Michael Lapidge - Some Remnants of Bede's Lost Liber Epigrammatum

798 October

Notes and Documents Some remnants of Bede's lost Liber Epigrammatum

AT the end of the last book of his Historia Ecclesiastica, Bede lists among his compositions a 'liber epigrammatum heroico metro siue elegiaco'.1 This Liber Epigrammatum does not seem to have had a wide circulation during the medieval period (in England at least). A copy of the work, however, was known to Henry of Kirkstede, the mid-fourteenth-century compiler of the Catalogus Scriptorum Ecclesiae (which is customarily and mistakenly attributed to 'Boston' of Bury)2; since that time the work has apparently disappeared.3 In the early sixteenth century, John Leland (c. I 503-52) was commissioned by Henry VIII to make a search for British antiquities in the libraries of all monasteries and colleges where written records were deposited.4 Leland's searches occupied the years I533 to I543 and the record of various manuscripts he inspected is found in his Collec- tanea.5 Among the manuscripts which Leland inspected was an 'antiquissimum codex epigrammaton'.6 The Collectanea contain no notice of where Leland found this 'ancient codex', but we learn from his Commentarii de scriptoribus Britannicis that he had seen it at Malmes- bury.7 Leland's partial transcription in his Collectanea of this Malmes- bury manuscript (which is now, apparently, lost) has considerable value for the study of eighth-century England; not only does it contain epigrams and epitaphs concerning some of the most prominent eighth-century ecclesiastical personalities, but among the epigrams are some attributed to Bede himself, and which may reasonably be assumed to represent fragments of the lost Liber Epigrammatum. Leland's transcription of these and of the other epigrams has totally escaped the notice of modern scholarshitp because the majority of

I. H[istoria] E[cclesiastica] v. 24. My citations are from the edition of C. Plummer, Baedae Opera Historica (Oxford, I896).

2. See R. H. Rouse, 'Bostonus Buriensis and the Author of the Catalogus Scriptorum Ecclesiae', Speculum, xli (I966), 47I-99. The only surviving manuscript of the Catalogus is the seventeenth-century antiquarian transcript made by Thomas Tanner, Cambridge University Library, MS. Addit. 3470.

3. Plummer, p. cliv; M. Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters (Munich, I 9I I), i. 86; W. Jaager, Bedas metrische Vita Cuthberti. Palaestra cxcviii (Leipzig, I935), p. 50; M. L. W. Laistner and H. H. King, A Hand-List of Bede Manuscripts (Ithaca N.Y., I 943), pp. I22 and I29.

4. On Leland see T. D. Kendrick, British Antiquity (London, I950), pp. 45-64. 5. MSS. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Top. gen. c. I-4 (Summary Catalogue nos.

3 II 7-20). The Collectanea were first edited by Thomas Hearne in six volumes (Oxford, I 7I 5). My quotations are from the manuscript of the Collectanea in the Bodleian Library but I have also given references to the second edition of Hearne (London, I770), the most easily accessible edition of the work.

6. Leland's transcription of this 'ancient codex' is found in vol. ii of the Collectanea: MS. Bodleian Library Top. gen. c. 2 (Summary Catalogue 31 i8), pp. III-I5 (ed. in Hearnediii. I i4-IH ).

7. Ed. A. Hall (Oxford, I 709), i.- I 34.

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I975 BEDE' S LOST 'LIBER EPIGRAMMATUM' 799 them are otherwise unrecorded, and because editions of Leland's Collectanea are not easily accessible, I have thought it worthwhile to reprint the whole collection.

Leland's Malmesbury manuscript was indeed extremely ancient - 'antiquissimum'. The very first epigram of the collection (no. i infra) specifes that the owner of the book was one Milred: 'hunc proprie librum Milredus possidet ipse/antistes sanctus'. Milred was bishop of Worcester from) 745 to 775, and the dates of his bishopric are therefore the te mini for the composition of his codex of epigrams. The nature of the contents itself tends to favour an earlier rather than a later date within these termini: as will be seen from the accompanying commentary, most of the epitaphs belong to the first half of the eighth century (e.g. Berhtwald 73 I, Tatwine 734 and Bede 73 S) and the latest datable epigrams in the collection are those composed by Bishop Cuthbert of Hereford before his elevation to the archbishopric of Canterbury in 740. It would not be unreasonable, therefore, to suggest a date of approximately 750 for the compilation and writing of Milred's codex; it would presumably have been written at Worcester under Milred's direction.

Milred of Worcester was one of the most prominent eighth-century English bishops. To judge by the number of charters which bear his name (particularly after the accession of Offa to the Mercian throne in 75 7),1 it was through Milred's influence with Offa and the Mercian subreguli that the church of Worcester acquired many endowments of land. Milred's personal prestige was also great, and he seems to have been in contact with the principal English churchmen of his time. For example, he had visited both Boniface and Lul in Germany in either 75 3 or 754, and after Boniface's martyrdom he had written to Lul expressing his grief.2 Milred also had close contacts with Cuthbert, bishop of Hereford (736-40) and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury (740-58); thus Milred adds a postscript to the above- mentioned letter to Lul explaining that he has not enclosed a volume of Porphyry's poems3 because Cuthbert has not yet returned it. Milred was present at the important council of Clovesho called by Cuthbert in 747.4 This personal relationship is reflected in the codex of epigrams, in the inclusion of two epigrams by Cuthbert himself

i. P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters (London, I968), nos. 55 (=[J.] K[emble], C[odex] D[iplomaticus Aevi Saxonici] (London, I839), no. I02, and [W. deG.] B[irch], C[artularium] S[axonicumj (London, i885), no. I83), 98 (KCD 95, BCS I7I), I04 (KCD I23, BCS 2I6), I07 (KCD I29, BCS 221), I42 (KCD I26, BCS 2I9) and I41I (KCD I27, BCS 220).

