23 April 2016
1000th Anniversary of the Death of Æthelred the Unready
Today marks the 1000th anniversary of the death of King Æthelred II (reigned 978-1016). Æthelred II—often nicknamed Æthelred the ‘Unready’, from the Old English word for 'ill-advised'—has not enjoyed a glowing reputation throughout history.
Passage describing Æthelred’s death from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle C-text, England, 11th century, Cotton MS Tiberius B I, f. 153v
The longest narrative account of Æthelred’s reign comes from a group of entries in the C, D, and E texts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. (The British Library possesses the C and D texts and has recently digitised all its copies of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.) These entries were apparently composed after Æthelred’s death by a single chronicler, who was bitter about the repeated Viking invasions that had dogged Æthelred’s reign and the eventual conquest of England by the Scandinavian leader Cnut. The chronicler blamed Æthelred for many of these tribulations, and summed up Æthelred's life in his entry for 1016 by saying: 'He ended his days on St George's day, and he had held his kingdom with great toil and difficulties as long as his life lasted' (translated by Dorothy Whitelock and others, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Revised Translation (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1961), p. 95).
Passages describing Eadric Streona’s treachery from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle D-text, England, 11th century, Cotton MS Tiberius B IV, f. 65v
In particular, the chronicler objected to Æthelred’s promotion of the treacherous noble Eadric Streona, who eventually joined Cnut’s forces. He also disapproved of the massive payments which English leaders collected and used to pay Viking forces in return for an end to hostilities.
Detail of a list of benefactors including ‘Æðelred [the Unready] Cynge' and 'Cnut Cynge', from the New Minster Liber Vitae, England (Winchester), 1031, Stowe MS 944, f. 25r
Despite the eventual conquest of Æthelred’s kingdom by Cnut, there are other suggestions that Æthelred was not an entirely incompetent ruler. Æthelred was one of the longest reigning early medieval kings: he ruled for approximately 38 years, even taking into account the period when the victories of the Viking leader Swein forced him into exile in Normandy in 1013 and 1014. By contrast, Æthelred’s father, Edgar the Peaceable, had only reigned for 16 years, and Æthelred’s successor Cnut reigned for 19 years. Æthelred’s longevity, particularly in the context of invasion and disruption, is remarkable.
Initial at the start of the Gospel of St Luke, from the Cnut Gospels, England, Royal MS 1 D IX, f. 70r
In addition to disruption, Æthelred’s reign also saw a flourishing of artistic production, as evidenced by several manuscripts in the British Library’s collection, which have now been digitised in full. These include the lavishly illustrated and gilded gospel-book pictured above which may have been made during Æthelred’s reign, even though it is known today as the ‘Cnut Gospels’ because charters of Cnut were later added to it around 1018.
Page from Beowulf, England, c. 1000-1016, Cotton MS Vitellius A XV, f. 140r
Similarly, the only surviving manuscript of the longest Old English epic, Beowulf, was copied during Æthelred’s reign, in the early 11th century. Curiously, Beowulf is a Geatish, or Scandinavian, hero, whose story was still being retold in a context of Scandinavian invasions of England. This manuscript contains a number of other notable texts as well, including an Old English poem about the Biblical heroine, Judith.
Deatil of the opening page of Ælfric’s Life of St Æthelthryth, from Ælfric’s Lives of the Saints, England (? Bury St Edmunds or Canterbury), 1st half of the 11th century, Cotton MS Julius E VII, f. 94v
Indeed, many of the most important works in the corpus of Old English literature were copied during Æthelred’s reign, and some were even produced then. In particular, Æthelred’s reign coincided with the career of Ælfric of Eynsham, one of the most prolific and talented authors of Old English works. Ælfric’s sermons, including his Lives of the Saints, his Grammar, and other texts were widely copied during the 11th century and are still studied in medieval English literature courses today. The British Library has now digitised two copies of the first series of Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies (see Cotton MS Vitellius C V), including the earliest surviving copy (Royal MS 7 C XII); one copy of Ælfric’s Lives of the Saints (Cotton MS Julius E VII); two copies of Ælfric’s Grammar (Cotton MS Faustina A X, Cotton MS Julius A II); a copy of the Old English translation of the Hexateuch, to which Ælfric was a principal contributor (Cotton MS Claudius B IV); and other works which include excerpts from Ælfric, such as a fragment of a colloquy associated him which was copied into the margins of a grammar book (Add MS 32246).
