Oxford, Bodleian Library, Tanner 10 (SC 9830) "Old English Bede"

Abstract

408. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Tanner 10 (SC 9830)

"Old English Bede"

[Ker 351; Gneuss/Lapidge 668]

HISTORY: The earliest manuscript of the OE translation of the Bede's "Historia ecclesiastica" (incomplete). Gneuss/Lapidge dates the main text of the manuscript to the beginning or first half of the 10c. Dumville (1994: 134) dates the script to the "transitional phase" of Anglo-Saxon Square Minuscule, c. 890x930. Parkes (1976: 156-63) attributes Tanner 10 to Winchester, but Gameson ("Fabric" 1992: 176) believes its medieval origins should be considered unknown. Rowley reviews the questions of origin and dating (Rowley 2011: 16-17; 20). Missing text from Book 4 was supplied in the second half of the 10c and inserted into quire XIV following f. 104v ( = ff. 105-114; see collation below). Ker ( Cat.) notes that the manuscript was at Thorney in the 14c. On provenance, see further Bateley (1992: 16-17; 34- 36). The manuscript was owned by Thomas Tanner (1674-1735), bishop of St. Asaph, who, upon his arrival in Oxford kept the books at Christ Church College, Oxford (Gameson 1992: 177). Rowley notes "various drawings and doodles probably of the twelfth-, thirteenth-to fourteenth-, and sixteenthor seventeenth-century date" (Rowley 2011: 186). Rowley also offers a detailed study of the significance of the 14c Thorney glosses (Rowley 2011: 186-94). For further discussion of the glosses see Lemke (2015: 90-93) and on codicology, scripts, and decoration see most recently Lemke (2015: 63- 69). The Bodleian Library acquired the manuscript with Bishop Tanner's collection in 1736.