St John's College MS 17
+ British Library, Cotton Nero C.vii, fols. 80–4, Computistical miscellany
Contents
Language(s): Latin with some Old English and Greek
A sequence of medical texts, ed. Charles Singer, ‘A Review of the Medical Literature of the Dark Ages, with a New Text of About 1110’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 10, ii, Section of the History of Medicine (1917), 107–60 at 128–37, with reproductions.
A series of notes on the calendar and on using the calendar for prognostic purposes, accompanied by four sets of prognostic tables in triple columns (fol. 4).
ed. PL 4:1007–14. Presented in triple-column format.
Runic, cryptographic, and foreign alphabets, with letter names and texts exemplifying cryptographic techniques. Ed. R. Derolez, Runica manuscripta. The Engish Tradition (Bruges, 1954), 38–9, with discussion 30–4, 48–9, 157–8, 264–5, partly paralleled in the works of HRABANUS MAURUS at PL 122:1579, 1582. See further Bernhard Bischoff, Mittelalterliche Studien, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, 1966–81), 3:120–48, esp. 128.
Degrees of consanguinuity, table with texts, to illustrate Etymologiae 9.6.28. There are twenty Old English glosses to the Latin, ed. J. V. Gough, ‘Some Old English Glosses’, Anglia 92 (1974), 273–90 at 282–3 (note P. Bierbaumer, ‘Zu J. V. Goughs Ausgabe einiger ahenglischer Glossen’, Anglia 95 [1977], 114–21 at 119).
Sharpe no. 174 (81), ed. Peter S. Baker and Michael Lapidge, Byrhtferth’s Enchiridion, EETS ss 15 (1995) 375–9.
an anthology of computistical poetry and readings, with lengthy glosses, ed. and described Baker and Lapidge, 384–90, omitting only reference to verses fol. 15vab: ‘Incipit hic ianus cui traditur astrea capra […] ’ (not in Walther, added in another hand of s. xii). Verses on the months, here imperfect; the April and May entries also appear in the next item (see Baker and Lapidge, 398–401).
A calendar, with an elaborate letter set, allowing use with all preceding tables, and extensive optional materials; ed. Baker and Lapidge, 390–416 and Michael Lapidge, ‘A Tenth-Century Metrical Calendar from Ramsey’, Revue bénédictine 94 (1984), 326–69. Includes names of the months in Old English, ed. Gough, 283 (see item 6 above).
This text is followed by a variety of tabular aids:
(a) Fols. 22–34 have two series of tables and diagrams: twelve tables, with explanatory texts, keyed to the preceding calendar; thirteen tables and diagrams for determining the date of Easter, with perpetual calendars and explanatory texts (quasi-independent texts are listed with the next item); described Baker and Lapidge, 416–23.
(b) Fols. 34v–5 present multiplication and division tables, with a prose explanation of types of numbers, described Baker and Lapidge, 423–4.
(c) Fols. 35v–7 have diagrams explaining lunar and solar time, described Baker and Lapidge, 424–5 (two extensive associated texts listed under item 12).
The legend of Pachomius, to whom a method of calculating Easter was taught by an angel, together with mnemonics for Easter and for Lent; the first ed. Baker and Lapidge, 420., For other quasi-independent texts among these tables, see Baker and Lapidge, 421, : their no. 31b, BEDE, De temporibus 11, ed. Charles W. Jones, CC 123A–C (1975–80) 593–4, ; their no. 31c; and no. 34a, an extract from BEDE, De temporum ratione 22, ed. Jones, 351/12–20, , with paraphrase of the remainder of the chapter; and 424–5: their no. 43, BEDE, De temporum ratione 24, ed. Jones, 355–6, with one of its glosses; and their no. 44, ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, De natura rerum, ed. Jacques Fontaine, Traité de la nature (Bordeaux, 1960), 185–91.
