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 Caligula A XV, ff 120–153
- Record Id:
- 041-001102358
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001630.0x00016d
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100061709006.0x000001
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Caligula A XV, ff 120–153
- Title:
- A collection of computistical texts and tables (imperfect), charms, prognostics, Easter-table annals for Christ Church, Canterbury, and extracts from Ælfric's De temporibus anni
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains a variety of computistical and prognostic material and charms, as well as an image depicting God and an angel giving a scroll to St Pachomius. It also contains annals next to its Easter table, which link the manuscript's production to Christ Church, Canterbury. Originally, these folios formed one volume with Egerton MS 3314, ff. 9-72.
The main text of the manuscript may have been written shortly after 1073: the last annal in the first hand of the annals is for that year. Material continued to be added to the manuscript in the 12th century. In particular, Saloman, the sub-prior of Christ Church in 1207, added some material (see Egerton MS 3314, f. 1v and Cotton MS Caligula A XV f. 120v).
These folios include:
ff. 120r–132r, 139v–142r, 143r–v: Computistical texts and tables (imperfect);
ff. 132v–139r: Easter-table chronicle, covering AD 988–1268;
ff. 142r–v, 144r–153v: extracts from Ælfric, De temporibus anni;
Decoration: printed borders on tables (ff. 121v, 123v, 143r); drawing of God handing a blank scroll to an angel, who in the next panel hands the scroll to St Pachomius (ff. 122v-123r); red, green, and occasionally blue initials of varying sizes throughout.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102356
041-001102358 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Caligula A XV : Jerome, De viri illustribus, Jerome, Vita S Pauli, extracts from Isidore's Eymologiae, book III of Cyprian's Ad…
Cotton MS Caligula A XV, ff 120–153 : A collection of computistical texts and tables (imperfect), charms, prognostics, Easter-table annals for… - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0503]/040-001102356[0002]/041-001102358
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- Item
- Extent:
-
Part of a parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Caligula_a_XV (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Old
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
Runic - Start Date:
- 1075
- End Date:
- 1299
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 11th century-13th 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
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Christ Church Cathedral Priory, Canterbury late 11th century, with additions made through the 13th century.The first part of these folios (ff. 120-41) may have been written shortly after 1073, since the first hand of the annals stops at 1073. These folios originally formed one volume with Egerton MS 3314, ff. 9-72 (for a reconstruction of its original collation, see Willetts, 'Reconstructed' (1966), pp. 26-28 and Liuzza, Anglo-Saxon Prognostics (2011), p. 10). Some later additions were written by Salomon, monk and afterwards sub-prior of Christ Church, Canterbury (see f. 120v): a note identifying him appears in Egerton MS 3314, f. 1v.
Provenance:
The Benedictine abbey of Christ Church, Canterbury: listed as 'Compotus Adelardi' in Prior Eastry's early 14th-century catalogue of books in the library of Christ Church, Canterbury (now Cotton Galba E. IV, f. 133v, edited in James, Ancient Libraries (1903), p. 49, no. 287); the title 'Aedthelardus de compoto' appears in a 13th-century hand in Egerton MS 3314, f. 1, and was copied in a 16th-century hand on f. 144r of Cotton Caligula A XV. Since folios 120-153 do not seem to have been joined with the other part of Cotton Caligula A XV until the early modern period, there is no reason to think that these folios were at St Augustine's during the medieval period, as has been previously suggested (see Barker-Benfield, St Augustine's (2008), III, 1828).
? John Trendle, a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury (d. 1433): inscribed 'Quere residuum istius operis in tabula Johannis Trendle' (Egerton MS 3314, f. 33v) on added table of the dates of Easter 1269-1408, a continuation of the table in Cotton Caligula A. XV, ff. 132v-139.
Two post-medieval pressmarks 'Gr.' and '51' (Egerton MS 3314, f. 1).
? John Dee (b. 1527, d. 1609), mathematician, astrologer, and antiquary: his 'Jupiter' sign (top righthand corner of Egerton MS 3314, f. 1); inscribed with his annotations (Egerton MS 3314, ff. 60v-61). However, his mark is also on the bindings for Egerton MS 3314, bindings which are too small for the folios in Cotton MS Caligula A XV, so the folios in Egerton manuscript and the Cotton manuscript may have already been separated by that point (see Willetts, 'Reconstructed' (1966), p. 28).
- Information About Copies:
- Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts.
- Publications:
-
Ælfric's De temporibus anni, ed. and trans. by Martin Blake (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2009) [includes edition of Ælfric's De temporibus anni].
Baker, Peter S., ed., The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition, 8, MS F (Cambridge, 2000), pp. xlvi, 129–34 [includes edition of the Easter-table annals].
Barker-Benfield, B.C., St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 13, 3 vols (London: British Library, 2008), I, 511, II, 1122, III, 1828.
Chardonnens, László Sándor, Anglo-Saxon Prognostics, 900-1100: Study and Texts (Leiden: Brill, 2007), pp. 4, 17-19, 36-39, 43, 54, 55, 60, 70, 76, 82, 87, 91, 134, 140, 144, 182, 197-99, 230, 234, 271, 289, 347-48, 362-63, 368, 370, 373, 379, 380-81, 384, 426, 428, 430, 447, 450, 459, 462-63, 469, 486-87, 509-12, 550.
Gameson, Richard, The Role of Art in the Late Anglo-Saxon Church (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), pp. 146-47, 149.
Gameson, Richard, The Manuscripts of Early Norman England (c. 1066-1130) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), no. 370.
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. 411.
James, M. R., Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1903), p. 49, no. 287.
Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), no. 139.
Ker, N. R. (ed.), Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, 2nd edn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964), p. 35.
Liuzza, Roy Michael, ‘Anglo-Saxon prognostics in context: a survey and handlist of manuscripts’, Anglo-Saxon England, 30 (2001), 215–16.
Liuzza, Roy Michael, Anglo-Saxon Prognostics: An Edition and Translation of Texts from London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius A.iii (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2011), pp. 9-12, 36, 71 n. 267.
The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220, ed. by Orietta Da Rold, Takako Kato, Mary Swan and Elaine Treharne, electronic book (University of Leicester, 2010; last update 2013), https://www.le.ac.uk/english/em1060to1220/mss/EM.BL.Cali.A.xv.htm.
Pulsiano, Phillip, 'The Prefatory Matter of London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius E.xviii', in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts and Their Heritage, ed. by Phillip Pulsiano and Elaine Treharne (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), pp. 85-116 (pp. 87-9, 96, 108 n. 19, 109 n.22, 112-13).
Schaller, Dieter, & Ewald Könsgen, Initia carminum Latinorum saeculo undecimo antiquiorum: Bibliographisches Repertorium für die lateinische Dichtung der Antike und des früheren Mittelalters (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1977).
Temple, Elzbieta, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066 (London: Harvey Miller, 1976), no. 106.
Watson, Andrew G., Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1979), no. 517.
Willetts, P. J., ‘A reconstructed astronomical manuscript from Christ Church library Canterbury’, British Museum Quarterly, 30 (1965–66), 22–30.
Wormald, Francis, Collected Writings I: Studies in Medieval Art from the Sixth to the Twelfth Centuries, ed. by J.J.G. Alexander, T.J. Brown, and Joan Gibbs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 146-48.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)