Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, Pembroke College, MS 301

Gospels

Contents

Introduction: The Gospel Books produced in England during the late tenth century and the first half of the eleventh are among the finest as well as best surviving class of late Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscripts. Much, however, remains obscure about the precise details of when, where and for whom these books were made. Pembroke MS 301 is typical of late Anglo-Saxon Gospel Books in many respects: the text of the four Gospels is preceded by elaborately decorated Eusebian canon tables that provide tables of corresponding (or 'concordant') passages in the different Gospel accounts, whilst each Gospel is introduced with a full-page Evangelist portrait followed by elaborately decorated rubrics, opening initial and words of the Gospel text. Rubrics and ornamented initials throughout are in gold, indicating the high status of the book and the expense involved in its production. Yet, like a surprising number of late Anglo-Saxon illuminated books including other Gospel Books, it is unfinished. The accompanying textual apparatus is incomplete: the marginal concordance numbers that provide the reference to the relevant canon table were never supplied, nor were all the rubrics. The illustration and decoration were carried out in two phases, yet were still left unfinished. The canon tables on ff. 1v-6v, the portrait of Matthew and the decorated incipit to Matthew's Gospel were drawn and painted by an artist who employed pale shades of pink, orange, ochre and green, which did not obscure the elaborate pen-drawn ornament and draperies. The remainder of the canon tables (ff. 7r-8v) and the other Evangelist portraits and incipit pages were partially painted a little later by at least one other, less skilled artist, in somewhat clumsily applied opaque and darker hues, in particular dark blue and brown. Textual and scribal evidence has proved inconclusive in establishing where and for whom the book was produced. In general respects, Pembroke MS 301 is textually related to several early eleventh-century English illuminated Gospel Books, but with none is the relationship sufficiently close to indicate a common exemplar or place of origin. An oddity in the manuscript is the inclusion of the preface to Acts after the end of John's Gospel, which might suggest a Bible or New Testament as the exemplar, a possibility reinforced by a close textual relationship with the prefaces and text of the gospels in a late tenth-century two-volume Bible ( London, British Library, Royal MS 1 E.vii and Royal MS 1 E.viii , which was owned by Christ Church, Canterbury by at least the early twelfth century. Pembroke MS 301 was written by a single scribe writing an English variety of Caroline minuscule, but in a rather mannered and idiosyncratic fashion. Bishop (1971) believed the hand to be that of the scribe he designated 'Scribe C', who contributed to one of the Gospel Books with which Pembroke MS 301 shared a general textual affinity, the Kederminster Gospels ( London, British Library, Loan MS 11 , and to another ( London, British Library, Royal MS 1 D.ix , in both of which he worked in collaboration with the scribe of the Trinity Gospels ( Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B.10.4 . Scribe C also copied the original part of a copy of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica ( Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 163 ), which was at Peterborough by the early twelfth century. Dumville (1991-1995), however, has questioned the attribution of the hand of the scribe of Pembroke MS 301 to Scribe C, and thus there is doubt as to whether the manuscript was produced at Christ Church, Canterbury or Peterborough. Professor Tessa Webber| Professor of Palaeography, Faculty of History| University of Cambridge

