Bede, Pseudo-Bede, Henry I of England, Hildebert of Le Mans — 1100s × 1110s

Title

Bede, Pseudo-Bede, Henry I of England, Hildebert of Le Mans — 1100s × 1110s

Shelfmark

Jesus College MS. 51

Place of origin

England

Date

1100s × 1110s

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment, of middling quality and arranged hair to hair, flesh to flesh.

Physical extent

a2 + 105 + z1 leaves: a consists of 2 singletons, of which the second was sewn to quire 1; a1 and z1 serve as pastedowns. Fols. 1–23 is badly damaged at the top, fols. 1 and 2 having been repaired with paper.

Hands

The original contents, i.e. Bede’s works, is in one good book English hand from the early 12th cent. He wrote also part of Jesus College MS 69.

The text was corrected by another hand, although the text scribe executed a few corrections.

The two letters, items 4 and 5 on fol. 104r, were added by a scribe from the first half of the 12th cent., who wrote part of Jesus College MS 54.

Although items 6 and 7, the poem and the table, differ from each other in terms of their palaeographical aspect, they are possibly in one hand from the first half of the 12th cent.

Items 8 and 9, the poems by Hildebert on fol. 105r, are in one hand from the first half of the 12th cent.

Item 10, the prophecy, on the same folio is apparently a new, contemporaneous hand.

Items 11 and 12, the eulogy of psalms and the exegesis, on fol. 105v are in one hand, likewise from the first half of the 12th cent.

The final inserts, items 12–14, are in one hand from the second half of the 12th cent.

There are several pen trials on z1, some from the second half of the 12th cent.

Two pen trials copy text from item 12, indicating that the flyleaf had been attached to the book before or during the second half of the 12th cent.

Bede’s texts were commented by at least three late medieval readers.

Decoration

Initials are mainly in red ink and rarely in green. Arabesque initial in green, red, and purple on fol. 27v; in purple and red on fol. 67v; and in purple, silver, and red on fol. 100v. The first two signal breaks between books of item 2 and a break between items 2 and 3.

A winged reptile with a crowned human head in brown and red ink in the lower margin of fol. 77r (20 × 50 mm). A casually sketched human figure standing on an object, perhaps a snail, in brown ink below on the empty lines at the bottom of the text block on fol. 103r (2 × 4 cm). Two casual sketches in (an early) modern hand(s) in crayon: a crowned head on fol. 33v and a swordsman on fol. 35v.

Binding

Medieval binding.

Provenance

Evesham Abbey: chainmark at foot of second cover (as Jesus College MSS. 54, 93). Similar marks are in the same position on the boards of two Evesham manuscripts, Auct. D. 1. 85 and Queen's College 302, but this form of chaining is otherwise known only on manuscripts from some Oxford colleges.

Thomas Gascoigne: annotations on fols. 25v, 26r. Known to have preached at Evesham.