Ælfric and Ælfric Bata, grammatical texts

Title

Ælfric and Ælfric Bata, grammatical texts

Shelfmark

St John's College MS 154

Place of origin

England

Date

s. xi in., xi ex.

Language

Old English (ca. 450-1100)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Vellum (HSOS/HFFH, not in insular fold).

Physical extent

Fols. ii + 222+ ii (numbered iii–iv).

Hands

Two hands, fols. 1–116 v written in insular square minuscule; succeeded by a second scribe in the same, but writing fols. 160v–221vin caroline. Punctuation by medial point (scribe 1); by medial point and occasional punctus versus(scribe 2, in his insular portions); by point, medial point, punctus elevatus , and punctus versus(scribe 2, in his caroline portions).

Decoration

At the fullest, headings in red in rustic capitals and 2- or 3-line red initial capitals.

After fol. 73, rubrics simply in text ink. Rustic capitals for first lines of sections.

In items 2–4, red capitals for initia fols. 160v–7, 206v–end only, with guide letters visible (two unfilled, one supplied in text ink fol. 210v, the second fol. 220v blank).

Also red-slashed capitals at heads of sentences fols. 163v–6, 189v–90, 197v–8(with headings in red rustic capitals and red capitals at major divisions), 205v–6.

Fairly frequent marginal corrections and occasional bits of Old English through all texts (for the Old English in item 1, s. xi ex. , see Zupitza passim).

Binding

The manuscript was rebound in 2014, as discussed here.

The following is a description of the previous binding: A modern replacement. Sewn on five thongs. At the front, a marbled paper leaf and a modern paper flyleaf; at the rear, a modern paper flyleaf and another marbled leaf (iii–iv).

Acquisition

‘Liber Collegii Sancti Iohannis Baptistae Oxon ex dono Christopherj ColesArtium Bacchalaurej ejusdem Collegii conuictoris 1611 o’ (fol. 2); a further notation of college ownership (s. xvii) appears on fol. 220v.

Provenance

‘liber sancti Cuthberti de Dunelmo’ [Durham Cathedral](s. xii ex.), with an addition by a later hand, ‘et de armario prece ntoris qui alienauerit ab eo anathema si t’. Preceded by an illegible reading above the shelfmarks ‘2 a 7iN’ and ‘E’ (all fol. 1). In the Durham catalogues of 1391 and 1416 as ‘Librari grammatice’ E: ‘Donatus Anglice, ii fo., “i. de’or hoc milite” ’; see [James Raine (ed.)], Catalogi veteres librorum ecclesiae cathedralis Dunelm. , Surtees Society 7 (1838), 33, 111 (Ker, MLGB 75; Watson, Suppl. 32).

‘istum librum’ at the end of an otherwise defaced line (s. xi) and ‘librum’ beneath in another hand (fol. 222v).

The old shelfmark ‘Abac: ij.—No. 2’ ( fol. 1, lower margin and the top of fol. 1v; cf. fol. 2v‘No. 2’).