Vercelli Book

The Vercelli Book ( also known as Vercelli, Biblioteca Capitular CXVII ) is one of the four relevant manuscripts in which the corpus of Old English poetry is preserved. It is located in the archives of the cathedral at Vercelli Kapitularbibliothek.

History

Due to palaeography and content findings is today accepted as date of origin of the manuscript generally the middle of the second half of the 10th century. Dialectal and content features some of the prose contained also point to South East England, especially in Canterbury, as a possible source. All text contained transcripts were made ​​by the hand of the same scribe, possibly over a longer period.

The circumstances under which the manuscript came to Italy are unknown. Speculation about the possible time for the transfer from England to northern Italy ranged in scientific criticism of the beginning or the middle of the 11th century to the early modern period. Most commentators now believe that the Code must be reached during the 11th century to Italy at the latest. The German jurist Friedrich Bluhme (also: flower) found the manuscript in 1822 in the Vercelleser library and described it in his Iter italicum ( Volume 1, 1824), with whose language he identified the first as " angelsäxisch ". Previously, she was, " Homiliarum Liber Ignoti Idiomatis " means, in the books of the library and directories on the cover, which is dated to the early 19th century. A first copy made ​​between October 1833 and May 1834, the German C. Maier on behalf of the Record Commission ( London).

Content

The manuscript contains 135 preserved parchment leaves next 23 sermon texts and a Biography of St. Guthlac in prose form the Old English poems " " Andreas "," The Dream of the Rood, "" Soul to the Body "," Homiletic Fragment I "," Elene "and" The Fates of the Apostles. " both of the latter are attributed to the Old English poet Cynewulf due to runes signatures in the poems.

Codicological considerations of the manuscript have shown that in various positions individual sheets are missing, so that multiple texts are incomplete. The readability of some folios is also strongly affected by a, reagent presumably used by C. Maier.