{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Binding", "value": "

Full red morocco, by Douglas Cockerell and Son, April 1967 (inscription by H.L. Pink on the front pastedown<\/a>). <\/p>

Author and title inked onto the fore-edge<\/a> by Abraham Wheelocke (c. 1593-1653): '247. Gildas de excidio Britanniae [...]' (rest illegible). <\/p>

Evidence preserved within the manuscript (endleaves<\/a> bearing four friction-holes and rust stains, indicating the presence formerly of four corner-bosses and a chain-staple, a title label preserved on the front pastedown<\/a>, and a portion of a legal document formerly adhered to p. 236, now f. c bis<\/a>) indicates that the manuscript was previously bound in similar style to that of the binding on other manuscripts donated to the University Library by Matthew Parker (for an example, see: MS Ii.2.4<\/a>). See Provenance. <\/p>" }, { "label": "Provenance", "value": "

Matthew Parker (1504-1575), archbishop of Canterbury: partial pagination in characteristic red/orange crayon. Parker disbound and rearranged the contents of this and another manuscript, mixing the two together and rebinding them. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 66<\/a> preserves the first half of the 12th-century manuscript found here (Part 1); Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 66A<\/a> preserves the first half of the 13th-century manuscript found here (Part 2). <\/p>" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Cambridge University Library" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "Codex: iii + 2 + 20 | 16 | 24 ; 5 ; 36 ; 9 ; 8 ; 8 | 110 \\11/ 2 ; 72 | 12 + 1 + iii leaves. Leaf height: 290-295 mm, width: 195-220 mm." }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "

A preliminary note on the structure of the manuscript and its description:<\/b><\/p>

The complex history of this manuscript has posed many challenges to the understanding of the origins and evolving form of this book and its component segments. The first attempt to distinguish these segments from one another appears to have been undertaken by Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886), University Librarian 1867-1886. He identified ten units in all and added the manuscript's classmark at the beginning of each, plus an additional corresponding digit: 'Ff.1.27.1' (p. 1<\/a>), 'Ff.1.27.2' (p. 41<\/a>) and so forth up to '10' (see Additions for further details of these and other marks Bradshaw left in the manuscript). All coincide with the opening of a quire, Bradshaw being especially alert to their significance as units in the organisation and production of medieval books. <\/p>

In the most recent published description of the manuscript (2011), however, in all fifteen 'parts' were identified by its authors Paul Binski and Patrick Zutshi, and each assigned a Roman numeral, I-XV. These do not diverge from Bradshaw's codicological analysis per se, but in several instances more than one 'part' is identified within a single quire. This helpfully draws attention to the role of multiple hands in the production of some segments of this manuscript, apparently working with some co-ordination, and the accumulative way in which its contents were copied. However, the choice of terminology is potentially misleading. A 'part' more commonly refers to a distinct quire or group of quires of different date and / or place of origin to others with which it is bound, in what is usually termed a 'composite' manuscript. MS Ff.1.27 is indeed a composite. It contains quires that were made probably in Durham in the late 12th century (here Part 1) as well as others from a late 13th-century manuscript owned and probably made at Bury St Edmunds (here Part 2). The manuscript was put into this form in the 16th century and a further quire contemporary to these arrangements was added (here Part 3). (At the same time, other quires from both the Durham and the Bury manuscripts were combined into second volume, now at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge). Each of these parts comprises discrete groups of quires: Quires 1-2 and 5-15 (Part 1); Quires 3-4, 16-25 and 27-32 from Bury (Part 2); and Quire 26 the one 16th-century quire (Part 3). The segments enumerated by Bradshaw and further elaborated by the 2011 catalogue within Parts 1 and 2 are therefore more properly 'codicological units': some made by a single scribe, others involving more than one. <\/p>

The introduction below explains the histories and contents of these two parts in further detail, with descriptions of the material characteristics and histories particular to each given separately. For ease of reference, a table is appended here that reconciles the subdivision of the manuscript by Bradshaw and by Binski and Zutshi with the present catalogue description.<\/p>