Page from a later copy of Ælfric’s Hexateuch, England (Canterbury), c. 1025-1050, Cotton MS Claudius B IV, f. 15v
Æthelred’s reign also coincided with the careers of other noted writers in Old English and Latin, including Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester and archbishop of York, and Wulfstan, cantor of the Old Minster, Winchester. Manuscripts of these men’s work—including some with additions and annotations in Wulfstan of Worcester’s own hand—have also recently been digitised, including Wulfstan of Winchester’s long Latin poem about the miracles of St Swithun (Royal MS 15 C VII).
Page from the Rule of St Benedict, England, c. 975-1016, Harley MS 5431, f. 44r
These writers were all products of the monastic reform movement which promoted the Rule of St Benedict, uniformity of lifestyle, and high standards of education. Much manuscript evidence of this learning survives, including a plethora of grammar books, glossaries, and texts on subjects from astronomy (Cotton Domitian A I) to Latin epics to hagiography to riddles.
Page from Prudentius' Psychomachia with illustration and glosses, England (? Bury St Edmunds), c. 980-1020, Add MS 24199, f. 12r
These texts show monks (and possibly nuns and lay people) studying and improving their Latin and even Greek.
Latin phrase ‘Deo gratias’ written in Greek letters, from Harley MS 5431, f. 106v
This artistic flourishing was not entirely unrelated to the troubles of Æthelred’s reign. Many members of Æthelred’s kingdom believed that the Viking invasions were divine punishment for lax practices and lack of learning. This view can, for instance, be found explicitly in the writings of another leading intellectual of Æthelred’s reign: Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester and archbishop of York, who wrote several law codes issued in Æthelred’s reign and was a senior administrator for him (and later, for Cnut). Wulfstan’s law codes and his famous ‘Sermon of the Wolf to the English’ blame his countrymen’s lax habits for Scandinavian forces’ recent victories. In the eyes of contemporaries, creating beautiful books to glorify God and educate clerics and lay people may have been one way to combat the country’s moral (and military) woes.
Page from Wulfstan’s Sermo lupi, England (? Worcester or ? York), Cotton MS Nero A I, f. 110r
Beyond the manuscripts related to art and learning, we have also recently digitised a series of documents which suggest that, in some regions at least, leases and property deals and farming continued apace during Æthelred’s reign. Such documents can be found in an early cartulary of Worcester, such as the Liber Wigorniensis (Cotton MS Tiberius A XIII, ff. 1-118v) and the Ely farming memoranda (Add MS 61735). The memoranda describe farm tools and livestock sent from Ely Abbey to Thorney Abbey, as well as rents payable in eels.
Grant by King Æthelred to the Bishopric of St David with reversion to Worcester from 1005, from the Liber Wigorniensis, England (Worcester), c. 1000-1025, Cotton MS Tiberius A XIII, f. 118v
Whatever one thinks of Æthelred, it cannot be denied that his reign was a fascinating time in political and artistic history. On 23 April 2016, when so many people around the world are celebrating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, it is worth pausing to remember that it is also the 1000th anniversary of the death of King Æthelred.
~Alison Hudson
02 April 2016
A Calendar Page for April 2016
For more information about the Bedford Hours, please see our post for January 2016; for more on medieval calendars in general, our original calendar post is an excellent guide.
Calendar page for April from the Bedford Hours, France (Paris), c. 1410-1430, Add MS 18850, f. 4r
Spring is well underway in the Bedford Hours calendar pages for April.
Detail of miniatures of a man gathering leaves and the zodiac sign Taurus, from the calendar page for April, Add MS 18850, f. 4r
At the bottom of the first folio is the standard (for this manuscript) two-part miniature. On the left, a man is carrying a leafy young tree past a flowing river, having presumably just trimmed the branches from the stump before him. He is well dressed for a labourer, wearing a fur-lined surcoat and carrying a long dagger on his belt. To his right is a bull for the zodiac sign Taurus, enjoying a lie-down in the sun.
Detail of a marginal roundel of Venus, from the calendar page for April, Add MS 18850, f. 4r
The marginal roundel at the right, however, displays the true central figure for the month of April – Venus, the goddess of love. The accompanying verses tell us that April was dedicated to Venus by the pagans, because Venus (the planet) is a ‘hot and moist and drenched planet’, much like the month of April.