An anthology of cosmographical extracts, described Baker and Lapidge, 425–6, (nos. 46–52). Texts include ISIDORE, De natura rerum (ed. Fontaine, 257–9, 213–17, 209–11, 295–9), ; ABBO OF FLEURY, Sententia de ratione sphaerae (ed. Baker and Lapidge), ; and MACROBIUS, Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis 1.22.11–13 (ed. James Willis, 2nd edn. [Leipzig, 1970] 93). This text-grouping also appears in the Peterborough compotus BL, MSS Cotton Tiberius C.i + Harley 3667 and in Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery MS 73.
A compilation of texts on the abacus; Wallis identifies a number of the components, among them works of GERBERT OF AURILLAC and HERIGER OF LOBBES, ed. Nicolaus Bubnov, Gerberti … opera mathematica 972–1003 (Berlin, 1899), 9–11, 208–24, 227–44, 246–51, 262–73 passim. In addition, two of the texts appear in part in Florence Yeldham, ‘Notation of Fractions in the Earlier Middle Ages’, Archeion 8 (1927), 313–29 at 320, 324–8. See further Gillian R. Evans, ‘Schools and Scholars: the study of the abacus in English Schools c.980–c.1150’, English Historical Review 94 (1979), 71–89, esp. 81–5. The text(s) are followed by a brief note on measurements, ‘Digitus est pars minima agrestium mensurarum Inde uncia habens …’.
Explanatory texts attached to fraction and abacus tables (48v–9, repeated at 57v–8): HERMANNUS CONTRACTUS of Reichenau (?), ed. from our MS by Florence A. Yeldham, ‘Fraction Tables of Hermannus Contractus’, Speculum 3 (1928), 240–5 at 244–5, with brief materials on finding sums of numerical sequences (fol. 49v), derived from works of HERIGER reproduced in the preceding item, ed. Bubnov, 220–4 passim.
ed. B. Boncompagni, Bulletino di bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche 10 (1877), 595–607. See A. Cordoliani, ‘Notes sur un auteur peu connu: Gerland de Besançon (avant 1100–après 1148)’, Revue du moyen âge latin 1 (1945) 411–19. The explicit has been added in a slightly later hand.
An anonymous treatise on the abacus, most of it parallelled at BodL, MS Auct. F.1.9, fols. 33v–41v. Fol. 57 is blank, and the tables associated with item 14 are repeated on the next two pages.
ed. Jones, CC 123:580–611, with a table of chapters between the initial rubric and text (fol. 58va).
acephalic, beginning near the end of ch. 16, and with glosses, ed. Jones, CC 123:208/7–234; the glosses ed. Wallis, 843–8, 899.
(glossed, in many cases with explanatory diagrams), ed. Jones, CC 123:241–534; the glosses ed. Wallis, 849–97, 900–9 and discussed by Michael Gorman, ‘The glosses on Bede’s De temporum ratione attributed to Byrhtferth of Ramsey’, Anglo-Saxon England 25 (1996), 209–32. The preface is followed by a contents table (fol. 66rab)
There are two sets of additions in Old English: names of the days of the week (fol. 71, leading edge margin), ed. Jones, Bedae Opera de Temporibus (Cambridge, Mass., 1943) 340 and Gough 284; names of eight fishes (fol. 74, lower margin), ed. A. S. Napier, ‘Contributions to Old English Lexicography’, Transactions of the Philological Society (1903–6), 265–358 at 278–9, s.v. culling.
in Abbo’s revision, a more advanced state than the text printed PL 137:21–48; see further P. McGurk, ‘Compotus Helperici: its Transmission in England in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, Medium Ævum 43 (1974) 1–5. The preface is followed by a contents table (fol. 123vab). The two additions to the text (both fol. 126), ed. Wallis 898.
Ed. Bruno Krusch, Studien zur christlich-mittelalterlichen Chronologie, Abhandlungen der Preuszischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 1938, 2:63–86.
Easter tables with marginal annals from Thorney; the original hand annals end with 1111. These are preceded by inherited annals from Ramsey, covering 538–1081, ed. Cyril Hart, ‘The Ramsey Computus’, English Historical Review 85 (1970), 29–44; Wallis, 911–40 offers substantial corrections and the entries from 1092 on.
