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MS. Bodl. 163

Summary Catalogue no.: 2016

Physical Description

Composite: two parts
Extent: ii + 252 leaves
Dimensions (binding): 11.25 × 8.625 in.

Binding

Oxford; stamped leather on older boards, about 1605.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Peterborough Abbey, probably by the early 12th century: evidence of the booklist, fol. 251 (BP2.8).

Peterborough Abbey, 1357: fol. 250v (half rubbed out) is 'Anno Domini Mº CCCº 1º ixº obiit frater Ricardus [?] de burgo Petri'; identifiable in the late-fourteenth-century catalogue (BP21.56)

'Henricus Stowkes' is on fol. 250, 15th cent.

Fol. 249v, 'Humffridus Natures', 16th cent.: Humphrey Natures, monk of Peterborough abbey, hostiller in 1533–5, afterwards pensioner of the house (MLGB)

Presented by John Barneston in 1605.

MS. Bodl. 163 – Part 1 (fols. 1–227)

Contents

1. (fol. 1)
Bede, Ecclesiastical history
Language(s): Latin

On the margin of fol. 152v, half-erased, is Caedmon's hymn

Language(s): Old English

There are four Old English glosses, published by A. S. Napier (Old English Glosses, 1900, p. 198), and 15th cent. marginal notes in ink and in lead.

Language(s): Old English and Latin

At fol. 209 follows a 12th cent. note on Ethelred II and Edmund Ironside.

Language(s): Latin
2. (fol. 209v)
Aethelwulf, De abbatibus
Language(s): Latin

At fol. 226v follows an extract from Jerome and from Orosius 'de situ Babylonis'

Language(s): Latin

Fol. 227, a charm

Incipit: 'Tigaoð. Tigaoð. Tigaoð. calicet
Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment

Hand(s)

Several hands.

Decoration

Good initial, fol. I, the whole page added to a MS. of 11th century. Cf. MS. Laud Misc. 636. (Pächt and Alexander iii. 71, pl. VII)

History

Origin: 11th century; additions, 12th century, beginning ; English,

MS. Bodl. 163 – Part 2 (fols. 228–251)

Contents

1. (fol. 228)
Nennius, Historia Britonum
Rubric: Gilda minor. Incipiunt Gesta Britonum a Gilda sapiente composita

Without the Saxon genealogies. It contains Mommsen's parts i-iv, vi, vii, ending 'in extremis finibus cosmi'.

Language(s): Latin

At fol. 243 follows a chronological computation made in 1105

Incipit: Quinquagesimo ergo quarto anno
Language(s): Latin
2. (fol. 245)
Ps.-Methodius, De initio et fine saeculi
Rubric: Incipit liber Bemetoli \Metodii/ quem beatus Jeronimus de greco in latinum transtulit uel composuit
Incipit: Anno dcccmo et tricesimo mortuus est Adam
Language(s): Latin

After this follow

(fol. 248v) pedigree of the counts of Flanders to Baldwin VII (1111–19) and list of the kings of France to Louis VI (1108–37)
Language(s): Latin
(fol. 249v) three lections for st. Oswald
Language(s): Latin

Fols. 250–251 form a separate codicological unit according to P. Lendinara, Anglo-Saxon Glosses and Glossaries, 1999, pp. 329–355.

(fol. 250) Old English and Latin glosses in the same hand as the charm on fol. 227; see Lendinara, op. cit.

Language(s): Latin and Old English
(fol. 250v)
Caesarius of Arles, Sermo 216

Beginning only (Migne, Patrol. Lat. xxxix. 2113)

Incipit: Natale sancti Iohannis fratres karissimi
Language(s): Latin

(fol. 251) Book-list of about seventy works, probably of Peterborough Abbey: 'the hypothesis of a Peterborough origin for the inventory is confirmed by the fact that some of the books can be identified in the earlier inventory of books given to Peterborough by Bishop Æthelwold...and others with items in the abbey's fifteenth-century Matricularium' (M. Lapidge, The Anglo-Saxon Library (1999), 143).

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment

History

Origin: 12th century, first half ; English

MS. Bodl. 163 - endleaf (fol. i)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment

History

Origin: 15th century, early

MS. Bodl. 163 - endleaf (fol. 252)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

Ralph de Hengham, Summa magna, Summa parua

Ed. Selden, 1616, pp. 66.14–72.8; 84.23–92.13

Filiation: For other leaves from the manuscript see R. M. Thomson, A descriptive catalogue of the medieval manuscripts of Merton College, Oxford (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer), 2009, at Merton College 16. h. 8.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment

History

Origin: 13th century, late

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description adapted (April 2020) from the following sources, with additional reference to published literature as cited:
Otto Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford , III (1973), no. 300 [part 1: decoration, origin, date]
Summary Catalogue (1922) [contents, physical description, provenance and acquisition]
Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 164
Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 165

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (6 images from 35mm slides)

Surrogates

Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile (Tempe, AZ: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 2003), vol. 10: Manuscripts Containing Works by Bede, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and Other Texts

Bibliography

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2020-04-15: Description revised to incorporate all information from SC.