Calendar page for April, Add MS 18850, f. 4v
The emphasis on Venus and April continues on the following folio. Alongside the conclusion of April’s saints’ days are two roundels relating to the goddess. On the middle left is a scene of the abduction of Proserpina (Persephone) in a cart drawn by two horses. According to mythology this abduction was ultimately instigated by Venus, who envied the young girl’s beauty and ordered her son, Eros, to loose his arrows so that all would be smitten with love for her, leading ultimately to Proserpina being carried down into the depths of Hades.
Detail of marginal roundels of the abduction of Proserpina and a flower festival, from the calendar page for April, Add MS 18850, f. 4v
The bottom roundel shows a more genial scene, illustrating, as the rubrics tell us, ‘how in April the pagans had a festival for the goddess of flowers.’
- Sarah J Biggs
01 April 2016
Fool’s Paradise
It’s that time of the year when lambs frolic in the fields, British summertime begins, and people play practical jokes on their friends. Of course, the British Library’s Medieval Manuscripts team has never succumbed to the temptation of perpetrating an April Fool. All of our stories published on this most auspicious day have been 100% genuine like, um, the discovery of the unicorn cookbook, the one about the Loch Ness Monster, and the time we spotted a spaceship in a medieval Book of Hours.
(Left) Detail of a miniature of a fool, from Bible Historiale, Paris and Clairefontaine, 1411, Royal MS 19 D III, f. 266r (Right) Detail of a miniature with a jester, from Laurent de Premierfait’s translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s De casibus virorum illustrium (Des cas des ruynes des nobles hommes et femmes), Bruges, c. 1479-80, Royal MS 14 E V, f. 5r
Here are some amusing facts about medieval fools and jesters with which to impress your friends. How many of these did you already know?
1. The origins of the April Fool are lost in the mists of time. It has recently been suggested that the first April Fool’s joke may have been played by Gaston Le Faux (his name translates as ‘the False’), a 13th-century French troubadour. Gaston is reputed to have disguised himself as a fish and hidden under a platter at a banquet, in order to impress the ladies. The reaction of the onlookers is undocumented, as is Gaston’s own fate, but to this day the French still cry “poisson” whenever they play a practical joke on April Fool’s Day.
2. Modern stereotypes about medieval 'fools’ and ‘jesters’ are often derived from playwrights and novelists such as William Shakespeare and Victor Hugo (who notably imagined the ‘Feast of Fools’ in his Hunchback of Notre Dame).
Kenneth Wicksteed as Touchstone in Shakespeare's As You Like It (Stratford-upon-Avon, 1932)
3. The medieval entertainers we know as ‘jesters’ were mostly storytellers, minstrels and musicians. Chaucer mentions ‘All manner of minstrales, And jestours, that tellen tales’ in his House of Fame.
(Left) Detail of a juggler representing the third musical mode, from Gradual of Saint-Etienne of Toulouse, c. 1075-1125, Harley MS 4951, f. 298v (Right) Detail of a musician representing the second musical mode, Harley MS 4951, f. 297v.
4. In medieval Denmark, people often dressed as trees and bushes to ward off madmen and evil spirits on April Fool's Day.
5. Depictions of fools are often found in illustrated Psalters, inspired by the story of King David and the fool. This tale appears in the first Old Testament book of Samuel and describes the mistakes of the ‘foolish’ rich man Nabal, who refused to give provisions to David and his men, and was later struck down by the Lord for his folly.
Detail of the historiated initial 'D'with David and a fool at the beginning of Psalm 52, from the Rutland Psalter, London?, c. 1250, Add MS 62925, f. 56r
6. Not everybody likes April Fool jokes. In 1569, the Archbishop of Prague preached a sermon at St Vitus Cathedral, denouncing clowns and other pranksters as 'weasels, vipers, and worse than moles'. He was subsequently pelted by his congregation with tomatoes and rotten food, before being escorted back to his palace by the bodyguard of the King of Bohemia.
A star-nosed mole, the unintentional target of the Archbishop of Prague's vitriol
7. The most famous early modern image of a fool is found in the Psalter of Henry VIII at the British Library, at the beginning of Psalm 52. This shows King Henry himself, styled as King David, and his fool, Will Sommers, as Nabal.
