Lincoln, Cathedral Library, 298B
298B
General Information
125
276
MS 298 is a portfolio of different material. It includes flyleaves, pastedowns, loose leaves, etc. (Thomson 1989). B is a fragment from a copy of two cut leaves of the Old English Heptateuch. Fol. 1 includes numbers 10:28 to 12:12, and fol. 1r begins 'Ða hi þa utforan of egipta lande'. Fol. 2 includes numbers 12:12 to 16:3. Fol. 2v ends '˥ god wunað on him' (See: Ker 1957, p. 159, and Marsden 2008, p. lxiv).
Object Description
Fragment
Support: Parchment.
Extent:
- 300 mm x 209 mm mm (dimensions of fol. 2 - size of leaves)
- 277 mm x 189-97 mm (dimensions of fol. 2 - size of written space)
Note: Two adjacent leaves probably originally joint in a complete central bifolium, because, as Marsden observes, the text continues across the two leaves, which suggests they were a central bifolium of a quire. The parchment is trimmed with loss of text on the outer margin. Internal margin 18 mm. The leaves have been torn on the lower margin, causing a loss of almost all the last ten long lines of the leaves. Folios are ruled in dry point and the text is written on 37 long lines per folio (See: Marsden 2008, lxiii).
Hand Description
Number of Hands: 1
Hand: main text
Scope: sole
Script: English Vernacular Minuscule
Ker reference: Ker 125 SC1
Description: An insular minuscule with some Caroline influences. Crawford (1922, p. 183) noted 'a fine regular hand', but Ker (1957, p. 159) and Marsden (2008, p. lxiii) agree that the hand is 'ill- formed'. Script is in dark brown ink, and is 'large and rather untidy' (Marsden 2008, p. lxiii).
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
- d squat, rounded, short.
- e round-backed.
- m: terminal m often suspended. The suspension mark is a zigzag.
- s broken-shafted Caroline s, beside low. Long s is rare, and it has split-topped ascenders.
- y fine descending stroke, upturned at the end.
- D occurs in both minuscule and rustic.
- M there are three forms.
- ascenders split-topped.
- descenders a hair-line slopes up to the right from the ends of the descenders.
Abbreviations: There is regular contraction of: þæt, cwæþ and þonne.
Correcting technique: There are some corrections, possibly contemporary and by the copyist (Marsden 2008, p. lxv).
Tinted letter is red at the beginning of each sentence.
Now bound as the second item in a portfolio of twelve fragments, collected in the early twentieth century. The fragments have been described in Thomson (1989, pp. 205-07).
Additional Information
Manuscript described by Orietta Da Rold with the assistance of Hollie Morgan and Johanna Green, and with reference to published scholarship (2010; 2013).
History
Unknown
Crawford, S. J., ed., The Old English Version of the Heptateuch, Ælfric's Treatise on the Old and New Testament, and his Preface to Genesis, EETS, OS 160 (London: Oxford University Press, 1922)
---, Exameron Anglice, or the Old English Hexameron, Bibliotek der angelsächsischen Prosa (Hamburg: H. Grand 1921), vol. 10
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 276
Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 125
Marsden, Richard, ed., The Old English Heptateuch and Ælfric's Libellus de Veteri Testamento et Novo, EETS, OS 330 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
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.
Thomson, Rodney Malcolm, Catalogue of the manuscripts of Lincoln Cathedral Chapter Library (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Published on behalf of the Dean and Chapter of Worcester Cathedral by D.S. Brewer, 1989), p. 205
Wanley, H., Librorum Veterum Septentrionalium Catalogus (1705)
Orietta Da Rold