{"id":8439,"date":"2016-09-20T19:48:33","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T19:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?p=8439"},"modified":"2019-08-13T20:30:17","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T20:30:17","slug":"seminar-on-the-evidence-of-manuscripts-january-1992","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/seminar-on-the-evidence-of-manuscripts-january-1992\/","title":{"rendered":"Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (January 1992)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Anglo-Saxon Writing Materials and Practices”
\nThe Parker Library
\n11 January 1992<\/h2>\n
\"Invitation<\/a>

Invitation Letter for 11 January 1992<\/p><\/div>\n

\"RSVP<\/a>

RSVP Form for 11 January 1992<\/p><\/div>\n

In the Series of Seminars on “The Evidence of Manuscripts”<\/a>
\nThe Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge<\/p>\n

Invitation<\/a> in pdf, with 1-Page Invitation Letter and 1-page RSVP Form<\/p>\n

The previous meeting of the seminar considered<\/p>\n

“Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 383”<\/a>
\nThe Parker Library, 16 November 1991<\/p>\n

[Published on 20 September 2016 by Mildred Budny<\/em>]<\/p>\n

The Plan<\/h3>\n

From the moment of the First Seminar<\/a> in the Series, devoted to “Manuscript Illustrations as Evidence for Anglo-Saxon Life”, and taking inspiration from it, the subject for this Seminar emerged naturally, early in the Series, as part of a Research Project at the Parker Library designed to examine “The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts” and to integrate expertise in a variety of disciplines.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Brandon Plaque. \u00a9 Trustees of the British Museum.<\/p><\/div>\n

The design of the Project flowed, in no small part, from the work for a Ph.D. dissertation (University of London, 1985<\/a>) which focused on an integrated study of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and was supervised by an archaeologist, David M. Wilson<\/a>, the Director of the British Museum and author of the catalogue of Ornamental Anglo-Saxon Metalwork, 700\u20131100, in the British Museum<\/em><\/a> (1964).\u00a0 That authoritative catalogue contains some of the materials considered at the Seminar.<\/p>\n

For the Seminar, the 1-page Invitation Letter (shown here and downloadable here<\/a>, with the RSVP Form), dated 15 December 1991, lays down the cloth for the repast.<\/p>\n

We will hold the next meeting of this seminar on Saturday, 11 January.<\/p>\n

The subject will be:\u00a0 Anglo-Saxon writing materials and practices.\u00a0 We wish to look at the evidence for manuscript production in the Anglo-Saxon period, especially<\/p>\n

1) the archaeological record of writing materials, tools, processes and book bindings;<\/p>\n

2) the linguistic and literary evidence for writing and making manuscripts from both Old English and Latin sources; and<\/p>\n

3) the evidence of the manuscripts themselves.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Speakers<\/h3>\n

The Invitation Letter presents the Courses for the Feast.\u00a0 Plenty of Food for Thought, with some Bones Included (styli and writing tablets, for example).<\/p>\n

Leslie Webster has agreed to talk about the material evidence in the British Museum collection.<\/p>\n

Kevin Leahy<\/a> will describe his finds at Flixborough<\/a> from this point of view.<\/p>\n

Christine Fell<\/a> will talk about the Old English sources, and<\/p>\n

Vivien Law<\/a> will discuss the Latin material.<\/p>\n

Milly Budny will show examples from manuscripts at Corpus in the light of the preceding discussion and with particular attention to sequences of production and representations of scribes and books.<\/p>\n

As usual, “we hope that other members of the seminar will contribute to the discussion from their own experience with the sources’.<\/p>\n

The Manuscripts<\/h3>\n

As usual, in meetings of the seminar at the Parker Library, the Invitation Letter for the Seminar announced that “manuscripts will be available for examination as a focus for discussion”.\u00a0 Selected for viewing for this occasion:<\/p>\n

MSS 389<\/a> (saints’ lives from St Augustine’s Abbey<\/a>, with a scribal portrait of St Jerome<\/a>),<\/p>\n

183<\/a> (Bede<\/a>‘s Vita sancti Cuthberti<\/em><\/a> and other texts, with King Athelstan’s<\/a> presentation frontispiece),<\/p>\n

23<\/a> (Prudentius<\/a>‘ Psychomachia<\/em><\/a> with sequences of production in a densely illustrated and glossed text) and<\/p>\n

41<\/a> (the Corpus Alfredian Pastoral Care<\/em><\/a>, with layers of initials and sketches for them.<\/p>\n