The Cotton Nero leaves currently measure 335 mm x 245 mm (the writing frame for the calendar 255 mm x 180 mm). They are ruled in stylus. Fol. 82v has the s. xiii signature ‘xvii’. Fol. 80 has a heading in Cotton’s hand, ‘Annales Monasterij de Thorney in Insula Eliensi ab Anno 961 ad Annum 1421’, the annals as marginal notes.
a continuation of the previous item, copied s. xiii ex. (scribe A), extending the table to the year 2612.
Much of the text based upon item 21, cf. Krusch, 75–7.
‘Sortes sanctorum’, a form of fortune-telling by casting three dice.
PS.-JEROME on the grades of Roman society followed (fol. 158vb) by a note on biblical weights and measures, ‘Talentum libras habet lx. Gressus iii. Pedes …’.
PS.-JEROME on the fifteen signs preceding Doomsday, the version ascribed to PETER DAMIAN, ed. PL 145:840–2. For discussion, see William W. Heist, The Fifteen Signs Before Doomsday (East Lansing, Mich., 1952), where this version is printed at 27.
Prognostics based on the weekday on which 1 January falls; cf. PL 90:951, and Thorndike, 1:677–9.
Verbs and prepositional prefixes, with glosses, including extensive marginal materials for which a wide column has been left, to indicate synonyms and usage.
A series of notes on grammar, orthography, and prosody, most summaries, paraphrases, or précis of PRISCIAN, Institutiones grammaticae, ed. Heinrich Keil, Grammatici latini, 7 vols. (Leipzig, 1857–90),, vol. 2; one entry from DONATUS, Ars grammatica, ed. Keil, 4:368–70.
A sequence of medical recipes and associated materials, ed. Singer (see item 1) 137–49. The sequence includes an Old English rubric introducing a charm, ‘þid blodrine of nosu þriht on his forheafod on cristes mel’ (fol. 175, the leading edge margin).
Added texts:
a geometry problem (s. xv), on what was a blank guard page.
Two medical recipes, ed. Singer (see item 1) 133 nn. 2–3, added in the margin, s. xii.
‘Quinque viri pueri sex femina commeat una Femina semis heri binos puerique quadrantem’. A riddle, not in the main text hand but probably s. xii.
a Greek alphabet with numerical equivalents, s. xiv.
a linear diagram of the qualities of the four elements, s. xii2/4
Prognostications based on Egyptian days and divinatory diagrams (with brief explanations), filler in a contemporary hand in the blank spaces surrounding a diagram of wind-names.
Physical Description
Collation
14? (if so, –1; fols. 1–3, now all single, but the ?added ‘aiij’ on fol. 2 may be a signature) 212 [to fol. 15, a booklet boundary] | 3–58 612 either 712(–8, –10) or 78+2(+3 +5, fols. 54 and 56, inserted singletons) [to fol. 61, a booklet boundary] | 88(–1, –2, both visible stubs) 98(3 and 6, fols. 70 and 73, single) 108 118 (3 and 6, fols. 86 and 89, single) 128(3 and 6, fols. 94 and 97, single) 13–168 1714+1 (fols. 132–43 + Nero C.vii, fols. 80–2: +13, Nero, fol. 80?; 1 and 2, 14 and 15, fols. 132 and 133, and Nero fols. 81 and 82, single) 18? (the two leaves, Nero, fols. 83–4, both single) [fol. 143, and including the Nero leaves, a booklet boundary] | 1912 [fol. 155, a booklet boundary] | 206+1(+3, fol. 158) or 208–1(–3, blank) 218 228(–8, probably blank). No catchwords; scribe B provided quire signatures at the foot of last versos of quires (1–21 = i–xix). There is no signature on the fragmentary quire 18, the intruded quire 19, or at fol. 75v for quire 9; the signature xvii appears on Cotton Nero C.vii, fol. 82v.
In quires 7 and 18, the insertion of single leaves to accommodate ends of texts may imply that ends of the quires may have been copied before the opening leaves.
Condition
Layout
In a variety of formats, especially given the number of diagrams.
In main text portions (Bede, items 17–19 below), in double columns, each column 250 × 85 mm. , with 15 mm between columns, in 35 lines to the column.