Language(s): Latin

1. 1v-8v
Canon Tables
2. 11r-132r
Bible, New Testament, Gospels
Language(s): Latin
2.1. 11r-42r
Gospel of Matthew
Rubric: 11r: Secundum Matheum
Incipit: 11r: Liber generationis ihesu christi
Explicit: 42r: ad consummationem saeculi
2.2.1. 42v-43v
Preface to the Gospel of Mark
Incipit: 42v: Marcus euangelista dei et petri in baptismate
Explicit: 43v: qui autem incrementum prestat deus est
Stegmüller 607
2.2.2. 43r-43v
Capitula
Incipit: 43r: De Iohanne baptista et uictu et habitu eius
Explicit: 43v: Post resurrectionem mandata et ascensio eius in caelis
2.2.3. 45r-66r
Gospel of Mark
Incipit: 45r: Initium evangelii ihesu christi filii
Explicit: 66r: Domino cooperante et sermone confirmante sequentibus signis
2.3.1. 66r-66v
Preface to the Gospel of Luke
Incipit: 66r: Lucas syrus natione antiocensis arte medicus
Explicit: 66v: ne non tam uolentibus domini uideremur quam fastidientibus prodidisse
2.3.2. 66v-69v
Capitula
Incipit: 66v: Zacharias uiso angelo quia non credidit obmutuit
Explicit: 69v: reliquitque laudantes Deo in templo
2.3.3. 71r-106r
Gospel of Luke
Incipit: 71r: Quoniam quidem multi conati sunt
Explicit: 106r: Et erant sempter in templo laudantes et benedicentes domini amen
2.4.1. 106r-106v
Preface to the Gospel of John
Incipit: 106r: Hic est Iohannes euangelista unus ex discipulis
Explicit: 106v: et deo magisterii doctrina seruetur amen
Stegmüller 624
2.4.2. 106v-107v
Capitula
Incipit: 106v: Pharisaeorum laeuitae interrogant Iohannem
Explicit: 107v: Passio Ihesu et sepultura et resurrectio eius
2.4.3. 109r-132r
Gospel of John
Rubric: 109r: Secundum Iohannem
Incipit: 109r: In principio erat uerbum
Explicit: 132r: nec ipsum arbitror mundum capere eos qui scribendi sunt libros
2.5.1. 132v
Preface to Acts
Incipit: 132v: Lucas generatione syrus cuius laus in euangelio canitur
Explicit: 132v: sed etiam animarum eius proficeret medicina
Stegmüller 640

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 12r: in somnis apparuit
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFFH)
Extent: Codex: 2 + 135 leaves. 295 × 220 mm.
Foliation:

20th-century foliation:

i-ii + 1-27, 27a, 28-134

Numbering in pencil.

Collation

Quires of 8 leaves, except for Quire 2, which is a quire of 8 leaves into which a further single leaf (f. 10) has been inserted. Given the structure of the rest of the quires, this is a more likely interpretation than that given by Cockerell, who thought it a quire of ten leaves from which the 9th was wanting (see Binding).

  • Quire 18 (ff. 1-8)
  • Quire 28+1 (ff. 9-17: 2nd leaf, f. 10, inserted)
  • Quires 3-168 (ff. 18-128)
  • Quire 178-2 (ff. 129-134: 7-8th leaves excised, probably blank; 6th leaf formerly the rear pastedown, now lifted)

18 28+1 (2nd leaf inserted) 3-168 178-2 (7-8th leaves excised, probably blank; 6th leaf formerly the rear pastedown)

No leaf signatures.

Quire numbers written faintly in plummet in the lower margin of the first recto of the quire.

 No catchwords.

Layout

195 × 150 mm. Single columns of 28 lines, frame and line ruled in hardpoint, written above top line.

Hand(s)

Written in Caroline minuscule.

Decoration

Fifteen full-page Canon Tables at different stages of completion, comprising architectual frames in gold and Winchester-style foliage: the first eleven tables in a bright and soft palette, dominated by light blue, green, pink and yellow; the last four tables drawn in the same red ink as the previous tables, but only partially painted in dark blue, red, green and orange.

  • 1v: column-style frame; Agnus Dei with cruciform halo, book and cross-tipped staff in top spandrel; four lower spandrels contain the Evangelists' symbols, winged and holding closed books, in the order: Luke, Matthew, John, Mark.
  • 2r: medallion-style frame, with Winchester-style radiating foliage or interlace pattern; Christ in Majesty within a mandorla, holding closed book and blessing in top arch; two lower arches contain gesturing angels.
  • 2v: medallion-style frame; the Virgin within a mandorla, holding closed book and a palm or sceptre, in top spandrel; two lower spandrels contain female saints, one with a cross and the other with a closed book.
  • 3r: column-style frame; Archangel Michael at top with a staff or sceptre and a pair of scales, flanked by buildings.
  • 3v: column-style frame; angel with a sceptre or staff, blowing trumpet, flanked by buildings.
  • 4r: column-style frame, with small medallions halfway up and lion masks spewing foliage upwards and inwards in lower corners; St Peter (tonsured, with halo and key) at top, blessing and flanked by two saints carrying a sceptre and a scroll.
  • 4v: column-style frame, with small medallions halfway up and lion masks spewing foliage upwards and inwards in lower corners; third column (Lucas) empty; tonsured and bearded saint (perhaps St Paul) holding and pointing at closed book at top, flanked by two saints, one holding a book with cross on it, the other presenting with covered hands a round gold object with two blue dots (the sacrament?).
  • 5r: frame with small foliage and medallions; three equal arches contain three male saints: the first with fillet, cross-topped staff and closed book; the second with scroll and palm branch; the third with closed book.
  • 5v: frame with small foliage and medallions; three qual arches contain three male saints: the first with cross-topped staff and closed book; the second with closed book; the third with sceptre and clsoed book.
  • 6r: column-type frame, lion masks facing inwards at lower ends; dragons with interlaced tails in two outer arches; male saints with closed books in two inner arches.
  • 6v: column-type frame, lion masks facing inwards at lower ends; lions in two outer arches; male saints with staff in two inner arches.
  • 7r: gold arches with Winchester-style foliage, medallions and a blessing saint with closed book; the bases of central and both outer columns have pairs of addorsed lions biting each other's tails.
  • 7v: gold arches with Winchester-style foliage, blessing saint and addorsed lions.
  • 8r: column-style frame; two angels in upper arches: one with scroll; other with closed book.
  • 8v: column-style frame; two angels in upper arches, one holding dish with round objects, the other in Orans pose.

