrical calendar;
ff. 19v–22r: lists of Popes, emperors, bishops and kings of England;
ff. 22r–23v: Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies;
ff. 23v–24r: the ‘Itinerary of Archbishop Sigeric’, incipit 'In nomine d[omi]ni n[ost]ri ih[es]u [christ]i ioh[annes] rabennati sedit';
ff. 24r–28v: Ælfric, De temporibus anni in Old English;
f. 29r: Macrobian zonal map;
ff. 30r-32r: two prayers and a brief compilation on the Sun and Moon, incipit 'D[omi]ne d[eu]s om[ni]p[oten]s s[an]c[t]a trinitas et indivisa unitas';
ff. 32v–49v: Cicero, Aratea, a Greek astronomical poem, incipit 'Aries hic existimatur esse';
f. 56v: a map of the world;
ff. 57r–73r: Priscian, Periegesis, incipit 'Nature genitor que mundum';
ff. 55r-56v,73r–v, 77r: Vita metrica sancti Nicholai, incipit 'In litie fuit q[ui]dam [Christ]icola' (Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina, no. 6215), added in the early 12th century;
f. 74r-v: fragment of a gospel-book containing documents relating to Ely Abbey;
f. 75r-v: leaf of a gospel-book in Latin, containing Old English manumissions;
f. 76r-v: leaf of a gospel-book in Latin containing a record in Old English;
ff. 78v–86v: Marvels of the East, incipit 'Colonia est initiu[m]';
f. 87r-v: apocryphal legend of Mambres and Jannes, incipit 'Aperuit mambres libros';
f. 88r–v: notes relating to Battle Abbey, incipit 'Hec e[st] annotatio ...Eccl[es]ie de Bello', added in the 3rd quarter of the 12th century.
Apart from the added Vita metrica sancti Nicholai and notes on Battle Abbey, the manuscript is believed to have been copied mostly by one scribe in the 2nd quarter of the 11th century. A second scribe copied small sections of the calendar and Aratea (see McGurk, An Eleventh-Century Anglo-Saxon Illustrated Miscellany(1983), p. 30).
This volume was formerly bound with the folios now in Cotton Tiberius B V/2.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102211
041-001102212 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Tiberius B V : 11th-century collection of computistical, astronomical, geographical and historical texts and Pseudo-Joachim of Fiore,…
Cotton MS Tiberius B V/1 : Computistical, historical and astronomical miscellany with added documents from Ely and Exeter - Contains:
- Cotton MS Tiberius B V/1, ff 2-73, 77-88 : Collection of computistical, geographical, historical and astronomical texts
Cotton MS Tiberius B V/1, f 74 : Fragment of Gospel-book containing documents relating to Ely Abbey
Cotton MS Tiberius B V/1, f 75 : Leaf of a Gospel-book in Latin, containing Old English manumissions
Cotton MS Tiberius B V/1, f 76 : Leaf of a Gospel-book in Latin containing a record in Old English
Click here to View / search full list of parts of Cotton MS Tiberius B V/1 - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0449]/040-001102211[0001]/041-001102212
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- Item
- Extent:
-
1 parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Tiberius_B_V/1 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Old
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1025
- End Date:
- 1174
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of the 11th century-3rd quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Condition: Leaves damaged by fire in 1731.
Materials: Parchment codex, with folios mounted on paper.
Dimensions: binding 360 × 305 mm (folios 260 x 220; text space approximately 220 x 195 mm).
Foliation: ff. 88 (+ 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 6 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 between ff. 29 and 30 + 6 at the end).
Binding: British Museum, 1969.
- Custodial History:
-
Provenance:
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: inscribed with his name (f. 2r). Cotton’s collection was augmented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (b. 1594, d. 1662), 2nd baronet, and his grandson, Sir John Cotton. Sir John Cotton (b. 1621, d. 1702), 3rd baronet: bequeathed the entire Cotton 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 Tiberius B V, vol 1
- Information About Copies:
-
McGurk, P., and others (ed.), An Eleventh-Century Anglo-Saxon Illustrated Miscellany, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, XXI (Copenhagen, 1983).
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts.
- Publications:
-
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story (London: The British Library, 2018), no. 101 [exhibition catalogue].
Austin, Greta, ‘Marvelous people or marvelous races? Race and the Anglo-Saxon Wonders of the East’, in Marvels, Monsters, and Miracles: Studies in the Medieval and Early Modern Imaginations, ed. by Timothy S. Jones and David A. Sprunger (Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University, 2002), pp. 25–51.
Barber, Peter, ‘Medieval maps of the world’, in The Hereford World Map: Medieval World Maps and their Context, ed. by P. D. A. Harvey (London: British Library, 2006), pp. 4–8.
Bibliotheca Hagiographica Antiquae et Mediae Aetatis, Subsidia Hagiographica, 6, 2 vols (Brussels, 1898-1901; repr. 1992).
Brown, Michelle P., ‘Sir Robert Cotton, collector and connoisseur?’, in Illuminating the Book: Makers and Interpreters: Essays in Honour of Janet Backhouse, ed. by Michelle P. Brown and Scot McKendrick (London: British Library, 1998), p. 292.
Dekker, Elly, Illustrating the Phaenomena: Celestial Cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Oxford: University Press, 2013), pp. 146, 148.
Foot, Sarah, ‘Glastonbury’s early abbots’, in The Archaeology and History of Glastonbury Abbey: Essays in Honour of the Ninetieth Birthday of C. A. Ralegh Radford, ed. by Lesley Abrams and James P. Carley (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1991), pp. 163–89.
Foys, Martin K., 'Medieval manuscripts: media archaeology and the digital incunable', in The Medieval Manuscript Book, ed. by Michael Johnston and Michael Van Dussen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 119-39.
Gneuss, Helmut, 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. 373.
Hughes-Hughes, Augustus, Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the British Museum, 3 vols (London, 1906–09), III, p. 365.
Jayne, Sears, and Francis R. Johnson, eds., The Lumley Library: The Catalogue of 1609 (London: British Museum, 1956), p. 162.
Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), no. 193.
Ker, N. R. (ed.), Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, 2nd edn (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), pp. 8, 200.
McGurk, P. and others (ed.), An Eleventh-Century Anglo-Saxon Illustrated Miscellany, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, XXI (Copenhagen, 1983).
Ortenberg, Veronica, ‘Archbishop Sigeric’s journey to Rome in 990’, Anglo-Saxon England, 19 (1990), 197–246.
Rudolf, Winfried, ‘On the Italian provenance of the Vercelli Book’, in Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Cultures and Connections, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story with Eleanor Jackson (Dublin: Four Courts, 2021), pp. 154-167 (p. 162).
Semple, Sarah, ‘Illustrations of damnation in late Anglo-Saxon manuscripts’, Anglo-Saxon England, 32 (2003), 241–43.
Temple, E., Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 2 (London: Harvey Miller, 1976), no. 87.
Tinti, Francesca, ‘Anglo-Saxon travellers and their books’, in Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Cultures and Connections, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story with Eleanor Jackson (Dublin: Four Courts, 2021), pp. 168-178 (pp. 173-5; fig. 12.1–2).
Watson, Andrew G., Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts The British Library, 2 vols (London, 1979), no. 556.
- 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)