Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 163 Bede, "Historia ecclesiastica," "Caedmon's Hymn"; Latin-OE Glossary; etc.

Abstract

353. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 163 (2016)

Bede, "Historia ecclesiastica,"

"Caedmon's Hymn"; Latin-OE Glossary; etc.

[Ker 304, Gneuss 555]

HISTORY: The manuscript is a composite. Most of Part 1 is a copy of Bede's "Historia ecclesiastica," which Ker dates to "s. xi in." Four OE glosses to this text are, in Ker's opinion, "close in age" to the Latin text. "Caedmon's Hymn" in the version Dobbie denominates *Z (Dobbie 1937: 43-48) was added to f. 152v of the manuscript later, about mid-11 c, and what remains of the poem has survived a vigorous attempt to erase it. F. 250r, the first page of a bifolium, now attached to the end of the manuscript (now ff. 250-51 ), contains a LatinOE glossary in the same hand as that of the charm on f. 227r. The text of the "Historia ecclesiastica" is a copy of Winchester Cathedral Library, MS 1 (488], but with the addition of Book 4, ch. 14 (Colgrave and Mynors 1969: Ii; Plummer 1896: 1.cxviii-cxix). Ff. 228-52 contain a number of other texts dating from the 12c. Michael Lapidge dates a booklist from Peterborough Abbey on f. 251rv to 'c. 1100' (Lapidge 1985: 76). According to Colgrave and Mynors (p. li) the colored initial on the supply leaf (f. 1r) is in the same hand as the initial in the Peterborough Chronicle (Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 636 (401]). The name 'Humfridus Natures' (early 16c), a monk of Peterborough, appears in the upper margin of f. 249v. The name 'Henricus Stowkes' (f. 250r) is unidentified. A scribble on f. 250v records an obit for an inmate of Peterborough in 1359. The manuscript was given to the Bodleian Library by John Barneston in 1605.