2. Ep. cxii, ed. M. Tangl, Die Briefe des heiligen Bonifatius und Lullus. M[onumenta] G[ermaniae] H[istorica] Epistolae Selectae i (Berlin, I9I6), pp. 243-5. cf. H. Hahn, Bonifaz und Lul (Leipzig, I 883), pp. 256-9.

3. MS. librum pyrpyri (Tangi, p. 245), which was first identified by E. Kylie, The English Correspondence of St Boniface (London, I9II), p. 209.

4. A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland (Oxford, I869), iii. 360; also BCS 174.

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8oo SOME REMNANTS OF Octoder (nos. 20 and 2I). Similarly, Milred includes in his codex the epitaph of Bugga, a founder of the double monastery at Withington, Glou- cestershire: her epitaph was no doubt personally interesting to Milred because it was this monastery which he had, following a serious dispute, secured for Abbess IEthelburga, with reversion to his own church at Worcester.'

The codex of epigrams itself throws considerable new light on the best-known figures of the early eighth-century English church: Bede himself, Abbot Ceolfrith of Jarrow, Bishop Cyneberht of Lindsey, Berhtwald and Tatwine, successive archbishops of Canterbury, Abbot Albinus of SS. Peter and Paul at Canterbury, Bishop Hxdde of Winchester, as well as Cuthbert and Bugga. Milred's codex con- tained epitaphs of Berhtwald and Tatwine which have not previously been noticed by historians and which add some details to their scanty biographies. A new and unknown facet of Bede's personality appears in these epigrams: his part-time occupation as occasional poet, dedicating churches in Northumbria and sending epigrams to friends. An obscure abbot of Abingdon, Cumma, speaks for the first time in a brief epigram. Some otherwise unknown ecclesiastics appear, among them an Abbot Widsith and an Abbot Cyneheah, who apparently was an English abbot from Ireland.

The majority of epigrams in Milred's codex are concerned with these English ecclesiastical personalities, some of whom were known personally to Milred. But there are also several epigrams of obscure continental origin: a fragmentary epitaph commemorating an early sixth-century priest from Vercelli (no. I6), found otherwise only in a manuscript from Lorsch of the early tenth century; some verses which were possibly inscribed in a chapel at Peronne in Picardy, perhaps written there by Abbot Cellanus (no. 9); and some verses on the dedication of a veil by King Chintila of the Visigoths to St Peter's in Rome (no. I5). Why should such epigrams have been copied into a book at Worcester in the mid-eighth century? This question can perhaps best be answered by considering the function of the collection as a whole. We know that, at this time, collections (called syllogae) of papal epitaphs were compiled as models or manuals of epitaph-composition; these syilogae were to the medieval world what the stone-cutters' manuals had been in Roman times.2 One such sylloga is the manuscript from Lorsch (MS. Rome, Vat. Pal. lat. 833) mentioned above, which contains epitaphs of popes up to the time of Sergius I (ob. 688).3 Another ylloga from St Riquier (now MS. Leningrad, F. XIV. i) contains epitaphs of various popes, the latest

i. Sawyer, no. I255 (KCD I24, BCS 2I7). See pp. 8I6-7 infra. 2. See L. Wallach, 'Alcuin's Epitaph of Hadrian I: A Study of Carolingian Epigraphy',

American Journal of Philology, lxxii (95I), I28-44, and idem, 'The Epitaph of Alcuin: A Model of Carolingian Epigraphy', Speculum, xxx (I9 55), 367-73.

3. Ed. G. B. de Rossi, I[nscriptiones] C[hristianae] V[rbis] R[omae] (Rome, i888), ii. 95-II8.

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of which is Honorius I (625-38), as well as the epitaphs of Gregory the Great (quoted by Bede, HE ii. i) and of Ceadwalla, the king of Wessex who died in Rome in 689 (also quoted by Bede, HE v. 7).1 These are the two largest extant collections, but there are many other such yllogae from continental centres. In the early eighth century, an English pilgrim brought back from Rome a collection of papal epitaphs (of which the latest in date was that of John VII, ob. 707) which he had apparently copied there; this collection (now lost) was used by the early twelfth-century compiler of papal biographies in MS. Cambridge, U.L. Kk. iv. 6 (ff. 224-80).2 This manuscript was written at Worcester (it contains the hand of John of Worcester),3 and one may therefore tentatively suggest that this ylloga was to be found at Worcester in the twelfth century; conceivably it had been brought to Worcester already in the eighth century. In any case, this lost eighth-century gylloga is but one example of such collections in England. Given the amount of pilgrim-traffic between England and Rome in the early eighth century,4 there may presumably have been more. Both Benedict Biscop and Ceolfrith had been many times to Rome, for example, and it might have been from a transcription made by one of them that Bede learned both Gregory the Great's epitaph (HE ii. i) as well as the epitaph of Ceadwalla composed by Archbishop Crispus of Milan (HE v. 7). Similarly, the epitaph from Vercelli in Milred's codex (no. i6) may perhaps have been brought to Worcester by an English pilgrim who had been to Rome. Taken together these epitaphs provide clear evidence for the compilation of yllogae in England as well as on the continent in the early eighth century. And at Worcester in particular there would seem to have been an interest in such collections. Milred's codex of epigrams, then, was apparently intended as a ylloga with a wider function: it would provide models not only of epitaphs, but of dedicatory epigrams for churches, chapels, altar-veils, manuscripts, and so on. Further, the codex was clearly designed by Milred as a specifically English gylloga with English models and English terms of reference. These con- siderations will emerge more clearly, perhaps, from an examination of the contents of Milred's codex itself.5

