Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 144: The Corpus Glossary
Abstract/Contents
- Summary
- The Corpus Glossary, CCCC MS 144, written in the early ninth century, is an early witness to the Old English language, and also attests to Latin learning in England at this time. It contains several glossaries; most of the glosses are in Latin, but there are over 2000 in Old English. It is written in a beautiful Anglo-Saxon Hybrid Minuscule, with some typically Insular decoration of initials. The manuscript also has two flyleaves at the end from an Irish manuscript of a treatise on grammar by Priscian (fl. c. 500) written in Gaelic National Hand, probably in the twelfth century.
- Contents
- Interpretations of Hebrew and Greek Names -- Glossary in Latin and Old English, alphabetised by first two letters -- Institutiones grammaticae (excerpt from book 2)
Description
| Alternative title | Glossaria |
|---|---|
| Type of resource | mixed material |
| Extent | ff. 65 + 3 |
| Date created | [ca. 700 CE - 799 CE] |
| Language | Latin; English, Old (ca. 450-1100) |
| Material | Vellum |
| Layout | 33 lines to a column, four columns on a page |
| Height (mm) | 320 |
| Width (mm) | 235 |
| Collation | I(8)-VII(8) VIII(8) (+1) a(10) (1 canc.) | b(2) | 1 flyleaf. |
| Writing | in a very fine hand |
| Foliation | ff. a-b + i + 1-67 + c-d |
| Provenance | From St Augustine's, Canterbury. On f. 1*r is: Di(st) XI Gra 1 retro (possibly, as Hessels read, retus, for retrorsus, but I think the letter is a rough o). elucidacio quarundam parcium cum A. liber S. Aug. Cant. Not in the old catalogue: no. 1350 is Liber de obstrusis sermonibus parcium 2 fo. omnes D. (blank) G. (blank) but the 2nd folio does not correspond. |
| Research | These are the contents of this volume, quite briefly indicated. The whole was edited by J. H. Hessels, M.A., in 1890 with the greatest care and completeness: a facsimile accompanies his edition. The text was first printed by T. Wright in his Vocabularies, then by Wulcker in 1884, and again by Professor Sweet, Oldest English Texts 1885. |
| Decoration | The ornamental initials which begin the divisions of the glossary are deserving of careful attention. They are in the Celtic manner, and often, but not always, surrounded with red dots. Their execution is very good indeed. Both they and many smaller initials are filled in with patches of yellow or dusky blue.There is one good outline initial on the leaves at the end. |
| 2 fo. | farao |
Bibliographic information
| M.R. James Date | viii |
|---|---|
| Downloadable James Catalogue Record | |
| Superseded Interim Catalogue Record | |
| Contains |
|
| TJames | 279 |
| Stanley | S. 3 |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/mz111xq7301 |
| Location | MS 144 |
| Repository | UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- Images courtesy of The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For higher resolution images suitable for scholarly or commercial publication, either in print or in an electronic format, please contact the Parker Library directly at parker-library@corpus.cam.ac.uk
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).
Collection
Parker Manuscripts
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