British Library Journal (volume 20, number 1, spring 1994)

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Dry-point compilation notes in the Benedictional of St à†thelwold
(1994-05)
Schipper, W.
THE Benedictional of St à†thelwold (Add. MS. 49598) is one of the great treasures of the British Library. Produced between 971 and 973 expressly at the request of à†thelwold, Bishop of Winchester, by his chaplain Godeman, as the dedicatory poem near the beginning of the book makes clear, the manuscript not only is significant for understanding the art of tenth-century England, but also contributes to our understanding of the history of handwriting during the period, and represents a significant contribution to Anglo-Latin liturgical writing at that time. With its elaborate illustrations and elegant English Caroline script the manuscript is, in Michael Lapidge's words, 'the most lavishly produced manuscript which has survived from Anglo-Saxon England', and in many respects represents the apogee of Anglo-Saxon book illustration of the last third of the tenth century. The manuscript has been intensively studied from a variety of vantage points by specialists in different disciplines. Its paintings have been carefully scrutinized and analysed many times since the book was first described in print in 1832, while still in the library of the Dukes of Devonshire; and no study of the art of the late tenth century seems complete without reference to this book. Since the publication of the Roxburghe Club facsimile in 1910, the script too has received attention from palaeographers, such as T. A. M. Bishop and David Dumville, whose work has greatly expanded our understanding of the hand and its connection to continental and English books of the period. Nor have the contents of the volume been ignored. The facsimile included a transcription of the entire text, though another sixty years would elapse before the benedictions themselves were more closely studied by Derek Turner and Andrew Prescott.
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Public revisions or private responses? The oddities of BL, Arundel MS. 197, with special reference to Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God
(1994-05)
Connolly, Margaret
ARUNDEL 197 is a curious manuscript. Dating from the third quarter of the fifteenth century, it is a small volume of seventy-three folios, measuring 192 x 132 mm, very plain, without decoration, and showing no signs of ownership from the medieval period. The volume once belonged to Henry Howard, Duke of Norfolk, as the ink stamp on f. ir indicates (see fig. i), but nothing is otherwise known of its provenance or history. The material it contains is entirely devotional in nature, consisting of two longer texts and a collection of shorter pieces as outlined below.
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The Apocalypse, British Library, Royal MS. 19 B. XV: a reassessment of its artistic context in early fourteenth century English manuscript illumination
(1994-05)
Dennison, Lynda
THE Apocalypse, British Library, Royal MS. 19 B. XV, is traditionally attributed to the workshop which produced Queen Mary's Psalter, BL, Royal MS. 2 B. VII; indeed, the first sixteen folios have been assigned to the Queen Mary Artist himself. For example, Sandier has recently written that 'the gatherings by the Queen Mary Master are in his inimitable style, the drawing of great grace and delicacy'. The purpose of this paper is twofold: firstly, it aims to dispel the above misconception by a technical appraisal of the manuscript and, secondly, it considers the wider implications of these findings by placing the Apocalypse in its rightful artistic context.
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A fragment of Ephraem the Syrian and the rare word asiantos vindicated
(1994-05)
Pattie, T. S.
ADDITIONAL MS. 39583 is a miscellany of fragments collected by Robert Curzon, the writer of Travels to Monasteries in the Levant. One of the fragments, f. 14, is a single leaf written in Greek in about the tenth century in upright so-called 'Slavonic' uncials. On the facing page Curzon made a note in pencil: 'One leaf of a Greek Manuscript of the 7th or 8th century A.D. in small uncial letters, with accents, this leaf was found in the binding of a manuscript of more recent date, in the library of the monastery of Caracalla, on Mount Athos.' It contains a portion of Ephraem the Syrian's 'Sermo Compunctorius' (Clavis Patrum Graecorum 3908), corresponding to pp. 37C8-38E3 of Volume I of Assemani's six-volume edition of the works of Ephraem.
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Recent acquisitions: incunabula
(1994-05)
Hellinga, Lotte
;
Davies, Martin
IN the selection of incunabula - in the happy days when this was a fairly regular activity - the first and uppermost reason for acquisition was typographical. The British Library collection aims to represent the work of all printers who produced books in the fifteenth century, and to have samples of all types used by them. This collecting principle has now existed for a century. The astonishingly representative collection of incunabula had been brought together based on a multitude of tastes and preferences, not necessarily connected with the history of printing. In the foundation collections - Sloane, the Old Royal Library - incunabula were present for their textual interest. The Reverend C. M. Cracherode bequeathed in 1799 incunabula of the highest quality of illumination and general condition. The greatest influx came with the King's Library - where the spread of printing was certainly one of the spheres of interest - and the Grenville collection, with particular interest in vernacular literature, and for texts relating to travel and discovery. In spite of the very diverse motives which at one time or other drove collectors to acquire these books, once they were brought together in one collection (and augmented from the 1850s to 1870s with a large number of items, for the most part obtained very cheaply), they constituted a representation of book production in the fifteenth century which was unrivalled in any other institution.
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Robert Beale and the Queen of Scots
(1994-05)
Basing, Patricia
IN 1953 the British Museum acquired the Yelverton manuscripts, now Add. MSS.48000-48196, from Brigadier R. H. Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe and his trustees. The papers of Robert Beale (1541-1601), Clerk to the Council of Elizabeth I, form the core of this collection of historical papers, which never left the custody of Beale's descendants, the Yelverton family, and their heirs. Apart from the papers of the Marquess of Salisbury at Hatfield House, the Yelverton manuscripts constituted the most important source in private hands for the study of Queen Elizabeth's reign: the manuscripts reflect Beale's activities as an antiquary and diplomat as well as an administrator. One volume, Add.MS. 48049, contains papers relating to Scotland and Mary Queen of Scots, and in particular to negotiations with Mary, which took place between 1581 and 1584, in which Beale was involved. Many of these items, which include original instructions and copies of correspondence with Mary, are printed from other sources. Of the unpublished material, six letters, five from Mary and one written by Nau, her secretary, on her behalf, are the subject of the present article.
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The role of the wax tablet in medieval literacy: a reconsideration in light of a recent find from York
(1994-05)
Brown, Michelle P.
MOST scholars are aware of the major role played by writing tablets as a vehicle for informal composition, learning exercises, note-taking, correspondence, accounting and document-production during Antiquity. Fewer, perhaps, are familiar with the extension and modification of their use throughout the Middle Ages (and indeed even until the nineteenth century when the fisherfolk of Dieppe still recorded their catches upon them) and with the nature of the evidence for their protracted existence and use.
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British Library Journal (volume 20, number 1, spring 1994)

British Library Journal (volume 20, number 1, spring 1994)

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