Canterbury Cathedral Library, Additional 25

Abstract

110. Canterbury Cathedral Library, Additional 25

Wærferth's translation of Gregory the Great, "Dialogues" (fragment)

[Ker 96, Gneuss 207]

HISTORY: Late 10c fragment of Gregory's "Dialogues" of which other copies are found in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 322 [52], Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 76 [382], and London, British Library, Cotton Otho C. i, Vol. 2 [219]. For the textual relations of the versions, see Yerkes 1977: 130-35. Ker identifies the item as the remains of "Dialogus beati Gregorii" among "Libri anglici" in the early 14c catalogue of Christ Church, Canterbury, compiled for Henry Eastry, Prior from 1284-1331 (James 1903: xxvi and 51, no. 306). "19" in red ink on f. 1r refers to an old shelfmark: "Formerly numbered xix among 'Fragments of Treatises'" (note kept with manuscript). Used as wrappers and discovered in the library of Canterbury Cathedral by William Urry in the 1940s (see Ker, Cat., vii).