27 February 2014
Slavery and Sainthood in Cornwall
Copied in a scriptorium in Brittany in the early 9th century, this Gospel Book, new to our Digitised Manuscripts site, is referred to as the Bodmin Gospels, or the St Petroc Gospels. Both these names are references to its place of origin; it was originally used for the swearing of oaths upon the altar of the Priory of St Petroc in Bodmin, Cornwall. Within these Gospels are recorded 51 grants of manumission (records of the freeing of slaves) which occurred between 950 and 1025. It is one of the most important records of early Cornish Christianity, and the written records are of great interest to paleographers and students of the Cornish language. Though they are written in Latin and Old English, many of the names mentioned within them are Celtic, such as Wurci (from Welsh Gwrgi, meaning ‘man-dog’) and Modred (after that well-known villain, King Arthur’s nephew).
Decorated initials 'IN(ITIUM)' with 'I' forming interlace pattern border at the beginning of Mark's gospel, France (Brittany), early 9th century; annotations: Cornwall, 2nd half of the 9th centur, Add MS 9381, f. 50r
The Priory of St Petroc, Cornwall, was founded by Celtic monks some decades before St Augustine came to England in 593. According to his legend, Petroc, a Welshman of noble birth, having completed his education in Ireland, set out in a small boat with a few followers towards the middle of the 6th century. Though filled with zeal, they were an indecisive bunch, as they seem to have had no destination in mind, and so asked God to set their course. The winds and tides brought them by pure chance (or divine will?) to the Padstow estuary, where Petroc founded his first monastery. Again, he seems to have had some difficulty in making up his mind, as a short time later he packed up and moved everyone to Bodmin, where he remained until his death at a very great age. The monastery at Bodmin was recorded in Domesday Book and later became an Augustinian priory.
Victorian glasswork of St Petroc of Cornwall, from his church in Bodmin, 19th century. Image via Wikipedia Commons.
St Petroc is one of the patron saints of Cornwall, and though he may perhaps appear indecisive, his legend is in the swashbuckling tradition, including, at one point, travel to India and the taming of wolves. He is usually pictured with a stag (not particularly imaginative for a British saint) and his feast day is June 4. His relics, stolen and carried off to Brittany by a dastardly Breton in 1177, were restored to Cornwall by Henry II, but were then tossed in to the sea when the monastery was sacked in the Reformation. The beautiful ivory casket in which they were kept survived and is still on display at St Petroc's church in Bodmin.
We know that this Gospel-book (Add MS 9381) was at St Petroc’s monastery from the 940s. It does not contain elaborate decoration, and is obviously a ‘workaday’ copy; at the end of the manuscript there are tables of Gospel readings for use throughout the year. There is an unfinished composition at the beginning of John’s Gospel and several large decorated initials in red and brown (see f. 50 above), but no Evangelist portraits.
A frame with five roundels and interlace panels, probably intended for a 'Christ in Majesty' miniature, Add MS 9381, f. 108v
The principal decoration is in the Canon tables (ff. 9r-13v), which have Celtic interlace and zoomorphic decoration; see the bird-like creature on the right in image below. A note inserted between the arches records the presence of the book at the altar of St Petroc’s and its use there:
Canon tables with records added, Add MS 9381 f. 13r
The inscription reads:
Hoc est no[men] illius mulieris .i. medguistyl cum p[ro]genie sua .i. bleiduid, ylcerthon, byrchtylym; quos liberaverunt cleri s[an]c[t]i petroci sup[er] altare illius petroci, p[ro]
remedio eadryd rex, & p[ro] animab[us] illor[um]; coram istis testib[us] comayre p[re]spiter grifiud p[re]spit[er] etc..
(This is the name of the woman Medguistyl with her offspring Bleiduid, Ylcerthon and Byrchtylym who were freed by the clerics of Saint Petroc on the altar of this St Petroc’s for the souls of Eadred the King and for their souls, before these witnesses, Comuyre the priest etc…)
Of course we know nothing of this woman and her three children, but it does make you wonder what the lives of these slaves would have been like in the ninth century. Where were they from, how did they come to be slaves, and why were they freed? We have no answers to these questions.
