Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.5.16
Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum ('The Moore Bede')
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Annals for the years 731-734. The first two record events in Northumbrian history and the latter two refer to eclipses of the sun and moon respectively.
Includes a list of Northumbrian kings ending with Ceolwulf and a set of calculations for events all working from the date 737.
Ends imperfectly. Sections VII and VIII, together with further text, continued on the following leaf, of which remains only a stub bearing fragmentary text (f. 129, partly visible in the image of f. [b] recto). A clearer image of the text on this stub may be found in EEMF (1959).
Physical Description
'E.A. Lowe remarks "apparently the outside of quires shows flesh; within the quire flesh faces hair"...[but] [t]here are a great many leaves whose opposite sides are so alike that it seems impossible to distinguish hair from flesh by the criteria of colour or texture' (P.H. Blair in Preface to EEMF (1959), p. 11 and n. 3).
Comprehensive identification of hair and flesh sides by Jiří Vnouček in February 2026 as part of the Insular Manuscripts Project has exposed the reasons for Lowe's uncertainty. Only a minority of quires exhibit a regular disposition, but of differing patterns: either HFHF (Quires 1, 5 and 10) or FHFH (Quire 8), or (unusually for manuscripts of this period) HFFH (Quire 4). In others, the disposition is a mixture of the contrasting arrangements (Quires 3, 12) or a combination of one or other of them with the arrangement of hair and flesh sides facing one another (Quires 2, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12). A full diagram is available on request.
19th-century foliation:
[a] + i-ii + 1-128 + [b]
Written in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the recto of each leaf, by Henry Bradshaw, University Librarian 1867-1886.
Collation
- Quire 110 (ff. 1-10: 4th and 8th leaves, ff. 4 and 8, are singletons)
- Quire 210 (ff. 11-20)
- Quire 310 (ff. 21-30: 6th and 8th leaves, ff. 28 and 28, are singletons)
- Quires 4-510 (ff. 31-50)
- Quire 610-1 (ff. 51-59: 9th leaf, after f. 58, cancelled)
- Quire 710 (ff. 60-69: 4th and 8th leaves, ff. 63 and 67, are singletons)
- Quires 8-1210 (ff. 70-119)
- Quire 1310-1 (ff. 120-128: 10th leaf, after f. 128, missing)
110 (4th and 8th leaves singletons) 210 310 (6th and 8th leaves singletons) 4-510 610-1 (9th leaf cancelled) 710 (4th and 8th leaves singletons) 8-1210 1310-1 (10th leaf missing)
No leaf signatures.
Quire numbering in Roman numerals, written in the centre of the bottom margin of the verso of the last leaf of each quire (occasionally trimmed / omitted).
No catchwords.Condition
The parchment has gelatinised with age in numerous places. Folio 1r is faded, stained and abraded, and consequently the text is almost illegible in places. Some leaves have irregular edges, arising from the use of parchment from the edge of the skin (e.g. ff. 3, 7, 63, 73, 91). The manuscript has been trimmed. However, several leaves are narrower than the rest (e.g. ff. 25, 26, 44, 52), with no evidence of loss of marginalia, and frequent examples of scribal contraction on these leaves furthermore indicates that the text was originally copied up to the edge of the leaves. In other places, though, marginal glosses have in part been trimmed (e.g. f. 19v).
For a detailed account of the manuscript's condition, see P.H. Blair in the Preface to EEMF (1959), pp. 13-15.
Layout
255-160 × 185-190 mm. Ruled in hardpoint, frame and line. Single columns, 29-34 lines to the page, written above top line.
Hand(s)
For a detailed description of the handwriting, spacing, peculiarities, omissions, scribal errors, and punctuation, see P.H. Blair in the Preface to EEMF (1959), pp. 15-23.
Written in Insular minuscule, by a single scribe, in scripta continua (i.e. no spaces between words), suggesting that it was written at speed.
Rubrics written in uncial or Insular majuscule.
The excerpts from Isidore and a papal decree (f. 128v) written in Caroline minuscule.
Decoration
Plain initials, in the same ink as the text, outlined by dots of red.
Chapter rubrics and chapter numbers in the list of chapters that precede each book are all written in red.
Additions
Many marginal notes by the text scribe, the most extensive of which are merely short phrases.
Numerous interlinear glosses, principally expanding or providing continental equivalents of the Insular abbreviations in the text, added by a continental scribe.
'beda de historia anglorum': added to the top margin of f. 2r by a 15th-century French hand.
Two inscriptions by 17th-century French hands on f. i verso: the title of the work and beneath it 'Auctore Beda'. Bradshaw identified these as the hand of J.B. Hautin (see Provenance).
