Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

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

Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.1.25(1)

William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum Anglorum

Contents

Introduction: This manuscript contains a late twelfth-century copy of the Gesta pontificum Anglorum (The deeds of the English bishops) by the monk and historian William of Malmesbury (c. 1090-c. 1143). The text is an ecclesiastical history of England from the arrival of St Augustine in 597 up to the 1120s when the work was being written. William saw himself as the successor to Bede, and drew on both Anglo-Saxon and Norman sources and traditions. For the period after the death of Bede in 730, William's account is 'the most important single source for the history of the English church' (Preest (2002), p. x). He used many of the works which he copied and collected for the library of Malmesbury Abbey, but also travelled widely, including in the text numerous topographical observations that he had gained at first-hand. The text is arranged as a survey of the bishops and saints of all the dioceses of England. The first Book covers Canterbury and Rochester, the second London, East Anglia and Wessex, the third York, Lindisfarne and Durham and the fourth Mercia. The Gesta pontificum Anglorum was popular with William's contemporaries and 19 medieval copies of it survive, including one written by William himself (Oxford, Magdalen College, MS lat. 172). Although the work was completed in 1125, the numerous authorial alterations and corrections to Magdalen MS lat. 172 show that William continued to revise the text over the next decade or more, often removing the more scurrilous and potentially offensive comments about his contemporaries. William also wrote a fifth Book, which recounted the history of his own abbey of Malmesbury. This survives in its fullest form only in the autograph manuscript. One other medieval copy contains an abbreviated, probably not authorial version - London, British Library, Cotton MS Claudius A.v - entitled therein as a Life of St Aldhelm, who was the founder of Malmesbury Abbey. The manuscript shown here was once in the possession of Matthew Parker (1504-1575), archbishop of Canterbury. Parker was not only a collector of manuscripts: he also used them, annotating and cross-referencing, rebinding and rearranging the books that he owned. Before donating this manuscript to Cambridge University Library in 1574 (along with 24 others), he augmented it with additional works by William and other chroniclers, including copies that he commissioned himself, among them a copy of the fifth Book (for which, see MS Ff.1.25(2)). The text of the Gesta pontificum Anglorum was first edited in 1596, using this manuscript, by the antiquarian and book collector Sir Henry Savile (1549-1622) . Savile elected not to include the fifth Book in his edition, despite its immediate availability. Although MS Ff.1.25(1) is an early production, nevertheless as a distant copy of the autograph, the text's modern editors have judged that it 'has no virtue apart from its age' (see Winterbottom and Thomson (2007), p. xxv). The description of the manuscript in the list of Parker's donations confirms that these additions were at that time bound together with this copy of the Gesta pontificum Anglorum in a single volume. They remained in this state until 1862, whereupon they were divided into five separate volumes, all of which are now available to view on the Cambridge Digital Library: Dr Suzanne Paul|Keeper of Rare Books and Early Manuscripts|Cambridge University Library

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: Codex: ix + iii + 59 + ix leaves. The nine modern paper endleaves at the front and rear have not been photographed. 270 × 190 mm.
Foliation:

19th-century foliation

[a-i] + i-iii + 3-5, 10, 15, 6, 8, 7, 9, 12, 11, 14, 13, 16-61 + [k-s]

Written in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the recto side of each leaf, probably by Henry Bradshaw, University Librarian 1867-1886. The sequence reflects the correct order of the text, leaves in Quires 1 and 2 having been misbound. Folio numbers 1-2 and 62-64 have been assigned to leaves no longer present in the volume (as per historic foliation practice at Cambridge University Library).
Foliation:

16th-century pagination

1-117 (for ff. 3r-61r)

Page numbers written in Parkerian red/orange crayon in the upper right-hand corner of the recto side of each leaf only (see Provenance for further details). The numbering similarly falls out of sequence and reflects the correct order of text in Quires 1 and 2.

Collation

18-2 (1st and 2nd cancelled; misbound) 28 (misbound) 3-78 88-3 (6th-8th cancelled)

Condition

The manuscript was trimmed, presumably in the course of its 19th-century rebinding: the running book numbers in the upper margin have been partially cropped.