Sometimes the stories revealed by the records in the margins are a little more detailed, as is the following one in Old English:
Records of manumissions, Add MS 9381 f. 8r
Her kyð on þissere bec þæt Aelsig bohte anne wifmann Ongynedhel hatte & hire sunu Gyðhicael æt þurcilde mid healfe punde æt thære cirican dure on Bodmine & sealed Aelsige portgereva & Maccosse hundredesmann iiii pengas to tolle. Þa ferde Aelsig to þe þa men bohte ynd nam hig & freode uppan Petrocys weofede æfre saclesl On gewitnesse þissa godera manna þæt wæs Isaac messepreost & Bledculf m.p. & Wunning m.p. & Wulfger m.p. & Grifiuð m.p. & Noe m.p. & Wurþicið m.p. & Aelsig diacon & Maccos & Teðion & Modredis sunu & Kynilm & Beorlaf & Dirling & Gratcant & Talan & gif hwa þas freot abrece, hebbe him wið Criste gemene. Amen.
(Here is made known on this book that Aelsig had bought a woman Ongynedhel and her son Gyðhicael from þurcilde with half a pound at the church door at Bodmin, and paid to Aelsige the reeve and Maccos the hundredsman four pennies for toll. Then Aelsig did what he had bought them for, and freed them on Petroc’s Altar, free of any liability. On the witness of these good men: Isaac the mass-priest & Bledculf….. And if anyone should violate this freedom, may he lose Christ’s protection. Amen).
This shows that sometimes people bought slaves so that they could set them free and that in this case a toll was paid to the King or his representative for the pleasure of doing so – not terribly magnanimous on the part of His Majesty!
The names are also of interest. Seven of them are Anglo-Saxon, including the freer of the slave, the reeve and hundredsman - in other words, those in authority, as you would expect. Aelsige was a very popular name, as it is shared by three people (it does have more of a ring to it than John or David – perhaps it will make the list of the most popular names again one day!). Nine of the names, including the two slaves’, are Celtic and 2 are from the Old Testament - Isaac and Noe, or Noah.
Chapter list of Matthew’s Gospel written in Caroline minuscule with added manumissions in Latin and Old English, Add MS 9381 f. 7v
Last but not least, the palaeography of this manuscript has long been of interest to scholars. The original gospels are written in a continental Caroline minuscule, the standard script used in France in this period. Cornwall, however, was part of the Celtic world and so a form of Insular minuscule was used there in the ninth century. The earliest manumissions are thought to date from the time of King Edmund (941-946), by which time Anglo-Saxon minuscule seems to have been widely adopted, though there is limited evidence and scripts varied considerably. The additions in the Bodmin Gospels are mostly in Anglo-Saxon minuscule, but some of the later ones contain perhaps the earliest examples of Cornish Caroline script. Notable are the Caroline ‘a’ and ‘g’, which are used even in the inscriptions in Old English. The contrast between the scripts is clearly visible in the above image, with additions by three different scribes. The full digital images now available online make this manuscript more accessible for palaeographical study.
- Chantry Westwell
18 February 2014
Hidden Away
One of the most exciting things about working in the Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts section here in the British Library is the possibility of making – or witnessing – a new discovery about one of our manuscripts. We’ve written before about a number of these discoveries, including those about pigments and underdrawings, a newly-found seal matrix, hidden inscriptions, a letter of Robert the Bruce, and even the magnificent Unicorn Cookbook.
Recently we undertook some conservation work on two autograph volumes from the Evelyn papers (Add MS 78328 and Add MS 78329). These volumes are commonplace books (essentially scrapbooks), maintained by Sir John Evelyn (1602–1706) between the 1650s and 1680s to keep track of ideas that he encountered during his travels and studies. Evelyn was a noted author on a variety of subjects, including history, sculpture, navigation, and gardening, and was also a diarist largely contemporary with Pepys. The British Library holds a number of items from Evelyn’s library, including the commonplace books.
Manuscript fragment used to line the spine along the lower binding, Add MS 78329
The bindings of these volumes, which had been in place since Evelyn’s day, were in need of some restoration. During the course of the repairs, we uncovered a number of fragments of earlier manuscripts hidden away beneath the leather covers, fragments which had been used as lining, binding stiffeners, and sewing guides.
Manuscript fragment used to line the spine, with sewing holes and thread traces visible, Add MS 78328, fragment 16v
The use of such materials is not unusual in medieval manuscripts, and we have a number of other instances from our collections which can be viewed online (see, for example, the Rochester Bible). But this case is unusual in that these particular fragments have gone back into their bindings, and will no longer be visible to readers. We have, however, taken photographs of all of them, and these photographs are available for consultation in our Manuscripts Reading Room – and, of course, a number of them are reproduced here.
