London, British Library, Royal 12 G. xii Ælfric's "Grammar" (flyleaves); in a composite volume of Medical Treatises (With 335 Oxford All Souls College 38) [Ker 265, Gneuss 480]

Abstract

299. London, British Library, Royal 12 G. xii

Ælfric's "Grammar" (flyleaves);

in a composite volume of Medical Treatises

(With 335 Oxford All Souls College 38)

[Ker 265, Gneuss 480]

HISTORY: A set of 11c A-S leaves from a volume containing Ælfric's "Grammar" have been dispersed and bound in as flyleaves in two late-medieval books: Oxford, All Souls College 38 [335] and Royal 12 G. xii. The dispersal must have taken place before 1499, the year the All Souls volume was bequeathed by bishop James Goldwell. Royal consists of eight A-S leaves, appended to the front of a large folio paper and vellum manuscript of the 15c containing medical texts by Rolandus Ulixbonensis and Arnaldus de Villa Nova. This volume was owned by Lord Lumley (ca. 1533-1609) (f. lOr), no. 2177 in his catalogue (ed. Jayne and Johnson 1956: 247); there the "Grammar" is listed as the last item, but in the Lumley era table of contents on f. 1 v their presence and position is noted as in the front ('Gram(m)aticre Saxonire pars I qureda(m) habetur in initio Libri'). In Casley's Catalogue of ... the King's Library (1734: 215), the A-S leaves are referred to as 'Folia 7, in initio & fine Codicis: Presumably, some of the A-S leaves comprised back flyleaves which were moved to the front, perhaps in more than one stage. This copy of the "Grammar" is collated by Zupitza (1880) as "r". [Note: All Souls (335] consists of 12 leaves which "are flyleaves in the late mediaeval binding of a copy of the Vita et Gesta Henrici V, attributed to Thomas Elmham, which James Gold well, bishop of Norwich, bequeathed to the college in 1499: three bifolia are at each end" (Ker, Cat., 334). All Souls is collated by Zupitza (1880) as "A".]