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Cotton MS Otho C I/1
- Record Id:
- 041-001102877
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001630.0x000277
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100058086978.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Otho C I/1
- Title:
- Gospel-book; bull of Pope Sergius
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains an imperfect Gospel-book, written in Old English (the so-called 'West Saxon' version of the Gospels). It was copied in the 1st half of the 11th century. In the mid-11th century, an Old English translation of a bull of Pope Sergius which benefitted Malmesbury Abbey was added between the Gospels of St Luke and St John (68r-69v).
Decoration: Initials in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102876
041-001102877 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Otho C I : Cotton Manuscript Otho C I
Cotton MS Otho C I/1 : Gospel-book; bull of Pope Sergius - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0755]/040-001102876[0001]/041-001102877
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- Item
- Extent:
- 1 parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100058086978.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Old
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1000
- End Date:
- 1070
- Date Range:
- 1st half of the 11th century-Mid 11th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Condition: damaged by fire.
Material: parchment and ink.
Dimensions: binding 345 x 245 mm (after burning, maximum folio dimensions: approx. 260 x 150 mm; text dimensions: approx. 260 x 150 mm).
Foliation: ff. 110 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end).
Binding: BM/BL in-house, rebound in 1898.
Previously, it had formed 1 volume with Cotton MS Otho C I/2.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England (Worcester or York? See Stokes, English Vernacular (2014), p. 108).
Provenance:
? The Benedictine abbey of St Peter and Paul, Malmesbury: Old English translation of a bull of Pope Sergius in favour of Malmesbury added in the mid-11th century (ff. 68-69). One of the hands of this addition may also have corrected text in the Gospel-book (f. 87r; see Liuzza, Old English Version (1994), p. xxiv).
12th century: a few corrections and glosses added (f. 48r-v; see Liuzza, Old English Version (1994), p. xxiv).
? John Joscelyn (b. 1529, d. 1603), Old English scholar and Church of England clergyman: added text (ff. 68-69, 110).
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 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 Otho C I, part I, ff 1–110
- Information About Copies:
-
Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, ed. by A.N. Doane and others, 3 (Binghamton, New York, and Tempe, Arizona, 1995), no. 218.
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. 94 [exhibition catalogue].
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. 358.
Johnson, David F., ‘The transmission and reception of Alfredian “Apocrypha”’, 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. 98-107 (p. 98).
Ker, N. R. (ed.), Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, 2nd edn (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 128;
Liuzza, R. M., The Old English Version of the Gospels, Early English Text Society, original series 304, 2 vols (Oxford, 1994-2000).
Rauer, Christine, ‘Pope Sergius’s Privilege for Malmesbury’, Essays for Joyce Hill on her Sixtieth Birthday, ed. by M. Swan, Leeds Studies in English, new series 37 (2006), 261-81.
Stanton, R., The Culture of Translation in Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2002), pp. 104-05, 129-31.
Stokes, P., English Vernacular Minuscule from Æthelred to Cnut circa 990-1035 (D.S. Brewer: Cambridge, 2014), p. 108.
Wanley, H., Antiquae Literaturae Septentrionalis Liber Alter (Oxford, 1705), p. 211.
- 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)