Manuscript fragment used to line the spine, with a signature visible (‘Jaquet?’), Add MS 78329, fragment 7v
As far as we can tell, these fragments consist of pages from a printed Latin text and a number of scraps from French charters; charmingly, some of them still contain signatures. But we don’t know much more about them, and would like to solicit your ideas. Please do let us know what you think; you can always leave a comment below, or reach us on Twitter @BLMedieval.
Manuscript fragment used to line the spine, with sewing holes visible, Add MS 78328, fragment 1r
Fragment of a printed book used as a pastedown on the lower binding, Add MS 78329
Manuscript fragment used to line the spine, with sewing holes visible, Add MS 78328, fragment 8r
Manuscript fragment used to line the spine along the lower binding, Add MS 78328
Manuscript fragment used to line the spine, Add MS 78329, fragment 3v
- Sarah J Biggs
The Medieval Manuscripts Blog is delighted to be shortlisted for the National UK Blog Awards (Arts & Culture category). For more information about the nomination, see the Awards website.
12 February 2014
A Papyrus Puzzle and Some Purple Parchment
Among the many treasures in the Cotton collection of manuscripts, the contents of Cotton MS Titus C XV (new to Digitised Manuscripts) are particularly intriguing. Consisting now of five folios, drawn from three different manuscripts, Cotton MS Titus C XV is good evidence of Sir Robert Cotton’s habits of collection and dismemberment. Folios 2-5 are four leaves of the so-called Codex Purpureus Petropolitanus, a copy of the Four Gospels in Greek written on purple parchment in the sixth century (possibly at Antioch). This manuscript, dismembered in the high Byzantine era, is now scattered across the world (the bulk of the leaves being in the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg, hence the manuscript’s name).
Fragment of the Codex Purpureus Petropolitanus, 6th century, Cotton MS Titus C XV, f. 4v
Perhaps even more intriguing is the first folio. Mounted on a blank sheet of parchment is a border cut from the Breviary of Margaret of York, a 15th-century manuscript written in Ghent. And inside the border is a small scrap of papyrus (125 x 60 mm), dating from the late 6th or early 7th century:
Detail of a papyrus fragment surrounded by a border from the Breviary of Margaret of York, Cotton MS Titus C XV, f. 1r
This may well be the first papyrus to enter the British Museum, given that the Cotton library formed one of the foundation collections of the Museum when it was established in 1753. Somewhat surprisingly, though, it was not until 2000 that this fragment was edited and published, by Robert Babcock, in an article in Scriptorium (54.2, pp. 280-88). He identified it as a fragment from a papyrus codex of Pope Gregory the Great’s Forty Homiles on the Gospels. Given the date suggested by the hand, it is very likely that this codex was copied in Gregory’s own lifetime. The hand also suggests that the codex was written in France or Italy, raising the tantalising possibility that Gregory himself may have been responsible for its commissioning.
Detail of the papyrus fragment, Cotton MS Titus C XV, f. 1r
How did the papyrus end up in Cotton’s collection? There are no records that might help us, here, unfortunately, but Babcock argues that it is most likely that the papyrus was already in England when Cotton acquired it – and if so, it may well have been in England for centuries. At this point we are into the realm of educated guesswork and speculation. But it is not impossible that the codex could have come over with early missionaries sent to England by Gregory. It could even be the case that it was an early copy of the Homilies (completed in 592-3) brought over by Augustine of Canterbury when he arrived in Kent in 597. But if nothing else, we have here the earliest attestation for Gregory’s Homilies on the Gospels, and a fascinating story about a very unusual papyrus.
- Cillian O’Hogan
The Medieval Manuscripts Blog is delighted to be shortlisted for the National UK Blog Awards (Arts & Culture category). For more information about the nomination, see the Awards website.
07 February 2014
Saints' Lives... and Deaths
With the twin goals of our readers’ edification and entertainment forever at the forefront of our minds, we at the BL Medieval Manuscripts Blog have hatched a plan for a series of posts on saints over the coming weeks and months, timed to coincide with their individual feast days.
