Sens, Musee de Sens (Tresor de la Cathedral) (Tresor de la Cathedral) [Prou 158] Detached Relic Label

Abstract

466. Sens, Musees de Sens

(Tresor de la Cathedral) [Prou 158]

Detached Relic Label

[Ker 383, Gneuss -]

HISTORY: A label once attached to a relic now lost from the large collection of relics at Sens, most deriving from the gift of Charlemagne, listed in a catalogue of 1192 compiled by Guy de Noyuers, archbishop of Sens (pr. Prou and Chartraire 1900: 135-40); perhaps the label became detached from its relic in the disordering and removal of the relics from the cathedral following the French Revolution (Atsma et al. 1987: 40). The provenance is unknown. It is one of four (all of which are reproduced on the fiche) in the Cathedral Treasury written in A-S hands. Perhaps they show the influence of the A-S Beornred, who was archbishop of Sens 785 x 6-797. Authentiques nos. 107 and 114 are in Latin. No. 159 consists of the name 'Torhtburg' written twice (with a crease in the middle, which makes it seem likely that the parchment scrap was wrapped around a corner). No. 158, which we are mainly concerned with here, is written in a mixture of Latin and OE. On paleographic grounds, Forster (1935:291) dates the copy to ca. 800, Ker to "s. xi1 (?)''. On linguistic evidence, Oliver (1995: 143-50) argues that the text was probably composed prior to 731. The discrepancy between linguistic and paleographic form leads Dahl to postulate that this is a copy of an earlier exemplar (Dahl 1938: 11). All four of these authentiques are currently mounted on small pieces of cardboard and pinned (with others) to a larger tablet stored in a drawer of a display cabinet in the Treasury Room of the Musee de Sens; they are identified by typed labels referring to the numbers in the Prou and Chartraire catalogue, and the first three (Nos. 107, 114, 159) are transcribed.