Four full-page framed miniatures with Evangelists' portraits at the beginning of each Gospel: the first in the same palette as the the first eleven Canon Tables, the remaining three unfinished and in the same palette as the last four Canon Tables. Three of the miniatures face full-page openings of the Gospels of Saints Matthew, Luke and John, and one a large (two-thirds of a page) opening of the Gospel of St Mark; both miniatures and incipit pages within Winchester-style frames.

  • 10v: Matthew holding pen and open book; his symbol, the angel, delivering gold scroll from above, lectern shaft issuing from the mouth of a bird. Frame has four Winchetser-style corner medallions and two diamond-shaped vignettes, each containing a beardless male saint with closed book, one also with cross-topped staff.
  • 44v: Mark seated beneath gold arch with Winchester-style medallions, holding open book; his winged lion holds closed book and has trumpet issuing from mouth. Unfinished.
  • 70v: Luke seated before a lectern, holding quill and knife, angel with staff standing behind him. Gold frame with Winchester-style medallions. Unfinished.
  • 108v: John seated before open book, holding pen or knife in right hand, looking at angel standing behind him. Basic frame with foliage in corners. Unfinished.

Incipit pages with gold initials and borders at the opening to each Gospel.

  • 11r (for Matthew): interlaced 14-line initial, terminating in bird heads. Frame with four Winchester-style corner medallions and two diamond-shaped vignettes, each framing a beardless male saint with a closed book.
  • 45r: (for Mark): 9-line gold initial, terminating in foliage and interlace with beasts' heads. No frame.
  • 71r: 8-line gold initial, with tail formed of foliage. Gold frame with simple Winchester-style medallions.
  • 109r: 11-line gold initial, terminating in foliage. Basic frame with corner foliage.

On incipit pages, the opening lines of each Gospel are written in gold (ff. 11r, 45r, 71r, 109r).

One-line initials in gold off-set into the left-hand margin.

Additions

Chapter numbers in red Arabic numerals written into the margins, 13th or 14th century.

Additions to the text written in the margin, 14th century.

Annotation written in the margin in humanistic cursive, 16th century (for example, ff. 17r, 126r).

Binding

15th-century binding: tawed skin, once dyed pink, over re-used near-flush, cushion-bevelled oak boards sewn on four supports; five brass bosses on the front cover, four on the rear; two brass clasps from the front cover to catches on the rear. On the rear pastedown, marks of two brass pins. At the foot of f. 134r and the rear pastedown, the mark of a brass ?chain-staple. On the rear pastedown, marks of a large crucifix, now gone.

Repaired, resewn and rebacked in February 1971 under the old skin by Douglas Cockerell and Son (i.e. Sydney Morris ('Sandy') Cockerell (1906-1987)): see report attached to the inside of the rear cover.

History

Origin: 1st half of the 11th century ; England, perhaps East Anglia

Provenance and Acquisition

1r: 'Andrewe Jenour' (name also inscribed in Pembroke College, MS 253), 17th century. He also owned Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.5.15.