'One leaf cancelled, nothing wanting' (f. 58v, right-hand corner, bottom margin) and 'f. 129 gone' (f. 128v, top margin): notes on collation by Henry Bradshaw, University Librarian 1867-1886.
Binding
Full brown tanned calfskin over pasteboards, probably 18th-century. Repaired by Stoakley and Son (label adhered to front pastedown), and rebacked and repairs to leather covers by W.H. Smith and Son , July 1959 (note by H.L. Pink on front pastedown).
History
Produced after 734 and probably in or 737 or shortly thereafter, perhaps at Wearmouth-Jarrow Abbey.
Provenance and Acquisition
The presence of numerous glosses throughout, and some textual additions at the end of the manuscript, all written by continental scribes, indicates that the manuscript was taken abroad at an early stage, and perhaps by the beginning of the 9th century. It has been suggested by Bernhard Bischoff that it may have been at Charlemagne's court, since the hand responsible for the additions at the end is similar to another that worked on manuscripts linked to it around the year 800 (e.g. London, British Library, Harley MS 2788).
'S. Juliani' (f. 128v): 17th-century ?ownership inscription of the Cathedral of Saint-Julien, Le Mans.
Perhaps in the hands of J.B. Hautin, probably to be identified with Jean Baptiste II Hautin, son of the French scholar and numismatist Jean-Baptiste Hautin (approximately b. 1580 d. 1640) (or possibly with his nephew Jean Baptiste III; on the problem of the identification of Hautin see Donald Jackson, 'The Greek manuscripts of John Moore and Etienne Baluze', Codices Manuscripti, 56/57 (2006), 29-42, pp. 38-40). The inscriptions on f. i verso were identified by Henry Bradshaw as by the hand of J.B. Hautin and the majuscule 'B' in 'Beda' bears a resemblance to that found in inscriptions of his name in other manuscripts owned by John Moore (see below).
John Moore (1646-1714), bishop of Ely : no. 994 in the handwritten supplementary list of Moore's manuscripts, now MS Oo.7.50(2), compiled by Thomas Tanner (1674-1735) after the publication of Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697).
Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I : donation bookplate engraved by John Pine in 1736 on the front pastedown.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
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Custodial History
Bibliography
Manuscript descriptions:
A catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge, (Cambridge, 3: Gg-Kk, Cambridge University Press, 1858) Venerabilis Baedae opera historica, (Oxonii, 1, Clarendon, 1896) The Abbreviation-Symbols of ergo, igitur Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen, Lindsay, W. M. (29, 2, 56-63, 1912, 2020-04-18T09:28:16Z, http://www.digizeitschriften.de/dms/img/?PID=GDZPPN000271632) The manuscripts of Bede Bede: his life, times and writings, James, M.R. (Oxford, 230-236, Clarendon, 1935) Codices Latini antiquiores, Lowe, E.A. (Oxford, 2: Great Britain and Ireland: a palaeographical guide to Latin manuscripts prior to the 9th century, Clarendon Press, 1935) Libri Sancti Kyliani: die Würzburger Schreibschule und die Dombibliothek im VIII. und IX. Jahrhundert Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte des Bistums und Hochstifts Würzburg, Bischoff, BernhardHofmann, Josef (Würzburg, F. Schöningh, 1952) Catalogue of manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon, Ker, N.R. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1957) English uncial, Lowe, E.A. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1960) Citation marks in early Latin manuscripts (with a list of citation marks in manuscripts earlier than A.D. 800 in English and Irish libraries) Scriptorium, McGurk, Patrick (15, 3-13, 1961) Review of P. Hunter Blair, <hi rend="italics">The Moore Bede</hi> [EEMF 9] Anglia: Zeitschrift fur Englische Philologie, Wright, David H. (82, 110-117, 1964) Mittelalterliche Studien: ausgewählte Aufsätze zur Schriftkunde und Literaturgeschichte, Bischoff, Bernhard (Stuttgart, 3, Hiersemann, 1966) Bede's <hi rend="italics">Ecclesiastical history of the English people</hi> Oxford medieval texts, (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969) On the dating of early Bede manuscripts Studia Neophilologica, Arngart, O. (45, 1, 47–52, 1973, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00393277308587547) Review of <hi rend="italics">Chartae Latinae Antiquiores 3-5</hi>, ed. by A. Bruckner and R. Marichal Historische Zeitschrift, Bischoff, Bernhard (223, 689-786, 1976, http://www.digizeitschriften.de/dms/img/?PID=PPN331411849_0223&physid=PHYS_0719) The Irish element in the Insular system of scripts to circa AD 850 Die Iren und Europa im früheren Mittelalter Veröffentlichungen des Europa Zentrums Tübingen. Kulturwissenschaftliche Reihe, Brown, T.J. (Stuttgart, 101-119, Klett-Cotta, 1982) The scriptorium of Wearmouth-Jarrow The Jarrow lectures, Parkes, M.B. (Jarrow, St. Paul's Church, 1982) 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, (Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, 1985) Paläographie des römischen