Brussels, Bibliotheque Royale 8558-63 1. Chrodegang of Metz, "Rule;' Augustine, "Soliloquies"; 2. Pseudo-Theodore, "Penitential"; 3. OE and Latin Penitential texts ("Wulfstan's Commonplace Book")

Abstract

20. Brussels, Bibliotheque Royale 8558-63 {2498)

1. Chrodegang of Metz, "Rule;' Augustine, "Soliloquies";

2. Pseudo-Theodore, "Penitential";

3. OE and Latin Penitential texts ("Wulfstan's Commonplace Book")

[Ker 10, Gneuss 808]

HISTORY: An English manuscript consisting of three originally distinct parts (ff. 1-79, 80-131, 132-153), containing a collection of ecclesiastical rules, admonitions, and penitentials in Latin and OE. Part 1, in square A-S minuscule, is 10c. Part 2, partly in square A-S minuscule, partly in anglocaroline minuscule, is also 10c. Part 3 is in several hands of the early llc, with additions of the early 12c. Parts 2 and 3 are related by content to the large nexus of manuscripts containing penitential and legal material known as the "Commonplace Book of Wulfstan" ( see Sauer 1980, also Bethurum 1942). Ker, Cat., pp. 9-10, holds that the parts were probably bound together at an early date because the OE on both ff. 80 and 140 displays southeastern characteristics. The manuscript was probably still in England in the 13c when Part 1 was annotated by an English hand. It is not known when it was shipped to the continent, but in the 17c it belonged to the Bollandists (MS 31), whose library was transferred to the Bibliotheque de Bourgogne in 1773. It arrived in the Royal Library in 1837. In 1832 the Record Commission had tracings made of ff. 132-153, which are now British Library, Add. 9384.