Gloucester, Cathedral Library, 35

Present Location
Repository
Shelfmark

35

Medieval Provenance

General Information

Ker

117

Gnuess/Lapidge

262

Summary

A collection of seven folios from bindings containing fragments of homilies and lives of saints, including Ælfric's texts, copied in s. xi1 and ximed. Some items were added later in s. xi2 (see Ker 1957, Art. 1-5).

Manuscript Items
  1. Itemfols 1-3v
    • Title (B.1.3.22): Third Series of Homilies [Lives of Saints]: Saint Swithun

      Incipit(fol. 1r-fol. 3r) ond oferworht [...] Þa sǽde se [...] hwæt [...] sibbe

      Date: s. xi1

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, item 117

      Earle 1861, pp. 2-12

      Skeat 1881-1900, i, p. 422

  2. Itemfols 4r-6v
    • Title (B.3.3.23): Anonymous Homilies [ Sanctorale]: Mary of Egypt

      Incipit(fol. 4r) [...]s [...] adune as[...] [...] weardre [...] þ[a] þ[a] [...]

      Explicit(fol. 6r) ƿæs genyrƿed [...] ende. Amen

      Date: ximed

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, item 117

      Earle 1861, pp. 102-12

      Magennis 2002

      Skeat 1881-1900, ii.14

  3. Itemfol. 6v
    • Title (B.10.3.1): Benedict, Rule

      Incipit(fol. 6v) [Æ]rest mon sceal god lufian of ealre heortan

      Explicit(fol. 6v) on criste. þonne.

      Date: s. xi2

      Note: Fragment of chapter 4.

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, item 117

      Earle 1861, p. 112

      Schöer 1888, pp. 16-18

  4. Itemfol. 7r/1-3
    • Title (B.1.1.28): First Series of Homilies [Catholic Homilies I]: Passion of Peter and Paul

      Incipit(fol. 7r) [...]uð is geond [...]

      Explicit(fol. 7r) [.]y ƿuldor

      Date: s. xi1

      Note: Three incomplete lines, the end of the text.

      Bibliography:

      Godden 1979, p. 222

      Ker 1957, item 117

      Thorpe 1844-46, i, p. 384

  5. Itemfol. 7r/6-7v
    • Title (B.1.2.31): Second Series of Homilies [Catholic Homilies II]: Peter and Paul, In festiuitate Sancti Petri

      Incipit(fol. 7r) [...]ge þæt [...] andƿear[d]an [...]

      Explicit(fol. 7r) Heo soðlice mid worde ge fæstnode þæt hit swa wæreond

      Date: s. xi1

      Note: Fragment, fifty-five lines of the beginning of the text.

      Bibliography:

      Godden, 1979, p. 221

      Ker 1957, item 117

  6. Itemfol. 7v
    • Title (B.27.4.17.EM): Additions, translation of Acts 12.15 [marginal]

      Addition: Heo soðlice mid ƿorde gefæstnode þæt hit sƿa ƿære. 7

      Note: This is a translation of Acts 12: 15 added in the margin, next to 'engel'.

      Date: s. xi2

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, item 117


Object Description

Form

Collection of fragments

Support: Parchment

Extent:

fol. 1 and most of the leaves : 

  • 294 mm x 223 mm (dimensions of most - size of leaves)
  • 269 mm x 165 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)  

fol. 7:

  • 273 mm x 94 mm (dimensions of fol. 7 - size of leaf; this folio is part of a leaf)

Collation:

Quires: Seven half-sheets. According to Ker, fols 1, 2 were probably adjacent. He also suggests that 'probably three leaves separated fol. 2 from fol. 3. Two leaves separated fol. 4 from fol. 5 and four leaves separated fol. 5 from fol. 6.' (1957, p. 154).

Note: The folios have uneven measures. Ruling is visible on the rectos of fols 1, 5 and the versos of fols 2-4, 6: 30 long lines.


Hand Description

Hand

Number of Hands: 3 from 1060 to 1220

Summary: These fragments are written by at least three hands. Ker notes that fols 1-3 and 7 are copied in a hand of s. xi1; a hand of s. ximed copied fols 4-6v; fol. 6v is completed by another hand of s. xi2; and an addition in the margin of fol. 7v is from s. xi2 (1957, p. 154).

Hand:

main text

Scope: Major

Script: Insular Minuscule

Ker reference: Ker 117 scribe 1

Description: fols 1-3, 7.

Summary of the characteristics of the hand:

  • a of squarish proportion.
  • with a raised head in clusters such as æg and æt
  • y: 'the left stroke rises higher than the right' (Ker 1957).

Date: s. xi1

Hand:

main text

Scope: Major

Script: Insular Minuscule

Ker reference: Ker 117 SC2

Description: fols 4r-6v. A round, close-set hand (Ker 1957, p. 154).

Summary of the characteristics of the hand:

  • e prominently horned, with a raised head in clusters such as æ
  • descenders: the ends of the descenders curve to the left

Date: s. ximed

Hand:

main text

Scope: Major

Script: English Vernacular Minuscule

Ker reference: Ker 117 SC3

Description: fol. 6v.

Summary of the characteristics of the hand:

  • ð curved cross-bared ascender 'which touches, but does not transect, the back'.

Date: s. xi2 addition

Hand:

Scope: Minor

Script: English Vernacular Minuscule

Description: fol. 7v. An addition in the margin.

Date: s. xi2


Additional Information

Administration Information

Manuscript described by Orietta Da Rold with the assistance of Hollie Morgan, Johanna Green and Takako Kato (April 2010; September 2012), and with reference to facsimiles and published scholarship.

Surrogates: Earle, John, ed., Gloucester Fragments (London: Longman, 1861) - Facsimiles of fols 1-3v and 6r.


History

Origin

Unknown

Provenance: Fols 1-3 were found in the Register of Abbot Braunche (1500-10) and Abbot Newton (1510-14). Fols 1, 3 were pastedowns which left offset of writing on the binding boards. Fol. 2 was a flyleaf. Fols 5-6 were pastedowns in another unknown volume (Ker 1957, p. 155).

Provenance

Unknown

Bibliography

Earle, John, ed., Gloucester Fragments (London: Longman, 1861)

Gneuss, Helmut, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100 (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001), item 262

Godden, Malcolm, ed., Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: The Second Series; Text, EETS, SS 5 (London: Oxford University Press, 1979)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 117

Magennis, Hugh, ed., The Old English Life of St Mary of Egypt: An Edition of the Old English Text with Modern English Parallel-Text Translation (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2002)

Schröer, Arnold, ed., Die Winteney-version der Regula S. Benedicti (1888)

Scragg, Donald, Alexander Rumble, and Kathryn Powell, C11 Database Project (Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies, http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/mancass/c11database/; accessed in 2009). Available for limited viewing on the Internet Wayback Machine.

Skeat, W. W., ed., Ælfric's Lives of Saints, EETS, OS 76, 82, 94, 114 (London and Oxford: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1881-1900; repr. as 2 vols, 1966)

Thorpe, B., ed., The Sermones Catholici or Homilies of Ælfric, Ælfric Society, 2 vols (London: Ælfric Society, 1844-46)