Altertums und des abendländischen Mittelalters Grundlagen der Germanistik, Bischoff, Bernhard (Berlin, Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1986) Cambridge University Library: a history, McKitterick, David (Cambridge, 2: The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Cambridge University Press, 1986) Graphic Cues for Presentation of Verse in the Earliest English Manuscripts of the Historia Ecclesiastica Manuscripta, O’Keeffe, Katherine O’Brien (31, 3, 139-146, 1987, https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10.1484/J.MSS.3.1243) The Épinal, Erfurt, Werden, and Corpus glossaries Early English manuscripts in facsimile, Bischoff, Bernhard (Copenhagen, Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1988) Catalogue of dated and datable manuscripts c. 737-1600 in Cambridge libraries, Robinson, P.R. (Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 1988) The Carolingians and the written word, McKitterick, Rosamond (Cambridge, University Press, 1989, https://www-fulcrum-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/concern/monographs/v118rd69b) Old English manuscripts: the scribal deconstruction of 'early' Northumbrian ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews (formerly American Notes and Queries), Kiernan, Kevin S. (n.s. 3, 2, 48-55, 1990) Old English verse texts from many sources: a comprehensive collection Early English manuscripts in facsimile, Robinson, Fred C.Stanley, E.G. (Copenhagen, Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1991) The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon art and culture, AD 600-900, Webster, LeslieBackhouse, Janet (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1991) Pause and effect: an introduction to the history of punctuation in the West, Parkes, M.B. (Aldershot, Scolar Press, 1992) Space between words: the origins of silent reading Figurae, Saenger, Paul Henry (Stanford, Ca., Stanford University Press, 1997) Katalog der festländischen Handschriften des neunten Jahrhunderts (mit Ausnahme der wisigotischen) Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften: Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für die Herausgabe der mittelalterlichen Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz, Bischoff, Bernhard (Wiesbaden, I: Aachen-Lambach, Harrassowitz, 1998) A palaeographer's review: the insular system of scripts in the early middle ages, Dumville, D.N. (Osaka, Institute of Oriental and Occidental Studies, Kansai University, 1999) The archetype of Beowulf Anglo-Saxon England, Lapidge, Michael (29, 5-41, 2000, http://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/anglo-saxon-england/article/archetype-of-beowulf/46EF802A22CC264F02C90C8897300242) The <hi rend="italics">Timaeus</hi> in Old English Lexis and texts in early English: studies presented to Jane Roberts Costerus. New series, Szarmach, Paul E. (Amsterdam, 255-267, Rodopi, 2001) Style and layout of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts Anglo-Saxon styles SUNY series in medieval studies, Schipper, W. (New York, 151-168, State University of New York, 2003, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cam/detail.action?docID=3408413) The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West, (London, Harvey Miller, 2005) The Anglo-Saxon library, Lapidge, Michael (Oxford, University Press, 2006, 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199239696.001.0001) The study of Englo-Saxon manuscripts, collections and scribes: in the footsteps of Wanley and Ker Writing and texts in Anglo-Saxon England Publications of the Manchester center for Anglo-Saxon Studies, Rumble, Alexander R. (Woodbridge, 1-17, Boydell & Brewer, 2006) The two earliest manuscripts of Bede's <hi rend="italics">Ecclesiastical History</hi>? Anglo-Saxon [Aberdeen], Dumville, David N. (1, 55-108, 2007) Storia degli inglesi = <hi rend="italics">Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum</hi> Scrittori greci e latini, (Rome: Milan, Fondazione Lorenzo Valla; A. Mondadori, 2008) Writing in the Insular world Cambridge history of the book in Britain, Brown, Michelle P. (Cambridge, 1: c. 400-1100, 121-166, Cambridge University Press, 2011, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/10.1017/CHOL9780521583459.005) Anglo-Saxon scribes and scriptoria Cambridge history of the book in Britain, Gameson, Richard (Cambridge, 1: c. 400-1100, 94-120, Cambridge University Press, 2011, https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521583459.004) 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) The library of Alcuin's York Cambridge history of the book in Britain, Garrison, Mary (Cambridge, 1: c. 400-1100, 633-664, Cambridge University Press, 2011, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/10.1017/CHOL9780521583459.033)Bibliography
Editions:
