London, British Library Royal 15 B.xxii Ælfric's "Grammar"

Abstract

303. London, British Library Royal 15 B. :xxii

Ælfric's "Grammar"

[Ker 269, Gneuss 494]

HISTORY: Second half of 11c. Contains only the "Grammar;' but as the original book is imperfect (the last leaf is a 17c replacement), the original may have included the "Glossarf' Text is Zupitza's "R''. A document (ff. 7lv-72r) is bound in recording a process in the parish church of Chelmsford, Essex against William Latham of Sand on, Essex, 3 Dec. 1540 (Warner and Gilson 1921: 2.164) and this one-sheet document is folded as a bifolium, the last lines of the "Grammar" on f. 7lr(67r) being a replacement for the last few missing lines of the "Grammar''. Probably the document was merely one from Parker's chancellery wastebasket: there are Parkerian annotations in the manuscript and the 16c supply of the missing ending of the "Grammar" is from Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 449 [61], and conversely Royal supplied the missing parts of the text in CCCC 449, an operation of the Parkerian library (Warner and Gilson, lac. cit. and Ker). As Ker notes, all this suggests that Matthew Parker (1504-1575) once owned it. At a later time it belonged to Lord Lumley (1534?-1609) (f. 5r[lr], bottom), no. 1555 in his catalogue (Jayne and Johnson 1956: 187). Reference on f. 5r(lr) is to Casley's Catalogue (1734).