London, British Library, Royal 13 A. xv Felix's "Life of St. Guthlac"

Abstract

300. London, British Library, Royal 13 A. xv

Felix's "Life of St. Guthlac"

[Ker 266, Gneuss 484]

HISTORY: A volume of the Latin life of St. Guthlac (673-714) written by Felix, an East Anglian monk, before 749. Gneuss says the manuscript is mid-10c, probably from Worcester. Ker says the A-S minuscule is of's. xl ' and the caroline minuscule of 's. x2' which probably means that the scribes were contemporaries of different age and training. The quires (I, V) containing the A-S minuscule may be replacements of lost or damaged quires in the original manuscript (see below). A late l lc hand has systematically revised the text, and this revised version forms the basis of the texts in Dublin, Trinity College B.1.6 (13c) and Gotha, Herzogliche Bibliothek 1.81 (early 14c) (cf. Colgrave 1956: 30, 43-44). A-S glosses (inked and scratched) of the first half of the l lc. Lumley's signature erased at bottom off. lr; the mark at top off. lr (like the symbol for "Jupiter") perhaps indicates ownership by John Dee (1527-1608) (see Ker, Cat., citing James 1926: 8, though the latter says that Dee marked his books with this sign "thrice repeated").