Binding

Bound in brown calfskin over pasteboards with blind stamped and rolled decoration, by Wiseman, 1862.

Evidence preserved within the manuscript (recycled endleaf bearing four friction-holes and rust stains, suggesting the presence formerly of four corner-bosses and a chain staple) indicates that the manuscript was previously bound in similar style to that of the binding on other manuscripts donated to the University Library by Matthew Parker (for an example, see: MS Ii.2.4). See Provenance and Acquisition for further details.

Thomas James's catalogue, Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis (1600) allocates two numbers to MS Ff.1.25:

  • 244: 1. Gu. Malmesbury de pontificum gestis, lib. 59, vltimus liber scriptus est a neoterico ... 2. Nouella historia Anglorum ...
  • 245: 1. Liber cum hac inscriptione. Itinerarium peregrinantium in terram sanctam ... 2. Galfridu Monumetensis ...

This implies that the manuscript was bound in two volumes at this time. However, in the list of manuscripts donated by Parker to the University Library in 1574, the manuscript is described as containing 460 pages. Such statements of extent were given for each of Parker's donations and were also written onto one of the opening leaves of the manuscripts themselves (see here, f. 3r). None of the other manuscripts within the Ff.1.25 classmark contain such an inscription, and the total number of pages amounts to 460, by the Parkerian pagination (see Foliation for further details).

Furthermore, as described above, Parker's donations were (with the odd exception) bound in a consistent format, and where the manuscripts have been rebound since that time this evidence is often preserved within the new binding. In MS Ff.1.25(1), only the recycled endleaves at the front of the volume have been preserved. Only Ff.1.25(5) contains similar endleaves, and only at the rear; they are found in none of the other volumes. The material evidence thus points to the manuscripts that are now Ff.1.25(1)-(5) having arrived bound as a single volume. Furthermore, each of these volumes bear evidence of having had the author(s) and title(s) of their contents inked onto the fore-edges of their leaves, presumably by Abraham Wheelocke , who treated other manuscripts in a similar manner (see, for example, MS Ff.1.28. This indicates moreover that the manuscript remained as a single volume in the mid-17th century.

In his History of the University Library, David McKitterick recounts that the part of this manuscript containing the Historia regum Britanniae (now MS Ff.1.25(5)) was discovered to be missing when the manuscripts in the Old Library were inspected in 1732 and again in 1748: the number '245' assigned by James in 1600 is in both lists, in the first with the partial title 'Galfrid: monumethensis etc' (see Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4451, ff. 18r and 19r). The implication is that by this stage Ff.1.25 had been rebound into two volumes. However, a more probable explanation is that James's assigning of two numbers to the manuscript misled the compilers of these lists of missing books, who were searching fruitlessly for Geoffrey of Monmouth and other texts bound into a discrete volume, when in fact they remained in place in the same volume as what James has designated '244'. Indeed, that no mention is made in the Catalogue of manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge, vol. 2 (1857) means that it is almost certain that it was not divided into separate volumes until 1862.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Presented to the University Library in 1574 by Matthew Parker (1504-1575) . No. 22 in the list of 25 'Libri Scripti in pergameno' published to commemorate Parker's gift (see Early catalogues of manuscripts, up to c. 1600).

Part 1: former pastedown and endleaves [Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.1.25(1), ff. i-iii]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. i recto
Fragment of a legal deed

An endleaf, formerly the front pastedown, formed of a fragment of a deed relating to property in Essex associated with a John Cristmas, possibly to be identified with the man of that name who was bailiff of Colchester in 1547.

Physical Description

Form: sheet
Support: Parchment
Extent: A single leaf and one bifolium iii leaves. 270 × 190 mm.

Hand(s)

Deed written in a 16th-century Secretary script.

Additions

On f. i verso, one of Parker's scribes has written a list of the contents of MS Ff.1.25. The final item, 'Expositio in prophetiam Merlini', has added by a different, presumably later hand.

