The Text of the Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon England

The early medieval Vulgate Bible had no fixed textual form - multiple copying resulted in a multitude of forms. This book tackles questions about the transmission of the Vulgate Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon England. By tracing the history of the text in the surviving Latin manuscripts we can illuminate monastic and intellectual history. Following an introduction which explains the wider continental history in which the dissemination of the Latin scriptures occurred, Richard Marsden goes on to analyse twenty surviving manuscripts including the Codex Amiatinus, one of the greatest English books and the earliest surviving complete Vulgate Bible. The book provides a comprehensive listing and collation of surviving Anglo-Saxon manuscripts of the Old Testament, and it also establishes textual history as a dimension of wider Anglo-Saxon history.

• Useful general introduction to the study of the Vulgate • Provides a comprehensive list and collation of surviving Anglo-Saxon manuscripts of the Old Testament • Throws much light on general Anglo-Saxon and Vulgate history

List of illustrations; Preface; List of abbreviations; List of manuscript sigla; 1. Introduction; 2. Early Southumbrian scholars and writers; 3. Early Northumbria: Wearmouth-Jarrow and Ceolfrith’s pandects; 4. The Codex Amiatinus, a sister pandect and the Bibles at Vivarium; 5. The Ceolfrithian text; 6. Early Northumbrian scholars and writers; 7. Part-Bibles of the eighth and ninth centuries; 8. The Egerton codex; 9. Wisdom books in non-biblical manuscripts; 10. The late period: the ‘Royal’ Bible; 11. The late period: Bible fragments; 12. Vernacular evidence for the Old Testament; 13. Conclusion; Appendix; Bibliography; Index of manuscripts; Scriptural index; General index.