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Cotton MS Otho C I/2
- Record Id:
- 041-001102878
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001630.0x000278
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100058087533.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Otho C I/2
- Title:
- Old English translation of parts of Gregory the Great's Dialogi; Old English translations of three Lives from Vitas patrum; letter of Boniface to Eadburga; a homily; three homilies of Ælfric (imperfect)
- Scope & Content:
-
This codex includes various theological and hagiographical material, along with a letter and some homilies, all in Old English or translated into Old English:
ff. 1r–61v: Old English translation of parts of Gregory the Great's Dialogi, including a metrical preface, introductory lines, Books 1-2, copied in the early 11th century;
ff. 62r–137r: Old English translation of parts of Gregory the Great's Dialogi, including Books 1-4, copied in the mid-11th century;
ff. 137v–143v: three Lives from Vitas partum copied in the mid-11th century;
ff. 143v–146r: letter of Boniface to Eadburga copied in the mid-11th century;
146r–148v: a homily copied in the mid-11th century;
f. 149r: partially legible book list, added possibly at Worcester in the 13th century;
ff. 149r–155v: Ælfric, three homilies (imperfect), copied in the mid-11th century.
In the codex, f. 51 is bound before f. 50, as a note between ff. 49 and 51 clarifies. This is the correct order for the text. As a result, the image for f. 51 is numbered '50' in the viewer and the image for f. 50 is numbered '51', in order to replicate the physical appearance of the manuscript.
Decoration: Initials in blue, black, green, and letters filled in with blue, yellow, and green (ff. 1r-61v). Initials in red and green (ff. 62r- 138r) and blue (f. 79v)
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102876
041-001102878 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Otho C I : Cotton Manuscript Otho C I
Cotton MS Otho C I/2 : Old English translation of parts of Gregory the Great's Dialogi; Old English translations of three Lives from Vitas… - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0755]/040-001102876[0002]/041-001102878
- 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_100058087533.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Old
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1000
- End Date:
- 1070
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter 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.
Materials: parchment and ink.
Dimensions: binding 350 x 240 mm (after fire damage, folio: approx. 265 x 170 mm; text block: approx. 265 x 170 mm).
Foliation: ff. 155 (+ 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/1.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin, ff. 1r-61v: ? South-West England (? Credition): aspects of the script resembles manuscripts produced at Canterbury or Crediton (see Stokes, English Vernacular (2014), pp. 110-11). A passage on the opening leaf suggests that this manuscript or its exemplar were made for a bishop whose name began 'Wulf...', possibly Wulfsige, bishop of Sherborne (d. 1002) (''Me aƿritan het ƿulfstan bisceop', f. 1r; see Sisam, History (1953), pp. 225-26). The final letters of the name have been erased and changed to 'stan', perhaps to make it appear that the manuscript originally belonged to Wulfstan (d. 1023), bishop of Worcester and archbishop of York.
Origin, ff. 62r-155v: ? Worcester: script is similar to that found in other manuscripts associated with Worcester (see Ker, Catalogue (1957), p. 237).
Provenance:
Worcester Cathedral Priory: annotated by hands associated with Worcester or manuscripts attributed to Worcester, including by Coleman, chancellor of Wulfstan (d. 1095), bishop of Worcester, in the late 11th century (ff. 105v, 106v, 107v, 110r, 112v, 113r-v, 114v-115r, 116r, etc.) and by the so-called Tremulous Hand of Worcester in the 13th century (throughout).
Michael Lapworth (fl. 1593), fellow of All Souls College: inscribed 'Michaell Lapworthus medicus Novemb. 1593' (f. 31r).
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: owner. 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 II, ff 1–155
- Information About Copies:
- Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts.
- Publications:
-
Franzen, Christine, The Tremulous Hand of Worcester: A Study of Old English in the Thirteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), pp. 64-65.
Gameson, Richard, 'St Wulfstan, the Library of Worcester, and the Spirituality of the Medieval Book', in St. Wulfstan and his World, ed. by Julia Barrow and Nicholas Brooks (Aldershot, Hants, England, Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005), pp. 59-104.
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. 359
Hecht, Hans (ed.), Bischof Wærferths von Worcester Übersetzung der Dialoge Gregors des Grossen, Bibliothek der Angelsächsischen Prosa, 5 (Liepzig: G. H. Wigand, 1900) [includes partial edition].
Johnson, David F., and Winfried Rudolf, 'More Notes by Coleman', Medium Ævum, 79 (2010), 113-25.
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 (pp. 98 n.3, 99, 103; figs 7.1, 7.4).
Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), no.182.
Ker, N. R. (ed.), Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books (London, 2nd edn., 1964), p. 207.
Laing, Margaret, Catalogue of Sources for a Linguistic Atlas of Early Medieval English (Woodbridge: Brewer, 1993), p. 79.
Planta, J., A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library, Deposited in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1802), p. 365.
Stokes, Peter A., English Vernacular Minuscule from Æthelred to Cnut circa 990-1035 (D.S. Brewer: Cambridge, 2014), pp. 13, 19, 24, 44, 102, 106, 110-11, 128.
Sisam, Kenneth, Studies in the History of Old English Literature (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953), pp. 199-224, 225-31.
Wanley, H., Librorum Veterum Septentrionalium Catalogus (Oxford, 1705), p. 212.
Yerkes, David, 'British Library, Cotton Otho C.i, vol. 2, fol. 115r', Old English Newsletter, 18.1 (1984), 32-33.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)