The oldest surviving copy of Bede’s Commentary on the Old Testament Book of Proverbs, produced in his own monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow. — 8th century, second quarter or middle; English, Wearmouth-Jarrow

Title

The oldest surviving copy of Bede’s Commentary on the Old Testament Book of Proverbs, produced in his own monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow. — 8th century, second quarter or middle; English, Wearmouth-Jarrow

Shelfmark

MS. Bodl. 819

Place of origin

English, Wearmouth-Jarrow

Date

8th century, second quarter or middle

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment

Physical extent

vi (modern paper endleaves, foliated ii–vii; a note about the content of the volume made by F. Madan dated 6 August 1887 is attached to the first paper endleaf and foliated i) + 115 + vi (modern paper endleaves, foliated ff. 116–21) leaves

Hands

Text of Bede’s Commentary written by a single hand in insular minuscule script. Notable is the form of p, the bow of which is open and terminates in a flick causing it to somewhat resemble an R.

Biblical lemma written by the same hand in uncial script. Closely comparable to other examples of uncial from Wearmouth-Jarrow, the Northumbrian monastery where Bede spent his life. It particularly resembles the capitula type of uncial used in bibles produced in that scriptorium (CLA 2.235).

Decoration

Good initials. (Pächt and Alexander iii. 8, pl. I). Initials in the black ink of the text mark the beginning of Book 2 (fol. 29r) and Book 3 (fol. 79v) of the Commentary and are decorated with curling or interlacing scrolls from which sprout ivy leaves.

Binding

Leather binding over pasteboards, c. 1600. The presence of Cope’s number on a flyleaf suggests that the binding was on the manuscript in his time (see Watson, ‘The Manuscript Collection of Sir Walter Cope (d. 1614)’, 1987, p. 296).

Acquisition

Presented by sir Walter Cope in 1602; '22' on fol. vii verso is probably a Cope number, cf. Watson, pp. 269-70.

Provenance

Glossed in Latin by Aldred, the Old English glossator of the Lindisfarne Gospels (London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D IV), presumably at Chester-le-Street, Durham in the tenth century (see In the Beginning: Bibles Before the Year 1000, 2006, no. 56, pp. 294–5 [Bruce Barker-Benfield]).

Durham, Benedictine cathedral priory of St Cuthbert: London, British Library, Harley MS 4688 was copied from MS Bodley 819 in Durham, s. xii, and the punctuation and abbreviations of the latter were modified to allow this (ibid.).