London, British Library Vespasian D. xxi 1. "Historia Brittonum"; 2. OE Prose Guthlac; 3. Sedulius (Part 2 belongs with 395 Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Laud Misc. 509)

Abstract

248. London, British Library Cotton Vespasian D. xxi

1. "Historia Brittonum"; 2. OE Prose Guthlac; 3. Sedulius

(Part 2 belongs with 395 Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Laud Misc. 509)

[(Part 2) Ker 344, Gneuss 657]

HISTORY: A compilation of three originally distinct manuscripts of diverse origins, combined by Sir Robert Cotton, probably no later than 1606. Rebound, February 1965.

Part 1: Early 12c, "Historia Brittonwn," attributed to Nennius, Mommsen's "K". This was once part of London, BL Royal 15 A. xxii, from Rochester; it is item nwnber 823 in the old Royal inventory (Public Record Office, Augmentation Office, Misc. Books 160 [E. 315/ 160]): "Solinus de rnirabilibus mundi. Historia Troianorum. Pergesis de situ terrae. Prophecia Sybillae. Segardus de miseria hominis et historia Britonwn." A medieval list of contents in Royal 15 A. xxii, f. 1v, shows roughly the same contents followed by the erased titles "Historia Britonwn" and "De rniraculis Britannie" (see Carley 1992: 64-65).

Part 2: Late 11c, the OE translation of ''Vita S. Guthlaci". This was previously part of a manuscript that also contained the OE version of the Pentateuch (now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 509 [399]). Before that, it was part of the Old Royal collection, in the pre-1542 Westminster inventory of which item 129 is listed as ''Bookes written in tholde Saxon tonge two. thone of the Pentatuiuk and saincts Lyves, thother of medicine": the latter is ''Bald's Leechbook" (BL Royal 12 D. xxvii [298]), which shows "129" on f. lr (Carley 1992: 63). Tite (1992: 136-37, n. 18) and Carley (1992: 64) have deduced that Cotton separated the original manuscript between 1603 and December 1606. The new combined manuscript, now Cotton Vespasian D. xxi, "Nennius and vita Sancti Guthlaci 3 (o)» (plus Sedulius), was loaned out to Camden on 20 December 1606 (BL Harley 6018, f. 154r). The part containing the Pentateuch migrated into Archbishop Laud's possession and subsequently into the Bodleian in 1638. In 1621 it was on loan to William Lisle, but the migration is not certainly due to that event. In the 1621 Cotton catalogue (Harley 6018) the separated parts are nwnbers 81 (Laud) and 80 (Vespasian). Laud and Vespasian each have their separate Cottonian tables of contents, which reflect the present states of the manuscripts. (See also "History" Section of 399.)

Part 3: Sedulius. Early 10c? NW France? History before 1606 unknown.