i. ICVR ii. 72-94. 2. That the epitaphs in this liber pontificalis were derived from such a sylloga was first

noticed by W. Levison, 'Aus englischen Bibliotheken II', Neues Archiv, xxxv (I910), 3 36-424, esp. 3 5 o-66 (on the epitaphs themselves); see further discussion by L. Duchesne, 'Le recueil 6pigraphique de Cambridge', Melanges d'archeologie et d'hisioire, Xxx (I910), 279-31I. The epitaphs have been edited by A. Silvagni, 'La silloge epigrafica di Cam- bridge', Rivista di archeologia cristiana, xx (I943), 49-112.

3 . See N. R. Ker, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain. 2nd edn. (London, I 964), p. 209, n. 4, and also Ker's notice ante, lix (I944), 375-6.

4. See further W. J. Moore, The Saxon Pilgrims to Rome and the Schola Saxonum (Frei- burg, 1937).

5. I have printed all the items listed by Leland, even where he has not bothered to copy out a poem whose title he gives. Titles of epigrams in English are mine; those in Latin and italics are Leland's. Leland apparently followed strictly the orthography of

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8oz SOME REMNANTS OF October

i. Prefatory Epigram by Milred on his Codex of Epigrams (ex primo libri epigrammate)

Hunc proprie librum Milredus possidet antistes sanctus, magno qui dignus honore. est etenim dapibus scripturae plenus et actu.

[Leland, p. i i i; Hearne iii. i I 4] As I have noted above, Milred was bishop of Worcester from 745 to 775. Leland has here made an error in transcription: the division of antistes into two lines is improbable and the second line is a foot short. Fortunately he recorded this epigram elsewhere: while discussing Milred in his Commentarii de scriptoribus Britannicis, he noted that he had read some lines concerning Milred in an 'ancient codex of epigrams' ('legi praeterea in antiquissimo codice epigrammaton hos versiculos in ipsa libelli fronte scriptos') and quoted them:

Hunc proprie librum Milredus possidet ipse, antistes sanctus, magno qui dignus honore. est etenim dapibus scripturae plenus et actu.1

This is no doubt the correct version of the epigram.

z. Epigram of Bede on Jerome's Commentary in Esaiam (Versus Bedae de tractatu Hieronymi in Esaiam)

Hieronymus reserat dum mystica claustra videntum, Hebreas Latio pandit in orbe gazas.

Isaiae clavibus ter sex arcana subintrat atque evangelicum protulit inde iubar.

discutiens prisci nam carmina celsa prophetac 5 cernit apostolicis equiperata tubis.

[Leland, p. i i i; Hearne iii. I I41 In the list of his works at the end of the Historica Ecclesiastica, Bede cites the following compilation: 'in Isaiam, Danihelem, duodecim prophetas, et partem Hieremiae, distinctiones capitulorum ex tractatu beati Hieronimi excerptas' (HE v. 24). These excerpts from Jerome have apparently not survived,2 but it would appear that this epigram was prefixed to that compilation in the way that the epigram beginning 'Exsul ab humano dum pellitur orbe Ioannes... 'is prefixed to Bede's commentary in Apocalypsin,3 or that beginning

Milred's codex, and variation of e and f for a& is frequent. Hearne standardized all such variants to &-, and consistently printedj for i (as was the practice of eighteenth-century editors). I have restored Leland's (and presumably Milred's) orthography, and have punctuated the poems in accordance with modern principles. The markings of asterisks and dots which are found at several places in the manuscript, and which Leland used to mark metrical curiosities, are reproduced by Hearne but have not been reproduced here.

I. Commentarii, i. I I 3. 2. Plummer, p. clv. 3. P[atrologia] Lfatina] xciii. cols. 133-4.

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'Naturas rerum varias, labentis et aevi '1 is prefixed to his de natura rerum.

3. A Poet's Epitaph (Epitaphium Poetae) Vivere post obitum vates vis nosse, viator?

quid legis ? ecce loquor: vox tua nempe mea est. [Leland, p. i i i; Hearne iii. I 14]

This epitaph is known from several later continental manuscripts and has been printed both by Riese and Baehrens.2 Baehrens argued that the distich was originally the beginning of a longer epitaph commemorating one Nymphius.3 Whatever the case, the distich was quoted by Possidius in his Vita Augustini (c. xxxi) - Augustine may be said to live always for the faithful in the books he had written, just as a 'certain secular poet' (saeculariam quidam poeta) had expressed himself in the epigram.4 The epigram was very probably copied into Milred's codex from a text of Possidius.5

4. Enigmata Bedae [Leland, p. i i i; Hearne iii. i I4] The antiquity of Milred's codex may be taken as sound evidence that Bede did in fact compose 'riddles' or enigmata in some form or other. There has been much conjecture on this subject,6 partly inspired by a reference to 'Enigmata Bedae' in the contents-list of a late-eleventh- century manuscript from St Augustine's, Canterbury.7 That the enigmata in this Canterbury manuscript are in fact by Bede is doubtful in the extreme.

