Cambridge, University Library, Hh.1.10 Ælfric's "Grammar" and fragment of the "Glossary"

Abstract

97. Cambridge, University Library, Hh.1.10

Ælfric's "Grammar" and fragment of the "Glossary"

[Ker 17, Gneuss 13]

HISTORY: This very regular manuscript of Ælfric's "Grammar" and "Glossary;' written in the second half of the 11 c in Exeter, shows a clear and unified structure, albeit now incomplete at the end. It is written in four hands: (1) ff.lr-20v, 22r-64v; (2) ff.2lr-v; (3) ff.65r-72r; (4) ff.72v-93v, and it is on the grounds of scripts that it is assigned to l lc Exeter (Ker/Watson 1987: 36). Its medieval provenance is uncertain. There are notes by Robert Talbot (ca. 1505-1588) and John Joscelyn (1529-1603). lt occurs in the list of"Libri Scripti" given by Archbishop Matthew Parker to Cambridge University in 1574, where it is no. 23. According to the printed donation list to be found in some copies of Parker's De Antiquitate Britannicre Ecclesire Cantuariensis (1572/4), sig. ⊛2v, the manuscript contained 290 pages, i.e. 145 leaves, 52 more than at present, and Ælfric's "Glossary" was followed by a "Hist Anglire Saxon:' Ker suggests that this last item may now be the Christ Church manuscript London, BL, Cotton Domitian viii, ff. 30-70 (189], now consisting of 41 leaves, but imperfect at the end; it contains the A-S Chronicle (ASC F), is of a suitable format, and, like Hh. 1. 10 (see under Contents below), is annotated by Talbot. If MS Hh. 1. 10 and Cotton Domitian viii were bound together in the 16c, then Hh. 1. 10 may have been in Christ Church, Canterbury (Ker, Cat., 22). MS Hh. 1. 10 was lost after Parker's gift, but subsequently recovered by Abraham Wheelock (librarian 1629-1653), as recorded in a note at the top of f. lr. It was used as the exemplar for the 16c supply leaves (ff. 1-2) in Cambridge, Trinity College R. 9. 17 (819) (83]. Ker records an 18c binding. The present binding is of 1969 from the binding shop of Douglas Cockerell & Son of Grantchester, incorporating the pastedown from an earlier binding, being a page from a 16c printing of Paulus de Sancta Maria, bishop of Burgos, Scrutinium Scripturarum (Paris, Anthonius Bonne Mere, colophon falsely dated 1472 but recte c.1515), sig. M5r = fo. lxiii (pastedown not on film). Moderate cropping presumably occurred on the occasion of the earlier binding, as ink foliation numbers and 17c annotations have suffered.