London, British Library, Harley 1117 Bede, "Vita S. Cuthberti" (prose and verse)
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Abstract
268. London, British Library, Harley 1117
Bede, "Vita S. Cuthberti" (prose and verse)
[Ker 234, Gneuss 427]
HISTORY: The main texts in the manuscript are Bede's prose and verse Lives of Saint Cuthbert to which have been added liturgical texts, an excerpt from Bede's "Historia ecclesiastica," and an anonymous poem on Edward king and martyr. Lapidge (1995: 142) dates the poetic Life in Harley 1117 (= H) to "c. 1000 or in the earliest years of the eleventh century," finding Ker's dating of "xi1 " too late (see also Bishop 1963: 420-21; Dumville 1993: 108-9). Suggestions of provenance are various: Ker assigns a Christ Church, Canterbury provenance; Rollason (1989: 418-19) suggests a Wessex provenance. Hohler (1956: 161) regards the late 10c liturgical material as a "breviary supplement ... from some monastic church in the West, possibly Sherbome." On the basis of display script, Gameson (1996: esp. 169, n. 160) groups Harley 1117 with manuscripts associated with Canterbury. The manuscript was given by John Anstis (1669-1744) to Robert Harley (inscription, f. 1v). Harley 1117, BL, Cotton Vitellius A. xix [252], and Vatican City, Reg. lat. 204 [477] share a core of 13 glosses to the verse Life (see Ker, Cat., 283).