5. Epigram by Aldhelm on the Church of SS. Peter and Paul (Versus Aidhelmi ibidem de ecclesia Petri et Pauli) [Leland, p. i i i; Hearne iii. I I4]

Leland does not quote any of this epigram, but it is clear that it was Aldhelm's dedicatory epigram to his own church of SS. Peter and Paul at Malmesbury, which is included among his Carmina Ecclesias- tica (no. i).8

6. Dedicatory Epigram by Bede to St Michael (Epigramm[at]a Bedae ad S. Michaelem) [Leland, p. i i i; Hearne iii. I 41

i. PL xc. col. I87. 2. A. Riese, Anihologia Latina (Leipzig, i894), ii. I77 (no. 721); E. Baehrens, Poefae

Latini Minores (Leipzig, i88i), iii. 270. 3. Baehrens, ibid. 4. PL xxxii. col. 64. The text of Possidius reads vatem for vales in line I and quod for

quid in line 2; although quod of Possidius's text is clearly the correct reading, I have punctuated quid legis of Milred's codex with the necessary question mark.

5. The epigram is also quoted in the Homiliary of Paulus Diaconus, PL xcv. col. I53I'

6. F. Tupper, 'Riddles of the Bede Tradition', Modern Philology, ii (I904-5), 56I-72, 7. MS. Cambridge University Library Gg. v. 35; the riddles in question are on ff.

4i 8v-4i9r and are printed by Tupper, ubi supra. 8. Ed. R. Ehwald, MGH Auct. Antiq. xv (Berlin, I 9I 9), pp. ii-i-2; see also Ehwald's

discussion, p. 5.

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804 SOME REMNANTS OF October Regrettably Leland did not transcribe this or the following two epigrams of Bede. While the object of Bede's dedication cannot be certainly known, its proximity to two other church dedications by Bede in Milred's codex suggests that such a dedication is in question here. This epigram to St Michael was possibly intended to commemorate the oratory (clymiterium) of St Michael which is mentioned by Bede (HE v. z) as being near Hexham, possibly at either St John's Lee' or Warden.2 There is no other known church or oratory dedicated to St Michael in Northumbria at this time.3

7. Dedicatory Epigram by Bede to a Church of St Mary ( ad S. Mariam de consecratione ecclesiae in eius honorem) [Leland, p. i i i; Hearne iii] [4]

There are two possibilities for the identification of a church dedicated to St Mary in Northumbria: there was a church so dedicated in the monastery of St Peter at Wearmouth which is mentioned both in the anonymous Vita Ceolfridi4 and again by Bede himself5; there was also a church dedicated to Mary at Hexham in the monastery of St Andrew. The following epigram of Bede (no. 8) was certainly dedicated to the church of St Mary at Hexham, but there can be no certain identification of the church of the present epigram.

8. Versus eiusdem (scil. Bedae) in porticu ecclesiae S. Mariae, ab Wi/frido episcopo constructa in quibus mentionem facit Accae episcopi [Leland, p. i i i; Hearne iii. i I4]

This epigram of Bede was clearly intended to commemorate the church of St Mary at Hexham. In AEddi's Vita Wi/fridi (c. lvi) a vision of Wilfrid is recounted in which St Michael appeared to him and urged him to build a church in honour of St Mary; IEddi relates that Wilfrid awoke and discussed the project with Acca (who was to become his successor in the see of Hexham, and who was a patron of Bede). We learn from a much later report by Richard of Hexham that the church was begun by Wilfrid and completed by Acca.6

9. Lines on an Oratory Dedicated to St Patrick (Versus Bedae in oratorio S. Patricii)

Istam Patricius sanctus sibi vindicat aulam quem merito nostri summo venerantur honore. iste medeliferi monstravit dona lavachri:

i. Plummer, ii. 274. 2. J. Raine, The Priory of Hexham I. Surtees Society Publications xliv (Durham, I 864),

p. i6; cf. also H. M. and J. Taylor, 'Pre-Norman Churches of the Border', in Celt and Saxon. Studies in ihe Early British Border, ed. N. K. Chadwick (Cambridge, I963), p. 224, and idem, Anglo-Saxon Architecture (Cambridge, I965), ii. 632-4.

3. See W. Levison, 'The Patron Saints of English Churches in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries', Appendix to England and Ihe Conlinenl in Ihe Eighlh Century (Oxford, I946), p. 263.

4. Ed. in Plummer, i. 396. 5. Plummer, i. 373 and 38I-2. 6. Raine, The Priory of Hexham, pp. I4-I 8.

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hic nobis Christum, dominumque deumque colendum iussit, et ignaram docuit bene credere gentem. 5 Calpurnus genuit, istum alma Britannia misit; Gallia nutrivit, tenet ossaque Scottia felix.

