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Royal MS 7 C XII, ff 4r-218v

Record Id:

041-003251996

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002105724

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100026883410.0x000001

LARK:

SLARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100062001408.0x000002

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Royal MS 7 C XII, ff 4r-218v

Title:

Ælfric's Catholic Homilies, First Series

Scope & Content:

This item consists of the earliest known copy of the first series of Ælfric's Catholic Homilies. This copy lacks the prefaces found in later versions, and some of the homilies are imperfect (numbers i, xv, xx, xxiii, and xxiv in Catholic Homilies, ed. by Clemoes (1997), p. 1). The main text was written by three scribes and corrected by at least four scribes in the late 10th or early 11th century. It is possible some of these early corrections and annotations are in Ælfric's own hand (see, for example, ff. 64r, 105r). There are also later glosses from the late eleventh or early twelfth century (ff. 80v-82v). Blank spaces were left, possibly for Latin Gospel readings, on ff. 45v, 66r, 71v, and 76v.

Decoration: Initials in red, turned gray as a result of oxidation. Added drawings of a bird and zoomorphic ornament, possibly added in the late 11th or 12th century (ff. 191, 193v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Royal Collection

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002105724
040-002106235
041-003251996

Is part of:

Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 7 C XII : Fragments of Canon Tables, the First Series of Ælfric's Catholic Homilies, extracts from Gregory of Tours, Gesta Francorum,…

Royal MS 7 C XII, ff 4r-218v : Ælfric's Catholic Homilies, First Series

Hierarchy:

032-002105724[0470]/040-002106235[0002]/041-003251996

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X

Record Type (Level):

Item

Extent:

214 folios, part of a parchment codex

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_7_C_XII (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

English, Old
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

0995

End Date:

1005

Date Range:

c 1000

Era:

Access:

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Custodial History:

Origin: ? The Benedictine abbey of Cerne, first half of the 990s: the main text and the first corrections and glosses were written in a fairly square type of English vernacular minuscule (see Stokes, English Vernacular Minuscule (2014), p. 80). The text apparently represents an early version of the Catholic Homilies, since it lacks prefaces, and some passages marked for deletion in this manuscript seem to represent an earlier stage of the writing of the text (like the deleted conclusion to the homily on Andrew, f. 211r; see Ælfric's Catholic Homilies, ed. by Clemoes (1997), pp. 65, 531-32). One of the correcting hands may be that of Ælfric himself (see, for example, ff. 64r, 105r; see Sisam, Studies, p. 173 n. 1). Therefore, it may have been written at Cerne, the monastery where Ælfric was based between about 987 and 1005.

Provenance:

? The Benedictine abbey of Cerne, 990-100: around 1,000 small corrections added to the manuscript soon after it was produced.

Added drawings of a bird and zoomorphic ornament, 11th-12th century? (ff. 191, 193v).

Information About Copies:

Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: British Museum Royal 7 C.xii , Fols. 4-218, ed. by Peter Clemoes and Norman Eliason, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, 13 (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1965).

Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts.

Publications:

Kenneth Sisam, Studies in the History of Old English Literature (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953), pp. 171-75.

N.R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), no. 257.

Connie Eble, 'Noun Inflexion in Royal 7 C. XII, Ælfric's First Series of Catholic Homilies' (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1970).

The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art, 966-1066, ed. by Janet Backhouse, D.H. Turner, and Leslie Webster (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984), no. 158.

Patrick Conner, Anglo-Saxon Exeter: A Tenth Century Cultural History (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1993), pp. 58, 62, 71-72, 74, 76.

Peter Clemoes, 'History of the Manuscript and Punctuation', in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: Basic Readings, ed. by Mary Richards (London: Routledge, 1994, reprinted 2001), pp. 345-64.

Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: the First Series, Text, ed. by P. Clemoes, Early English Text Society, Supplementary Series, 17 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997) [includes edition].

Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies: Introduction, Commentary and Glossary, by Malcolm Godden, Early English Text Society, Supplementary Series, 18 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

Jane Roberts, Guide to Scripts used in English Writings up to 1500 (London: British Library, 2005), no. 12, p. 67.

Treasures of the British Library, ed. by Nicolas Barker and others (London: British Library, 2005), p. 27.

Fred C. Robinson, 'Mise en page in Old English Manuscripts and Printed texts' in Latin Learning and English Lore: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature for Michael Lapidge, ed. by Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe and Andy Orchard, Toronto Old English Series, 14, 2 vols (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), II, 363-75 (pp. 368-69, 374).

Mechthild Gretsch, 'Ælfric, Language and Winchester', in A Companion to Ælfric, ed. by Hugh Magennis and Mary Swan (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 109-38 (pp. 110, 128).

Elaine Treharne, 'Making their Presence Felt: Readers of Ælfric, c. 1050-1350', in A Companion to Ælfric, ed. by Hugh Magennis and Mary Swan (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 399-422 (p. 412).

Jonathan Wilcox, 'The Use of Ælfric's Homilies', in A Companion to Ælfric, ed. by Hugh Magennis and Mary Swan (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 345-68 (pp. 355-56).

Richard Gameson, 'Anglo-Saxon scribes and scriptoria', in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, 6 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998-2012) Volume I: c. 400-1100, ed. by Richard Gameson (2012), 94-120 (p. 115 n. 83).

Donald Scragg, 'Old English homiliaries and poetic manuscripts', in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, 6 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998-2012) Volume I: c. 400-1100, ed. by Richard Gameson (2012), 553-61 (pp. 557-58).

Helmut Gneuss 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. 472.

Peter A. Stokes, English Vernacular Minuscule from Æthelred to Cnut circa 990-1035 (D.S. Brewer: Cambridge, 2014), pp. 13, 32, 59-60, 80, 92, 138, 146, 162-63, 198, 201 n. 59.

The Old English Lives of St Martin of Tours, ed. by Andre Mertens (Göttingen: Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2017), p. 106.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)