London, Lambeth Palace, 489

Present Location
Repository
Shelfmark

489

Contents
Date
Medieval Provenance

General Information

Ker

283

Gnuess/Lapidge

520

Summary

Eight homilies, of which five are taken from Ælfric's first series of Catholic Homilies.

Digital Surrogate

http://images.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/luna/servlet/s/285p79

Manuscript Items

 

  1. Item: fols 1r-11v
  2. Item: fols 11v-20r
  3. Item: fols 20v-24v
  4. Item: fols 25r-31r
  5. Item: fols 31r-38r

    • Title (Ker 1957, item 489

      B.3.2.49): Anonymous Homilies, Homilies for Specified Occasions, Temporale: Dedication of a Church

      Rubric (initial): (fol. 38r) In dedicatione Aecclesiae

      Incipit: (fol. 38r) Mine gebroðra þa leofestan we wyllað sume tihtendlice spræce

      Text Language: English

      Bibliography:

      Swan 1993, pp. 224–41

  6. Item: fols 44v-51r

    • Title (Brotanek 1913, p. 15

      B.1.5.12): Ælfric, Remaining Homilies by Ælfric: Dedication of a Church

      Rubric (initial): (fol. 51r) Alia Sermo de dedicatione aecclesiae

      Incipit: (fol. 51r) Lucas se godspellere awrát on þære þriddan cristes béc

      Text Language: English

      Bibliography:

      Ker 1957, item 489

Object Description

Form

Form: Codex

Support: Somewhat browned and has undergone a considerable amount of repair.

Extent:

  • 190 mm x 118 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)
  • 168 mm x 80-85 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)

Foliation and/or Pagination: v + 58 + vi leaves, foliated [i-vi], 1-58, [59-64] in ink on the top right, with points around the numbers and with corrected last digits of 55, 56 and all of 57 pasted onto the parchment (Wilcox 2000, p. 80). The old foliation corresponding to the new fols 1-16 runs 11-16, 10, 2-9; from 17 onwards, the old and new foliations are the same.

Collation:

  • Quires: 1-58 (fols 1-40), 66 (fols 41-46), 78 (fols 47-54), 84 (fols 55-58).
     

     

  • Signatures: Quire signatures in pencil are seen at the openings of Quires 3, 6 and 8 on the lower right margin of the first recto.
  • Catchwords: The first two quires were misbound until the correct order was restored in June 1937. On each verso from fols 1v-10v, 12v and 16v, a sixteenth-century hand imitating insular minuscule has added catchwords at the end of the page to establish the correct reading order (Wilcox 2000, p. 80).

Condition: Text has been lost at the edges of some of the leaves. At the foot of fol. 26v is an oblique mirror impression of traces of the text from the top of fol. 27r. As these are the second and third folios of the quire, the pages must have been allowed to bleed on each other whilst they were unbound and not aligned. Might this suggest that the manuscript was prepared in some haste?

Note:

  • Leaves are arranged HFHF. Fols 1-24 are ruled in drypoint for 19 lines; fols 20-58 are ruled for 25 lines. Fols 20-24 contains traces of two lineations. When the second scribe took over, he continued writing 19 lines per page up to fol. 21r, then changed to 25 lines per page on fol. 21v. The top and bottom two lines and double bounding lines on each side extend to the edge of the page. The layout of this manuscript is almost identical with Cleopatra B. xiii, and it is likely that they were written as one volume, or a pair of companion volumes, specifically for Bishop Leofric (Treharne 2003, Treharne 2009, p. 80).