Date of accession into Pembroke College Library unknown.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on the descriptions provided by Rodney M. Thomson, A descriptive catalogue of the medieval manuscripts of Pembroke College, Cambridge (2022) and Nigel Morgan and Stella Panayatova, with the assistance of Rebecca Rushforth, Illuminated manuscripts in Cambridge: A catalogue of western book illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge colleges, part 4.1 (London and Turnhout, 2013), no. 46 (used here by kind permission of the authors). The introductory summary is taken from the catalogue entry written by Tessa Webber for the 2005 exhibition The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten centuries of book production in the medieval west, ed. by Paul Binski and Stella Panayotova (used here by kind permission of the author).

Availability

Researchers should note that Pembroke College's western European medieval manuscripts are housed at Cambridge University Library. Scholars who wish to consult Pembroke College manuscripts should contact the Special Collections Reading Room to arrange their visit; all University Library admissions procedures will apply. For information on eligibility and admissions procedures, see Joining the Library. For further enquiries, and to confirm the availability of the manuscript, please contact the Special Collections Reading Room.

Bibliography

    Manuscript description:

    A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Pembroke College, Cambridge, James, M.R. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1905) Notes on Cambridge manuscripts Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Bishop, T.A.M. (1, 432-441, 1953) English Caroline minuscule Oxford palaeographical handbooks, Bishop, T.A.M. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971) Manuscripts from Anglo-Saxon England: an exhibition in the University Library Cambridge to mark the conference of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, August 1985 Manuscripts from Anglo-Saxon England, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, 1985) Text from <hi rend="italics">The York Gospels</hi> The York Gospels: a facsimile Roxburghe Club, McGurk, Patrick (London, 43-65, W.E. Baxter Lewis, 1986) The production of de luxe manuscripts and the patronage of King Cnut and Queen Emma Anglo-Saxon England, Heslop, T.A. (19, 151-195, 1990, http://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/anglo-saxon-england/article/production-of-de-luxe-manuscripts-and-the-patronage-of-king-cnut-and-queen-emma/399BF28BF31C83B125A373A7E4B801E4) The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon art and culture, AD 600-900 The Making of England, Webster, LeslieBackhouse, Janet (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1991) On the dating of some late Anglo-Saxon liturgical manuscripts Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Dumville, David N. (10, 1, 40-57, 1991, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41154803) English Manuscript Art in the Mid-Eleventh Century: The Decorative Tradition English Manuscript Art in the Mid-Eleventh Century The Antiquaries Journal, Gameson, Richard (71, 64-122, 1991, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquaries-journal/article/english-manuscript-art-in-the-mideleventh-century-the-decorative-tradition/D4E3600ADD8843DBDA485E9D3A76DA5E) Anglo-Saxon textual illustration: photographs of sixteen manuscripts with descriptions and index Anglo-Saxon textual illustration, (Kalamazoo, Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1992) English Caroline script and monastic history: studies in Benedictinism, A.D. 950-1030 English Caroline script and monastic history Studies in Anglo-Saxon history, Dumville, D.N. (Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 1993) The Old English version of the Gospels Early English Text Society, Liuzza, R. M. (Oxford, Published for the Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 1994) The Anglo-Saxon gospelbooks of Judith, countess of Flanders: their text, make-up and function The Anglo-Saxon gospelbooks of Judith, countess of Flanders Anglo-Saxon England, McGurk, PatrickRosenthal, Jane (24, 251-308, 1995, http://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/anglo-saxon-england/article/anglosaxon-gospelbooks-of-judith-countess-of-flanders-their-text-makeup-and-function/EB6E90255BCB888B7E3ED16A0B22BF9A) The Cambridge Illuminations: ten centuries of book production in the medieval west, (London, Harvey Miller, 2005) The material fabric of early British books The Cambridge history of the book in Britain, Gameson, Richard (Cambridge, 1: c. 400-1100, 13-93, Cambridge University Press, 2011, https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521583459.003) Anglo-Saxon gospel books, c. 900-1066 The Cambridge history of the book in Britain, McGurk, Patrick (Cambridge, 1: c. 400-1100, 436-448, Cambridge University Press, 2011, https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521583459.003) A catalogue of western book illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge colleges Illuminated manuscripts in Cambridge, (London, 1: Insular and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, c. 700-c. 1100, Harvey Miller, 2013) A descriptive catalogue of the medieval manuscripts of Pembroke College, Cambridge, Thomson, Rodney M. (Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 2022)