Dr James Freeman
Medieval Manuscripts Specialist
Cambridge University Library<\/p>

Codicological concordance<\/b><\/b><\/p>
Pages<\/th>Bradshaw units<\/th>Collation<\/th>Pages<\/th>Binski and Zutshi 'parts'<\/th>Collation<\/th>Date<\/th>Origin<\/th>Parts in present description<\/th><\/tr>
pp. 1-40<\/td>Unit 1<\/td>Quires 1-2<\/td>pp. 1-40<\/td>Part I<\/td>Quires 1-2<\/td>Late 12th cent.<\/td>Durham<\/td>Part 1<\/td><\/tr>
pp. 41-72<\/td>Unit 2<\/td>Quires 3-4<\/td>pp. 41-72<\/td>Part II<\/td>Quires 3-4<\/td>3rd quarter 13th cent.<\/td>Bury St Edmunds<\/td>Part 2<\/td><\/tr>
pp. 73-120<\/td>Unit 3<\/td>Quires 5-7<\/td>pp. 73-120<\/td>Part I<\/td>Quires 5-7<\/td>Late 12th cent.<\/td>Durham<\/td>Part 1<\/td><\/tr>
pp. 121-130<\/td>Unit 4[a]<\/td>Quire 8<\/td>pp. 121-194<\/td>Part IV<\/td>Quires 8-11, 12[i-viii]<\/td>Late 12th cent.<\/td>Durham<\/td>Part 1<\/td><\/tr>
pp. 131-202<\/td>Unit 4[b]<\/td>Quires 9-12<\/td>pp. 195-202<\/td>Part V<\/td>Quire 12[ix-xii]<\/td>Late 12th cent.<\/td>Durham<\/td>Part 1<\/td><\/tr>
pp. 203-220<\/td>Unit 5<\/td>Quire 13<\/td>pp. 203-216<\/td>Part VI<\/td>Quire 13[i-vii]<\/td>Late 12th cent.<\/td>Durham<\/td>Part 1<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/td><\/td>pp. 217-220<\/td>Part VII<\/td>Quire 13[viii-ix]<\/td>Late 12th cent.<\/td>Durham<\/td>Part 1<\/td><\/tr>
pp. 221-236<\/td>Unit 6<\/td>Quire 14<\/td>pp. 221-236<\/td>Part VIII<\/td>Quire 14<\/td>Late 12th cent.<\/td>Durham<\/td>Part 1<\/td><\/tr>
pp. 237-252<\/td>Unit 7<\/td>Quire 15<\/td>pp. 237-242<\/td>Part IX<\/td>Quire 15[i-iii]<\/td>Late 12th cent.<\/td>Durham<\/td>Part 1<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/td><\/td>pp. 243-252<\/td>Part X<\/td>Quire 15[iv-viii]<\/td>Late 12th cent.<\/td>Durham<\/td>Part 1<\/td><\/tr>
pp. 253-472<\/td>Unit 8[i]<\/td>Quires 16-24, 25[i-ii]<\/td>pp. 253-452<\/td>Part XI<\/td>Quires 16-23, 24[i-v]<\/td>3rd quarter 13th cent.<\/td>Bury St Edmunds<\/td>Part 2<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/td><\/td>pp. 453-472<\/td>Part XII<\/td>Quires 24[v-xii], 25[i-ii]<\/td>3rd quarter 13th cent.<\/td>Bury St Edmunds<\/td>Part 2<\/td><\/tr>
pp. 473-494<\/td>Unit 9<\/td>Quire 26<\/td>pp. 473-494<\/td>Part XIII<\/td>Quire 26<\/td>Mid-16th cent.<\/td><\/td>Part 3<\/td><\/tr>
pp. 495-498<\/td>Unit 8[ii]<\/td>Quire 25[iii-iv]<\/td>pp. 495-498<\/td>Not included<\/td>Quire 25[iii-iv]<\/td>3rd quarter 13th cent.<\/td>Bury St Edmunds<\/td>Part 2<\/td><\/tr>
pp. 499-642<\/td>Unit 10<\/td>Quires 27-32<\/td>pp. 499-636<\/td>Part XIV<\/td>Quires 27-31, 32[i-ix]<\/td>3rd quarter 13th cent.<\/td>Bury St Edmunds<\/td>Part 2<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td><\/td><\/td>pp. 638-642<\/td>Part XV<\/td>Quire 32[x-xii]<\/td>3rd quarter 13th cent. (14th-cent additions)<\/td>Bury St Edmunds<\/td>Part 2<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>

