The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

Shelfmark B.15.33
Manuscript Title

Isidore, Etymologiae

Alternative Title

Isidori Etymologiae

James Number 368
Century 9th
Physical Description

27-24 lines to a page. In a fine round Saxon hand. Headings in red and black uncials.

Provenance

Given by Nevile.

The leaves are numbered in red chalk in Parker's manner from 17 to 159. On f.146b [145v] is writing in what looks like Stephen Batman's hand: The age of þis book/741/Anno 1574 (indicating that there was a date fixing it to A.D. 833). [See also the description at the end of manuscript contents]

Donor Neville [Nevile], Thomas (c. 1548–1615), College Head and Dean of Canterbury
Size (cm) 26.5 x 18.5
Folio 146 ff.
Binding

In the binding is a fragment (late xv) of a case in law-French. The names that occur are Thirn. Hunk. Skrene. Hill. Till.

Material Parchment
Language Latin
Collation

18 210 38 410 (8 canc.) 58 610 710 (two canc.) 810 (as 7) 9 (as 7) 10 (as 7) 1110 (8 canc.) 128 13 (as 7) 14 (as 7) 15 (as 7) 168 178 | 186 (four left, blank) at each end 4 paper fly-leaves and one parchment leaf.

IIIF Manifest URL https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/B.15.33/manifest.json
Online Since 19/08/2013

Contents

Isidori Etymologiarum Libb. v.-ix.
Inc. in V. xxxiii. 1. mi non ex solis circulo . sed ex lune cursu enumerantur.
P.L. lxxxii. 219 A.
Greek words inserted in red capitals.
According to the numbering of this MS. this is cap. vi.
c. vii. begins on f.2. de soli stitiis et aequi noctiis (xxxiv. in edd.).
The table of the six ages in c. xii. (=xxxix.) is in a smaller hand.
ExpLCIT liber qVINTVS.
f.9 INC. capitula libri sexti
There are 9 chapters as against 19 of edd.
FlNIVNT CAPITULA.
f.9b INC. LIBER sextus
c. iii. de biblioticis has six divisions: so has iv. de cartis et pergamenis.
The table of cycles P.L. col.245-47 is omitted.
It may have intervened in a pair of leaves between quires 3 and 4. The text however has no other gap here.
f.26 ends: stratum annorum and f.27 begins Post cuius.
Expl. lib. vi.
f.40 Inc. capitula liberi septimi
There are 14 chapters as in edd.
Expl. capitula.
f.40b Inc. eiusdem liber
By the title of c. ii. De filio dei is godes þynnē.
Expl. Lib. septimus.
f.77 Inc. capp. libri octavi
These are numbered continuously with lib. vii., from xv. to xxv, corresponding with the number in edd.
Finiunt capp.
f.77b Inc. eiusdem libri octavvi
Finit lib. octavvs.
f.108 Inc. capp. Libri noni
Numbered from xxvi.-xxxiii.: there are 7 in edd.
Expl. capp.
f.108 Inc. eiusdem liber nonus
On f.139a after Germani Germanae (P.L. col. 359), the rest of the page is left blank. Batman adds in Saxon letters
Finis . de ritibus historiarum.
On f.139b is a table
Item de predictis adfinitatibus.
Auctor mei generis etc. -ego illi neptis filius aut filia, in six columns.
f.140a is blank and the portion of text from "Matris meae soror" onwards, with the stemmata, is omitted. (P.L. 360-63.)
On f.140b the text continues with c. xxxii. (=vii.) De coniugiis ending
Credo equidem nec uana fides genus esse deorum (f.141b).
Twelve lines (in P. L.) are wanting to complete the book.

There are corrections in a hand nearly contemporary with the original.

f145b
He that wilbe parfet in bookes that are newe
by the olde, he shall knowe the better to vewe.
This book is a Scoolemaster to those yt are wise
But not to fonde fooles, that learning dispise.
A Jwell it is, who liste it to reede,
With in it are pearells, precious in deede

Then follows

alphabetum Saxonicum et coniunctivum.

The alphabet, with abbreviations.

At the end
Collumalarii the name of a saxon doctor in divinite, da gloriam deo

On a paper fly-leaf in the same hand(?) are a number of texts from Genesis, Exodus and Numbers.

There are a good many marginal notes by Batman(?).

Bibliography

Gneuss, H., Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: a List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Medieval and Renaissance Studies 241 (Tempe, AZ, 2001), no. 176 [perhaps with fragment formerly Weinheim, Sammlung E. Fischer, s. n., lost; s. x in., origin South England, perhaps Winchester]

Gneuss, H. and Lapidge, M., Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Biographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100 (Toronto, 2014), no. 176

Bishop, T. A. M., 'An Early Example of the Square Minuscule', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 4 (1964-8), 246-52 + pll. XVIII and XIX.

Keynes, S., Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts and Other Items of Related Interest in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, Old English Newsletter Subsidia 18 (Binghampton, NY, 1992), no. 2 + pl. II.

Dumville, D. N., 'English Square Minuscule Script: the Background and Earliest Phases', Anglo-Saxon England 16 (1987), 147-79.

Gameson, R., 'The Decoration of the Tanner Bede', Anglo-Saxon England 21 (1993), 115-59.

Parkes, M. B., 'The Paleography of the Parker Manuscript of the 'Chronicle', Laws and Sedulius, and Historiography at Winchester in the Late Ninth and Tenth Centuries', The Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 27 (1976), 149-71.

Dumville, D. N., Wessex and England from Alfred to Edgar: Six Essays on Political, Cultural, and Ecclesiastical Revival, Studies in Anglo-Saxon History 3 (Woodbridge, 1992), pp. 83-6+ pl. III.

Dumville, D. N., English Caroline Script and Monastic History: Studies in Benedictinism A.D. 950-1030, Studies in Anglo-Saxon History 6 (Woodbridge, 1993), p. 70.

Bishop, T. A. M., English Caroline Minuscule (Oxford, 1971), p. 4

Morgan, N. and Panayatova, S. (eds.) with the assistance of Rebecca Rushforth, Illuminated Manuscripts in Cambridge : A Catalogue of Western Book Illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge Colleges. Part 4, The British Isles, 2 vols. (London, 2013), vol 1. no. 6

Bischoff, B., Katalog der festländischen Handschriften des neunten Jahrhunderts (mit Ausnahme der wisigotischen), Teil I: Aachen - Lambeth (Wiesbaden, 1998), p. 184.

This work is copyright the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License