Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 42 (4117) Collectiones Canonum

Abstract

379. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 42 (4117)

Collectiones Canonum

[Ker-, Gneuss 629]

HISTORY: A large and complex manuscript, the history of which is in part controversial. Booklet A (quires I-XVII) was originally written in Brittany in the second half of the 9c and supplemented in France in the early 10c and England in the lOc/1 lc. It contains six 9c-10c Breton glosses (printed by Stokes 1879a: 2: 16-17 and 1879b: 328). A Breton name 'Matguoret' occurs on f. 22r in a Latin marginal addition (printed by Deuffic 1985: 307). Breton neumes occur on f. 101 v. Additions on ff. 94r and 138r include some Hisperic words (10c) resembling the Cornish/Breton glossator of the Cambridge Juvencus, Cambridge, University Library Ff. 4.42 (Bradshaw 1889: 471,487, but cf. Jackson 1953: 49-51). Booklet B (quires XVII-XXIII), written in northern France, 9c/10c, was joined to A by writing the title incipits for item 5 on the last two leaves of Booklet A, which were re-pricked and ruled from the back for this purpose. The last leaf of quire XVII has been excised and the last two lines of f. l 43v show erasure of some text in capitals, presumably to ensure continuity over the quire division on to f. l 44r. Booklet C (quires XXIV-XXV), written in northern France in the early 10c, was apparently joined on by starting the text of item 6 on the last three leaves of Booklet B, the heading being added on the bottom three lines of f. 188v and the new matter beginning on f. 189r. Later in the 10c, the manuscript was brought to England (cf. Lapidge 1993: 90 and n. 24). In England, the first quire was supplied as a replacement for the former first quire (now lost) in a hand of l0c/llc which Bishop (1963: 421-23, and 1971: xxvi) identified as 'scribe xx: found also in BL Harley 110 [ 262], BL Royal 15 B. xix .i [ 302], and BL Royal 5 E. xi [286], and connected with Christ Church, Canterbury, through 'scribe xxi' found in BL Royal 5 E. xi, and Cotton Domitian ix [190], and 'scribe xxii' found in BL Cotton Domitian ix and Cambridge, Trinity College B. 14. 13 (289) [78], which is ascribed to Christ Church, Canterbury (Ker 1964: 33). According to Pollard (1975: 143-44), the medieval binding was from Canterbury (see below). Before 1023, the date of his death, Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester, annotated the manuscript, especially f. 47r (the first folio of quire VII in Booklet A), and throughout Booklet C (Whitelock 1965: 215; Ker 1971; 328-30; some doubts expressed by Hohler 1975: 225, n. 59; countered by Cross and Brown 1993: 73-75); Patrick Wormald (p.c.) noted that Wulfstan's glosses to Booklet C apparently supply information gathered by correlation with similar content in two Worcester manuscripts: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 265 [45] and Rouen, Bibliotheque Municipale 1382 (U.109) (cf. Cross 19926: 69); so Hatton 42 was presumably in Worcester in the llc (cf. Sauer 1980). There are words and names in OE (11c) on ff. 49r and 79r (Lucas 1979: 8), also a scratched name 'wulfwinus' on f. 22v (Dumville 1993: 6, n. 8). The spine of the medieval binding (now mounted on the inside of the rear end-board) has the inscription 'UBER .S'. WUFSANI' (with wynn for 'W': Barker-Benfield 1993: 431-33), who is probably Wulfstan (rather than Dunstan, as previously suggested by Stubbs 1874: cxii, who wrongly thought the manuscript came from Britanny to Glastonbury, like Bodleian Auct. F. 4. 32 (2176) [346]; cf. Barker-Benfield 1993), and the name 'Wulfric cild' on f. 79r may refer to the man who married Wulfstan's sister. The Bodleian Summary Catalogue ( 4117) suggests that cues to a Commune Sanctorum of a gradual entered in a hand of the last quarter of the l lc in the outer margins of ff. 133v and 134r may show Canterbury provenance, but this seems unlikely. In the 16c the manuscript was annotated by Matthew Parker (archbishop of Canterbury 1559-75) in red ochre on ff. 22v, 23rv, 38rv, 73v, 106v, and red ochre underlining occurs also on ff. 9r, 13r, etc. Other 16c annotations may show the hand of Parker's secretary, John Joscelyn, e.g. 'Martin us' on f. 9r. In 1622/3, the manuscript was certainly in Worcester, since it appears as no. 221 in the catalogue of Worcester manuscripts made by Patrick Young (Atkins and Ker 1944: 48-49; cf. also pp. 9-17 on Parker and Hatton). In 1671, it came to the Bodleian from the collection of Christopher, 1st Lord Hatton (1605-70), son of Sir Christopher Hatton, KB, the Elizabethan courtier, of Kirby Hall, Northants, via the bookseller Robert Scott, who was then the Bodleian's principal London agent. Several Hatton manuscripts have a Worcester connection (Ker 1941-9: 28; Philip 1983: 56-57).