The Following Manuscripts Will Be on Display in the Exhibition Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War from 19 October 2018 to 19 February 2019
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The following manuscripts will be on display in the exhibition Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War from 19 October 2018 to 19 February 2019 Stockholm Codex Aureus (Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, MS A 135, ff. 10-11, 144-145) Kungliga Biblioteket , Box 5039, S-102 41 Stockholm, Sweden The Codex Aureus is a highly illuminated 8th-century Gospel-book, written on alternating purple-stained pages and uncoloured parchment. It is also known for a 9th-century marginal inscription on f. 11r that records how it was ransomed from a war band by a nobleman called Alfred and his family. It has 191 leaves and is currently disbound. i. type of object: manuscript ii. description of the material: parchment, ink, pigments and gold iii. identity and nationality of creators: unknown; probably made in Kent iv. the title: known as The Stockholm Codex Aureus (contains the four Gospels) v. page dimensions: 395 × 314 mm vi. date: mid-8th century Pages from the Stockholm Codex Aureus (Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, MS A 135, ff. 10v-11r and ff. 144v-145r This manuscript was presented to the Royal Book Collections and Library in Stockholm by Johan Gabriel Sparwenfeldt (b. 1655, d. 1727), who was an ambassador, linguist and bibliophile. He had acquired the manuscript from the Spanish noblewoman Catalina de Haro (b. 1672, d. 1733). References N. R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), 456. Andrew Breeze, "The Stockholm 'Golden Gospels' in seventeenth-century Spain." Notes and Queries, 43 (1996), 395-97. Richard Gameson (ed.). 2001–02. The Codex Aureus. An Eighth-Century Gospel Book. Stockholm, Kungliga Bibliotek, A. 135, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, 28–29 (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger). The Vercelli Book (Vercelli, Biblioteca Capitolare CXVII) Fondazione Museo del Tesoro del Duomo e Archivio Capitolare, Piazza Alessandro D’Angennes, 51- 13100 Vercelli Italy This manuscript contains a collection of Old English literature. It is one of the ‘four poetic codices’ that contain the majority of Old English verse that survives to this day. i. type of object: manuscript ii. description of the material: parchment and ink iii. identity and nationality of creators: unknown; made in south-east England iv. the title: The Vercelli Book (contains the poems The Dream of the Rood, Elene, Andreas, The Fates of the Apostles, Soul and Body, as well as prose homilies and prose vita of St Guthlac) v. page dimensions: 310 x 202 mm vi. date: second half of the 10th century Opening of the poem ‘The Dream of the Rood’ in Vercelli, Biblioteca Capitolare CXVII, ff. 104v-105r The manuscript has been in Italy since the late 11th or early 12th century, as can be seen from the addition of Psalms 26.9 on f. 24v. The scribe omitted neque despicias me before deus, in a style associated with the northern Italian peninsula (see The Vercelli Book, ed. by Sisam (1976), p. 44.) It was held by Vercelli Cathedral at the latest by 1602, when it was listed in a catalogue by Canon Giovanni Francesco Leone as ‘Liber Gothicus, sive Longobardus, (eum legere no valeo).’ This catalogue was printed in G. De-Gregory, Istoria della Vercellese Letteratura ed Arti iv (Turin, 1824), 568. The manuscript may also have been that referenced in the 1426 inventory of Vercelli Cathedral’s documents on f. 154r. References The Vercelli Book: A Late Tenth-Century Manuscript Containing Prose and Verse, Vercelli Biblioteca Capitolare CXVII, ed. by Celia Sisam, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, 19 (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1976). Codex Amiatinus (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Amiatino 1) Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Piazza San Lorenzo 9, 50123 Florence Codex Amiatinus is the oldest surviving, mostly complete copy of the Vulgate translation of the Bible into Latin. It was made at the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow and taken as a gift for the pope by Abbot Ceolfrith in 716. It consists of around 1030 parchment leaves. It includes several diagrams and illuminations, in addition to the text. i. type of object: manuscript ii. description of the material: parchment, ink and pigments iii. identity and nationality of creators: monks of Wearmouth-Jarrow; Northumbrian iv. the title: Codex Amiatinus (containing Jerome’s Vulgate translation of the Bible) v. page dimensions: c. 505 × 340 mm vi. date: before June 716 Dedication page and portrait of Ezra, Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Amiatino 1, f. Iv, Vr Peter Leopold (d. 1792), Grand Duke of Tuscany and Holy Roman Emperor, ordered that this manuscript be moved to Florence after the suppression of the monastery of San Salvatore, Amiata in 1782. The manuscript was housed in Castello Nuovo, Florence before being moved to the Laurenziana Library. The manuscript had been in San Salvatore since the late 9th century, when Peter the Lombard altered its dedicatory inscription to refer to himself and San Salvatore, where previously the inscription had recorded that the manuscript was being given from Ceolfrith to