In devotional compilations such as Books of Hours, miniatures of saints were a common presence alongside biographies of their lives or other texts to be read during private prayer or reflection. The choice of which saints to include in one’s book could be a very personal one. For example, the decoration in the magnificent Bedford Hours (Add MS 18850) was adapted following the marriage of John, duke of Bedford, to Anne of Burgundy.
Prefacing the portion of the manuscript containing suffrages to the saints is a large miniature showing Anne of Burgundy kneeling in veneration before her namesake and patron, St Anne, who is accompanied by her daughter the Virgin Mary, and her grandson, Jesus Christ.
Miniature of Anne of Burgundy, venerating St Anne, St Mary and the Infant Jesus, from the Bedford Hours, France (Paris), c. 1410-c.1430, Add MS 18850, f. 257v
The association of saint and book-owner is continued in the border, for example with Joachim and Clopas, each of whom is identified by different interpretations of the Bible as the father of St Anne.
Miniatures of St Joachim and St Clopas, Add MS 18850, f. 257v
Saints could be depicted in a variety of contexts in manuscript miniatures. On this page of the Bedford Hours, we see them thinking, reading, writing and discussing, enclosed in private alcoves or chambers that evoke the architecture of the medieval palace.
Miniatures of St ‘Salome’, St Alpheus and St ‘Maria Yaque’, and St Zebedee and St Mary Salome, Add MS 18850, f. 257v
By reflecting the reader’s own behaviour and environment as she studied her Book of Hours, these miniatures complemented the text by cultivating her identification with a saint’s life. Enhancing the exemplary of these lives in this way further encouraged the reader to emulate a saint’s virtues or good works, to shape her behaviour according to the saintly mould she held before her.
First, though, a little taster of what is to come of our series of saints. Certain objects or animals became associated with a saint as a consequence of the events of his or her life or the manner of his or her death. These attributes made depictions of saints in stained glass, stone statuary or manuscript books readily identifiable to anyone familiar with their stories.
In Harley MS 2332, we see saints’ attributes being used as a visual shorthand for the dates of their feast days during the calendar year. This physicians’ almanac has appeared a couple of times on this blog before: when we solicited help assigning a date of production on the basis of a series of pictograms and dates attached to them; and when the volvelle on f. 23v appeared in Guess the Manuscript.
The book is small; measuring only 140mm x 100mm, it was designed to be portable. It was made using a less expensive grade of dark and thick parchment, and was quite possibly written and even illustrated by the person who owned it. It was produced perhaps around 1412. It is of English origin, but the selection of certain saints for the calendar at the beginning of the book strongly suggests a connection or at least familiarity with eastern England: East Anglia and Lincolnshire (Sts Guthlac and Edmund), Yorkshire (Sts John of Beverley and William of York) or Northumberland (Sts Cuthbert, Oswald and Wilfrid).
Calendar pages for February, with tinted pen-drawings of the Labour of the Month, zodiac symbol and religious feast days, from an illustrated physician’s almanac, E. England, c. 1411-12, Harley MS 2332, ff. 2v-3r
Each month in this calendar occupies an opening, with the traditional activity of the month and the relevant zodiac symbol on the left. Along the top, symbols provide a quick visual guide to significant dates within the month, with lines directing the reader to when these feasts should be celebrated.
There are the well-known evangelist symbols: Matthew (21st September, f. 10r), Mark (25th April, f. 5r, see below), Luke (18th October, f. 11r) and John (27th December, f. 13r).
Evangelist symbol of Mark, Harley MS 2332, f. 5r
There are also symbols relating to saintly miracles or acts.
Three candles in a chalice, attributes of St Blaise, Harley MS 2332, f. 2v.
St Blaise’s day (3rd February) is represented by candles used in the Blessing of the Throats ceremony, which commemorates his curing of a boy choking on a fishbone.
Hammer and horseshoe, attributes of St Eligius, Harley MS 2332, f. 7r.
The hammer and horseshoe recall the legend that St Eligius (25th June) shod a skittish horse through the novel practice of first cutting off its leg, attaching the shoe, then miraculously reattaching the leg.
St Edmund, king and martyr, holding a ring, Harley MS 2332, f. 4r.
Here the creator of the tinted drawings has conflated two different St Edwards. On the feast day of St. Edward, king and martyr (18th March), he has drawn Edward holding a ring. This refers to a story from the life of St Edward the Confessor, whose feast day is 13th October. A beggar requested alms from Edward the Confessor in the name of St John. Having no money on his person, the king instead gave the beggar a ring from one of his fingers. Certain legends have St John guiding some Englishmen to safety during their pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and handing them the ring to give to the king; others record the saint appearing before the king and returning the ring personally.