[Leland, p. i i i; Hearne iii. I I4] Leland's ascription (or that of Milred's codex) is false: the nostri of line two indicates that the author of the poem was an Irishman. This poem is known from another source: it is also found among a collection of tituli in a ninth-century manuscript in Beneventan hand, probably from Monte Cassino.' Among this collection of tituli is an epigram dedicated to one Transmarus, bishop of the plebs Verman- densis, that is, the people of Vermandois or Picardy; the author of this epigram gives his name as Cellanus. Traube long ago identified this Cellanus with the Cellanus of Peronne (in Picardy) who was a correspondent of Aldhelm and who died in 706.2 Traube assumes that other of the tittili in the Beneventan manuscript were from Peronne and were by Cellanus, and in particular that the verses dedicating an oratory or chapel (aula) to St Patrick were from the church at Peronne, inasmuch as Peronne was an Irish foundation.3 (This is no more than an assumption, however). All the same, it is remarkable that an inscription possibly from a chapel in Picardy should appear in an eighth-century manuscript from Worcester (and be ascribed to Bede) and in a ninth-century manuscript from Monte Cassino. The appearance of the epigram in England may perhaps be due to Cellanus's connection with Aldhelm; the ascription to Bede is inscrutable.

I0. Lines from an Epigram of Bede (Versus decerpti ex epigrammate Bedae)

Obsecro, quisque legis, Cynebertum supplice voto commendes domino, cuius hic ductus amore a fundamentis sacraria condidit alta. hac et in urbe sibi seseque sequentibus almam fecit presulibus sedem, qua turba piorum 5 sumeret aeternae celestia premia vitae.

[Leland, p. i i i; Hearne iii. I I 5] The bishop whom Bede addresses here, and who created an 'almam sedem' for the bishops following him, is probably to be identified

i. MS. Florence, Laurenziana Lat. plut. LXVI 40. 2. L. Traube, 'Perrona Scottorum', SiftZungsberichte d.phil.-hist. Cl. d.k. Akad.d.Wiss.

xu Miinchen, I900 (Munich, 1901), pp. 469-538, esp. pp. 488-9; also J. F. Kenney, The Sotrces for the Early History of Ireland: Ecclesiastical, rev. L. Bieler (New York, I966), p. 507 (no. 306).

3. See further K. Meyer, 'Verses from a Chapel dedicated to St Patrick at Peronne', I8riu, v (I9iI), io-ii, and W. Levison, 'Zu den Versen des Abtes Cellanus von Peronne', Zeitschrift fur celtische Philologie, xx (1933-6), 382-go. The version of the epigram to St Patrick's chapel in the Beneventan manuscript includes a final line which was omitted in Milred's codex: 'ambo stelligeri capientes praemia caeli'.

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8o6 SOME REMNANTS OF October

with the Cyneberht (Cyniberctus) whom Bede mentions in the list of Lindsey bishops (HE iv. I 2; cf. v. 23), who was alive when the Historia Ecclesiastica was completed in 73I, and who had supplied Bede with information concerning the church in Lindsey (HE, praef.). The epigram apparently commemorates the building of a cathedral at Lincoln (presumably the urbs of line four) by Cyneberht; Bede's epigram may possibly have been inscribed on its walls.

i i. Liber Geneseos metricus [Leland, p. I I 2; Hearne iii. II 5] It is difficult to guess what this title might have referred to: one may doubt that Cyprianus Gallus's lengthy Heptateuhos would have been copied into a manuscript of epigrams. Possibly it was an epigram of Bede written to be prefixed to his commentary in Genesim, although no extant manuscript of that work contains such an epigram.

i z. Epitaphium Widsidi abbatis [Leland, p. i i 2; Hearne iii. I I 5] With the exception of the poem Widsith, the only other reference to a person of this name in the Anglo-Saxon period is found in the Liber Vitae of Durham (which incorporates seventh-century material) under the heading 'nomina clericorum': uidsith.b The name Widsith means 'one who has travelled widely',2 and may perhaps - like the name Oftfor (bishop of Worcester, ob. 692) meaning 'the much journeyed' - disguise a real name with a metaphor.

I3. Dedicatory Epigram by Ceolfrith (erroneously by Leland: Epitaphium Ceo/fridi abbatis) [Leland, p. i i 2; Hearne iii. II 5]

Corpusa ad eximii merito venerabile Petrib dedicat ecclesiae quem capite alta fidesd

Ceolfridus,e extremis Anglorum finibus abbas :f devoti aspectusg pignora mitto mei,

meque meosque optans, tanti inter gaudia patris, 5 in coelis memorem semper habere locum.

a cenobium A b saluatoris A c caput A,C d quem caput ecclesiae dedicat alta fides A e Petrus Langobardorum A f extremis de finibus abbas A: Anglorum extremis de finibus abbas C g affectus A,C

Bede relates in his Historia Abbatum (c. xv) that Ceolfrith, abbot of Jarrow (682-7I6) had ordered three pandects of the Bible to be copied at Jarrow, and that he took one of these with him to Rome to present to St Peter's. The anonymous Vita Ceolfridi (c. xx) adds that, after the death of Ceolfrith in Langres in 7I6, his companions proceeded to Rome in order to deliver the present. This pandect survives as the famous Codex Amiatinus3 and on the first folio is

i. Ed. H. Sweet, The Oldest English Texts (London, I885), p. I58, line I79. z. Widsith, ed. K. Malone. Anglistica, xiii (Copenhagen, I962), 209-I0. 3. MS. Florence, Bibl. Laurenziana Amiatino I; see Codices Latini Antiquiores iii. ed.