History

Origin: Mid-16th century. ; England.

Part 2: Gesta pontificum Anglorum [Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.1.25(1), ff. 3-61]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. 3r-61v
Gesta pontificum Anglorum
Language(s): Latin
William of Malmesbury
Rubric: 3r: De pontificum gestis libri quinque per magistrum Guilhelmum Malmesburiensis Benedictine sodalitatis monachum qui Somerset proprio cognomine dictus est
Incipit: 3r: Prima sedes episcoporum post Christianitatem Anglorum Cantuarie habita est quae habetur
Explicit: 61v: At uero Ethelwoldus uepres extyrpari spinas sarciri iussit. iam a principio episcopatus meditatus omnibus mundi omissis heremiticam exercere ibi vitam

Ff.1.27(1) is a descendant of Oxford, All Souls College, MS 34, which is itself a direct copy of William's autograph manuscript, Oxford, Magdalen College, MS lat. 172. According to Hamilton, one of Parker's scribes used CUL MS Ff.1.25(1) as the exemplar to copy the final part of the Gesta pontificum in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.7.4 (Hamilton (1857), p. xxv).

Book 2 starts on f. 27v, Book 3 on f. 41r, Book 4 on f. 53v.

The final passage, numbered 186 in the modern editions, is written in a smaller hand in the second column of fol. 61v. Like All Souls MS 34, and several other copies of the text, Ff.1.27(1) lacks the last few paragraphs of Book 4.

Savile (1596)
Hamilton (1870), no. 12
Winterbottom and Thomson (2007), MS N.
2. 61v
Provisions of Westminster, 1259 (extract)
Language(s): Latin

Fifteen lines of text, comprising the preamble and part of the first clause of the Provisions of Westminster as follows:

Anno ab incarnatione domini m. c. quinquagesimo nono regni autem Henrici regis filii regis Johannis xliii conuenientibus apud Wemonesterii in quindena Sancti Michaelis ipso domino rege et magnatibus suis, de communi consilio et consensu dictorum regis et magnatum facte sunt prouisiones subscripte et ipsos regem et magnates publicate.

De sectis faciendis ad curiam magnatum et aliorum dominorum ipsarum curiarum prouisum est et concordatum statutum quod nullus qui per cartam feoffatus est, distringatur ad sectam de cetero faciendam ad curiam domini sui nisi per formam carte sue specialiter teneatur ad sectam faciendam hiis tamen exceptis quorum antecessores uel ipsimet huiusmodi sectam facere consueuerunt.

SR 1:8, ll. 1-13

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 4r: expostulata
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFFH)
Extent: Codex: 59 leaves. 270 × 190 mm.

Collation

  • Quire 18-2 (ff. 3-6: 1st and 2nd leaves cancelled; leaves misbound)
  • Quire 28 (ff. 8-16: leaves misbound)
  • Quires 3-78 (ff. 17-56)
  • Quire 88-3 (ff. 57-61: 6th-8th leaves cancelled)

No leaf signatures.

No quire signatures.

No catchwords.

Layout

235 × 145 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and lines. Two columns, 43 lines to the page, written above top line.

Hand(s)

Written in protogothic bookhand.

A second hand has added text to f. 61v in littera textualis.

Decoration

3r: six-line initial in green, with red and green infill and flourishing.

61v: eight-line initial in brown ink, with internal void decoration and flourishing.

Textual divisions marked by two-line plain initials, alternating in red and green.

A band of decorative penwork tinted with yellow separates the end of the Gesta pontificum Anglorum from the beginning of the Provisions of Westminster on f. 61v.

Spaces left for book and chapter rubrics not filled in.

Additions

Marginal annotations by a number of medieval hands, including corrections to the text, written in ink and leadpoint (esp. in the lower margin).

