Description
Alternative title
Pontificale (Canterbury—Ely)
Type of resource
mixed material
Extent
ff. 1 + 201
Date created
[ca. 1000-1099]
Language
Latin, English, Old (ca. 450-1100)
Material
Vellum
Layout
20 lines to a page
Height (mm)
330
Width (mm)
245
Collation
1 flyleaf, 1(8) (wants 1, 2) 2(8)-6(8) (wants 2) | 7(8)-16(8) (gap) 17(8)-24(8) | 25(8) 26(4).
Writing
The original text is in a most magnificent round black script of the type which I associate with St Augustine's, Canterbury
Foliation
ff. a-b + pp. i-iv + 1-84 (85-94 missing) + 95-274 + 274a-b + 275-366 (367-368 missing) + 369-410 + ff. c-d
Provenance
It is probable to my mind from this (the hand reminiscent of St Augustine's, Canterbury) and from the invocations in the Litany that the book was written at Canterbury. But, as we shall see, it belonged in cent. xv to Ely.
Research
Wanley (p. 109) prints the end of this Preface, which ends on 2r.
The Coronation-service is used by Legg, Three Coronation Orders, p. xxxviii (pl. 3) and Liebermann, pp. xxi, 215, 365, 401, 416 (ordeals). He calls it Ce and assigns it to 1040-80.
See also Henderson, Liber pontificalis Eboracensis, p. xxi.
Additions
On the flyleaf (i), in the xvith cent. hand which reappears at the end, is: Index huius pontificalis. I do not think it is one of Parker's additions: it seems to me earlier.
The original hand begins 1r with a Preface in Anglo-Saxon. Two leaves are gone and the first page has been erased, but the text of it is probably recoverable.
In the lower margin of f. 189v (p. 386) is an erased inscription of cent. xv-xvi: Ely Iste liber pertinet ecclesie Eliensi. Above it an inscription of Parker's date erased (probably as being erroneous). I read the words: ... vocat(us?) The red book of ... This seems to show that the writer of the note confused this MS. with MS 422, which was really the Red Book of Derby; and that he or some one else realized the mistake and erased the note.
The writing is splendid throughout. The initials are perfectly plain, in green, blue or red.
Abstract/Contents
- Summary
- This handsome manuscript contains a Pontifical. On script grounds it has been attributed to Canterbury, probably St Augustine's rather than Christ Church; however its text has been held to show that it was made for use at Christ Church, Canterbury. The script of CCCC MS 44 shows it to have been written at some point during the middle two quarters of the eleventh century, but a more precise dating is arguably possible given the association of the coronation ordo it contains (the third recension of the second ordo) with William the Conqueror. This association is by no means generally accepted. The distinctive mark on f. 3 shows that the manuscript was at Ely in the later Middle Ages. It has been suggested that it might have been part of the treasure of Archbishop Stigand (1052-72), with which he fled to Ely shortly before his death in 1072; clearly this again depends on how one interprets the dating evidence of the manuscript's text.
- Contents
- Pontifical
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction:
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- License:
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