E. A. Lowe (Oxford, I938), no. 299. See discussion of the Codex Amiatinus by B. Fischer, 'Codex Amiatinus und Cassiodor', Biblische Zeitschrift, vi (I962), 57-79, and P. Hunter Blair, The World of Bede (London, 1970), pp. 22I-36.

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written Ceolfrith's dedicatory epigram.' The anonymous author of the Vita Ceolfridi also recorded the epigram2; Milred's codex preserves yet another copy. I have consequently printed the epigram as it was copied from Milred's codex by Leland, and added as an appa- ratus the variant readings of the Codex Amiatinus itself (A) and of the version in the Vita Ceolfridi (C). One factor complicates the textual situation slightly (as will be readily apparent from the appa- ratus): at some time in the late ninth century, Peter of Lombardy, abbot of Monte Amiata, had somehow acquired the codex which Ceolfrith had presented, and had the name Ceolfridus Anglorum (line 3) erased and replaced with his own name Petrus Langobardorum; he similarly replaced corpus . .. Petri in line i with cenobium . . . saluatoris (metrically false) in order to obscure the original dedication to St Peter's.3 If these forged readings by Peter of Lombardy are dis- regarded, it will nonetheless be clear that the version in the Vita Ceolfridi has departed from the original in reversing the order of the hemistichs in line 2 (an easy transposition, particularly if the author was quoting from memory); Milred's codex reproduced the transposition of the second line (and so may be presumed to derive from a copy of the Vita Ceolfridi) and added the corruptions capit for caput in line 2, extremis Anglorum finibus abbas for Anglorum extremis de finibus abbas in line 3, and aspectus for affectus in line 4, thus produc- ing a completely garbled version of the original epigram.

I4. Versus sybillini de die iudicii [Leland, p. i i 2; Hearne iii. I I 5] It is not possible to identify these versus gybillini from so scant a notice. Given the large amount of Bedan material in Milred's codex, one thinks not unnaturally of Bede's own versus de die iudicii,4 beginning 'inter florigeras fecundi cespitis herbas'. But it is surely odd that a codex compiled so near in time to Bede's death should ignore his authorship of these verses, particularly when the majority of early manuscripts of the poem clearly specify this authorship.5 Further, in none of the surviving manuscripts of Bede's poem (and certainly in none that I have examined in British libraries) is it described as versus sybillini.6 There were, however, other sibvlline

i. f. iV; a facsimile of this folio is printed by E. A. Lowe, English Uncial (Oxford, I960), P1. VIII. z. Plummer, i. 402.

3. See G. B. de Rossi, 'La Bibbia offerta da Ceolfrido abbate al sepolcro di S. Pietro', in Al sommo Pontefice Leone XIII. Omaggio giubilare della Biblioteca Vaticana (Rome, I 888); H. J. White, 'The Codex Amiatinus and its Birthplace', Studia Biblica et Ecclesiastica, ii (I890), 273-308; and Lowe, English Uncial, pp. 8-I3.

4. Ed. J. Fraipont, in Bedae Venerabilis Opera Rhytbmica. C[orpus] C[hristianorum] S[eries] L[atina] cxxii (Turnhout, I95 5), 439-44.

5. See discussion by L. Whitbread, 'A Study of Bede's Versus de Die Iudicii', Philo- logical.Quarterly, xxiii (I944), I93-22I.

6. The most common manuscript titles are 'Versus Bede presbiteri de die iudicii', 'Versus domini Bedae presbiteri de penis', 'de amaritudine presentis vite et horribili iudicii timore', etc.; the poem is quoted in the Historia Regum attributed to Symeon of Durham (ed. T. Arnold, R[olls] S[eries] (London, i885), p. 23) as 'Lamentatio Bedae presbyteri'.

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verses in Latin circulating in the early medieval period. Some such verses, beginning 'iudicii signum tellus sudore madescet', are quoted by Augustine in the de civitate Dei and had a wide circulation.' There are also some sibylline verses beginning 'iudicio tellus sudabit maesta propinquo' which are written in the form of an acrostic (on IESVS CHRISTVS DEI FILIVS SALVATOR CRVX) and which are a translation of acrostic Greek sibylline verses.2 Because Aldhelm often quotes from these latter sibylline verses, it has been plausibly suggested that the Latin translation was made in the school of Theodore and Hadrian at Canterbury (it is not impossible that Aldhelm himself was the translator).3 And given that such a translation was available in early eighth-century Canterbury, one may suspect that these, rather than Bede's de die iudicii, were the versus sbillini copied into Milred's codex.

I 5. An Epigram Commemorating the Gift of a Veil by Chintila to St Peter's (in velo quod a Cintilane rege Romae directum est)

Discipulis cunctis domini prelatus amore dignus apostolico primus honore coli,

sancte, tuis, Petre, meritis haec munera supplex Cintila rex offert: pande salutis opem.