Hand Description

Hand
  • Number of hands: 2
  • Summary: It is almost certain that this manuscript was written at Exeter, and in the pontificate of Leofric. There is considerable debate about the number of scribes responsible for this manuscript (and Cleopatra B. xiii). The scribal stints are often very difficult to distinguish, and it is interesting to see what appear to be a number of matched hands working on this, and other Exetermanuscripts, intimating, perhaps, an episcopal writing office of similarly-trained scribes. Ker 1957 detects five hands at work in Lambeth 489 (p. 345), one of whom is shared with Cleopatra B. xiii (Lambeth 489, fols 25r-31r, Cleopatra B. xiii, fos 58r-v); Drage 1978 detects four scribes in Lambeth 489 (her scribe 3 at fols 25r-31r corresponds, she claims, with Cleopatra B. xiii, fols 31r-38r); Bishop 1955 detects only two scribes in Lambeth 489, his second scribe copying only fols 20v-24v. In Treharne's assessment, Bishop's analysis is likely to be correct, though the main scribe in Lambeth 489 does exhibit slight differences in letter forms, within a narrow spectrum of potential variation. See Treharne 2009 and Kato 2012 for some of the argument.
  • Hand: Main text
    • Scope: Major
    • Script: English Vernacular Minuscule II
    • Ker reference: Ker 283 SC1
    • Description: fols 1-20v, 25r-58v. (contra Ker 1957, p. 345)
    • Summary of the characteristics of the hand: Ker 1957 describes this hand as 'of "Exeter" type' (p. 345). The general aspect of this hand is rounded and upright, with a tendency to use the full height and depth of the interlinear space.
    • The second element is occasionally high in the combination æ, especially before g and t, when a ligature is formed, and particularly when æ is in initial position.
    • The ascender of d is very short but frequently turns up to the right.
    • The tail of g swoops round to the right before curving to the left; the tail is usually closed.
    • Long s and low s are used, though the long form tends not to be used finally. According to Ker 1957, long s followed by low s is used in the combination ss, and this distinguishes the scribe at fols 1-20r (p. 345). However, this feature occurs in this manuscript at fols 25-31, and again, in Cleopatra B. xiii. It is thus a distinguishing characteristic of this scribe in the revised sequence of stints, attributed to him by Bishop 1955 (and agreed by Treharne).
    • ð is the single most distinctive letter-form, and the graph which changes most dramatically between stints of this single scribe (or, in fact, identifies for Ker 1957 and Drage 1978 a different scribe). In the earlier folios, the cross-bar bisects the up-stroke, tagged to the left at the top end; the up-stroke itself finishes with a marked movement of the pen to the left. In the later folios, the cross-bar does not pierce the up-stroke, though the graph is otherwise the same.
    • Straight-limbed y is used but it curves in a relatively shallow fashion, often ending with a tick upwards to the right.
    • ascenders are split at the top.
    • descenders curve to the left.
    • accents are sometimes used with long vowels. A c-shaped accentmarks a short vowel on five occasions.
    • Abbreviations:
    • The onset stroke of the ˥ causes a small flick to the right, and the descender curves round slightly to the left.
    • The abbreviation for 'that' is very distinctive: the ascender of þ is crossed by a horizonal bar, which is quite distinctive, since the left tag of the split ascender often almost touches the bar.
    • Punctuation:
    • hyphens are level with the base-line and occur both at the end of one line and the beginning of the next.
    • Ligatures:
    • There are very few ligatures.
    • Other manuscripts: This hand also wrote the Exeter additions to CCCC 421 and, according to Bishop 1955, closely resembles the hand of CUL Ii. 2. 4 (p. 198).
  • Hand: Main text
    • Scope: Major
    • Script: English Vernacular Minuscule II
    • Ker reference: Ker 283 SC2
    • Description: fols 20v-24v.
    • Summary of the characteristics of the hand: Ker 1957 describes this hand as 'of "Exeter" type' (p. 345). The scribe copies one homily only- for First Series of Homilies [Catholic Homilies I]: All Saints, but a whole text, nevertheless. This marks the end of what may be the first of two booklets (fols 1-24v) in this manuscript. The general aspect of the hand is very round and upright, and generally, consistent in size and proportion. Interlinear space is less exploited than in the hand of the first scribe.
    • Both elements of æ are the same size.
    • d has a relatively large bowl with a very short ascender.
    • e is often horned.
    • The middle stroke of f is shorter than the headstroke.
    • g is very rounded, and the tail is almost closed by a hairline stroke. The downstroke of g generally begins from the left of the head.
    • High and low s are used, with a little knob where the onset stroke of the long form beings. Double long and double low forms of the character are used consistently. In the case of the double long s, the head of the second graph often loops round, occasionally closed by a hairlike stroke. This same feature is often found in the single use of long s too.
    • þ has a relatively short ascender in relation to the rest of the letter-form.
    • ð has a large bowl and, generally, a straight ascender, though in the last couple of folios, the ascender begins to turn down to the left at the top. The crossbar extends from the right of the upstroke, and end with a small tag to the left.
    • ascenders are split at the top.
    • descenders are generally quite straight, or have a very gentle curve to the left.
    • accents occur very infrequently.
    • Abbreviations:
    • Abbreviations are denoted by a flat macron.
    • The ˥ has a slightly curved head, and a 90º angle downstroke.
    • Ligatures:
    • ligatures are very rare. But at fol. 24r, line 4, 'martyrdom', a quite remarkable form of rt ligature occurs, where the r extends upwards as if it were a high s and ligatures at the top like an ogee arch, before coming down to the t. This may be an erroneous st ligature; it is a form seen also in Worcester, Canterbury and Winchestermanuscripts and at fol. 38 of Cleopatra B. xiii.
    • Punctuation:
    • hyphens are level with the base-line and occur both at the end of one line and the beginning of the next.
    • The punctus is placed above baseline.
Decoration Description

Rubrics are in red rustic capitals.

