Christian Works : Book of Cerne

Christian Works

<p style='text-align: justify;'>The <i>Book of Cerne</i> is a composite manuscript. The central section, part II (fols 2-99), is a ninth-century prayerbook written in principally in Latin with some glosses in Old English. It contains a selection of extracts from the gospels, prayers and hymns probably assembled for private devotion. It is believed to have been composed in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia (which broadly corresponds to the modern West Midlands). At some later point, possibly as late as the sixteenth century, this ninth-century manuscript was bound together with two other collections of texts assembled at Cerne Abbey in Dorset (parts I (fols i-xxvi) and III (fols i-xxviii). It is from this that the manuscript takes its name, although there is no evidence to associate the Anglo-Saxon portion of the manuscript with Cerne.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The Book of Cerne is stylistically associated with a group of eighth- and ninth-century prayerbooks produced in southern England known as the Tiberius or Canterbury group. Surviving members of the group are London, British Library, MSS <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=7731&CollID=8&NStart=7653'>Harley 7653</a> (known as the <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_7653&index=6'>Harley prayerbook</a>), <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=8827&CollID=8&NStart=2965'>Harley 2965</a> (known as the <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_2965&index=4'>Book of Nunnaminster</a>) and <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_2_A_XX'>Royal 2.A.xx</a>. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'> The <i>Book of Cerne</i> is on display in the British Library exhibition <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://www.bl.uk/events/anglo-saxon-kingdoms'>Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War</a> until 19 February 2019. </p>