Note 51 — from the Origins To the Renaissance
Reading edition
The most valuable monuments of Anglo-Saxon literature and art are contained in the following MSS.:
I. Poetry.—MS. of "Beowulf," preserved in the British Museum, Cotton. Vitell. A. xv., written towards the end of the tenth or beginning of the eleventh century. It contains also the fine poem of "Judith," &c.
A fragment of a poem on Waldhere, preserved in the Copenhagen Library.
The Exeter MS., "Codex Exoniensis," written in the tenth or eleventh century and given, in 1046, by Leofric, first bishop of Exeter, to the cathedral library of this town, where it is still preserved. It contains a variety of poetic pieces (Christ, St. Guthlac, Phenix, Wanderer, Seafarer, Widsith, Panther, Whale, Deor, Ruin, Riddles, &c.).
The "Codex Vercellensis," preserved at Vercelli in Lombardy, containing: Andreas, The Departed Soul's Address to the Body, Dream of the Holy Rood, Elene, &c., written in the eleventh century.
The Bodleian MS., Junius xi., containing a poetical version of part of the Bible, some of which is attributed to Cædmon, written in the tenth century.
The Paris Anglo-Saxon Psalter (Bibliothèque Nationale, Lat. 8824), written in the eleventh century, 50 psalms in prose, 100 in verse.
II. Prose.—The Epinal MS. containing an Anglo-Saxon glossary (eighth century according to Mr. Sweet, ninth according to Mr. Maunde Thompson).
The Bodleian MS., Hatton 20, containing King Alfred's translation of St. Gregory's "Regula Pastoralis" (the copy of Werferth, bishop of Worcester).
The MS. of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," the Winchester text, in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS. lxxiii.
The MSS. of the homilies of Ælfric and Wulfstan, Junius xxii. and Junius xcix., in the Bodleian, and the MS. of the Blickling homilies (Blickling Hall, Norfolk).
III. Miniatures.—See especially, the Lindisfarne Gospels, MS. Cotton. Nero, D. iv., in the British Museum, eighth-ninth century, in Latin with Anglo-Saxon glosses. Reproductions of these miniatures and other examples of the same art are to be found in J. O. Westwood, "Facsimiles of the Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish MSS." London, Quaritch, 1868, fol., and "Palæographia Sacro Pictoria," London, 1844, fol. See also the fine pen-and-ink drawings in the above-mentioned MS. Junius xi., in the Bodleian Library.