Binding Description

Bound by Lamercroft and Laurence in 1937. The older binding was from s. xvi/xvii (Ker 1957, p. 345).

Accompanying Material

A sixteenth-century Parkerian table of contents is on fol. (iii). A second, seventeenth-century, table of contents is on fol. (v) verso.

Both tables of contents omit the fifth homily, and group the last three items together as one (perhaps it was a separate booklet in the sixteenth century?) Foliation in both tables of contents is puzzling, suggesting the manuscript was unbound. The stub of a parchment binding fragment with double-columned Latin text in a Gothic hand is visible between fols (v) and 1 and between fols 63 and 64. The first stub contains three lines of text and the second contains four plus glosses on the recto.

 

Three pressmarks: 'J. Ѳ. 24', '8֯ 35' and 'S. 10'.

Additional Information

Administration Information

Described by Elaine Treharne with the assistance of Hollie Morgan (2010; 2013).

Surrogates

Digital surrogate: http://images.lambethpalacelibrary.org.uk/luna/servlet/s/285p79 (accessed 18 July 2018)

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

History

Origin

  • Origin:

    Written by Exeter scribes associated with Bishop Leofric, who moved the See from Credition to Exeter during his bishopric (1046-1072). Probably written at Exeter, certainly in the same scriptorium as Cleopatra B. xiii (p. 345).

  • Provenance:

    According to Ker (1957) the table of contents and imitation-insular catchwords suggests that this manuscript was owned by Archbishop Parker. It then spent some time in Cambridge University Library, as the oldest press-mark dates to 1646-1662, when the Lambeth manuscripts were at Cambridge.

Provenance

Exeter

Bibliography

Bishop, T. A. M., 'Notes on Cambridge Manuscripts; Part III: MSS. Connected with Exeter', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 2.2 (1955), 192-99

Brotanek, Rudolf, Texte und Untersuchungen zur altenglischen Literatur und Kirchengeschichte (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1913)

Clemoes, Peter, ed., Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: The First Series. Text, EETS, SS 17 (London: Oxford University Press, 1997)

Drage, E., 'Bishop Leofric and the Exeter Cathedral Chapter, 1050-1072: A Reassessment of the Manuscript Evidence' (unpublished D. Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1978)

Kato, Takako, 'Exeter Scribes in Cambridge University Library Ii.2.11 + Exeter Book fols 0, 1–7', New Medieval Literatures, 13 (2012 for 2011), 5-21

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 283

Napier, Arthur Sampson, ed., Wulfstan: Sammlung der ihm zugeschriebenen Homilien nebst Untersuchungen uber ihre Echtheit, Sammlung englischer Denkmaeler in Kritischen Ausgaben, 4 (Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1883)

Napier, Arthur Sampson, ed., Wulfstan: Sammlung der ihm zugeschriebenen Homilien nebst Untersuchungen uber ihre Echtheit, Sammlung englischer Denkmaeler in Kritischen Ausgaben, 4 (Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1883)

Pope, John C., ed., Homilies of Ælfric: A Supplementary Collection, EETS 259, 260 (London: Oxford University Press, 1967-68)

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)

Scragg, D. G., 'The Corpus of Vernacular Homilies and Prose Saints' Lives before Ælfric', Anglo-Saxon England, 8 (1979), 223-77

Swan, Mary, 'Ælfric as Source: The Exploitation of Ælfric's Catholic Homilies from the Late Tenth to Twelfth Centuries' (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Leeds, 1993)

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

Treharne, Elaine M., 'The Bishop’s Book: Leofric’s Homiliary and Eleventh-Century Exeter', in Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald, ed. by Stephen Baxter, and others (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 521-37

---, 'Producing a Library in Late Anglo-Saxon England: Exeter, 1050-1072', Review of English Studies, 54 (2003), 155-72

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

Catalogue Entry Authored By

Elaine Treharne

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