Bibliography

    Decoration:

    English illuminated manuscripts: from the Xth to the XIIIth century English illuminated manuscripts, Millar, Eric George (Paris; Bruxelles, G. van Oest, 1926) Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, 900-1066 A Survey of manuscripts illuminated in the British Isles, Temple, Elżbieta (London, Harvey Miller, 1976) Manuscripts containing English decoration 871-1066, catalogues and illustrated: a review Manuscripts containing English decoration 871-1066, catalogues and illustrated Anglo-Saxon England, Brownrigg, Linda (7, 239, 1978) Insular and Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscripts: an iconographic catalogue, c. A.D. 625 to 1100 Insular and Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscripts Garland reference library of the humanities, Ohlgren, Thomas H. (New York, Garland, 1986) Anglo-Saxon crucifixion iconography: and the art of the monastic revival Anglo-Saxon crucifixion iconography Cambridge studies in Anglo-Saxon England, Raw, Barbara C. (Cambridge, University Press, 1990) English Manuscript Art in the Mid-Eleventh Century: The Decorative Tradition English Manuscript Art in the Mid-Eleventh Century The Antiquaries Journal, Gameson, Richard (71, 64-122, 1991, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquaries-journal/article/english-manuscript-art-in-the-mideleventh-century-the-decorative-tradition/D4E3600ADD8843DBDA485E9D3A76DA5E) The disposition of numbers in Latin Eusebian canon tables Philologia sacra: biblische und patristische Studien für Hermann J. Frede und Walter Thiele zu ihrem siebzigsten Geburtstag Vetus Latina. Aus der Geschichte der lateinischen Bibel, McGurk, Patrick (Freiburg, 242-258, Herder, 1993) The role of art in the late Anglo-Saxon church Oxford historical monographs, Gameson, Richard (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1995) Evangelist portraits and book production in late Anglo-Saxon England The Cambridge illuminations: the conference papers, Karkov, Catherine E. (London, 55-63, Harvey Miller, 2007) Book decoration in England, c. 871-c. 1100 The Cambridge history of the book in Britain, Gameson, Richard (Cambridge, 1: c. 400-1100, 249-293, Cambridge University Press, 2011, https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521583459.011) Looking to Byzantium: light, color and cloth in Insular art Insular & Anglo-Saxon art and thought in the early medieval period Occasional papers (Princeton University. Department of Art and Archaeology. Index of Christian Art), Pulliam, H. (Princeton, N.J., 59-78, Dept. of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University, 2011) A catalogue of western book illumination in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Cambridge colleges Illuminated manuscripts in Cambridge, (London, 1: Insular and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, c. 700-c. 1100, Harvey Miller, 2013)

Bibliography

    Secondary studies:

    History of the Vulgate in England from Alcuin to Roger Bacon: being an inquiry into the text of some English manuscripts of the Vulgate Gospels History of the Vulgate in England from Alcuin to Roger Bacon, Glunz, H.H. (Cambridge, University Press, 1933) The Anglo-Saxon gospelbooks of Judith, countess of Flanders: their text, make-up and function The Anglo-Saxon gospelbooks of Judith, countess of Flanders Anglo-Saxon England, McGurk, PatrickRosenthal, Jane (24, 251-308, 1995, http://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/anglo-saxon-england/article/anglosaxon-gospelbooks-of-judith-countess-of-flanders-their-text-makeup-and-function/EB6E90255BCB888B7E3ED16A0B22BF9A) Die Westsächsische Evangelienversion und die Perikopenordnungen im angelsächsischen England Texte und Untersuchungen zur englischen Philologie, Lenker, Ursula (München, W. Fink, 1997) Between Carolingian and Romanesque in France: Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS McClean 19 and its relatives The Cambridge illuminations: the conference papers, Nees, Lawrence (London, 31-43, Harvey Miller, 2007) St Margaret's gospel-book: the favourite book of an eleventh-century queen of Scots St Margaret's gospel-book Treasures from the Bodleian Library, Rushforth, Rebecca (Oxford, Bodleian Library, 2007)

Funding of Cataloguing

Anstruther Trust (digitisation)

Digital Images

Cambridge Digital Library

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