Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-5wvtr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T20:12:03.010Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

14 - The circulation of books between England and the Continent, c. 871 – c. 1100

from PART II - THE CIRCULATION OF BOOKS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2012

Richard Gameson
Affiliation:
University of Durham
Get access

Summary

At some point around 1020, a high-ranking calligrapher–illuminator at Peterborough called Earnwine presented King Cnut and Queen Emma with a fine sacramentary and a psalter; Cnut subsequently sent the two volumes to Cologne as gifts; in 1054 Bishop Ealdred of Worcester tarried in Cologne ‘on the king’s business’, where he was presented with the very same books, which he then brought back to England. We only learn of the adventures of these volumes because they were then entrusted to (St) Wulfstan, a member (possibly prior) of the community of Worcester who, as it happened, had come into contact with them at Peterborough many years before, and their return to his care was thus celebrated as a miracle by his biographer. Other manuscripts can be seen to have made similar round-trips. A compilation of Old Testament, liturgical and computistical texts that was written in northern France in the third quarter of the ninth century had apparently crossed the Channel by the early tenth century when certain letters were retraced by an Anglo-Saxon hand; artwork added by another Anglo-Saxon implies that it was still in England at the end of the tenth century; however, a series of additions by Norman scribes suggests that it migrated to Normandy during the first half of the eleventh century, and its medieval provenance was Jumièges. A collection of tracts and letters by Jerome written in the second half of the ninth century, probably in the Loire region, had passed into Anglo-Saxon hands by the end of the ninth century, as a short colophon in Insular Minuscule at the bottom of the last page of text reveals; prayers added to the originally blank verso show that it was still in England in the earlier tenth century.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×