century. The text is closely akin to that of the Lindisfarne Gospels (see no. 11), and belongs to the best school of Vulgate MSS. Vellum. [Royal MS. 1 B. vii.] 14. The Bible, in the Latin vulgate version, as revised (between 796 and 801) by Alcuin of York, then Abbot of Tours; with large miniatures and illuminated initials. Alcuin was invited from England by Charlemagne to superintend the education of his kingdom, and his revision of the Vulgate was undertaken by Charlemagne's orders. The present copy was written at Tours, in the Caroline minuscule introduced during the reign of Charlemagne, about the middle of the ninth century. Vellum. [Add. MS. 10546.] 15. The Bible, in the Latin vulgate version, as revised (about 810) by Theodulf, Bishop of Orleans. Written, probably at Orleans, in very small and neat Caroline minuscules, with three columns to the page. Ninth century. Vellum. [Add. MS. 24142. 16. The Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypse, in the Latin vulgate version. Written at the monastery of St. Gall, in Switzerland, in Caroline minuscules, under the direction of Hartmut [abbot of St. Gall, 872-883], who has added in his own hand the apocryphal Epistle of St. Paul to the Laodiceans. Vellum. [Add. MS. 11852.] 17. The Bible, in the Latin vulgate version; with illuminated initials. Written, probably at Canterbury or Rochester, by a scribe named William of Devon, in the thirteenth century. It represents a large class of Bibles produced both in England and in France in this century, apparently under the impulse of St. Louis and the University of Paris (where Stephen Langton, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, made the modern division of the Bible into chapters). Such MSS. are generally written in very small hands (see no. 18). Vellum. [Royal MS. 1 D. i.] 18. The Bible, in the Latin vulgate version; with illuminated initials. Written in the thirteenth century. A typical example of the small portable copies of the Scriptures produced during this period in England and France, containing the whole Bible on 471 small leaves of thin vellum, in a very minute hand. [Royal MS. 1 A. iii.] 19. Psalter, in Latin, of St. Jerome's Roman version; followed by Canticles and Hymns, and, in somewhat later hands, by the Canon of the Mass and the Mass of the Holy Trinity. Written, probably at Canterbury, in the latter part of the tenth century, possibly in the lifetime of Archbishop Dunstan, An Anglo-Saxon interlinear translation, apparently contemporary with the text, has been inserted in some of the Psalms and Canticles. A Calendar of Christ Church, Canterbury, has been prefixed between 988 and 1012. Known as the Bosworth Psalter, Vellum. [Add. MS. 37517.] 20. The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua, paraphrased in English by Elfric the Grammarian (abbot successively of Cerne and Eynsham); with coloured illustrations. Elfric's work was produced early in the eleventh century, and was the earliest form in which the Old Testament narrative was made accessible to English readers in their own tongue. The present MS. (one of the two extant copies of the work) was written in the eleventh century. Vellum. [Cotton MS. Claudius B. iv.] 21. The Gospels, in English, of the Anglo-Saxon or Wessex version, produced early in the eleventh century. This is the earliest English version of the Gospels, apart from interlinear wordfor-word translations inserted in Latin MSS. (as in the Lindisfarne Gospels or the Bosworth Psalter), or traditional translations, such as those of Bede or King Alfred, of which no trace has survived. Written early in the twelfth century, and belonged successively to Christ Church, Canterbury, to Archbishop Cranmer, and to John, Lord Lumley. Vellum. [Royal MS. 1 A. xiv.] 22. Psalter, in Latin and English, with English commentary, the translation and commentary being the work of Richard Rolle, the hermit of Hampole, near Doncaster, in the first half of the fourteenth century. The translation and commentary follow the Latin text, verse by verse, the Latin being written in a larger hand, and the translation generally underlined. The work was originally written in the Northumbrian dialect, but was popular all over the kingdom, and in many MSS. (including the present one) the dialect is southern. Vellum. [Arundel MS. 158,] |