A: Boethius, glossed; B: Persius, with commentary. England, Canterbury, St Augustine's; late 10th century

Title

A: Boethius, glossed; B: Persius, with commentary. England, Canterbury, St Augustine's; late 10th century

Shelfmark

MS. Auct. F. 1. 15

Place of origin

English, Canterbury, St. Augustine's

England, Canterbury, St. Augustine's

Date

10th century, end

Language

Old English (ca. 450-1100)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Physical extent

i + 77 (part 1) + 15 (part 2) + i + i.

Binding

The two parts were bound together, most probably in 1411-1412 in Exeter (Clarkson 1996: 164). A parchment fly at the back of the book was a former pastedown. The original oak boards were reversed when the book was rebound and covered, in Oxford, in around 1600. The whittawed sheepskin covers are very worn. The inner boards are now bare wood with traces of paste and on the inner front board there are offsets of a text in carolingian minuscule.

[Note: A paper card has been pasted on the inside back board on the exposed wood with a note in pencil: 'from inside at end 22.1.1904 E.W.B.N: The card has a small window for a parchment fragment which looks to be in a late 10c anglo-caroline hand, and reads 'uin' on the recto and 'acd' on the verso. The offsets on the inside front board match in minim height the script on the tiny fragment.]

Flyleaves at front and back were originally pastedowns, as paste remains on f. i recto and f. 93 verso. The front flyleaf (f. i) and the back fly (f. 93) were not original to the A-S book, as the wormholes in the textblocks, leaves, and covers do not match and the parchment is a thicker type and undamaged by mold as are the first several leaves of Part 1 and last several leaves of Part 2. Furthermore, the rust stains on the covers and ff. 1-2 that postdate the 1411-12 refurbishment and chaining in the Exeter library are absent on the fly, suggesting that these leaves were bound into the book in c. 1600. Clarkson suggests that the upper board is original from the Boethius and the lower board originally from the Persius (1996: 167). The book originally was sewn in three stations not counting the endbands, but was resewn onto four stations in the early 15c refurbishment. The spine is very worn with labels at the lower two gaps between stations; the top one has the shelfmark 'F. 1. 15' and the lower one bears an old shelfmark, 'Arch. F. c. 16'. The inner front board has a small label in the top left 'S.C. 2455' and offset carolingian minuscule text.

New covers were put over the original (but reversed) boards, ca. 1602 (Clarkson 1996: passim and Watson 1987: 270), when it was gifted to the Bodleian, and the book was clipped and chained in the Bodleian in the 17c. The turn-in of the covers was partly lifted in 1973-74 at the Bodleian as part of a dendrochronological study (as reported by Clarkson 1996: 165). According to notes and photographs kept in its storage box, the manuscript was refurbished in February of 1977.

Provenance

A composite volume consisting of two manuscripts from St. Augustine's, Canterbury, written in anglo-caroline minuscule of the later 10c: Boethius' "De Consolatione Philosophiae" and Persius' "Satirae''. The Boethius is glossed with an insular (and incomplete) version of the Remigian commentary, scholia, and glosses (Wittig 2006: 179 and 191) as well as the third "Vita" and Lupus of Ferrieres' "De metris" (Gibson and Smith 1995: no. 163). The copy is textually related to Cambridge, Trinity College O.3.7 (90), which represents a fairly full text of the Remigian gloss (Courcelle 1939: 121-22, Bolton 1977a: 381-82, Bolton 19776: 52-53). The copy of Persius' "Satirae" has a version of the "Commentum Cornuti" glosses and scholia, borrowing from the "Tradition B" for the preface and prologue, and reverting to the "Tradition A" family of glosses for the satires proper (Pulsiano 2001: 146-49; for the traditions see Robathan and Cranz 1976: 3.215-24). The Persius is closely related to, and may have ultimately shared an exemplar with, Cambridge, Trinity College O.4.10, and M.R. James suggests this exemplar may derive from a copy found at Theodore and Hadrian's Canterbury school (James 1902: 3.258). T.A.M. Bishop placed the origin of both parts of the manuscript at St. Augustine's based on scribal interrelations with other manuscripts (Bishop 1971: no. 9; 1959-63: 415, also Barker-Benfield 2008: 3.1815-16). The Boethius was subsequently but nearly contemporaneously glossed at Christ Church, Canterbury , attesting to close relations between the foundations in the late 10c (Bishop 1971: 7).

Leofric probably acquired the manuscripts from Canterbury (Bishop 1959-63: 415; Drage 1978: 271 and 406; Treharne 2009: 524) and certainly donated the two manuscripts to Exeteras separate items in the third quarter of the 11c; both parts are identifiable with entries in Leofric's donation inventory (Lapidge 1994: 134-35; Conner 1993: 232-34), and both have donation inscriptions. The two manuscripts remained as two separate items in the 1327 inventory of Exeter's holdings (Oliver 1861: 329; though cf. Drage 1978: 387). They were perhaps bound together in the 14c or, more likely, in the Exeter refurbishment campaign of 1411-1412 (Clarkson 1996: 164-69; Pollard 1975: 144). The compiled book was probably chained in the Exeter library in the late Middle Ages.

Perhaps visible in the 1508 catalogue (Oliver, Lives, p. 368), but second folio gone. ( MLGB3: evidence from an ex-libris inscription or note of gift to an institution).

Given to Bodley by the Dean and Chapter of Exeter, 1602. ( MLGB3)