Oxford, St John's College, 17 + BL, Cotton, Nero C. vii, fols 80-84
17 + BL, Cotton, Nero C. vii, fols 80-84
General Information
360
Some Old English glosses in a Computus manuscript containing Bede's De temporum ratione, annals of Thorney Abbey and texts on cosmology, mathematics, medicine, grammar, prognostication and related topics (Ker 1957, p. 435; Wallis 2007: 'Description').
Digital Surrogate
http://image.ox.ac.uk/show?collection=corpus&manuscript=ms197
Object Description
Codex
Extent:
- 340 mm x 250 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)
- 231-38 mm x 102-84 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)
Foliation/Pagination: vi + 177 (+ 5 Cotton leaves) + v. Foliated in ink 1-177, s. xvii. The five Cotton leaves were originally between fols 143, 144. They are foliated 1-5 in a seventeenth-century hand, 79-83 in a seventeenth-century hand and 80-84 in modern pencil. fols 81 and 82 are labelled 'N' and 'O' respectively in a seventeenth-century hand (Wallis 2007: 'Description').
Collation:
Quires: Wallis offers a comprehensive analysis of the manuscript's quires (Wallis 2007: 'Materials and Structure'), which we have followed here. She notes that Quire 1 composed of 3 leaves which were at some point detached from the manuscripts and mounted on strips for rebinding. It is unclear whether there was ever a fourth leaf. 212, 3-58, 612, 715 (additional leaves inserted into the quire to make space for Bede's De temporibus), 88 (wants 1, 2), 9-168, 17 (fols 132-143 + Cotton fol. 82)15 (missing three leaves at the end; only two stubs remain), 18 (Cotton fols 83-84)2 (probably originally 4), 1912, 207 (fol. 158 is a singleton), 28, 228 (wants 8).
Signatures: All gatherings, except Quires 18, 19 and 22, have medieval signature marks, I-XIX, added before Quires 18 and 19 were added in the thirteenth century (Wallis 2007: 'Description').
Condition: Wallis 2007: 'Materials and Structure' observes that the manuscript is written on high quality parchment with very few holes or blemishes. The leaves are arranged HHFF, with one exception. The outside of a quire is always the hair side. She also notes that ruling is in single and double columns, and the number of lines is variable. Bounded and ruled in drypoint on the hair side. The ruling allows for glosses when necessary: the unit of ruling is 5 mm for unglossed texts and 7 mm for glossed texts. The flyleaves are paper, from two different manufacturers. One of the manufacturers used a watermark with the maker's name, possibly 'Robert Crivet', surmounted by a fleur-de-lys (Wallis 2007: 'Materials and Structure').
Hand Description
Number of Hands: Around 9 hands altogether, perhaps 1 in Old English
Summary: Ker 1957 argues that the Old English is 'perhaps all in a hand which occurs throughout the manuscript in marginalia and interlineations and in places in the text, and which wrote the Thorney annals [...] up to the year 1111' (p. 435). This could be Scribe B as described by Wallis, as the commentary to the annals in Wallis says that they were mainly written by Scribes A and B, and Wallis also attributes the names of the Anglo-Saxon months to Scribe B (Wallis 2007: 'Scribes and Scripts').
Hand: Old English
Scope: major
Scribe: Wallis Scribe B?
Script: Caroline Minuscule
Description: fols 5v, 6, 16-21v, 71v, 74, 175.
Summary of the characteristics of the hand: Contemporary with the main hand of the manuscript.
- f square minuscule forms in Old English (Wallis 2007: 'Scribes and Scripts').
- g usually insular in Old English (Ker 1957, p. 435).
- r square minuscule forms in Old English (Wallis 2007: 'Scribes and Scripts').
- þ used for Old English, whereas th is used in Latin, but not consistently (Wallis 2007: 'Scribes and Scripts').
- ð used for Old English, whereas th is used in Latin, but not consistently (Wallis 2007: 'Scribes and Scripts').
The colours used in the manuscript are pink, red, yellow, celadon green, dark green, pale blue, cream, golden brown and dark brown. Single colour calligraphic majuscules, sometimes with foliate or geometrical ornament, are used as initials or display capitals. Tables, diagrams and figuarae have coloured and decorated frames. The calendar contains representations of Aquarius (fol. 16r), Pisces (fol. 16v), Gemini (fol. 18r) and Leo (fol. 19r). Fol. 27v has a crowned or mitred figure, seated and holding a cup, which Wallis 2007: 'Description' suggests might be Annus. Visible under ultra-violet light are a sketch of Libra in drypoint (fol. 20r) and a praying knight in the outer margin of fol. 36r. For a detailed description of the decoration see Wallis 2007: 'Decoration'.
Seventeenth-century binding: black leather over medieval boards, probably those used in the thirteenth-century binding (Hanna and Griffiths 2002, pp. 32-33). Covers have metal corner-plates, roughly square, with bosses surrounded by crown stamping. The front cover has a central metal boss and is surrounded by a gold-stamped centrepiece. There are two clasps on the back cover and grooves for straps on the front cover, but the straps are missing. The shelfmark '17' is written in gold at the head of the spine and 'old' has been written on the leading edges. Single stamped and gilt fillet. The bookplate of St John's College is attached to the front pastedown. It was probably rebound after Cotton had removed the five leaves, as the two stubs that remain are almost invisible in the tight binding (Wallis 2007: 'Description'; Wallis 2007: 'Materials and Structure').
Additional Information
Described by Hollie Morgan with the assistance of George Younge, with reference to published literature and examining in particular Wallis 2007 (2010; 2013).
Digital surrogate: http://image.ox.ac.uk/show?collection=corpus&manuscript=ms197 (accessed 18 July 2018)
Wallis, Faith, The Calendar & the Cloister: Oxford, St. John's College MS 17 (McGill University Library, Digital Collections Program, 20017; http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/ms-17/index.htm; accessed 18 July 2018)
History
Written at Thorney Abbey (Wallis 2007: 'Location and Dating').
Provenance: Remained at Thorney Abbey until at least 1422.
Acquisition: Acquired by Duke Humfrey in 1427, who gave it to Oxford University in either 1439 or 1444. In the sixteenth century it was owned by Robert Talbot (Ker 1938, p. 131), at least by 1547 when it was examined by Leland in Talbot's Norwich residence. After Talbot's death it became the property of Antony Anderson, country parson. It is unclear who next owned the manuscript but it was given to St John's College by Hugh Wicksteed, merchant tailor, in s. xviiin (Ker 1957, p. 435; Wallis 2007: 'The Fortunes of the Manuscript').
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Hollie Morgan