Volume / Number: 2 / 193

• London United Kingdom British Library Cotton MS Vespasian A. I

Written in England, probably at St Augustine's, Canterbury; the contents agree closely with a book recorded by Thomas de Elmham (saec. XV) as kept on the High Altar there; he regarded it as one of the books given by St Augustine to Abbot Peter, a tradition palaeographically impossible. The Anglo-Saxon gloss is considered by experts as Mercian. The MS was seen by Leland (†1552) at Canterbury soon after 1533. Acquired by Sir Robert Cotton in 1599 (see fol. 12).

Script is a careful but artificial uncial: A has a compressed bow, often ending in a long hair-line; the top-stroke of D is short and almost horizontal; G has both a capital and the uncial form; some letters, especially F, H, L, P, often have a tiny tag to the left ; in headings C sometimes has the angular form. Foll. 2v–11v are in artificial Rustic capital. There is an interlinear gloss in Anglo-Saxon minuscule saec. IX ex. A monogram is seen on fol. 153. Both the addition on fol. 11v and the added foll. 155–160v are in English Caroline minuscule saec. X and XI respectively.

☛Gamber, CLLA 1612.

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• Text: MSS containing biblical text (including Gospels)