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Detailed record for Royal 12 D XVII
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| Title |
Collection of charms and remedies ( 'Bald's Leechbook') |
| Origin |
England, S. W. (Winchester) |
| Date |
2nd or 3rd quarter of the 10th century |
| Language |
English and Latin |
| Script |
Insular minuscule |
| Decoration |
Decorated initials in black, some highlighted in colour (oxidised). |
| Dimensions in mm |
265 x 190 (185/95 x 120) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 128 (f. 128 is a medieval parchment flyleaf + 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Royal library binding with the arms of George II. |
| Provenance |
'Bald': a six-line verse colophon, referring either to the text or to this manuscript, includes the following, 'Bald habet hund (for hunc) libru[m] cild que[m] conscribere iussit' (Bald is the owner of this book, which he ordered Cild to write/compile), (f. 109).
The Benedictine cathedral priory of St Peter, St Paul and St Swithun, Winchester ? (see Ker 1957 and 1964).
Latin marginalia of 12th/13th century (e.g., f. 125v).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Westminster inventory number 'no. 139 ', (f. 1) and included in the inventory of books in the Upper Library at Westminster of 1542 (f.26).
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. |
| Notes |
Quire signatures in the lower margin for quires 1-8.
There are 3 collections of medical recipes, each preceded by a contents list with numbered chapters:
ff. 1- 6v: 88 numbered chapters
ff. 58v-108: 67 numbered chapters,
ff. 109-127: 76 numbered chapters in the contents list, but the manuscript is imperfect, ending at no 73. At the top of f. 109 is a six-line verse colophon beginning 'Bald habet hund (for hunc) libru[m] cild que[m] conscribere iussit' (Bald is the owner of this book, which he ordered Cild to write/compile).
Contains Anglo-Saxon neums in the margins (ff. 3, 30v, 53, 89v) (see Hartzell 2006). |
| 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, p. 48.
Bald's Leechbook (British Museum Royal Manuscript 12 D XVII), Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, 494.5, ed. by C. E. Wright (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Baggen, 1955).
N. R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), no. 264.
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.
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H2.622
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. 479.
Monsters and the Monstrous in Medieval Northwest Europe, ed. by K. E. Olsen & L. A. J. R. Houwen (Leuven: Peeters, 2001).
Richard Gameson, The Scribe speaks? Colophons in early English Manuscripts , H.M Chadwick Memorial Lectures, 12 (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Department of Anglo Saxon, Norse and Celtic, 2001), p. 51.
The Leofric Missal I, ed. by Nicholas Orchard, Henry Bradshaw Society, 113 (London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 2002), p. 111.
David Howlett, Insular Inscriptions (Chippenham: Antony Rowe, 2005), pp. 100-01.
K. D. Hartzell, Catalogue of Manuscripts Written or Owned in England up to 1200 containing Music (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006), no. 184.
David Ganz, ‘Anglo-Saxon England’, in The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland, ed. by Elisabeth Leedham-Green and Teresa Webber, 3 vols (Cambridge: University Press, 2006), Vol I: To 1640, pp. 91-108 (p. 99).
Michelle P. Brown, Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age (London: The British Library, 2007), pp. 131,144.
Marijane Osborn, 'Anglo-Saxon Ethnobotany: Women's Reproductive Medicine in Leechbook III' in Health and Healing from the Medieval Garden ed. By Peter Dendle and Alain Touwaide (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2008), pp.145-61. |
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f. 1
Text page |
f. 7
Text page |
f. 7v
Text page |
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ff. 20v-21
Decorated initials |
f. 20v
Text page |
f. 21
Text page |
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f. 23v
Decorated initials |
f. 53v
Text page |
f. 71
Decorated initials |
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f. 106
Text page |
f. 125v
Text page |
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