Part 1: pp. 1-40, 73-252: Units 1, 3-7 (Bradshaw) / 'Parts' I, III-X (Binski and Zutshi)<\/b><\/p>

Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.1.27, Part 1, is a compilation of the late twelfth century, containing, amongst other texts, Gildas's De excidio Britanniae<\/i> (pp. 1-14<\/a>), the Historia Brittonum<\/i> attributed to Nennius (pp. 14-40<\/a>), an anonymous life of St. Cuthbert (pp. 195-202<\/a>), and the collected works of Gille of Limerick (pp. 237-242<\/a>), a twelfth-century Irish bishop. Probably conceived as a compendium of historical material, the manuscript shows a considerable interest in Irish and Northumbrian history, as suggested by its inclusion of Simeon of Durham's Historia Dunelmensis Ecclesiae<\/i> (pp. 122-194<\/a>), Aethelwulf's De abbatibus<\/i> (pp. 203-215<\/a>), and the Old English poem known as 'Durham' (p. 202<\/a>).<\/p>

The complex provenance of the manuscript, which was once bound with Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 66<\/a>, has been much disputed by scholars. Once thought to have originated at the scriptorium of the Cistercian Abbey at Sawley in Lancashire, the most recent analysis has suggested an origin at Durham Cathedral Priory, thus placing Durham as an important twelfth-century centre for the copying and transmission of historical material (Dumville (1998)). At some point in its history, probably under its ownership by Matthew Parker (1504-1575), the original manuscript was divided into two: MS Ff.1.27 Part 1 was bound with the latter half of a thirteenth-century manuscript from Bury St. Edmunds (here Part 2), and Corpus MS 66 with the first half of that Bury manuscript (itself now bound separately as MS 66a).<\/p>

Many of the manuscript's constituent texts are highly significant within their respective traditions of transmission and textual history. The copy of the Historia Brittonum is a rare recension of the text that explicitly ascribes the work to Nennius, and is thought to have been copied from the first witness of the Nennian Historia<\/i> in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 139<\/a>. The manuscript's copy of Simeon of Durham's Historia<\/i> is likewise one of the first to name him as its author - a feature that does not even appear in the two earliest manuscript witnesses of the text (Durham, University Library, MS Cosin V.II.6<\/a> and London, British Library, Cotton Faustina A.v). The manuscript's copy of the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto<\/i> has been identified as the second oldest copy in existence (Johnson South (2002)), and, uniquely, is followed in the same hand by the latest extant poem in regular Old English metre known to exist, the vernacular poem 'Durham', which describes the fame of the city and its most famous inhabitants, from the 'famous writer Bede' to the 'gracious, blessed [saint] Cuthbert'.<\/p>

Though written by several hands, the appearance of the manuscript's various texts are pleasingly coordinated, each written in two columns, structured by red rubrics and decorated with alternating red and green initials. Some initials, such as those to the opening of Gildas's De excidio<\/i> on p. 2<\/a> and Simeon of Durham's Historia Dunelmensis<\/i> on p. 123<\/a>, are finely executed, characterised respectively by intricate foliage and arabesque motifs. A particular highlight of the manuscript's illumination occurs on p. 238<\/a>, which contains a fully coloured 'Imago ecclesiae' illustrating Gille of Limerick's De statu ecclesie<\/i>. Based on a Gothic architectural frame, with arching reminiscent of stained glass window designs or layered wall arcading, the image illustrates episcopal and secular church hierarchy, together with the orders of society descending from the emperor and kings. It is probably the earliest 'Gothic' illumination in English.<\/p>

