Ormulum; (?)Bourne, Lincolnshire, 1170s × 1180s

Title

Ormulum; (?)Bourne, Lincolnshire, 1170s × 1180s

Shelfmark

MS. Junius 1

Date

1170s × 1180s

Language

Latin

Middle English (1100-1500)

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment. Each bifolium is formed from a near-complete skin, thus retaining the off-cut that would usually be excised from prime cut. Orrm folded the skin in portrait, rather than the more usual landscape, creating the unusual dimensions of the codex. I am grateful to Erik Kwakkel for discussing this issue with me.

Physical extent

[i] + ii + 117 + [i], numbered [i], 1–118, [119], [ii]. the front and endleaf are unnumbered modern paper flyleaves. Fols 1, 2 comprise a bifolium bearing thirteenth-century writing and are not necessarily an integral part of the codex. Fols 3–118, [119] constitute the manuscript proper.

Hands

The main text and the bulk of the revisions are in Orrm's hand; a second hand (known as Hand C) added the Latin pericope at the beginning of each homily, and made a few English additions (e. g. fols 43r, 62r, 67v). Thoroughly and repeatedly corrected by Orrm himself. Corrections often made by superposed letters. English written in an unusual, heavy, cramped English Vernacular minuscule. Ascenders and descenders are short compared to the body of the minims. Word division is not always a priority. One feature of Orrm's unique orthographical system is his use of geminate consonants; these generally indicate the preceding vowel is short, unless that vowel is in an open syllable. To economise the space this system requires, Orrm sometimes stacks the second consonant of a pair on top of the first consonant. a: may or may not have a head. æ retained, though absent from Orrm's Latin. d: round-backed. Occasional biting of de. e: there are occasional examples of e-caudata. g: an insular form, carefully composed of three strokes; a modified caroline form, finished with a horizontal stroke along the top of the bole, which is used for the stop consonant; and occasionally, the pure Caroline form. h: Orrm uses the straight-limbed insular form in his English text, a curved-limbed form when writing Latin. H can also appear superscript above a g, indicating a medial guttural sound. i: double i is ticked, single i is not. o Pointed oval. r: generally a simplified insular form, though Orrm uses the Caroline form when stacking a geminate consonant, which he also uses when writing Latin. Orrm is also inclined to use a majuscule r in Marȝe. s Invariably the tall Caroline form, usually descending very slightly below the line. Orrm also uses the st ligature. þ used throughout. ð a rare form, only used 117 times in total throughout the Orrmulum. ƿ: used throughout. ascendersgenerally wedged descenders: generally taper left accents: Accents are used to disambiguate potential confusions. Orrm uses a range of techniques to clarify the structure of the text. Major structural divisions are marked by decorative capitals; paraph marks (for which Orrm has three designs, but the choice seems to be random) indicate further divisions. Orrm also uses the simplex ductus to mark key passages marginally. Individual half-lines usually begin with a capital. barred t-terrdouble common mark of abbreviation-mm, -nnThere are one or two isolated examples of syllabic suspension, e. g. crist, trowwenn. The Latin abbreviations for pro- and per- are occasionally used in loanwords. The main mark of punctuation is the punctus; the punctus elevatus is also used. Runovers are routinely marked with a hyphen. The end of a homily is marked, unusually, with a series of positurae. st ligature in English and Latin; ct ligature in Latin, with the tie taking an oblique angle Thoroughly and repeatedly corrected; Orrm particularly struggled to eliminate eo spellings once he had decided he preferred e.