Shoe and crozier, attributes of St. Botulph, Harley MS 2332, f. 7r.
Other symbols evoke the subsequent patronage of saints. For instance, St Botulph (17th June), patron saint of travellers, to whom churches at town gates were often dedicated, is represented by a shoe (the crozier poking out of it refers to the fact that he was sometimes referred to as ‘bishop’).
St Jacob/James, dressed as a pilgrim, Harley MS 2332, f. 8r.
St Jacob/James, whose shrine at Compostela was and remains a major pilgrimage destination, is shown as a pilgrim with a walking staff and scallop badge (25th July).
A ship, attribute of St Simon, Harley MS 2332, f. 11r.
St Simon, patron of sailors, and St Jude, patron of last causes, share a feast day (28th October) and are represented by a ship.
And finally (what you’ve obviously been patiently waiting for), some symbols represent the ways in which particular saints were martyred.
Instruments of the martyrdom of St Vincent and St Paul, Harley MS 2332, f. 2r.
St Vincent and St Paul (22nd and 25th January) each hold tools used to kill them: a saw, representing St Vincent’s torture; and a sword, representing the beheading of St Paul.
St Agatha being mutilated, Harley MS 2332, f. 2v.
On the 5th of February, the gruesome mutilation of St Agatha is illustrated.
Instrument of the martyrdom of St Bartholomew, Harley MS 2332, f. 9r.
St Bartholomew, who was flayed alive then crucified, is drawn holding a knife (24th August), alongside the decapitated head of John the Baptist (29th).
Instrument of the martyrdom of St Leodegar, Harley MS 2332, f. 10v.
Leodegar had the misfortune to have his eyes put out with a drill, which instrument is shown next to his feast day on 1st October.
These are just a few examples; we’ll let you figure the rest out! The manuscript is available in its entirety on Digitised Manuscripts. There are still some unresolved puzzles in the manuscript: for instance, does anyone have idea what event was commemorated here?
Erasures and checkerboard pattern, Harley MS 2332, f. 1v.
The title has been erased, and the connecting line to the calendar is heavily smudged – but what is the meaning of the checkerboard pattern, and what might its connection be to the 13th of January?
Keep your eyes out (sorry St Leodegar!) for future posts on saints…
- James Freeman
The Medieval Manuscripts Blog is delighted to be shortlisted for the National UK Blog Awards (Arts & Culture category). For more information about the nomination, see the Awards website.
25 January 2014
'She cares not a turd': Notes on a 16th century Squabble
While we were preparing the catalogue entry for Harley MS 7334, one of our most recent uploads to Digitised Manuscripts, we came across a very curious marginal note, and would like to solicit your ideas about it.
Decorated initial ‘W’(han) at the beginning of the Canterbury Tales, England (London or East Anglia, c. 1410), Harley MS 7734, f. 1r
But first a bit of background. This manuscript is a relatively early copy of Chaucer’s famous Canterbury Tales, and was created c. 1410 in England, probably in East Anglia. The scribe who penned it was responsible for other manuscripts containing the Canterbury Tales (such as Corpus Christi College, Oxford, MS 198, for example), leading some scholars to propose that it was a production of a commercial scriptorium specialising in such texts. Harley MS 7334 has a rather complicated ownership history, and passed through a number of different hands during the tumultuous 15th and 16th centuries. The task of untangling its provenance is both aided - and complicated - by the profusion of notes, signatures, and inscriptions that can be found throughout the manuscript, many of which were added by later hands.
Detail of an inscription concerning Elizabeth Kympton [Kimpton] and Edward Waterhouse, Harley MS 7734, f. 81r
It is one of these inscriptions that caught our eye, for reasons that will shortly become clear. In the right-hand margin of f. 81r (above) is a note in a mid-16th century hand. It reads ‘Mrs Kympto[n] shall have an ill name by Mr Waterh[ows] but she cares not a turd and yet she is a gentlewo[man] clerly enoug[h] how say you she Kna[ves?]’ with the later part of the inscription much rubbed away.
Well. This is very strange indeed. And it is not the only such note in the manuscript.
