The ancient libraries of Canterbury and Dover : the catalogues of the libraries of Christ Church priory and St. Augustine's abbey at Canterbury and of St. Martin's priory at Dover / now first collected and published with an introduction and identifications of the extant remains, by Montague Rhodes James.

  • James, M. R. (Montague Rhodes), 1862-1936.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ancient libraries of Canterbury and Dover : the catalogues of the libraries of Christ Church priory and St. Augustine's abbey at Canterbury and of St. Martin's priory at Dover / now first collected and published with an introduction and identifications of the extant remains, by Montague Rhodes James. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    from the Latin at Christ Church, we cannot say positively that any one of them was presented by him. Athelstan did certainly give some books which still exist. The Gospels of MacDurnan at Lambeth Palace have his name inscribed in them. The Cotton MS. Tiberius A. II was another of his gifts, and so in all probability was the Royal MS. I. B. 7, all of which are Gospel-books. His donations to the Abbey of St Augustine were of a more varied character. Last among the kings we must mention Canute. A very fine copy of the Gospels presented by him to Christ Church is now among the Royal MSS. (i. D. 9). None of these volumes are to be found in our catalogues. They were evidently not library-books, but service-books, or at least Keifir]\ia, kept in the sacristy or on the altar, and not placed on the shelves. We have, in fact, but one document to which I can appeal for some knowledge of the rank and file of the library in the pre-Norman period. This is that well- known list of the “English” (Anglo-Saxon) books belonging to it which forms a separate section in the catalogue of Prior Eastry (p. 51). Attention was first drawn to it by Wanley, and it has never since his time slipped out of the remembrance of scholars1. The items it contains are as follows : 1. Genesis anglice depicta. “Genesis in English, with pictures.” If we cannot produce this actual volume, we can point to one which it must have resembled very closely, namely, the Bodleian “Caedmon” (MS. Junius n). Though this is now very commonly assigned to the Winchester school, it yet seems to me quite possible that it may be a Christ Church book. In the first place the title written in the book itself in an old hand (xiV-XVth century) is very like that in the catalogue. It is Genesis in anglico. There is also an old title on the back of the volume, Genesis, in XlVth century capitals. Further there is a mark on f. 2, Xb (which occurs again on f. 2 b and f. 52): this, according to Mr E. W. B. Nicholson, stands for Christe benedic\ but even so it resembles 1 It was last treated by Herr Max Forster, of Wurzburg, in Beiblatt zur Anglia, xii. 360.