<hi rend="italics">Historiæ ecclesiasticæ gentis Anglorum libri quinque</hi>, (Cantabrigiæ, Typis Academicis, 1722) Venerabilis Baedae opera historica, (Oxonii, Clarendon, 1896) The Moore memoranda on Northumbrian History The early cultures of North-Western Europe, Blair, P.H. (Cambridge, University Press, 1950) Bede's <hi rend="italics">Ecclesiastical history of the English people</hi> Oxford medieval texts, (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969) Storia degli inglesi = <hi rend="italics">Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum</hi> Scrittori greci e latini, (Rome: Milan, Fondazione Lorenzo Valla; A. Mondadori, 2008) After Bede: continuing the <hi rend="italics">Ecclesiastical History</hi> Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald Studies in Early Medieval Britain, Storey, Joanna (Farnham, 165-184, Ashgate, 2009)Bibliography
Translations:
Bede's <hi rend="italics">Ecclesiastical history of the English people</hi> Oxford medieval texts, (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969) <hi rend="italics">Ecclesiastical history of the English people</hi> with Bede's letter to Egbert and Cuthbert's letter on the death of Bede Penguin classics, (London, Penguin, 2003) Storia degli inglesi = <hi rend="italics">Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum</hi> Scrittori greci e latini, (Rome: Milan, Fondazione Lorenzo Valla; A. Mondadori, 2008) After Bede: continuing the <hi rend="italics">Ecclesiastical History</hi> Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald Studies in Early Medieval Britain, Storey, Joanna (Farnham, 165-184, Ashgate, 2009)Bibliography
Facsimiles:
The Moore Bede: Cambridge University Library MS Kk.5.16 Early English manuscripts in facsimile, Hunter Blair, PeterMynors, R.A.B. (Copenhagen, 9, Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1959)Bibliography
Manuscript decoration:
Graphic Cues for Presentation of Verse in the Earliest English Manuscripts of the Historia Ecclesiastica Manuscripta, O’Keeffe, Katherine O’Brien (31, 3, 139-146, 1987, https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10.1484/J.MSS.3.1243)Bibliography
Secondary studies:
Studies in the history of Old English literature, Sisam, Kenneth (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1953) Mittelalterliche Studien: ausgewählte Aufsätze zur Schriftkunde und Literaturgeschichte, Bischoff, Bernhard (Stuttgart, 3, Hiersemann, 1966) Northumbria and the Book of Kells Anglo-Saxon England, Brown, T. JulianVerey, C.D. (1, 219-246, 1972, http://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/anglo-saxon-england/article/northumbria-and-the-book-of-kells/530B4A779F21BE6D2F05DBBE764D8251) An historical introduction to the use of Classical Latin authors in the British Isles from the 5th to the 11th century Settimane, Brown, T. Julian (22, 237-299, 1975) Alcuin, <hi rend="italics">The Bishops, Kings and Saints of York</hi> Oxford medieval texts, (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1982) Texts and transmission: a survey of the Latin classics, (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1983) Orality and the developing text of Caedmon's Hymn Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, O'Keeffe, Katherine O'Brien (62, 1, 1-20, 1987) Anglo-Saxon missionaries in Germany: reflections on the manuscript evidence Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, McKitterick, Rosamond (9, 4, 291-329, 1989, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41154664) Reading Cædmon's Hymn with someone else's glosses Representations, Kiernan, Kevin S. (32, 157-174, 1990) A palaeographer's view: the selected writings of Julian Brown, Brown, T. Julian (London, Harvey Miller, 1993) Manuscripts and libraries in the age of Charlemagne Cambridge studies in palaeography and codicology, Bischoff, Bernhard (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994) A neglected early-ninth-century manuscript of the Lindisfarne Vita S. Cuthberti Anglo-Saxon England, Bullough, Donald A. (27, 105-137, 1998, http://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/anglo-saxon-england/article/neglected-earlyninthcentury-manuscript-of-the-lindisfarne-vita-s-cuthberti/F20FDE21F513E73AB9D356D653DC66E9) History and memory in the Carolingian world, McKitterick, Rosamond (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004) Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon age, Brown, Michelle P. (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2007) The Latin exemplar of the Old English <hi rend="italics">Bede</hi>, Lapidge, Michael (Udine, 235-246, Forum, 2008) Author's variants in the textual transmission of Bede's <hi rend="italics">Historia ecclesiastica</hi>? Filologia Mediolatina: Rivista della Fondazione Ezio Franceschini, Lapidge, Michael (16, 1-15, 2009) After Bede: continuing the <hi rend="italics">Ecclesiastical History</hi> Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald Studies in Early Medieval Britain, Storey, Joanna (Farnham, 165-184, Ashgate, 2009) Exchanges between the British Isles and the Continent, c. 450-c. 900 The Cambridge history of the book in Britain, McKitterick, Rosamond (Cambridge, 1: c. 400-1100, 313-337, Cambridge University Press, 2011, https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521583459.013)Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
