The Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical history of England / [translated by J. Stevens] Also the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. With illustrative notes, a map of Anglo-Saxon England and a general index. Edited by J.A. Giles.

  • Bede, the Venerable, Saint, 673-735.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical history of England / [translated by J. Stevens] Also the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. With illustrative notes, a map of Anglo-Saxon England and a general index. Edited by J.A. Giles. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Besides these six, no other ancient copy is known to exist; but there is a single leaf of an ancient copy in the British Museum. [Cotton, Tiberius A iii.] There are also three modern transcripts, two of which are in the Bodleian library, [Junian MSS. and Laud G. 36,] and one in the Dublin library. [E 5, 15.] The Bodleian transcripts are taken from two of the Cotton MSS., and therefore are of little critical value ; but the Dublin transcidpt appears to be taken from an original, now lost, [Cott. Otho B. xi.] and therefore it possesses an independent authority. “At the end of the Dublin transcript is this note, in the hand-writing of archbishop Usher : ‘ These Annales are ex- tant in S' R. Cotton’s Librarye at the ende of Bede’s His- torye in the Saxon Tongue.’ This accords with the descrip- tion of the MS. in Wanley’s Catalogue, p. 219 ; to which the reader is referred for more minute particulars. As this MS. was therefore in existence so late as 1705, when Wanley published his Catalogue, there can be little doubt that it perished in the lamentable fire of 1731, Avhich either destroyed or damaged so many of the Cotton MSS. while deposited in a house in Little Dean’s Yard, Westminster.” “ This transcript is become more valuable from the loss of the original. It appears from dates by Lambard himself, at the beginning and end, that it was begun by him in 1563, and finished in 1564, when he was about the age of twenty- five. In the front is this inscription in Saxon characters : Willm lambarde, 1563 ; and, wulfhelm lambheord ; with this addition, wseccath thine Icoht-faet ; which may be thus translated ; ‘ Lambard, arise ; awake thy lamp.’ At the end is the following memorandum : ‘ Finis : 9 Aprilis, 1564. W. L. propria manu.’ I am informed by several gentlemen of Trinity College, Dublin, to whom I am indebted for most of the particulars relating to this transcript, that it was once in the possession of archbishop Usher, and is the same mentioned in his Ecclesiastical History, p. 182, tvhich Nicolson says ‘is worth the inquiring after.’* It came into the Dublin Library with the other MSS. of the archbishop, according to his original intention, after the restoration of Charles II.” English Historical Library, Part I. p. 117. d 2