Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Hatton 113 (5210) "St. Wulstan's Homiliary," Part 1

Abstract

384a. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Hatton 113 (5210)

"St. Wulstan's Homiliary," Part 1

[Ker 331, Gneuss 637]

HISTORY: Hatton 113 appears to have been copied for, and used by, St. Wulstan, bishop of Worcester (1062-1095): several of the obits have Worcester connections and three are for close relations of Wulstan's, the year of his ordination as bishop is noted, and the letter on f. ii recto summons him to the Council of Winchester. The latest obit in the original hand is for the year 1063 and the kalendrical tables are for the years 1064-1095 (with 1062-1063 added) and 1056-1083, suggesting a date of copying within the range 1064-1083, and most likely at the earlier end of the range, near the time of Wulstan's consecration. McIntyre (1978) says it was probably between 1062-1070. With Hatton 114 [384b], Hatton 113 forms a large collection of homilies, which was possibly first separated into two volumes around 1200, Pollard's (1975) date for the binding of Hatton 113, and approximately the date (early 13c) that a separate table of contents was added in the margins of Hatton 114, ff. 9v-10r (see Ker 1937). Hatton 113 was probably intended as a continuation of Bodleian Library, Junius 121 [391], a collection of ecclesiastical institutes and homilies: the quire signatures which end at 'n' in Junius 121, begin at 'p' here. The strong association with Archbishop Wtilfstan in Junius 121 also continues in this volume. Hatton 113 is the principal source for Wulfstan's sermons, used extensively by Napier (1883) and Bethurum (1957) in their editions. Those on ff. 1-115 are homilies for any occasion, mainly Wulfstan or pseudo Wulfstan, but the three beginning on ff. 80v, 94v, and 102v are by Ælfric; those on ff. 115-144 (and continuing in Hatton 114), for fixed festivals early in the year, are all by .tElfric. McIntyre (1978) notes that the characteristic script of these volumes and the specific Worcester references in Hatton 113 confirm that they were written at Worcester, and she uses Hatton 113 as one of her fixed points. Glosses and annotations in the tremulous hand, first half of the 13c, confirm that it remained in Worcester. In the 16c an inscription, 'Liber Ecclesiæ Wygorn,' was added in the top margin of f. ii recto, now erased. Also in the 16c the manuscript was annotated by John Joscelyn (1529-1603) and used for his A-S glossaries in London, Lambeth Palace 692, f. 37. He copied obits from the calendar, ff. iii recto-viii verso, into London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius D. vii, f. 48. It was still part of the Worcester Cathedral collection in 1622-1623 when Patrick Young made his catalogue and described it (no. 318; see Atkins and Ker 1944). It was borrowed by Christopher, Lord Hatton, along with the other manuscripts which now form the Hatton collection in the Bodleian, sometime before August 1644 when it was indexed by Dugdale (see Bodleian Library, Dugdale 29, f. iv verso). After Hatton's death on 4 July 1670, Hatton 113, 114, 115, and 116 were kept by his son, and not sold like the rest of the collection. In 1675 he gave all four manuscripts to the Bodleian, but they, and Junius 121, were lent to Dr. Thomas Marshall and by him to Junius. They returned to the Bodleian as part of the Junius collection after Junius's death in 1678, hence the earlier, erroneous shelfmark, Junius 99.