Miniature of David and the Fool, from the Psalter of Henry VIII, England (London), c. 1540-1541, Royal MS 2 A XVI, f. 63v
No doubt, Will Sommers and other jesters and fools would be smiling proudly at all the tricks played throughout the world today.
Historiated initial with a fool, from the Great Bible, London, c. 1400-25, Royal MS 1 E IX, f. 148r
Detail of the historiated initial 'D'(ixit) with David and a fool at the beginning of Psalm 52, from the Howard Psalter, East Anglia, c. 1308-40, Arundel MS 83 , f. 40v
Drawing of a pig playing bagpipes, a jester showing his genitals, a man blowing a flute or pipe, and various hybrid creatures, from Pseudo-Aristotle, De caelo, De anima, England, 1487, Sloane MS 748, f. 82v
~ The Medieval Manuscripts Team
28 March 2016
Updated List of Digitised Manuscripts’ Hyperlinks
What are these Easter bunnies (or hares) hurrying towards?
Detail of hares, from Roman de la Rose, France, c. 1325-1375, Add MS 31840, f. 3
An updated list of all the early and medieval manuscripts digitised in full by the British Library! Every quarter, we try to publish a list of all the medieval manuscripts uploaded to the British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts website. The most recent list can be found here: Download List of Digitised BL AMEMM Manuscripts by Shelfmark, March 2016. And, by special request from our friends on Twitter, a list of manuscripts with the most recent digitisations at the end can be found here: Download List of Digitised BL AMEMM Manuscripts with More Recent Uploads at the End, March 2016.
Riddle about an elephant, from Aldhelm’s Riddles, England (Canterbury?), c. 970-1020, Royal MS 12 C XXIII, f. 100v
Particular highlights uploaded in the past three months include:
5 illustrated copies of the book of Apocalypse (or Revelation)
All 4 of the British Library’s copies of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
More than 3 manuscripts of the Roman de la Rose
2 collections of material related to the cult of St Cuthbert
One 1,000-year-old collection of riddles (Royal MS 12 C XXIII).
The one and only copy of the Dialogue de la Duchesse (Add MS 7970)
Miniature of Christ appearing to Margaret of York, from the Dialogue de la Duchesse, Low Countries (Brussels), c. 1468-1477, Add MS 7970, f. 1v
With several different digitisation projects under way, new manuscripts are regularly uploaded to Digitised Manuscripts. In order to get the latest news about our digitisation, please consult our Twitter page, www.twitter.com/blmedieval, where we announce the most recent uploads to Digitised Manuscripts.
Happy Viewing!
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Anglo-Saxon Digitisation Project Now Underway
20 March 2016
Lives of Cuthbert Now Online
by Alison Hudson
20 March was an important day in the medieval English calendar: it was St Cuthbert’s Day.
St Cuthbert meets King Ecgfrith of Northumbria and others, from Bede’s Prose Vita S Cuthberti, England (Durham), c. 1175-1200, Yates Thompson MS 26, f. 51
St Cuthbert (d. 687) was one of the most important saints in medieval England and beyond. He was an influential figure during his own lifetime, first as a hermit whose advice was sought by kings and abbesses, then as Bishop of Lindisfarne. After his death, he became the focus of a major cult. When Cuthbert’s tomb was opened 11 years after his death, his body was reported to be incorrupt. To the monks of the community at Lindisfarne, Cuthbert’s incorrupt state was proof that he was a saint.
Music from an office for St Cuthbert, Southern England (Canterbury), late 10th century, Harley MS 1117, f 43v
Accounts of Cuthbert’s life, death, and miracles were written soon after by an anonymous member of the Lindisfarne community and by the Northumbrian scholar Bede, who wrote both a verse and a prose account of Cuthbert’s life and miracles. Bede also wrote extensively about Cuthbert in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Cuthbert’s community eventually moved to Durham in 995, where Cuthbert’s shrine became a major pilgrimage centre.
Four manuscripts containing some of the earliest accounts of Cuthbert’s life—written by Bede—have also recently been uploaded to the Digitised Manuscripts website: Harley MS 526, Harley MS 1117, Cotton MS Vitellius A XIX, and Cotton MS Claudius A I.
