London, British Library, Harley 3667

Present Location
Repository
Collection
Shelfmark

3667

Date
Medieval Provenance

General Information

Ker

196

Summary

A quire that was once part of a larger scientific manuscript, along with Tiberius C. i, fols 2-17. Old English Names of the Winds are written in the four margins of fol. 7v, surrounding a typological diagram of Christ and the Apostles with Old Testament kings and prophets.

Digital Surrogate

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_3667_fs001r

Manuscript Items
  1. Item: fol. 7v-lower margin
    • Title (C.101.1.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind 'Circius'

      Addition: (fol. 7v in lower margin) ƿestan norðan

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000

  2. Item: fol. 7v-lower margin
    • Title (C.101.2.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind 'Boreas'

      Addition: (fol. 7v in lower margin) ęstan norðerne

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000

  3. Item: fol. 7v-lower margin
  4. Item: fol. 7v-lower margin
    • Title (C.101.3.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind

      Addition: (fol. 7v in lower margin) ƿest

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000

  5. Item: fol. 7v-lower margin
    • Title (C.101.4.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind

      Addition: (fol. 7v in lower margin) suð ƿest

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000

  6. Item: fol. 7v-lower margin
    • Title (C.101.5.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind

      Addition: (fol. 7v in lower margin) norð ƿest

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000

  7. Item: fol. 7v-lower margin
    • Title (C.101.6.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind

      Addition: (fol. 7v in left hand margin) norð ƿind

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000

  8. Item: fol. 7v-left margin
    • Title (C.101.7.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind

      Addition: (fol. 7v in left hand margin) norð est

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000

  9. Item: fol. 7v-left margin
    • Title (C.101.8.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind

      Addition: (fol. 7v in left hand margin) norð ƿest

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000

  10. Item: fol. 7v-top margin
    • Title (C.101.9.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind

      Addition: (fol. 7v in top margin) riht east

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000

  11. Item: fol. 7v-top margin
    • Title (C.101.10.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind

      Addition: (fol. 7v in top margin) norð east

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000

  12. Item: fol. 7v-top margin
    • Title (C.101.11.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind

      Addition: (fol. 7v in top margin) suth east

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000

  13. Item: fol. 7v-right margin
    • Title (C.101.12.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind

      Addition: (fol. 7v in right hand margin) east suth

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000

  14. Item: fol. 7v-right margin
    • Title (C.101.13.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind

      Addition: (fol. 7v in right hand margin) riht second word illegible

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000

  15. Item: fol. 7v-right margin
    • Title (C.101.14.EM): Gloss to Latin name of the wind

      Addition: (fol. 7v in right hand margin) suð ƿest

      Text Language: English and Latin

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, pp. 259-60

      Wilcox 2000


Object Description

Form

Form: Codex

Support: Parchment, leaves are arranged HFHF. Flyleaves are paper.

Extent:

  • 315 mm x 210 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)
  • 232 mm x 143 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination: iv + 10 + ix leaves, foliated in pencil 1-10, perhaps in May 1882, when the manuscript was inspected (as noted on the first endleaf in pencil).

Collation:

  • Quires: 110 (fols 1-10). Fols 5 and 6 are singletons.
  • Signatures: A quire signature '.xxi.' is written in ink at the foot of fol. 10v, in the same hand that entered two signatures in Tiberius C. i.

Condition: Fols 1r and 10v are soiled. Parchment is of good quality, but with some holes (fols 3, 5, 10) and mends (fol. 5). Fol. 7 has holes where pair of compasses were used to draw the circles and arcs of the diagram on fol. 7v.

Layout description:

  • Ruled in drypoint with 43 lines per page. Double bounding lines, which extend across the length of the page. The top and bottom horizontal lines extend across the width of the page. Prick marks are visible on the outer margins of all leaves.

