Volume / Number: 2 / 214

• London United Kingdom British Library Royal MS 1. E. VI
• Oxford United Kingdom Bodleian Library MS. Lat. Bibl. b. 2 (P) [S.C. 2202]
• Canterbury United Kingdom Cathedral Library Add. MS 16

Written in South England in a Mercian or Kentish centre, in the school which produced the Worcester and Oxford MSS mentioned above. Was at St Augustine's Canterbury, certainly by the fourteenth century: on fol. II is the Canterbury shelf-mark. Later belonged to John, Lord Lumley (†1609), whose name is on fol. 1v. The tradition that this MS was one of those sent by Pope Gregory to Augustine, a tradition accepted by Thomas of Elmham, is refuted by the date of the script.

Script is a somewhat self-conscious Anglo-Saxon majuscule by at least two hands: striking features are the curious bend in the shafts of b and l, the form of a resembling o joined to an elongated c (a form often found in Mercian or Canterbury charters), and the use of uncial A, B (especially frequent at line-ends), and even L and uncial M, which are rarely used in Anglo-Saxon majuscule; of the letters d, n, r, s, uncial ꝺ is the exception and d the rule; n and r are more often minuscule, S more often majuscule; the first upright of N regularly descends below the line; i-longa occurs here and there; v-shaped u is found at or near line-ends, also capital D. The MS has several points in common with the Gospel leaves Worcester Add. MS 1 and the Oxford Gospel fragment Bodl. Lat. Bibl. d. 1 (P) (CLA 2.262, 2.245). The leaf in Canterbury contains Jn 11.38–12.34 and follows immediately the actual last leaf (fol. 77) of the London MS.

☛CLA first-edition script commentary changed to follow second edition (adding information about Canterbury leaf).

• http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_1_E_VI

• Text: MSS containing biblical text (including Gospels)
• Text: MSS containing Gospel text
• CLA information changed