These manuscripts demonstrate how influential Cuthbert’s cult remained, even over wide geographic areas and chronological spans. The earliest of these manuscripts, a copy of Bede’s verse Life of Cuthbert in Harley MS 526, was not even written in England. It was copied in Northern France, showing how Cuthbert’s cult had become known and celebrated in different regions of Europe by the 9th century.
Opening page from Bede’s Metric Vita S. Cuthberti, Northern France, late 9th century, Harley MS 526, f. 1
Similarly, Harley MS 1117 and Cotton MS Vitellius A XIX were written in the far south of England, probably in Canterbury, in the late 10th century, well outside the heartlands of Cuthbert’s community.
Detail of an initial from Harley MS 1117, f. 4
While West Saxon sources, like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, frequently downplayed or omitted Northerners’ influence on the south, the creation of multiple fine manuscripts containing Bede’s writings on Cuthbert and offices for celebrating Cuthbert’s feast in Canterbury show that southerners still paid great attention to certain figure-heads from the north.
Opening page from Bede’s Prose Vita S Cuthberti, England (Canterbury), late 10th century, Cotton MS Vitellius A XIX, f. 1v
Cotton MS Claudius A I, a late 11th- or 12th-century copy of Bede’s prose Life of Cuthbert has also been digitised. It was probably copied in England, and includes accounts of many other famous saints, from Egypt to Cyprus to Arles. Incidentally, some unrelated pages bound in this manuscript contain a copy of a poem about Cuthbert’s contemporary Northumbrian churchman, Wilfrid, possibly handwritten by their 10th-century author, Frithegod, himself. Like the lavishly illustrated copy of Bede’s Vita S. Cuthberti in Yates Thompson MS 26, which has already been digitised, Cotton MS Claudius A I reflects the continuation of this cult from the 8th century, even after the Norman Conquest in 1066.
Opening page from Bede’s Prose Vita S Cuthberti, England, c. 1075-1125, Cotton MS Claudius A I, f. 125v
In addition to the manuscripts listed above, the British Library has already digitised several manuscripts connected to Cuthbert and his later cult, such as the St Cuthbert Gospel (Additional MS 89000), which was discovered when Cuthbert’s coffin was opened in Durham Cathedral in 1104, and the Lindisfarne Gospels (Cotton MS Nero D IV). So please click over to our Digitised Manuscripts site and have a look at some of these manuscripts, on the 1,329th anniversary of the death of the man who inspired them all.
18 March 2016
The Letter Book of Archbishop Wulfstan
by Becky Lawton
This week sees the arrival online of the manuscript containing the ‘Wulfstan’s Letter Book’, which has been digitised as part of our Anglo-Saxon manuscripts digitisation project. The manuscript (Cotton Vespasian A XIV) is a compilation of three sections, written in the 11th and 12th centuries.
Page for February from a calendar, South Wales?, c. 1150-1200, Cotton MS Vespasian A XIV, f. 1v
The first section of this manuscript is believed to have been written in south-eastern Wales, and contains a calendar, a Latin-Old Cornish glossary containing over 300 words and a collection of saints lives. The page above is taken from the calendar page for February, and it features the feast day for St Brigid at the top of the page. Dedicated followers of the blog may remember some interesting aspects from the Life of St Brigid from a post on her feast day, 1 February.
An extract from the Libellus Responsionem in Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, England, c. 1130-1170, Cotton MS Vespasian A XIV, f. 109r
The second section of the manuscript is a selection of extracts from ‘The Ecclesiastical History of the English Church and People’, completed by Bede in 731. The extracts in this manuscript were copied in the mid-12th century; but a copy of Bede’s text made in the late 8th or early 9th century was uploaded to Digitised Manuscripts last month.
Extract of a letter from Alcuin to King Æthelred of Northumbria, from the Letter Book of Archbishop Wulfstan, England, c. 1002-1023, Cotton MS Vespasian A XIV , f. 114r
The final section in this manuscript is commonly known as the ‘Wulfstan Letter Book’. This text is a collection of letters written by Alcuin of York (c.735-804), which was compiled by Archbishop Wulfstan of York (d.1023) in the early 11th century. Alcuin was raised and educated at the church of York before moving to the court of Charlemagne in Francia in the 790s. Alcuin did not forget his fellow Englishmen, and sent many letters back to Anglo-Saxon England. Chief among his correspondents were the monks at York and King Æthelred of Northumbria, who is the recipient of the letter on the page above. Alcuin wrote to Æthelred to advise him on how to combat the Viking invasions of the time and how best to rule his kingdom. Archbishop Wulfstan also had connections to York, lived during a time of Danish invasions in England, and his king was also named Æthelred. Wulfstan may have found the advice in Alcuin’s letters helpful in his own day, and perhaps had them copied for this very reason.