Hand Description

Hand
  • Number of hands: 1 in Old English
  • Hand: marginalia to fol. 7v
    • Scope: Minor
    • Script: Vernacular Insular Minuscule
    • Ker reference: Ker 196 SC1
    • Description: Fol. 7v. Nearly contemporary to the hand of the main text of the diagram. The hand could be that of the diagram on fol. 8r, which also involves the names of the winds.
    • Summary of the characteristics of the hand: Special letter-forms are retained, but th is used twice instead of ð or þ in 'noth' and 'rith' in the right margin.
    • a sometimes has a cedilla.
    • ę is occasionally used.
    • Both long and short s are used.
    • ð is retained.
    • þ is retained.
    • ƿ is retained.
    • Other manuscripts: The same hand is found in Tiberius C. i, fol. 11r
Decoration Description
  • Rubrics are in red.
  • The diagrams on fols 1r, 2v, 4r, 4v, 5r, 6r, 9v, 10r, 10v have red lines.
  • The diagrams on fols 1v-r have red and green lines.
  • On fol. 4v are pen-and-ink drawings of Life and Death carrying banners with numbers written on them.
  • The diagram on fol. 5v is in red, purple and green, with the winds represented as winged faces.
  • The diagram on fol. 6v is in red, yellow and green.
  • The diagram on fol. 7r is in red and yellow.
  • The diagrams on fols 7v and 8r are in red, yellow, green and purple.
  • The diagram on fol. 8v contains a mappa mundi in red, yellow and green.
  • Initials are in red, green and purple on fols 3r, 8v, 9v.
  • Smaller initials are in red on fols 5v, 10v.
  • The smaller initial on fol. 10r is in green.
Binding Description

Binding is black leather with Harley's crest in gold, bearing the motto 'virtute et fide'. Written along the length of the spine in gold, from left to right, are '3667' 'MUS. BRIT | BIBL. HARL' 'TABULAE CHRONOLOGICAE, | ETC. | SEC. XII'. The pastedowns are green and black marbled shiny paper.

Accompanying Material
  • A bibliographical slip is pasted to fol. [i]r.
  • On fol. [i]v in the bottom left-hand corner in pencil is 'ɛ692e' written above '655f' (cancelled), which in turn is written above '49e' (cancelled). This '49e' corresponds with the sticker '49. E' on the spine of the book.
  • On fol. [iv] at the top is '118B2' written in brown ink, '3667' in black ink and '2/IV E' written in pencil.
  • On the first endleaf is the note '10 fols 4' [?] May 1882' in pencil.
  • British Museum stamps are visible on fols 1v, 5v, 6v and 10v.

Additional Information

Administration Information

Described by Hollie Morgan with the assistance of Sanne van der Schee; ed. by Takako Kato (2010; 2013).

Surrogates

Digital surrogate: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=harley_ms_3667_fs001r (accessedul 18 July 2018)

EM Project facsimile

Wilcox, Jonathan, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2000), vol. 8


History

Origin

Origin:

Written at Peterborough between 1122 and 1135, probably soon after 1122, as indicated by the annals concerned with Peterborough Abbey, which has records up to 1122 in one hand, then a record of the death of King Henry I in 1135 in a different hand. The script and decoration suggests that the manuscript was produced in the same scriptorium as the Peterborough Chronicle (Laud Misc 363).

Provenance:

Probably remained with the rest of the manuscript in Peterborough until the late fourteenth century, as it is probably item A. ii in a late fourteenth-century book-list (James 1926, p. 34).

Acquisition:

After the manuscript was broken up, it found its way into the Harley collection. Acquired by the British Museum in 1753 on the death of Robert Harley's son.

Provenance

Peterborough

Bibliography

Baker, Peter S., and Michael Lapidge, eds, Byrhtferth's Enchiridion, EETS, SS 15 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995)

Clark, Cecily, 'Notes on MS. Laud Misc. 636', Medium Aevum, 23 (1954), 71-75

Gameson, Richard, The Manuscripts of Early Norman England (c. 1066-1130)(Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1999)

James, M. R., Lists of Manuscripts Formerly in Peterborough Abbey Library, Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, suppl. 5 (Oxford: Oxford University Press for the Bibliographical Society, 1926)

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 196

---, 'Membra Disiecta ', in British Museum Quarterly 12 (1937-1938), pp. 130-35

Liebemann, F., ed., Ungedruckte anglo-normannische Geschichtsquellen(Strassburg: Trübner, 1879)

Logeman, H., 'Anglo-Saxonica Minora', Anglia, 11 (1889), 97-120

Pulsiano, Phillip, 'Old English Nomina Ventorum', Studia Neophilologica, 66 (1994)

van de Vyver, A., 'Les œuvres inédites d'Abbon de Fleury', Revue Bénédictine, 47 (1935), 125-69

Watson, Andrew George, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts, c. 700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts, the British Library, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1979)

Wilcox, Jonathan, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies (Tempe, AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2000), vol. 8