Cotton MS Nero A II, f 2

This single leaf originates from a Book of Hours that was most likely produced in Flanders in the 2nd half of the 15th century. It may have belonged to the same manuscript as f. 1. The leaf was reused as a frontispiece for Cotton MS Nero A II in the library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631). It has been pasted onto a larger leaf of parchment with a size that matches the rest of the manuscript. Cotton's heraldic arms were painted and an introduction to the manuscript was inscribed on f. 2r. Cotton MS Galba A XVIII (The Athelstan Psalter) contains a frontispiece from the same Book of Hours (see Tite, Early Records (2003), p. 262).

Cotton appears to have embellished especially those manuscripts that have royal connections or contents referring to kings and may have added this decorated leaf as a frontispiece to Cotton MS Nero A II because of its hymns to King Athelstan (see Brown, 'Sir Robert Cotton, Collector and Connoisseur' (1998), pp. 290-91).

Contents:

f. 2r: A 15th-century decorated initial 'V', followed by a 17th-century inscription: '[V]olumen hoc fragmentorum a Roberto Cotton collectum, continent diversos tractatus quae proxima in pagina sequuntur'.

f. 2v: A table of contents, added by the so-called ‘stylized hand’: an unknown scribe who added tables of contents in Cotton’s most important manuscripts.

Decoration:

A large initial in yellow (imitation gold) on a grey ground with a full strew border; Cotton's heraldic arms added in the 17th century.