Extract of a letter from Alcuin to King Æthelred of Northumbria, Cotton MS Vespasian A XIV, f. 117r
On some pages it is possible to see sections that have been highlighted by a pointing hand or underlining. It is commonly thought that these annotations were made by Archbishop Wulfstan himself, owing to his close associations with the manuscript.
Extract of a letter from Alcuin to King Æthelhred of Northumbria, Cotton Vespasian A XIV, f. 116v.
Many of the phrases which were underlined or pointed to contain advice on good kingship and how to rule a good, Christian kingdom, in order to prevent the Viking invasions. Wulfstan’s specific interest in these passages may reflect his concerns for the behaviour of his own king and the state of the kingdom of England.
Verses written in Archbishop Wulfstan's own hand, Cotton MS Vespasian A XIV, f. 148v
After compiling his collection of Alcuin’s letters, Wulfstan added a number of other items to the manuscript. On f. 148v is a poem, which includes Archbishop Wulfstan’s name six times. This poem is thought to have been written in Wulfstan’s own hand, rather than by a scribe.
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16 March 2016
Justifying Women Writers: A Medieval Poet Speaks Out
Today we are beginning a series of posts about medieval women. Our first post shines a spotlight on a highly educated, shadowy female poet. Contrary to popular belief, there were quite a number of famous medieval women writers and readers, and the British Library is lucky enough to look after a range of texts made for, written by, and even copied by women writers, from ninth-century Mercian prayer books (such as Harley MS 7653) to the Book of Margery Kempe (Add MS 61823, perhaps the earliest surviving autobiography of an English person) to the works of Christine de Pizan in the lavishly illustrated Book of the Queen (Harley MS 4431) to a collection of Latin, French, and Italian prayers translated and copied by the twelve-year-old future Elizabeth I as a New Year’s present for her father, Henry VIII (Royal MS 7 D X). Elizabeth really went the extra mile when it came to presents: not only did she translate and copy the text herself, she even embroidered the manuscript’s cover with Tudor roses and her father’s and stepmother’s initials.
Embroidered front cover from the ‘Prayerbook of Princess Elizabeth’, England, 1545, Royal MS 7 D X
However, medieval women writers did not always have an easy time, according to a poem written by a medieval woman about women writers in the newly digitised manuscript Add MS 21499, ff. 77v-78r.
Detail of a line with a female pronoun from the poem ‘Laudis honor’, England (Bury St Edmunds?), 12th century, Add MS 24199, f. 78r
The author of the poem appears to be female, because she uses the female pronoun ‘grata’ in the penultimate line. In her learned poem, which is full of classical allusions, she claims that she has been exiled by ignorant rulers who disapprove of her writing, and asks the muse Clio to leave her as she won’t need her help any more. ‘Art is my crime, and my genius’, she laments. (The poem is edited and translated in The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard, by Constant J. Mews, translated by Mews and Neville Chiavaroli (2nd edn, 2008), pp. 164-66).
Detail of the poem ‘Laudis honor’, Add MS 24199, f. 78r
The poet also suggests that the (male) leaders who have banned her writing might just be jealous of her talent, since she could see no theological reason for banning women from writing:
‘Now if only I knew what wickedness our writing might be....
Much writing will not stop me from being good,
Writing allows me, not forbids me to know God.
We believe and know rationally that God exists
And also that what we do God does not forbid...
Your mind desired to condemn what it could not do...
Compose verses, you slanderer of verse, so that I may think
That you of course can create but do not want to.
I would be acceptable to you if my writing were acceptable:
Equal genius usually reconciles two people!’
The identity of this brave and outspoken poet is unknown, although it has been suggested that the writer might be Heloise, the noted female writer from early 12th-century France.
