Homilies in Old English, with early pen-trial in Dutch; 11th century, beginning-middle, partly at Rochester

Title

Homilies in Old English, with early pen-trial in Dutch; 11th century, beginning-middle, partly at Rochester

Shelfmark

MSS. Bodl. 340, 342

Place of origin

English, (partly Rochester, cathedral priory)

Date

11th century, beginning to middle

Language

Old English (ca. 450-1100)

Contents

Hands

Arts. 1-75 are in a handsome square Anglo-Saxon minuscule by one hand: a heavy almost straight line inclined steeply from left to right forms the first stroke of aand e: the top of a is almost flat: round soccurs often before t, when doubled and finally: y has no dot: no high e ligatures: the final upward curve of a, r, tand the tongue of eare often prolonged at a line-end to fill up space : Latin quotations in the text are in a type of caroline minuscule in which r is a descender and ghas a small head : a small number of hyphens are in the original hand : punctuation is by semicolon, reversed semicolon, and point. Titles are in red rustic capitals or minuscules in the hand of the text.

The hand of the Rochester corrector (and scribe of art. 76) is sprawling, but firm and well marked : his etends to rise above the level of other letters and to be open at the top: the ink is brown and is often on top of pencil. Arts. 76-77 are in a heavy round script s. xi(1) and arts. 78-79 in a hand of about the same date which is clumsily imitative of the main hand, but in which the ends of descenders tend to turn to the left: for the relation of these additions to the rest of the manuscript see above.

Decoration

Some fine, many good initials. (Pächt and Alexanderiii. 42, pl. V). Initials of interlacing knot-work and beastheads are on the first page of each volume: other initials are in red, blue, green, or purple and slightly ornamented. The next letter after a coloured initial is often somewhat enlarged. (Ker)

Acquisition

Given by him to the Bodleian in 1602.

Provenance

Rochester, Kent, Cathedral priory of St Andrew: for evidence of Rochester ownership in s. xi see art. 76 and K. Sisam in Review of English Studies 7 (1931), p. 11. Catalogues of 1123 (B77.83) and 1202 (B79.112). (MLGB3: inferred evidence).

Sir Walter Cope MLGB3); his nos. 89, 90 (Ker)