New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library MSS 401 and 401A Aldhelm, "De laudibus virginitatis" ("Yale Aldhelm Fragments") (with 92, 172, 173b, 372,395, 438a, 438b)

Abstract

330. New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library

MSS 401 and 401A

Aldhelm, "De laudibus virginitatis"

("Yale Aldhelm Fragments")

(with 92, 172, 173b, 372,395, 438a, 438b)

[Ker 12 & Supp.; Gneuss 857]

HISTORY: A dispersed fragmentary early 9c copy of the prose "De laudibus virginitatis;' heavily glossed in OE in both ink and dry-point. Of the 40 leaves currently known to exist, the "Yale" fragments (330] make up 28 leaves, 26 in MS 401 and 2 in 401A. Napier (1900: xvi-xvii) discovered that the "Yale" fragments of MS 401 (then Phillipps 8071) and the leaf C.U.L. Additional 3330 (92] are from the same manuscript, and Lowe noticed that Bodleian Library Lat. th.cl 24 [395], "Yale" 401A (then Phillipps 20688, ff. 9, 10), and former Merton 41 [334a] were also part of this same complex. Since then more leaves have turned up, most recently in 1995. It is not improbable that more will be found.

[Note: As the reconstruction below indicates, there remain parts of 10 of the original quires, from within which 35 leaves are Jacking; beyond that probably two quires are lacking which contained the final chapters of "De laud. virg:' The other known items of this ensemble are: 92. Cambridge University Library Additional 3330, 2 leaves; 172. London, B.L., Additional 50483K, 1 leaf; 173b. London, B.L. Additional 71687, bifolium; 438a. formerly Oslo and London, collection of Martin Sch0yen, MS 197, sold in 2012 to a private collector in Paris, 2 leaves; 372. Oxford, Bodleian Library [pr.) Arch.A f.131, bifolium; 395. Oxford, Bodleian Library Lat. th.d.24 (30591), 2 leaves; 438b. Philadelphia, Free Library, John Frederick Lewis Collection ET 121, l leaf.]

This is the earliest surviving copy of "De laudibus virginitatis" It is written by two cooperating scribes with similar but distinct handwriting (see description of hands, Gwara 2001: 91 *). Dated "s. IXin'; "probably in Canterbury or Worcester to judge by the script" (Shailor 1987: 282); Lowe thought the script difficult to read (unpredictable ligatures and word-division) and called it "Mercian" in origin, assigning a 9c date (Lowe 1927: 22 330. 191-92); Morrish (1988: 527) dates the manuscript to first half of 9c on basis of "hybrid minuscule" script, comparing London B.L. Add. Charter 19790 (793 x 796) and Cotton Augustus II.79 (805 x 810).G losses by several hands (both ink and dry-point) dated to the second half of 10c (ibid.) show Kentish dialect features (cf. Zupitza 1887, Napier 1900: xxxii, Williams 1905), suggesting the manuscript was located at Canterbury at latest by then and used in the classroom; Rusche shows that the dry-point glosses were added by a relative beginner in Latin (1994: 201). Gwara places it among the "Class I" manuscripts, but shows that a "Class II" manuscript, B.L.R oyal 7 D.xxiv, Part ii [293], derives directly from it and that they both could have been Glastonbury productions (Gwara 2001: 125*-132*). General discussion of Aldhelm glosses, Goossens 1974: 16-21.

The "Yale" Fragments [330], catalogued as Beinecke MSS 401 and 401A:

MS 401: "The [Beinecke] fragments ... were discovered by Samuel Weller Singer (1783-1858), Librarian of the Royal Institution, in a Brighton bookshop where the codex had been dismembered to provide wrappers for books. He presented one fragment (f. 22) to Sir Thomas Phillipps in 1827; inscription on f. 22v, in upper margin: 'Preserved from the cover of a book by . . . Singer, Librarian to the Royal Institution, and by him presented to Sir Thos.P hillipps, Bart. 1827'. The remaining leaves of MS 401 were either given or sold by Singer to Richard Heber (1773-1833); his sale (10 Feb. 1836, no.3 2; label on spine) to Payne [a bookseller) who acquired them for Phillipps (Phillipps no.8 071, [Phillipps' inscription of f.2 2r, bottom: 'This leaf was given me by Mr.S inger.T he others I bought at Heber's sale, 1836']; tag on spine, inscription inside front cover. In the Phillipps sale of 25 Nov. 1969 (Sotheby's, New Series, Medieval Manuscripts, Part V) these leaves were joined together with two additional leaves from the same manuscript (Phillipps MS 20688, ff. 9, 10; presently Beinecke MS 401A) and sold as lot 442" (Shailor 1987: 283). They were sold to H. P. Kraus in the Phillips sale and presented to Yale by Kraus in 1970 as the gift of Edwin J. Beinecke through his bequest of 1907 (Marston 1970).

MS 401 A, two leaves, "belonged to Sir Thomas Phillipps (his no. 20688, ff. 9, 10) who acquired them from Guglielmo Libri (1802-69); his sale, Sotheby's, 28 March-5 April 1859, no. 1111, f. 2r, illustrated in pl. xxv). In the Phillipps sale of 25 Nov. 1969 (Sotheby's, New Series, Medieval Manuscripts, Part V) the leaves were joined together with the 26 leaves now comprising Beinecke MS 401 (Phillipps no. 8071) and sold as lot 442.A cquired from H. P. Kraus in 1970 as the gift of Edwin J. Beinecke [ funds of 1907]" (Shailor 1987: 283-84). MSS 401 and 401A are catalogued and treated as two separate items by the Beinecke.