[Leland, p. i I z; Hearne iii. I I5] Chintila was king of the Visigoths (63 6-40).4 This epigram commemorating his gift of a veil to St Peter's in Rome is found in many other manuscripts and has been printed by de Rossi, Riese and Vives5; none of the manuscripts, however, is as early as Milred's. The epigram itself was frequently appended to manuscripts of Isidore's E{ymologiae (Isidore died during Chintila's reign), and de Rossi has argued that it was written in Spain to be delivered to Rome, not copied from an inscription at Rome.6 It is probable that the epigram was copied into Milred's codex from a manuscript of Isidore.

i. de civilate Dei xviii. 23 (P1. xli. col. 579). See the extensive discussion of Latin sibylline literature by B. Bischoff, 'Die lateinischen Ubersetzungen und Bearbeitung aus den Oracula Sibyllina', in Melanges Joseph de Ghellinck (Gembloux, I95 I), i. z2I-47; on circulation of the verses cited by Augustine see esp. p. I 26, n. I4.

2. These verses begin IHTOY2 XPEI?TOE eEOY YIOE EQTHP ETAYPO?; they are edited by J. Geffcken, Die Oracula Sibyllina, in Die griechischen christlichen Schrift- steller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte (Leipzig, I902), pp. I 5 3-7.

3. See W. Bulst, 'Eine anglo-lateinische Ubersetzung aus dem griechischen um 700', Zeitschriftfuir deutsches Altertum, lxxv (i938), I05-II.

4. On Chintila, see E. A. Thompson, The Goths in Spain (Oxford, I969), pp. I80-9. 5. de Rossi, ICVR ii. 254; Riese, Anthologia Latina ii. 5I (no. 494); J. Vives, Inscrip-

ciones cristianas de la espaia romanay visigoda. znd edn. (Barcelona, I969), pp. 135-6 (no. 389).

6. ICVR ii. 254. All other extant manuscripts of the epigram have either the readings dictum, deductum or dicatum in the title. de Rossi conjectured that these readings were corruptions of an original directum, that is, that the veil was sent from Spain to Rome; it is interesting that Milred's codex, which is the earliest of the manuscripts, does in fact have the reading directum and so confirms de Rossi's conjecture.

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i6. Fragment of an Epitaph Vltima concludens praesentis munera vitae victor in hoc positus tumulo per secla quiescit, gratus in offlciis atque omni strenuus actu.

[Leland, p. i I z; Hearne iii. II 5] The original version of this epitaph was found, in fragmentary form, inscribed on a broken stone excavated in I 842 at the old church of St Peter in Vercelli, Italy.' The stone was inscribed in the year of Mauurtius's consulate, i.e. 528. The same epitaph is also found in a manuscript which was written at Lorsch in the late ninth or early tenth century.2 This Lorsch manuscript preserves a fuller version of the original epitaph than either Milred's codex or the stone itself in its broken form; only the subscription making reference to Mauurtius's consulate is omitted. It is worth quoting this version to allow comparison with the much abbreviated version of Milred's codex:

Vltima concludens praesentis tempora uitae presbiter hoc positus tumulo per saecla quiescit Dalmatius superas meritis rediturus ad auras, gratus in officiis atque omni strenuus actu; magnanimis puroque fratrum dilectus amore, 5 corporis hanc requiem meruit pro munere uitae commendans sanctis animam corpusque fouendum.3

Folios 27-82 of the Lorsch manuscript are a gylloga or collection of tituli, used no doubt as models for the composition of epitaphs; I have suggested that Milred's codex may have been used for a similar purpose. But it is interesting to speculate how a lapidary inscription from Vercelli could turn up both in an eighth-century manuscript from Worcester and in a ninth/tenth-century manuscript from Lorsch, especially where there is no other apparent connection between the two manuscripts. (The English manuscript, although earlier, preserves an obviously more corrupt and incomplete version of the epitaph). Perhaps the small epitaph in Milred's codex is evidence, like the later and better known Vercelli Book,4 of the movement of English pilgrims to and from Rome via Vercelli in pre-conquest times.

i. ICVR ii. I 72, and Corpus Inscriptionum Latinorum, ed. T. Mommsen (Berlin, I 877), V. ii. 747 (no. 6742).

2. MS. Vatican, Palatinus lat. 833, fo. 52. 3. Ed. F. Buecheler, Anthologia Latina. Carmina Latina Epigraphica (Leipzig, I 895), i.

332-3 (no. 703). The lapidary inscription reads ... Ido for the MS. Dalmatius in line 3; various editors have conjectured either Gildo or Fredaldo or Ingildo as the original name.

4. MS. Vercelli CXVII; ed. G. P. Krapp, The Vercelli Book. Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records ii (New York, I932). The Vercelli Book is of the late tenth century: see K. Sisam, Studies in the History of Old English Literature (Oxford, I953), pp. II3-I8, and N. R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957), p. 464.

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I 7. Epitaph of Archbishop Berhtwald (Epitaphium Berthwaldi archiepiscopi)

Egregii patris Berthwaldi corpus humatum tumba tenet praesens, more sacrum solito.

hanc in carne manens proprio pius ore iubendo artificum manibus fecerat ipse sibi,

quem deus ecclesiis, quas ampla Britannia late 5 diffusas retinet, censuit esse patrem.

atque adeo ingentis magno auxit munere doni precipui decorans nobilitate gradus,

solus ut illum pontificii preibat honore, regmine qui fruitur sedis apostolice. IO

ecclesiamque suam ter denos rexerat annos, octonosque simul, semper amore pio;

perfecte, ut decuit, postquam iam cuncta peregit ordinis iniuncti munera sacra sibi,

terque quaterque decem transactis ac tribus annis I 5 extremum etatis clauserat ipse diem;

cuius mox anima credenda est ut soluet alto gaudia namque deo summa petisse polo,

aeternaeque frui per secula lumine vitae, ac facie ad faciem cernere leta deum. 20

dictanti titulum mihi te sancte oro sacerdos succurras precibus semper ubique piis.

