Manuscripts

In addition to the works listed here, you will find many bibliographical references in the Manuscripts section of this Web site. See also Art and Material Culture.

1. Catalogues

* Ker, N.R. Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957. Contains extensive indices, and also a useful introduction to Old English paleography. See also his "Supplement to Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon," Anglo-Saxon England 5 (1976), 121-31.

Collins, Rowland L. Anglo-Saxon Vernacular Manuscripts in America. New York: Scheide Library, Pierpont Morgan Library, 1976.

2. Facsimiles

Note: The series Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile publishes high-quality (and very expensive) facsimiles of manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon period. Notable titles include The Nowell Codex (i.e. the Beowulf manuscript), The Tollemache Orosius, Alfred's Pastoral Care, and The Vercelli Book. An especially useful volume in the series is Old English Verse Texts from Many Sources, ed. Fred C. Robinson and E.G. Stanley (1991), which prints facsimiles of all Old English poems not contained in the four "great" codices (the Beowulf Manuscript, the Junius Manuscript, the Exeter Book, the Vercelli Book).

A new and important series of facsimiles is Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile, ed. Phillip Pulsiano et al. (Binghamton, N.Y.: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1994-  ). These facsimiles are not as good as in EEMF, but they are perfectly adequate and you don't have to go to Special Collections to see them.

The following facsimiles, not part of the EEMF series, are owned by the U.Va. library (several important facsimiles, unfortunately, are not):

Zupitza, Julius. Beowulf Reproduced in Facsimile from the Unique Manuscript, British Museum Ms. Cotton Vitellius A. XV. 2nd ed. rev. Norman Davis. Early English Text Society, 245. London, 1959. See also the Beowulf facsimile page.

James, M.R. The Canterbury Psalter. London, 1935. This is the Eadwine Psalter.

Flower, Robin and A.H. Smith. The Parker Chronicle and Laws. Early English Text Society, 208. London, 1941. See also the Parker Chronicle facsimile page.

Kendrick, T.D. et al., ed. Evangeliorum quattuor Codex Lindisfarnensis; Musei Britannici Codex Cottonianus Nero D. IV. 2 vols. Oltun, Switzerland: Urs Graf, 1956-60. See also the Lindisfarne Gospels facsimile pages.

3. Studies

Alexander, J.J.G. Insular Manuscripts, 6th to the 9th Century. Survey of manuscripts illuminated in the British Isles, 1. London: Harvey Miller, 1978.

* Brown, Michelle. Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. London: British Library, 1991.

* Brown, Michelle. Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms. Malibu and London: J. Paul Getty Museum and the British Library, 1994.

Dumville, D. N. English Caroline Script and Monastic History: Studies in Benedictinism, A.D. 950-1030. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 1993.

Kiernan, Kevin S. Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1981.

Kiernan, Kevin S. The Thorkelin Transcripts of Beowulf. Copenhagen : Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1986.

Richards, Mary P., ed. Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: Basic Readings. New York: Garland, 1994. Good collection of essays.

Temple, E. Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, 900-1066. Survey of manuscripts illuminated in the British Isles, 2. London: Harvey Miller, 1976.

Bibliography Index
Old English Home Page