Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 163: Pontifical (Romano-Germanic)

purl.stanford.edu/dw493fs0065

Title:

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 163: Pontifical (Romano-Germanic)

Alternate Title:

Ordo Servitii. Ordinale etc.

Language:

Latin and Greek, Modern (1453- )

Extent:

ff. 148 + 1

Dimensions:

301 Height (mm) and 201 Width (mm)

Approximate Date:

[ca. 1000 - 1099]

Provenance:

Apparently a Winchester book, from a Continental archetype of Cologne diocese.

Table of contents:

Pontifical (Romano-Germanic)

Description:

CCCC MS 163 contains a Pontifical of the Romano-Germanic type. It was written in the second half of the eleventh century, probably at Worcester, although the Old Minster and the Nunnaminster at Winchester have both also been suggested. In text it is closely related to London, BL MS Cotton Vitellius E. XII, and may even have been directly copied from it. The Romano-Germanic Pontifical originated in Germany in the tenth century and spread rapidly because it brought together a comprehensive set of texts for performing the duties of a bishop. These two English copies seem to descend from a Cologne manuscript, and it has been suggested that the line of transmission was Bishop Ealdred's visit to Cologne in 1054. Ealdred, bishop of Worcester and later archbishop of Canterbury, was sent by Edward the Confessor on a diplomatic mission to Henry III, probably leading to the return to England of Edward the Exile in 1057, and it seems likely that he acquired a text of the Romano-Germanic pontifical on this occasion. MS 163 contains four ordines for the consecration of women while omitting all those for abbots and monks, and may therefore have some connection with a nunnery.