Numerous additions were made to the manuscript during the sixteenth century:

  • On f. 3r, the space left for a decorative rubric has been filled in with an opening title.
  • This was in turn covered with a piece of parchment (shown here as f. 3a), onto which was copied a fresh title, complete with a historiated initial bearing Matthew Parker's coat of arms as archbishop of Canterbury.
  • Parker's name - Matthaeus Cantuar. 1574 - was added after this piece of parchment was inserted, and the text runs across ff. 3a recto and 3r.
  • There are numerous marginal notes and textual corrections throughout the text. On f. 54, a missing portion of the leaf has patched with parchment and the missing text copied onto the patch, both recto and verso. Given the loss of the original text, this presumably replaces a parchment repair that was contemporary with the production of the manuscript.

A note on f. iii verso, added by a 17th-century hand: 'vide et Trin. Col. eundem de Pontificibus'. There are four copies of the text to which this might refer:

Quire numbers (from Quire 3 onwards) added to lower right-hand corner of the first recto of each quire, and '+' sign added to the lower right-hand corner of the first recto in the second half of each quire. Written in pencil by a modern hand. Some earlier such additions have been cancelled and corrected.

History

Origin: Second half of the twelfth century. ; England.

Provenance

In classifying the manuscripts of the Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, Michael Winterbottom placed MS Ff.1.25(1) in a group of Kentish manuscripts, noting its particular textual affinities with Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 54 and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 729 (Winterbottom and Thomson 2007, p. xv).

Matthew Parker (1504-1575) , archbishop of Canterbury: partial pagination and chapter numbering in characteristic red/orange crayon and additional partial leaf containing a historiated initial bearing his coat of arms (f. 3a).

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on an unpublished description of the manuscript composed between 1926 and 1930 by M.R. James , now held in the University Archives (UA ULIB 7/3/74), and an unpublished description of the manuscript composed between 1948 and 1970 by H.L. Pink , now held in the University Archives (UA ULIB 7/3/75). The assistance of Dr Elisabeth Leedham-Green, formerly University Archivist, is also acknowledged.

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card. 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.

Custodial History

Former shelfmark '244' written on f. i verso and the lower margin of f. 3r; from Thomas James, Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis (1600).
Former shelfmark '# D.δ.4' written on f. i verso (mid-17th-century).

Bibliography

    Rerum Anglicarum scriptores post Bedam praecipui, ex vetustissimis codicibus manuscriptis nunc primum in lucem editi, Savile, Henry, Sir (Londini, Excudebant G. Bishop, R. Nuberie, & R. Barker..., 1596) A catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge, (Cambridge, 2: Ee-Ff, Cambridge University Press, 1857) Willelmi Malmesbiriensis monachi De gestis pontificum Anglorum libri quinque Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores, (London, Longman, 1870) William of Malmesbury's life and works The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Farmer, Dom Hugh (13, 1, 39-54, 1962) Medieval history in the Tudor age, McKisack, May (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971) Realistic observation in twelfth-century England Speculum, Gransden, Antonia (47, 1, 29-51, 1972, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2851214) William of Malmesbury as historian and man of letters The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Thomson, Rodney M. (29, 04, 387-413, 1978) 'Sortes Biblicae' in twelfth-century England: the list of episcopal prognostics in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.7.5 England in the twelfth century: proceedings of the 1988 Harlaxton Symposium, Henderson, George (Woodbridge, 113-135, Boydell Press, 1990) Historical writing in England, Gransden, Antonia (London, Routledge, 1996) The deeds of the Bishops of England (Gesta pontificum anglorum), , (Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2002) William of Malmesbury, Thomson, Rodney M. (Woodbridge, Boydell Press, 2003) Gesta pontificum Anglorum = The history of the English bishops Oxford medieval texts, , (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2007) Rome and romanitas in Anglo-Norman text and image (circa 1100 - circa 1250), Kynan-Wilson, William (Cambridge, 2013, PhD) Politics, Patronage and Medieval Scholarship: Henry Savile’s Rerum Anglicarum scriptores post Bedam (1596) in Context Erudition and the Republic of Letters, Roebuck, Thomas (6, 1-2, 61-115, 2021, https://brill.com/view/journals/erl/6/1-2/article-p61_61.xml)

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