\"Front<\/a>

Front Cover of ‘The Making of England’ (1991)<\/p><\/div>\n

Not on view, but represented by proxy:<\/p>\n

The detailed image of a bound book in MS 286<\/a> will be represented by photographs, as the manuscript will still be in the early Anglo-Saxon exhibition at the British Museum.<\/p>\n

As usual, “other manuscripts may emerge for examination as they occur to us in the course of the session”.<\/p>\n

The Logistics<\/h3>\n

Simple:<\/p>\n

As usual, the seminar will meet in the Parker Library.\u00a0 We will begin at 11 a.m., break for an informal lunch in College and continue until about 4 or 4:30 p.m.\u00a0 To let us know whom we may expect, please fill out the enclosed form and return it to me as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

The Participants<\/h3>\n

Invitations are sent to:<\/p>\n

David Wilson, Leslie Webster, Mildred Budny, Christine Fell, R.I. Page, Tim Graham, Catherine Hall, Leslie French, Nicholas Hadgraft, Nigel Wilkins, Patrick Wormald, Simon Keynes, Malcolm Godden, Richard North, Richard Gem, Catherine Hills, Vivien Law, Carole Hough, David Parsons, M.H. Brierley.<\/p>\n

Present (according to completed RSVP Forms in the Research Group Archives):<\/p>\n

David Wilson, Leslie Webster, Mildred Budny, Christine Fell, R.I. Page, Tim Graham, Catherine Hall, Nicholas Hadgraft, Patrick Wormald, Simon Keynes, Richard North, Catherine Hills, Carole Hough, David Parsons, M.H. Brierley.<\/p>\n

The Archives contain the 2-page handwritten card from Vivien Law explaining that she could not, after travels, attend and speak at the Seminar.\u00a0 They also contain detailed handwritten notes, made on the day, summarising the several expert presentations and citing the relevant elements in the manuscripts selected for display and discussion.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

The Material Evidence<\/h3>\n
\"The<\/a>

The Brandon Plaque. \u00a9Trustees of the British Museum.<\/p><\/div>\n

Other materials under consideration at the Seminar remained in-situ in their own locations \u2014 that is, in their current collections, for those forms of evidence retrieved archaeologically from the in-situ<\/em> locations in the earth where earlier ages had relegated them, one way or another.<\/p>\n

Such a case is the inscribed lead plaque from the excavations at Flixborough in North Lincolnshire, as reported at the Seminar.\u00a0 It is depicted and described here<\/a>, after a later discovery of the astonishing Staffordshire Hoard<\/a>, in 2009, gave much cause for study, report, and publication freely online.<\/p>\n

Such a case is the little gold Brandon Plaque<\/a> found on the riverbank at Brandon<\/a> in Suffolk in 1978 and now in the British Museum. Measuring only 34 mm \u00d7 34 mm, the plaque is incised, inscribed, and decorated in black with niello<\/a>.\u00a0 More about it below.<\/p>\n

Books as Archaeological Objects<\/h3>\n

Strictly speaking, as we remembered at the Seminar, archaeological finds can include manuscripts.\u00a0 Such is the case of the renowned Gospel of Saint Cuthbert<\/a>, formerly in the collection of Stonyhurst College<\/a> in Lancashire, next on extended loan to the British Museum and then to the British Library (after the formation of that entity), and now part of the British Library’s collections as Additional MS 89000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That pocket-sized copy of the John Gospel remarkably retains its original binding of red leather over wooden boards, decorated with interlace, geometric, and vegetal ornament.\u00a0 The text is written in an expert version of English Uncial characteristic of the double monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow<\/a>. A lovely volume to hold in the hand, to turn the pages, and to admire, as I remember well from studying it in the Manuscripts Room, with indirect natural light (such a bonus), in the former building of the British Library, and both before after the formation of that entity, while the Manuscripts still remained within the British Museum.<\/p>\n

\"\u00a9<\/a>

\u00a9 The British Library Board. Additional MS 89000, front cover.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\u00a9<\/a>

\u00a9 The British Library Board. Additional MS 89000, back cover.<\/p><\/div>\n

This well-travelled book was placed in the incised wooden coffin<\/a> of\u00a0Saint Cuthbert<\/a> (who died on 20 March 687 CE).\u00a0 For centuries it lay shrouded there, apart from several exposures to the light with ritualised openings in various centuries of the set of coffins, with the oldest, wooden one the innermost.\u00a0 The wanderings of the relics from Lindisfarne<\/a> (seat of Cuthbert’s bishopric), around and about, via Chester-le-Street<\/a>, to Durham Cathedral<\/a>, where they now repose in state are well-recorded, almost epic.<\/p>\n

The manuscript itself is reproduced in monochrome printed facsimile, with expert commentary, here:<\/p>\n