Detail of a later medieval miniature depicting Heloise teaching, from the poems of Pseudo-Heloise, Low Countries (Bruges), c. 1450-1483, Royal MS 16 F II, f. 137
In 1129, Suger, the powerful abbot of Saint-Denis, sanctioned the expulsion of Heloise and her nuns from their convent in Argenteuil on charges of misconduct, which might have inspired a poem about exile such as the one in Add MS 24199. The classical allusions echo the language of some of Heloise’s letters to her former lover, Abelard; but the writer may equally have been an anonymous female scholar who refused to be silenced.
This woman's poetry did find more appreciative audiences. The copy of this poem which has been digitised has been associated with Bury St Edmunds, an all-male house in East Anglia. The poem is an enigmatic testament to an extraordinary woman whose identity remains uncertain and a reminder of how often women’s voices have been muted through history.
Alison Hudson
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10 March 2016
The Coronation Gospels on Display in Edinburgh
The exhibition Celts opens at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh on 10 March 2016. The British Library has lent the Coronation Gospels (Cotton Tiberius A II) to the exhibition. This ninth-century copy of the Gospels in Latin is usually known as the ‘Coronation Gospels’ owing to the erroneous belief of its early modern owner, Robert Cotton, that early English kings took coronation oaths on the manuscript. The Coronation Gospels’ artwork and later history demonstrate the interconnectedness of secular leaders in early medieval Europe. As such, they form part of the exhibition’s exploration of how different cultures came into contact and influenced each other.
Opening of Jerome’s letter to Pope Damasus, from the Æthelstan Gospels, Northern Europe (Lobbes?), 9th century, Cotton MS Tiberius A II, f. 3
The exhibition in Edinburgh focuses on diverse artistic influences exhibited by the decoration of the Gospels, particularly in their fine initials and in their portraits of the evangelists. However, the manuscript’s later history also contributes to the exhibition’s theme of diversity and intra-European contacts.
Opening of St John’s Gospel, Cotton MS Tiberius A II, ff. 164v-165
Connections and contacts can be seen in the way the Coronation Gospels travelled between various owners across Europe. The manuscript was made somewhere in northern Europe in the ninth century, possibly at the monastery of Lobbes, in modern-day Belgium. By the early tenth century, it had arrived in England, where it belonged to King Æthelstan (d. 939), according to an inscription made in the mid-tenth century at Christ Church Canterbury.
Detail of page mentioning King Æthelstan, Cotton MS Tiberius A II, f. 15v
The manuscript may have arrived in England thanks to Æthelstan’s close connections to Continental leaders. At the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, an English scribe wrote the names Odda (the Old English spelling of Otto) and Mihthild (Matilda) (f. 24r). Those were the names of Otto I, who was king of East Francia from 936 and who was crowned emperor in 962, and his mother (who died in 968).
Detail of inscription mentioning Otto and Matilda, Cotton MS Tiberius A II, f. 24
Æthelstan had extensive dealings with Otto, who married Æthelstan’s half-sister, Eadgyth or Edith, in 929 or 930. The inscription may suggest that this impressive copy of the Gospels was a present from Otto to his brother-in-law, Æthelstan, who was a great collector of books. The British Library houses some of Æthelstan’s other books, including another Continental manuscript that Æthelstan gave to St Peter’s Abbey in Bath (Cotton MS Claudius B V, which may also be viewed in full on the British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts website) and a late ninth- or early tenth-century Breton Gospel-book which Æthelstan apparently gave to St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury (Royal 1 A XVIII).
In addition to being a great collector of books, Æthelstan was also a great re-gifter of manuscripts. At some point before his death in 939, the king gave the Coronation Gospels to Christ Church Cathedral, Canterbury, according to further inscriptions recorded in the book (ff. 15r and 15v). The first inscription takes the form of a poem praising Æthelstan’s piety, describing the book’s ornate cover, and hinting at a grim fate for anyone who should be tempted to steal the book away from Canterbury.
Page containing the poem ‘Rex pius Æðelstan’ written in a continental hand, Cotton MS Tiberius A II, f. 15
Although the poem seems to have been written at (or least for) Christ Church Canterbury, which is mentioned by name, the handwriting shows it was copied, and possibly composed, by someone trained in mainland Europe, providing evidence of continued interaction between writers and artists with backgrounds in different regions and styles.
The British Library is delighted to be supporting the National Museum of Scotland’s Celts exhibition. Catch it while it is on, between 10 March and 25 September 2016!
Alison Hudson
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