Rebinding efforts, though saving the manuscript from much degeneration, have nonetheless covered up other letters of the poem, causing further loss. In 1731, the manuscript was damaged by a fire, and the margins were charred, and several readings were lost. The Beowulf manuscript itself is identified by name for the first time in an exchange of letters in 1700. The earliest surviving reference to the Nowell Codex was made about 1650, and the prior ownership of the codex before Nowell remains a mystery. The Beowulf manuscript is known as the Nowell Codex, gaining its name from the 16th-century owner and scholar Laurence Nowell. The manuscript dates either to the reign of Æthelred the Unready or to the beginning of the reign of Cnut the Great from 1016. The poem is known only from a single manuscript, which is estimated to date from around 975–1025. It has no title in the original document but has become known by the name of the story’s hero. Oxford University Press, 1959.Beowulf is an Old English epic poem that survives in a single copy in the manuscript known as the Nowell Codex. Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile vol.1, 1951. The Dating of Beowulf, University of Toronto Press, 1997. However, without knowing the quires that make up theĬollection, Beowulf may only be an integral part.Ĭhase, C. That Beowulf might have been a complete work in itself at one is a collection ofĬodices, with Beowulf being one of them, one might conclude Possible to be certain which folios went together in quires. Following the fireĭamage and subsequent remounting of the manuscript, it is not longer To six vellum leaves tied together with thread. was assembled in gatherings or quires of three The following table illustrates them:Ĭotton Vitelius A. The official foliationĭone in 1884 corrects these errors, but becomes somewhat problematic
The manuscript foliation, performed sometime between 1793 andġ801, was done with two quires of the Nowell Codex out of order, and Two numbering schemes persist as more canonical. The subsequent four attempts can beįound on the outside corners of the manuscript, and on the paperįrames. At least two attempts were made before the fire ofġ731, which have since burned away. Evidence shows that this has been attempted at Some disagreement arises over the foliation, or page numbering, ofĬotton Vitellius A. It is possible that we may never know what an Anglo-Saxon This fragment actually corresponds to what appears to be the description of Here is aįragment from a preliminary scan from the Electronic Beowulf project: That is, it had been erased in preparation for reuse or revision. Folio 179/182 is argued to be palimpsest, On the whole, the manuscript remains fairly readable, but some folios in Manuscript measured 195 mm high by 115-130 mm wide with a written area When the 1969 edition of Zupitza's facsimiles went to press, the In 1990, work on the Electronic Beowulf, a collection of high quality digitizations withįibre-optic and ultra-violet lighting headed by Kevin Kiernan,Ĭontinues at the British Library and the University of Kentucky. Produced a black-and-white facsimile and transcription ofīeowulf, followed by Kemp Malone's in 1969. was rebound mounted on paper frames that help slow theĭeterioration of the edges of the pages. By that time, much of the text of Beowulf had crumbled away from the edges of the pages. It was not until the next century that the British Museum went about systematically repairing the books damaged by the fire. Thorkelin, an Anglo-Saxonist from Iceland, and a hired scribe It was saved by being thrown from the window with many other Seven years later, it was moved again toĪshburnham House in Westminster. Byġ722, Cotton's house had deteriorated and the collection was moved toĮssex House in Strand. In 1700, Cotton's collection was donated to the British people. Beowulf follows three prose works in the Nowell Codex and precedes the poem Judith.ġ - The Life of St. It is a composite manuscript consisting of two codices (the Southwick Codex and the Nowell Codex) and nine different works between them. Time later, it entered into the manuscript collection of Sir Robertīruce Cotton (1571-1631) and was shelved under the bust of RomanĮmperor Aulus Vitellius shelf A, position 15 hence the name Cotton The earliest known owner of the manuscript is an earlyĪnglo-Saxon scholar known as Laurence Nowell, Dean of Lichfield. There is one manuscript in which Beowulf has survived to the Beowulf Project - The Manuscript The Beowulf Manuscript