But other double-column portions differ radically in format, for example, at fols. 42v–8, each column is 270 × 95 mm. , with 10 mm between columns, in 54 lines to the column. Prickings for lines frequently survive; bounded and ruled in stylus (only fols. 2 and 3 in insular fold with unlike sides of the skin facing).
Hand(s)
The original production involved five scribes, all writing caroline:
Scribe 1: fols. 1v–2v, all the labels in diagrams, nearly all the marginal glosses, most Thorney annals (fols. 29rv, 139v–43v, and Nero, fols. 80–1v), the openings of some texts (e.g. fol. 22), and a substantial number of corrections. He is responsible for all the Old English in the book and appears to have worked 1102 x 1113.
Scribe 2: all consecutive texts not otherwise stipulated, and the Thorney annals for 1065–95.
Scribe 3: fols. 51ra–vb.
Scribe 4: fols. 52v–56, 61rb-vb, 65rb, an annal for 1085 (Nero fol. 81), part of a gloss (Nero fol. 82v).
Scribe 5: fols. 58–61, perhaps part of fol. 120.
The most accurate indication of date, 1110, comes from a note written by scribe 1 in a lower margin (fol. 3vb): ‘Ab adam usque ad diluuium sunt anni ii.cxclii. | A diluuio usque ad abraham dcccc xlii. | Ab abraham usque ad natiuitatem cristi ii xv. | A natiuitate cristi usque ad presens tempus i.cx’.
The MS received additions from three scribes, s. xiii4/4, writing textura:
Scribe A: corrected errors in preceding calendar pages, probably cancelled the final leaves of quire 18, and copied quire 19, as well as annals for 1279–93 (Cotton Nero C.vii, fol. 83v).
Scribe B: added quire signatures and used red crayon for marginal notes in items 19 and 20, apparently as instructions for rubrication.
Scribe C: supplied chapter numbers and rubrics in item 20.
Decoration
Headings in red, mostly in rustic capitals.
Texts introduced and divided by arabesque initials of various sizes, in red, green, and text ink.
A variety of decorative figures to set off text runover, esp. plant stems and leaves and animal forms (dogs and wyverns).
In the calendar (item 10), drawings of four signs of the zodiac and sketch of a fifth, readily visible only under ultraviolet light (fols. 16rv, 18, 19, 20: Aquarius, Pisces, Gemini, Leo, and Libra, the last the sketch).
Another drawing, a king (or God) with a cup (fol. 27v); and a further dim sketch, a grieving male figure (fol. 36, the margin).
Magnificently illustrated with tables in multiple colours. These include:
1. Fol. 5vb: Rotae of easter termini, three separate systems for calculating the date (‘Dionisivs’, ‘Victorivs’, ‘latenlus secundum antiochos’), above a T/O map, the rim giving times of sunrise/sunset for four major days.
2. Fol. 6: another T/O map, identical with the one in the Peterborough compotus, BL, MS Harley 3667, fol. 8v, with the four cardinal directions in Greek.
3. Fol. 6: ‘De quota feria inquirenda in unaquaque die’, a ferial table (two notes of s. xvii below it).
4. Fol. 7: a table headed ‘Divisio phylosophye’, the legends in its circles from ISIDORE, Etymologiae 2.24.10–16, 2.24.3–8; cf. Harley 3667, fol. 6.
5. Fol. 7v: ‘Hanc figuram edidit BRYHTFERÐ monachus ramesiensis cȩnobii de concordia mensium atque elementorum Hi sunt solares \scilicet dicuntur quia secundum ipsius cursum constant/ menses qui habent dies—Demonstrat enim uero quales menses lunam xxx. quales xxix. habent’. ‘Byrhtferth’s diagram’, reproduced as a line drawing, Baker and Lapidge, 374; photographically reproduced frequently elsewhere (see bibliography). The figure also occurs at Harley 3667, fol. 8.
6. Fol. 8ra: tidal rota, around a T/O map, to indicate the relation between the age of the moon and the tides.
7. Fol. 8rb: the sphere of PETOSIRIS, a device for diagnosing the outcome of a patient’s illness by arithmetical operations.
