Philadelphia, Free Library, John Frederick Lewis Collection, ET 121 Aldhelm, "De laudibus virginitatis" ("Yale Aldhelm Fragments;' 1 leaf) (with 92, 172, 1736, 330,372,395, 438a)

Abstract

438b. Philadelphia, Free Library, John Frederick Lewis

Collection, ET 121

Aldhelm, "De laudibus virginitatis"

("Yale Aldhelm Fragments;' 1 leaf)

(with 92, 172, 1736, 330,372,395, 438a)

[Ker 12 & Supp.; Gneuss 857]

HISTORY: One leaf from the 9c dispersed "Yale" Aldhelm codex (see 330). John Frederick Lewis (1860-1932) acquired the leaf in 1914 (inscription, upper right recto); at his death his widow gave it to the Philadelphia Free Library, along with his collection of Oriental and European manuscripts. Another inscription on upper right recto is 'Given me by M' R. Cowtan [Conitan, Contan?) | Mar. 1855:

_{[Note: The most likely candidate for the donor in the inscription is Robert Cowtan, who was appointed by Head Librarian Antonio Panizzi as Receiver of Copyright Publications at the British Museum in 1854; he later published a brief biography of Panizzi and a "Memoir" of the British Museum; Cowtan's father was a bookseller and printer in Canterbury and Cowtan himself had been loosely connected to the bookseller's trade through relations since his teenage years (see [Cowtan] 1866: 4-5, 26-27, 74, 198-99).]}