Monastic Learning in Twelfth-Century England: Marginalia, Provenance and Use in London, British Library, Cotton MS. Faustina A. X, Part B

Abstract

BL, Cotton Faustina A.x is a composite manuscript consisting of a late Anglo-Saxon copy of Ælfric’s Grammar and Glossary (Part A) and an early 12th-century copy of the Regula Sancti Benedicti in Old English (Part B). This study attempts to shed new light on the question of the composite’s provenance and use of Part B by carefully considering the marginal annotations entered by a mid-12th-century hand. Moreover, the quantity and nature of extracts copied by this productive annotator may provide us with valuable information regarding the development of the English monastic school under the influence of continental traditions in the aftermath of the Twelfth-Century Renaissance.