Dublin, Trinity College, 492 (E. 2. 23)
492 (E. 2. 23)
General Information
104
The manuscript contains four items, whose main texts are in Latin: Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (fols 1r/1-175v/5a), Cuthbert, Epistola De Obitu Bedae (fols 175v/6a-177r/4b), a short tract on the progress of Christianity in England (fols 177r/6b-178v/9b), and Notationes De Sanctis qui in Anglia Requiescunt (fols 178v/11b-180r/30a).
Bede's Death Song in Old English is in Cuthbert, Epistola De Obitu Bedae, fol. 176r/column a/1-7. Dobbie considered that this text belonged to his 'Digby group', on account of the fact that it lacks the words 'heonengange hwæt his' from lines 3-4 (1942, pp. 76-83). There are annotations in English of s. xii2 (Lucas 1997).
Digital Surrogate
http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/#folder_id=1814&pidtopage=MS492_0…
- Item: fol. 176r
- Item: fols 4r, 4v, 8v, 9v
Title (B.27.5.9.EM): Annotations
Addition: (fol. 4r) weoloc scælle
Addition: (fol. 4r) seolas
Addition: (fol. 4r) octo hund mile long & twa hund mile brad
Addition: (fol. 4v) weolocas
Addition: (fol. 8v) munuc
Addition: (fol. 9v) half mile amurg
Date: s. xii2
Bibliography:
Lucas 1997
Object Description
Codex
Support: Parchment except for paper endleaves.
Foliation/Pagination: Foliation (1958) in pencil excluding paper endleaves.
Collation: Fols ii + 180 + ii.
Quires: All the quires consist of 8 leaves except for the final quire 23, which consists of 4 leaves.
Catchwords: Catchwords are partly visible at the end of Quires 8 (fol. 64v) and 10 (fol. 80v). Whether they are in the hand of the main scribe or not is unknown.
Layout Description: According to Lucas, ruling is in crayon. All quires are HFHF, except the final quire, which is HF (1997, p. 25)
Hand Description
Number of Hands: 2
Hand 1:
Scope: Major
Script: Caroline minuscule
Ker reference: Ker 104 SC1
Description: fol. 176r/column a/1-7. Bede's Death Song is in the main hand, which copied the whole of the main text. The round hand is 'upright, fine and regular' (McLachlan 1986, p. 262). McLachlan identified this hand with that of the first hand in Cambridge, Pembroke College 72, vol. 1 (p. 304).
Summary of the characteristics of the hand: As Ker says, the Old English is distinguished in script from Latin only by the use of few insular letters: æ, d, æ and æ (1957, p. 144).
Hand: annotations
Scope: Minor
Ker reference: Ker does not mention these annotations
Description: There are also annotations in English of s. xii2 (not visible on microfiche).
Blind-tooled red/brown leather ca. 1830; rebacked 1947.
Additional Information
Manuscript described by Takako Kato with the assistance of Hollie Morgan and Johanna Green (2010; 2012). Manuscript not consulted directly.
Digital surrogate: http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/#folder_id=1814&pidtopage=MS492_007&entry_point=7 (accessed 18 July 2018)
Microfiche in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1997), vol. 5: Latin Manuscripts with Anglo-Saxon Glosses
History
The manuscript belonged to the Benedictine abbey of St Edmund at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (Ker 1957). Lucas says that it is 'very possible' that the manuscript was also written there (1997, p. 24).
Provenance: The provenance is unknown. The manuscript might have belonged to John Dee (1528-1608), but there is no proof of his ownership (see Lucas 1997, p. 24).
Acquisition: The manuscript came to Trinity College, Dublin, via James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh.
Alexander, J. J. G., 'Scribes as Artists: The Arabesque Initial in Twelfth-Century English Manuscripts', in Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts & Libraries: Essays Presented to N. R. Ker, ed. by Malcolm B. Parkes and Andrew G. Watson (London: Scolar Press, 1978), pp. 87-116
Colgrave, Bertram, and R. A. B. Mynors, eds, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Oxford Medieval Texts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969)
Dobbie, Elliott van Kirk, ed., The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 6 (New York: Columbia University Press; London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1942)
---, The Manuscripts of Cædmon's Hymn and Bede's Death Song, with a Critical Text of the 'Epistola Cuthberti de obitu Bedae', Columbia University Studies in English and Comparative Literature, 128 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1937)
Grosjean, Paul, 'Catalogus Codicum Hagiographicorum Latinorum Bibliothecarum Dubliniensium', Analecta Bollandiana, 46 (1928), 81-148
Hardy, Thomas Duffus, Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the End of the Reign of Henry VII, Rolls Series, 26 (London: Longman, 1871), vol. 3
Hickes, George, Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus Grammatico-Criticus et Archaeologicus, 5 vols (Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1705)
Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 104
---, and Andrew G. Watson, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (2nd edn, 1964; London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 2nd edn, 1987)
Laing, Margaret, Catalogue of Sources for a Linguistic Atlas of Early Medieval English (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1993), pp. 51-52
Liebermann, Felix, Die Heiligen Englands Angelsächsisch und Lateinisch (Hannover: Hahn, 1889)
Lucas, Peter, J., 'Dublin, Trinity College 492 (E. 2. 23): "Bede's Death Song"', in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile(Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1997), vol. 5: Latin Manuscripts with Anglo- Saxon Glosses, pp. 24-27
McLachlan, Elizabeth Parker, The Scriptorium of Bury St. Edmunds in the Twelfth Century (New York; London: Garland, 1986)
O'Sullivan, William, 'Ussher as a Collector of Manuscripts', Hermathena, 88 (1956), 34-58
Plummer, Charles, ed., Baedae Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896)
Roberts, Julian, and Andrew G. Watson, John Dee's Library Catalogue (London: Bibliographical Society, 1990)
Thomson, R. M., 'The Library of Bury St. Edmunds in the Twelfth Century', Speculum, 47 (1972), 617-45
Takako Kato