Detail of an inscription concerning Elizabeth Kympton [Kimpton] and Edward Waterhouse, Harley MS 7734, f. 187r
On f. 187r can be found a similar sentiment. This note reads: ‘Mrs Kimpton is like to have an ill name by mr waterhous but she cares not a…’. Again, the rest of this communication has been effaced, although one imagines that it expresses a similar idea to the previous. So what are we to make of this?
These odd addenda have received little attention in the literature about this manuscript. One scholar describes the first inscription only fleetingly as a 'bit of gossip' and, perhaps overly-concerned with the delicate sensibilities of his readers, he declines to transcribe it. Our own research has yet to turn up much of substance about the mysterious woman who 'cares not a turd', save a few brief details. An Elizabeth Kympton is listed in the will of Lady Anne Grey (d. 1557/8), who owned this manuscript in the mid-16th century. Lady Anne also named an Edward Waterhouse as one of her legatees; the two were probably part of Lady Anne's household, although the precise nature of their relationship to her and to each other remain unknown. Several more clues can be found in the manuscript itself.
Detail of an inscription reading ‘Elizabeth Kympton’, Harley MS 7734, f. 129r
The name 'Elizabeth Kympton' is written in the margin of f. 129r, and we find it again on f. 61r. Intriguingly, this time her name is coupled with that of Edward Waterhouse, and conveniently dated to 1557.
Detail of an inscription reading ‘1557 / Elizabeth Kympton / Edward Waterhows’, Harley MS 7734, f. 61r
We know a bit more about Edward Waterhouse (later Sir Edward); he was born in 1533, and was the youngest son of the auditor to Henry VIII. As a young adult he came under the patronage of Sir Henry Sidney, and became Sir Henry's personal secretary when the latter was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1565 (Sir Henry's name is also inscribed in this manuscript, apparently by Edward, see f. 170r). But prior to embarking on his career Edward must have spent some time in the household of Lady Anne Grey. He was clearly a prodigious annotator; he was responsible for a number of notes throughout the manuscript, including a line on the final folio: '1556. Anne Grey Wife to the Lord John Grey and dowghtor to Wyllim Barlee Esquier owith this book. E. W.'
Detail of an inscription by Edward Waterhouse about Lady Anne Grey, Harley MS 7734, f. 286v
The handwriting here is comparable to that in the much-effaced note on f. 187r. Could Edward have been the author of the two 'ill name' inscriptions? And what could have been the motivation for such an odd fit of pique? Did this arise from a lovers' quarrel, or from some other cause?
One final point, which may or may not be relevant: the bizarre inscription on f. 81r can be found in the midst of the Man of Law’s Tale, the fifth of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. This is a story about a Christian princess named Custance who was bethrothed to the Sultan of Syria. According to the tale, the Sultan’s mother intervened to prevent the marriage, and set Custance (or Constance) adrift at sea. She eventually came ashore on the Northumbrian coast, where she met the king, Alla, and they fell in love. In a horrible stroke of luck, the now-pregnant Custance again found herself the victim of a meddling mother-in-law, who intercepted and altered a letter from her. Custance was banished yet again to sea by an angry Alla, ending up in Italy, but the story had a happy ending when the repentant Alla went in search of her and they were eventually reunited. The Edward/Elizabeth note on f. 81r can be found next to a description of Alla’s despairing and angry response to his mother’s forged letter from Custance. He then wrote his own letter to give to the drunken messenger who delivered his mother’s epistle; the Man of Law's Tale then continues (we're providing the modern English translation):
'This letter he seals, secretly weeping / Which to the messenger was given soon / And forth he goes; there is nothing more to do. / O messenger, filled with drunkenness / Strong is thy breath, thy limbs ever tremble / And thou betray all secrets. / Thy mind is lost, thou chatter like a jay / Thy face is completely changed. / Where drunkenness reigns in any group / There is no secret hidden, without doubt. / O Donegild [Alla's mother], I do not have any English suitable to describe / Unto thy malice and thy tyranny! / And therefore to the fiend I thee consign; / Let him write about thy treachery! / Fie, like a man, fie! O nay, by God, I lie / Fie, like a fiendish spirit, for I dare well tell / Though thou here walk, thy spirit is in hell!'
On that note, we'll turn this over to you; please do let us know your thoughts on this still mostly-hidden secret. You can leave a comment below, or contact us on Twitter @BLMedieval.