Hand C added the Gospel pericopes at the beginning of individual homilies, using a small academic hand. He also rewrote several of Orrm's additions more clearly (fols 43r, 67v, 69r, 117v). He may have added ll. 7471–80 (fol. 62r) by his own initiative, though the text is identical to ll. 6494–6504. While he fails to follow Orrm's orthographical conventions exactly, he evidently understood the principles on which they rested. Parkes 1991 suggests he may have been familiar with writing documents. a: generally with a pronounced headstroke that is the same length as the bole, though the headless form is also frequently found. The headless form is also used superscript as a syllabic suspension, a feature Parkes suggests dies out in the 1180s.d: round-backed; lobe composed of broken strokes. e: tongue generally protrudes, a feature exacerbated when the letter is word-final. f, like s descends slightly below the line (features, according to Parkes, extremely rare in bookhand). g: Caroline, composed of a lobe and tail which initially descends in front of the lobe, before turning back perpendicularly to the left. This stroke is often extended. In English, where the tail of Caroline g is typically closed, he also uses insular g, as well as Orrm's hybrid form. h: in Latin, the second limb curves inward and is often extended beneath the line; in English, Hand C maintains the insular form. i: wedged at top, at base sometimes finished with an oblique rightward serif, sometimes unfinished. Word final i is sometimes long. m: generally has rounded arches. Such arches became pointed in the 1170s according to Parkes. o Pointed oval. r: generally Caroline in Latin; insular in English. s Descends slightly below the line.t: The stem sometimes bisects headstroke. The stem is often extended upwards to the right.þ is used to the exclusion of ð in English. The crossbar of the abbreviation þatt turns up at the right.ƿ: used in English; often very similar to p. ascenders sometimes wedged, but often unfinished descenders: generally straight with a very slight taper to the left. This taper became more pronounced in documentary hands of the 1160s and 1170s. ˥ sits on the line; the descender is finished with a serif to the right. The capitular form is barred. In English, uses syllabic suspension in cristes (67v).As one might expect, he uses the full compendium of Latin abbreviations in the pericopes. The main mark of punctuation is the punctus. In English, the punctus elevatus is also used. st ligature in English and Latin.

Decoration

Multiple-line unadorned monochrome initials open most homilies. These are mostly in black, but there are several in green.

Paraphs occasionally coloured in red.

Binding

Bound in modern pulp boards. The binding probably postdates the significant losses the manuscript suffered after Junius had numbered the columns.

Sewn on six thongs, spine uncovered.

Paper pastedowns at front and back.

Acquisition

Entered the Bodleian with Junius's manuscripts in 1678.

Provenance

Acquired in 1659 by Jan van Vliet (fol. 2); lot 107 in the sale of his library, 1666.

Probably purchased at that sale by Franciscus Junius.

Title

The Ormulum

Shelfmark

MS. Junius 1

Summary

The Ormulum, in 20,000 lines of septenarian Middle English verse, being a fragment (about one-eighth of the whole) of the homilies on the gospels written by Orm, an Augustinian canon, probably of Danish origin, about 1200 A.D. in or near Lincolnshire, and dedicated to his brother Walter. The orthographical peculiarities (the doubling of the consonant after a short vowel, and the use of three kinds of 'g' first shown by A. S. Napier, Notes on the Orthography of the Ormulum, Oxford, 1893), have made this manuscript of great importance, and the place of origin has been much disputed (cf. Athenaeum, May 19 and July 14, 1906). Since the editions by dr. R. M. White (Oxford, 1852) and by the rev. Robert Holt (Oxford, 1878) the tendency has been to bring the work farther south for philological reasons.

The MS. itself is plainly holograph and contains a number of small inserted leaves which have been foliated separately but are not included in the numeration of columns, which is by Junius. These are fols. 11, 13-16, 19, 26-9, 37, 39, 47, 49-50, 56-62, 64, 67, 71, 78, 82, 108. Since the columns were numbered, nos. 13-28, 45-52, 69-76, 97-104, 137-44, 157-60, 181-204, 221-4, 237-44, 257-60, 277-80, 297-300, 399-406 have been lost. The bulk of the work is preceded by a dedication, beg. 'Nu, broperr Wallterr, broperr min Affterr pe flæshess kinde' (fol. 3), texts, beg. 'Secundum Lucam I [i. 5]. Fuit in diebus illis' (fol. 5), preface, beg. 'piss boc iss nemmnedd Orrmulum Forrpi patt Orrm itt wrohte', introduction, beg. 'All mannkin, fra patt Adam wass purrh Drihhtin wrohht off eorpe' (fol. 10). The text beg. 'An preost wass onn Herodess da33, Amang Judisskenn peode' (fol. 10, col. 2). An Alphabetum Anglicum with runic equivalents (13th cent.) is on fol. 2.

Date

Written about 1200 in England

Language

Middle English (1100-1500)

Physical facet

On parchment, in double columns

Physical extent

90 Leaves

Custodial history

A note on fol. 2 states that this book was bought in 1659 by Janus Ulitius (or Van Vliet, a friend of Junius), whose library was sold in 1666 when this MS. appeared in the sale catalogue (Mus. Bibl. III. 4°. 1) as '107 [cf. fol. 1]. Een oudt Sweeds of Gottisch in Parquement geschreben Boeck ober de Evangelium'. It was thus probably bought by Francis Junius at The Hague in 1666 and bequeathed by him with his other MSS. to the Bodleian.