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Detailed record for Royal 15 C VII
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| Author |
Lantfredus : Wulfstan |
| Title |
Life and miracles of St Swithun |
| Origin |
England, S. (Winchester) |
| Date |
1st quarter of the 11th century |
| Language |
Latin, with a few glosses in English |
| Script |
Caroline minuscule; Uncial titles |
| Decoration |
Large initials in red or green. Numerous small initials, alternately red and green. Rubrics alternately red and green |
| Dimensions in mm |
285 x 210 (200 x 130/140 |
| Official foliation |
ff.1*, 2* + 127 + 1*, 2* (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end + 2 parchment leaves at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Gold-tooled red leather with a floral stamp at the centre of both covers. Marbled endpapers. |
| Provenance |
Written at the Old Minster, Winchester, c. 1000, possibly 996 (see Temple 1976; Lapidge 2003 p. 240), with later 11th century additions; added miracles of St Swithun (ff. 124v-126v); remained at Winchester until at least the 16th century (see Lapidge 2003 p. 23).
Thomas Dakcombe, rector of St Mary Colebrook and petty canon of Winchester Cathedral, in 1566: inscribed 'Libru[m] d[omi]n[i Thomas dackombis', (f. 2) .
Humphrey Lloyd: inscription (f. 2*v).
John Lumley, 1st baron Lumley (b. c. 1533, d. 1609), collector and conspirator, Lloyd's brother-in-law: inscribed with his name (f. 2); listed in the 1609 catalogue of his collection, no. 601 (see The Lumley Library, 1956); passed to Henry, prince of Wales.
Henry Frederick, prince of Wales (b. 1594, d. 1612), eldest child of James I: his collection became part of the Royal Library: in the 1698 catalogue of the library of St James's Palace (see Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697'), no 8121).
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
This manuscript contains a variety of different works concerning St. Swithun, Bishop of Winchester (d. 862), including a tract on miracles attributed to him; a hymn in which the first lines begin with the letters from A to Z, followed by four more beginning with A, M, E, and N; and a biography written in verse.
Contents:
Lantfred's Translation et Miracula S. Swithuni (ff. 2-49);
Hymn to St Swithun (epanaleptic) (ff. 49v-50v);
Wulfstan's Narratio Metrica de S. Swithuno (ff. 51-124);
Additional poems and miracles of St Swithun (ff. 124v-126v);
A few Old English glosses (ff. 109, 111).
Marginal directions for reading at night office (ff. 3v-8). |
| Select bibliography |
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, pp. 166-67.
The Lumley Library: The Catalogue of 1609, ed. by Sears Jayne and Francis R. Johnson (London: British Museum, 1956), p. 91.
N. R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), p. 336, no. 270.
Andrew G. Watson, ‘A sixteenth-century collector: Thomas Dackomb, 1496-c. 1572’, The Library (1963), 204-17 (p. 214, no. 12).
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 200.
Elzbieta Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 2 (London: Harvey Miller, 1976), p. 94.
David N. Dumville, English Caroline Script and Monastic History, Studies in Benedictinism, A.D.950-1030 , Studies in Anglo-Saxon History, 6 (Suffolk: Boydell, 1993), p. 145.
Michael Lapidge, Anglo-Latin Literature 600-899 (London: Hambledon Press, 1996), p. 433.
Alan Coates, English Medieval Books: The Reading Abbey Collections from Foundation to Dispersal (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), p. 126.
Helmut Gneuss, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 241 (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001), no. 496.
Michael Lapidge, The Cult of St Swithun, Winchester Studies Series, 4.2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003) pp. 23, 239-40, 805.
David Howlett, Insular Inscriptions (Chippenham: Antony Rowe, 2005), pp. 94-98.
Richard W. Pfaff, The Liturgy in Medieval England: A History (Cambridge: University Press, 2009), p. 43. |
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f. 2
Coloured initial |
f. 3
Coloured initial |
f. 6
Coloured initial |
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f. 28v
Coloured initial |
f. 56v
Coloured initials |
f. 124v
Coloured initials |
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