- Sarah J Biggs
23 December 2013
Medieval Top Ten
It’s that time of the year when we all look back at what we have accomplished (and also when we so frequently resort to clichés like ‘it’s that time of year’). It has been a fantastic 12 months for our blog, due in large part to our fabulous readers. We thought we’d take this chance to highlight our ten most popular posts, which were chosen by you (or at least chosen by your clicks!). In true countdown fashion, we’ll start with:
10. Anglo-Saxon Treasures Online: the announcement about our department’s very first uploads to Digitised Manuscripts (it seems so long ago!); we were off to an excellent start with the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Old English Hexateuch.
Beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, from the Lindisfarne Gospels, Cotton MS Nero D IV, f. 27r
9. Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts Online: an exciting announcement about the inclusion of more than 100 Hebrew manuscripts to our Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts site, with a full list of hyperlinks included!
Initial word panel Shir (‘song’ inhabited by a unicorn and a bear, from the Duke of Sussex’s German Pentateuch, Add MS 15282, f. 296v
8. Robert the Bruce Letter Found at British Library: a post highlighting the exciting discovery by Professor Dauvit Broun, University of Glasgow, of a previously-unknown letter from Robert the Bruce to Edward II.
Detail of the letter from Robert the Bruce to Edward II, Cotton MS Titus A XIX, f. 87r
7. St Cuthbert Gospel Saved for the Nation: a celebration of the British Library’s acquisition of the late 7th century St Cuthbert Gospel after the most successful fundraising campaign in the Library’s history. Now in our collections as Add MS 89000, you can now view the fully-digitised manuscript online.
Front binding of the St Cuthbert Gospel, Add MS 89000
6. White Gloves or Not White Gloves: not to wreck the surprise or anything, but the answer (almost always) is not.
5. Loch Ness Monster Found at British Library: another amazing discovery by our unstoppable research team! We’ll just leave it at that.
Image of the Loch Ness Monster, as recovered using RZS©
4. Hwæt! Beowulf Online: we were thrilled to publicise the digitization of one of the Library’s great treasures, the Beowulf manuscript (Cotton MS Vitellius A XV; click the link for the fully-digitised version). And many of you seemed equally thrilled!
Detail of the opening words of Beowulf: ‘Hwæt!’ (‘Listen!’), Cotton MS Vitellius A XV, f. 132r
3. Lolcats of the Middle Ages: far and away the most popular post from our on-going series on medieval animals – for obvious reasons, we think.
Detail of a miniature of mice laying siege to a castle defended by a cat, from a Book of Hours, Harley MS 6563, f. 72r
2. Knight v Snail: this piece on the prevalence of images of knights fighting snails in the margins of 13th and 14th century manuscripts was great fun to write, and it was even more enjoyable to see the fantastic response it received. It set a British Library record for the most hits in a single day, was picked up by the Guardian, and most gratifying, many of you wrote in with some excellent thoughts on this mysterious marginalia; thank you so much!
Detail of a knight battling a snail in the margins of a 14th century Psalter, Add MS 49622, f. 193v
So now, with no further ado, we come to…
1. Unicorn Cookbook Found at the British Library: the discovery of this gem of a manuscript, shrouded in secrecy for months, met with an amazing reaction when it was finally revealed on 1 April 2012, and it continues to be a perennial favourite.
Detail of a unicorn on the grill in Geoffrey Fule’s cookbook, Additional MS 142012, f. 137r
Thanks from all of us in the Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts section! Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: @BLMedieval.
- Sarah J Biggs
18 December 2013
Put It In Your Pocket
This small format copy of the Gospels (one of our most recent uploads to Digitised Manuscripts) is about the size of a modern pocket dictionary and was produced in Ireland in the late eighth or early ninth century. The original work contained initials with interlace decoration and miniatures of the Evangelists, of which only the portrait of St Luke remains (see below). The stylised image of Luke is within a framework containing zoomorphic patterns characteristic of Irish decoration in this period.
Evangelist miniature of St Luke, Ireland, 750-850, Add MS 40618, f. 21v
To make the book small and portable, a tiny pointed Irish minuscule script has been used, written with a very fine quill pen, and there are numerous abbreviations throughout. Some are based on the shorthand devised by Cicero’s secretary, Tiro, in the Classical period, and revived for use in the copying of scholarly and religious texts in the 8th century. For example, on line 1 of the right hand column below, ‘÷’ stands for est in factus est.