8. Fols. 8–12: thirteen compotus tables, with three textual additions, a logic square (fol. 11va) added text (d) above, and two computistical mnemonics (fol. 12).
9. Fols. 22–37: see item 10 above.
10. Fol. 40v: a diagram showing the names of the winds.
11. Fol. 41: two prognostic diagrams, the ‘sphere of PYTHAGORAS’ and a diamond diagram now cut out, with associated explanatory texts; cf. Harley 3667, fol. 4v. Described Baker and Lapidge, 427.
12. Fols. 41v–2: an abacus table, with associated tables and a poem explaining the Arabic names for the symbols (fol. 42), ‘Ordine primogeno nomen iam possidet igni …’ (TK 1019).
13. Fol. 56v: three further diagrams on the use of the abacus. Fol. 57 is blank, and the repeated tables associated with item 16 follow on fols. 57v–8.
Binding
Dark brown leather, probably s. xvii, over medieval wooden boards (probably not original, but from a rebinding associated with the thirteenth-century scribes), with gold-stamped centrepiece on both boards and a thin gold fillet. Sewn on five thongs. In each board, five metal bosses, those at the corners with plates, and a single large round central boss. Two intact clasps in the lower board, the straps now missing, although grooves for them remain in the upper board. ‘17’ in gold at the head of the spine, ‘old’ in black ink on the leading edges. Pastedowns modern paper, a College bookplate on the front one. At the front, five modern paper flyleaves; at the rear, five more (vi–x).
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Although Byrhtferth was at Ramsey, and the annals begin with Ramsey entries, Wallis argues persuasively (122–37) that the book was written at Thorney (Cambs., OSB). Certainly, it was there until some date after 1422, the date of the last Thorney annal, and is assigned to this house by Ker, MLGB 189.
Erased inscriptions of ownership, the second partly legible as including the year '⟨ ⟩ 1427 ⟨ ⟩’ (fols. 1, 177v).
‘ihesus maria’ eight times within dots at the upper edges (fols. 95, etc.), indicating use in Oxford, s. xv med. by Thomas Gascoigne; for him, see Winifred A. Pronger, ‘Thomas Gascoigne’, English Historical Review 53 (1938), 606–26, and 54 (1939) 20–37, these examples first noted N. R. Ker, ‘Membra Disiecta’, British Museum Quarterly 12 (1937–8), 130–5 at 131–2. There are also Oxford references in the annals for 1450 and 1455. 4.
The annal for 1531 is in the hand of Robert Talbot (d. 1558), a prebendary at Norwich in 1547 and an antiquary; for him, see May McKisack, Medieval History in the Tudor Age (Oxford, 1971), 8, 10, 24, 29. While he owned the book at Norwich, John Leland examined it and quoted bits; see De rebus Britannicis Collectanea, 2nd edn., 6 vols. in 4 (Oxford, 1775), 4:97–9.
The erased signature of Antony Anderson (fol. 3, upper margin), his obit entered in the calendar under 2 March (fol. 17). He was rector of Wymington (Beds.) 1550–71, and of Medbourne (Leics.) 1571–83, the former mentioned in the obit.
Borrowed by Sir Robert Cotton, at the instance of Sir William Paddy, before 1621. Cotton appears to have considered the volume a gift, not a loan, to the consternation of some members, and William Laud had to request its return; see his letter 4 (22 November 1623), ed. James Bliss, The Works (Oxford, 1857), vol. 6, 242–3. Cotton had listed in the book in his own catalogue, BL, MS Harley 6018, as no. 235 (so Ker, Cat 435) and when prevailed upon to return it, retained five leaves, now MS Cotton Nero C.vii, fols. 80-4, in a volume of other predations.
‘Liber Collegij Sancti Ioannis Baptistae in vniuersitate Oxon’ ex dono Hugonis Wicksteed Mercatoris Scissoris London Patris Ioannis Wicksteed olim praedicti Collegij socij’ (fol. 2, upper margin).
Record Sources
Availability
For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact St John's College Library.
Digital Images
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile [2024 images])
Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile [1997 images])
Bibliography
Funding of Cataloguing
Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Thompson Family Charitable Trust
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2023-07: First online publication