Perhaps the most codicologically complex codex in the University's collection, MS Ff.1.27 is a highly significant witness to the evolution of several textual traditions, and for the dissemination of historical material about the British, Irish and Hiberno-Saxon past. Compiled at the very transition between the late Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman periods, the manuscript shows contemporaries coming to grips with the rich literary legacy of some eight hundred years of historical writing in the British Isles, marshalled here into a diverse compendium that attests to the wealth of historical scholarship in twelfth-century Durham.<\/p>

Part 2: pp. 41-72, 253-472, 499-636: Units 2, 8[i], 9-10 (Bradshaw) / 'Parts' II, XI-XII, XIV (Binski and Zutshi)<\/b><\/p>

Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.1.27, Part 2, is a compilation of the third quarter of the 13th century, containing a selection of historical texts including Gerald of Wales's Topographia Hiberniae<\/i> (pp. 253-355<\/a>), an anonymous Life of St. Patrick (pp. 453-471<\/a>), and Rhygyfarch ap Sulien's Life of St. David (pp. 618-636<\/a>). Probably conceived as a compendium of historical material, the manuscript shows a particular interest in Irish history, saints' lives and mythology, and also includes a copy of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Life of Merlin (pp. 610-618<\/a>).<\/p>

Originating at the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, the manuscript is one half of a larger volume, split into two parts by Matthew Parker in the sixteenth century. Now bound with the twelfth-century compilation of historical texts described above, the other half of the Bury manuscript is now Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 66A<\/a>, which contains material by the French chronicler Jacques de Vitry and diverse cosmological and poetic texts. Probably rearranged by its early modern owner to form a more pleasing collection of texts relating to British and Irish history, MS Ff.1.27 Part 2 also contains a sixteenth-century copy of Gerald of Wales's Itinerarium Kambriae<\/i>, evidently added at the same time as Parker's restructuring of the codex.<\/p>

Written, in its medieval portions, in a fine example of the Gothic hand, the manuscript bears some striking, and finely executed illumination. Historiated initials, such as that of Henry II enthroned (p. 262<\/a>); St Patrick preaching (p. 453<\/a>) and Merlin making a prophecy (p. 610<\/a>), make lavish use of gold leaf, and may be compared, in the design and the quality of the figural depictions, to contemporary illuminated Psalters, such as the thirteenth-century Carrow Psalter (Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, MS W.34<\/a>). Numerous border decorations, principally occurring in Gerald of Wales's Topographia<\/i> (esp. pp. 277-344<\/a>), show thematically diverse scenes, including religious images (for instance the Crucifixion on p. 318<\/a>), aspects of the natural world (e.g. a whale on p. 299<\/a>), and some delightfully vernacular imagery, as in the depiction of a woman embracing a goat and a lion (p. 308<\/a>).<\/p>

Containing some fine illumination and several important texts pertaining to the history of the British Isles, the manuscript attests to the copying and transmission of historical material at Bury St. Edmunds in the high medieval period. Providing important evidence about the range of historical scholarship at the Abbey, the codex is also notable for its post-medieval history, offering an insight into Matthew Parker's management of his collection, and how sixteenth-century scholars viewed the relative importance of medieval texts.<\/p>

Elizabeth Wright
University of York (2015)<\/p>

with revisions by James Freeman<\/p>" }, { "label": "Former Owner(s)", "value": "Parker, Matthew, 1504-1575" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "Compilation of historical and topographical texts" }, { "label": "Author(s) of the Record", "value": "CUDL PID Workflow" }, { "label": "Material", "value": "Medieval leaves all parchment; one quire of paper at the end." }, { "label": "Collation", "value": "