ANGLO-SAXON INDEX
at Trinity College, Cambridge
http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/sdk13/asindex.html

The background image is from the 'Liber Vitae' of the New Minster, Winchester (1031)
on which see further below

Anglo-Saxon manuscripts

under construction
(selection of manuscripts and scanning of images still in progress)

This page provides links to images of a very small selection of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, for the sole and simple purpose of illustrating the kind of manuscript material which can be used for historical purposes.

(1) The St Petersburg Gospels (eighth century)
St Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS. Lat. F.v.I. 8

A gospel-book written at an unidentified centre, possibly in southern England, perhaps towards the end of the eighth century.

• The beginning of the Gospel of St John. 'In principio erat verbum et verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat verbum' ('In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God').
• Forthcoming facsimile edition on CD-ROM, published by the National Library of Russia

(2) The Æthelstan Psalter (early tenth century)
BL Cotton Galba A. xviii

This manuscript is a psalter, written on the Continent in the ninth century, which was brought to England in the late ninth or early tenth century. Additions made to the manuscript in England, soon after its arrival, include a metrical calendar (which incorporates obits for King Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith), and at least five miniatures, of which one is shown below. The manuscript is believed to have belonged to King Æthelstan (924-39), who gave it to the Old Minster, Winchester.

• Christ enthroned, with choirs of angels, patriarchs, prophets, and apostles (fol. 2r, placed opposite the beginning of the metrical calendar)
  • black and white
• Christ enthroned, with choirs of martyrs, confessors, and virgins (fol. 21r, placed at the end of the metrical calendar)
  • approximately actual size (88 mm x 128 mm)
  • enlarged
• The Ascension (fol. 120v, marking the beginning of Psalm 101)
• The Nativity (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawl. B. 484, fol. 85r)

   

(3) The Trinity Amalarius (mid-tenth century)
Cambridge, Trinity College, MS. B. 11. 2 (241)

This manuscript contains a text of Amalarius of Metz, De ecclesiasticis officiis (or Liber officialis), written probably at St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, in the mid-tenth century. It was later in the possession of Leofric, bishop of Exeter (1050-72), who gave it to the church of Exeter. The manuscript is renowned for its fine initials. In the view of Sir Thomas Kendrick, 'there is no prettier set of letters in the whole of English pre-Conquest art'; and Francis Wormald gave it as his opinion that 'the initials in the Trinity Amalarius are amongst the most charming creations of late Anglo-Saxon art'.

• [A]
• [H, H, H, H, H] or all together
• [I] [M] [P]
  

(4) Memoranda in the Lichfield Gospels
Lichfield, Cathedral Library, 'Gospels of St Chad', fol. 71r (p. 141)

This famous Insular gospel-book was written and decorated in the eighth century, was in south Wales in the ninth century, and at Lichfield, Staffordshire, in the second half of the tenth century. The page illustrated here contains texts written in Latin and Welsh, with an intriguing set of Anglo-Saxon names added above and below the continuation of the Welsh text in the lower margin.

• 1 (whole page)
• 2 (detail of lower margin)
  

(5) The 'Benedictional of St Æthelwold' (c. 973)
London, BL Add. 49598

The 'Benedictional of Æthelwold' is one of the most lavishly illustrated books surviving from Anglo-Saxon England. It was written and illuminated probably at the Old Minster, Winchester, between 971 and 984, by a monk named Godeman, specifically for the use of Æthelwold, bishop of Winchester (963-84). The special attention accorded to the English saints Æthelthryth of Ely and Swithun of Winchester is indicated by the images below.

• Godeman, on fols. 4v-5r
• St Æthelthryth, on fols. 90v-91r
• blessing for St Æthelthryth (cont'd), on fols. 91v-92r
• St Swithhun, on fols. 97v-98r

(6) The 'Benedictional of Archbishop Robert' (c. 980)
Rouen, Bibliothèque municipale, MS. Y.7 (369)

The 'Benedictional of Archbishop Robert' is a service book combining a series of episcopal benedictions with a set of pontifical offices. It was written and decorated probably at (or for use at) the New Minster, Winchester, in the late tenth century (though such matters of origin and date are always disputed), possibly for Æthelgar, abbot of the New Minster and bishop of Selsey. It was in Normandy in the eleventh century, and belonged either to Robert, archbishop of Rouen (990-1037), who was the brother of Queen Emma, or to Robert of Jumièges, archbishop of Canterbury (1051-2).

• Pentecost, on fol 29v

(7) The Liber Vitae of the New Minster, Winchester (1031)
London, British Library, MS. Stowe 944

• For further details and images of this manuscript, click here.
  

(8) The Encomium Emmae Reginae (1041-2)
London, British Library, MS. Add. 33241

• Queen Emma receiving the Encomium Emmae from its author, with her sons Harthacnut and Edward in the background
• The whole opening (fols. 1v-2r)

* * * * *

Anglo-Saxon Images
from later medieval manuscripts

• Miracles of St Edmund
• Matthew Paris, tract on St Alban (mid-thirteenth century)
  • Offa, king of the Mercians, going off to war 1
  • Offa driving his enemies into flight 2