St Peter’s, Rome. References A. Bandini, Bibliotheca Leopoldina Laurentiana, 3 vols (Florence, 1791-1793) I, 701-03 and 708-11. The Life of Ceolfrith, in Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow, ed. and trans. by Christopher Grocock and I.N. Wood (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2013). C. de Hamel, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts (London: Penguin, 2016). R. Marsden, The Text of the Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). W. Schipper, ‘Style and Layout of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts’, in Anglo-Saxon Styles, ed. C. Karkov and G. Brown (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003), p. 153. Calendar of Willibrord (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat 10837) Bibliothèque nationale de France, Quai François-Mauriac, 75706 Paris, France This manuscript includes a calendar which was owned (and annotated) by St Willibrord, founder of Echternach Abbey. It also includes a martyrology, horologium, prayers, Easter tables and other related materials. Scholars have debated whether this manuscript originated in Ireland, Northumbria or Echternach. It has 45 folios. i. type of object: manuscript ii. description of the material: Parchment and ink iii. identity and nationality of creators: unknown iv. the title: Calendar of Willibrord v. page dimensions: 220 x 170 mm vi. date: late 7th and early 8th century Page from a calendar with an annotation possibly composed by St Willibrord, BnF lat 10837, f. 39v The national library of France acquired this manuscript when the official, Jean-Baptiste Maugérard, sent it and several other manuscripts from Echternach to Paris in October 1802 (as recorded in BnF, Département des Manuscrits, Archives Modernes, 497). It was previously owned by the Abbey of Echternach until the law of 1 September 1796 on the nationalisation of church property. References William O’Sullivan, ‘Manuscripts and Palaeography’, in A New History of Ireland: Prehistoric and Early Ireland, ed. by D. Ó Cróinín (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 511-48 (513, 522-25) Echternach Gospels (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat 9389) Description (including number of pages?) i. type of object: manuscript ii. description of the material: parchment, ink, pigments iii. identity and nationality of creators: unknown iv. the title: The Echternach Gospels v. page dimensions: 335 x 255 mm vi. date: c. 700 St Mark’s evangelist symbol and the opening page of his gospel, BnF, lat 9389, ff. 75v-76r The national library of France acquired this manuscript when the official Jean-Baptiste Maugérard sent it and several other manuscripts from Echternach to Paris in October 1802 (as recorded in BnF, Département des Manuscrits, Archives Modernes, 497). It was previously owned by the Abbey of Echternach until the law of 1 September 1796 on the nationalisation of church property. References Biblical Commentaries from the Canterbury School of Theodore and Hadrian, ed. by B. Bischoff and M. Lapidge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). U. Durand and E. Martène, Voyage littéraire de deux religieux Benedictins de la Congregation de Saint Maur (Paris, 1717- 24), p. 297-298. B. Ebersperger, Die angelsachsischen Handschriften in den Pariser Bibliotheken (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1999). E.A. Lowe, Codices Latini Antiquiores, 11 volumes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934-66), V, 578. D. Ó Cróinín, ‘Rath Melsigi, Willibrord and the Earliest Echternach Manuscripts’, Peritia 3 (1984), 17-49. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat 6401 This manuscript contains an illuminated copy of Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy and De institutione arithmetica, made in the late 10th century. Some further texts (Epitaphium Gauzlini and Radulf of Liège and Ragimbold of Cologne, Letters on geometry) were added in the 11th century. i. type of object: manuscript ii. description of the material: parchment and ink iii. identity and nationality of creators: unknown; based in England and the Abbey of St Benoît- sur-Loire, Fleury iv. the title: Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy and De institutione arithmetica, Radulf of Liège and Ragimbold of Cologne, Letters on geometry and Epitaphium Gauzlini v. dimensions: 275 x 195 mm vi. date: late 10th-century, with 11th-century additions Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat 6401, ff. 13v, 15r The Bibliothèque royale de France bought this manuscript in 1732 from Charles-Eléonor Colbert (d. 1740), Comte de Seignelay, along with the rest of his manuscripts. He had inherited the collection of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (b. 1619, d. 1683). The Bibliothèque royale de France later formed the basis for the Bibliothèque nationale following the French Revolution. Previously, the manuscript had belonged to the Benedictine Abbey of St Benoît-sur-Loire, Fleury, P. Daniel and Chandelier, avocat au Parlement and collector, from whom Colbert bought the manuscript in 1674. References Les manuscrits de Chrétien de Troyes, ed. by Keith Busby, 2 vols (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1993). Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat 10861 This early 9th-century manuscript contains a collection of saints’ lives and passions.