Text page with decorated initials 'In P'(rincipio), Ireland, 750-850, Add MS 40618, f. 50r
This Gospel book from Ireland was still in use in England in the 10th century and was ‘modernised’ at this time. The original interlace initials were scratched off with a knife, and Anglo-Saxon style initials with zoomorphic decoration were painted over. Of particular interest is that this is the earliest surviving example of the use of lapis lazuli in a manuscript in Britain (see Michelle Brown (2007), p. 17).
At the same time, two miniatures painted in the mid 10th century were inserted. One is of St Luke again, this time in profile, seated on a large cushioned throne with an ox (his Evangelist symbol) emerging from the drapery above his head, holding a golden book.
Added miniature of St Luke, England, 920-950, Add MS 40618, f. 22v
The style of this miniature and the one of St John below is characteristic of Canterbury manuscripts; they are richly painted, with a generous use of gold and brightly coloured pigments. However, the copious hanging drapery visible in both images is more a feature of Carolingian style and these examples are unique in Anglo-Saxon illumination.
Added miniature of St John, England, 920-950, Add MS 40618, f. 49v
The last page of St John’s Gospel was re-written, as the colophon on f. 66v states, by an Anglo-Saxon scribe, Eduardus diaconus, probably at the same time that the decoration was added. It has been suggested that there are stylistic and technical links with additions to other manuscripts created on behalf of King Athelstan, such as those in the Athelstan Psalter (Cotton MS Galba A XVIII).
Added final page of St John’s gospel with scribal colophon, England, 920-950, Add MS 40618, f.66r
- Chantry Westwell
11 December 2013
The Constitution of Athens
Of all the Greek papyri now in the British Library, perhaps the most treasured, and certainly the most visually striking, is the Aristotelian Constitution of Athens, which describes the development of the Athenian Constitution down to 403 BC, and the operation of the government at the time of writing in the 330s or 320s BC. The work is one of some 158 constitutions of Greek city-states known in antiquity to have been produced by the school of Aristotle (or perhaps by Aristotle himself). Until the end of the nineteenth century, this text was known only from brief quotations by later authors, and the text seemed to be one of those key works from antiquity that we would never retrieve.
The beginning of the Constitution of Athens (Ἀθηναίων Πολιτεία), 78 – c 100, Papyrus 131.
Then, in the space of a decade or so, two separate discoveries were made. In 1879, two leaves from a papyrus codex were acquired by the Ägyptische Museum in Berlin, dating perhaps from the second century AD and containing fragments, with marginalia, of the Constitution of Athens (These leaves are now P. Berol. 5009, formerly P. Berol. 163). In 1890, three rolls, followed shortly afterwards by a fourth, arrived at the British Museum in London. The rolls were quickly identified as containing the Constitution of Athens by Frederic G. Kenyon (aged only twenty-seven, and just recently hired by the Department of Manuscripts), and the discovery was announced publicly in The Times in January 1891. A critical edition by Kenyon followed (significantly revised in subsequent editions), as did an English-language translation. The rolls were framed and hung in the Reading Room of the British Museum for many years.
Section of the Constitution of Athens (Ἀθηναίων Πολιτεία), in its frame, 78 – c 100, Papyrus 131.
Yet to refer to the papyrus as the Constitution of Athens is to tell only part of the story. In fact, the rolls had initially been used to record farm accounts of an estate near Hermopolis, in Egypt, in 78-79 AD. The other side (the verso) of the first roll was initially used to record part of a commentary on Demosthenes’ speech In Midiam. Some time around the end of the first century, the Constitution of Athens was recorded on the verso of all four rolls, and the column and a half of the commentary on Demosthenes was crossed out.
Section including the crossed-out commentary on Demosthenes, Papyrus 131.
At this time (the writing of the Constitution), some additional papyrus was attached to the end of this roll, to accommodate the eleventh column of the Constitution of Athens (now on the far left of f. 2r, or the far right of f. 2v). On the recto of this additional papyrus are some fragments of scholia (comments) on Callimachus’ Aetia, though whether this was written before or after the section was added to the papyrus roll is uncertain. Papyrus was frequently re-used in this way, and many other papyri in the British Library’s collection contain multiple texts (see, for example, the Gospel of Thomas, written on the back of a survey list).
For more information about the papyrus, and for further reading, see the catalogue entry either on Digitised Manuscripts or on SOCAM.
- Cillian O'Hogan
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