[Leland, pp. II z-3; Hearne iii. II 5 -6]

Berhtwald was archbishop of Canterbury from 692 to 731 (the thirty-eight years of lines i i-i z); he had formerly been abbot of Reculver and succeeded to the archbishopric on Theodore's death in 690. Bede notes (HE ii. 3) that all the archbishops of Canterbury except Theodore and Berhtwald were buried in a chapel on the north side of the church of SS. Peter and Paul (later St Augustine's), whereas these two were buried in the church itself. Bede gives the epitaph of Theodore's tomb (HE v. 8) and it may be assumed that the epitaph of Berhtwald (in the same elegiac metre) was similarly inscribed on his tomb in the same church (as well as that of Tatwine, no. i 9 infra). Virtually all we know of Berhtwald is derived from Bede's account, so the epitaph may be seen to supplement Bede's rather unflattering report, as well as to provide some small details of Berhtwald's life: Bede, for example, merely notes that Berhtwald died longa consumtus aetate (HE v. 23), whereas the epitaph gives his age specifically as seventy-three (line I 5).

This genuine epitaph of Berhtwald preserved by Leland from Milred's codex may now replace that epitaph given by Dugdale in his Monasticon Anglicanum, which was said by Dugdale to be 'engraved on his (scil. Berhtwald's) monument':

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Stat sua laus feretro, Brithwaldus, stat sua metro, sed minor est metri laus omnis laude feretri. laude frequentandus pater hic, et glorificandus; si prece flectatur, dat ei qui danda precatur.1

The bisyllabic leonine rhyme marks this epitaph as a much later production (it could not possibly be early eighth-century), and one may assume that it is a Norman composition, possibly written after the construction of the new Canterbury cathedral at a time when the original epitaphs had perished.

i 8. Epitaph of Cuthbert and Sigbert2 (Epitaphium CJ et Sigberti) Pausantes uno pariter cubile3 tenentur C-5 et Sigbertus, dominumque deumque colentes, laudibus Dtheriis cvli super astra locati qua simul aeternis donentur in axe coronis, angelicosque inter cDtus sine fine manentes 5 perpetuam Christo laudem regique deoque dulcisonis iugiter modulentur vocibus una.

[Leland, p. II 3; Hearne iii. I I6] I have been unable to identify this Cuthbert and Sigbert (who were perhaps brothers) and we have no means of knowing where their common tomb was located. It is worth noting that the phrase dominumque deumque colentes in line z resembles very closely that in the verses (by Cellanus) on the oratory of St Patrick: dominumque deumque colendum (no. 9, line 4 supra).

I9. Epitaph of Archbishop Tatwine (Epitaphium Tatwini archiepiscopi Cantuarensis)

Hoc tegitur corpus venerandi praesulis antro Tatwine qui dictus nomine vivus erat.

nam tribus huic sedi perfecte ubi prqfuit annis corporis in fragili desinit esse domo.

hunc deus omnipotens praesenti rector ut esset 5 ecclesiae dederat, sed cito raptus abiit.

naturae sed enim mortali accessit et aetas, fessa gravisque nimis pondere iam senii.

terrae igitur propriam summo moderamine iussus partem restituens, spiritus exit ovans IO

aeternumque,4 ut credo, domino dante omnipotente protinus intravit aetheris arce domum,

cunctorumque bono fruitur sine fine bonorum iam illic perpetuo pastus amore dei.

[Leland, p. II 5 ; Hearne iii. I I61 I. W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum (London, I8I7), i. 82. Dugdale does not give

the source of this epitaph, but I suspect that it too is derived from Leland (Collectanea Vi. I09, ed Hearne).

2. So I would take it; Leland's CA is probably to be understood for Cud- (and Sig- berti), hence Cud-berti. 3. Apparently a slip for cubili.

4. Probably a mistake for aelernarnque (agreeing with domum, f.), or else the author took domus to be masculine.

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Tatwine, archbishop of Canterbury (73 I-4) and Berhtwald's successor, was a Mercian who had formerly been a priest at Breedon-on- the-Hill in Leicestershire. Bede remarks that he was sacris litteris nobiliter instructus (HE v. 23) and he is also known as the author of an Ars Grammatica and of a collection of Enigmata.' We may assume that the tomb and epitaph of Tatwine were found in the church proper of SS. Peter and Paul at Canterbury (together with those of Theodore and Berhtwald).

Dugdale also prints an epitaph of Tatwine, but, as in the case of Berhtwald, the epitaph is written in leonine hexameters with bisyllabic rhyme and is almost certainly a Norman product.2 There is also a fragmentary poem on Tatwine preserved by Wharton in his Anglia Sacra,3 but this is probably a mere extract from a longer poem on the archbishops of Canterbury and is almost certainly a Norman product as well.

zo. Epigram on a Piece of Cross-cloth by Bishop Cuthbert of Hereford

Haec veneranda crucis Christi vexilla sacratae cqperat antistes venerandus nomine Walhstod argenti atque auri fabricare monilibus amplis. sed quia cuncta cadunt mortalia tempore4 certo ipse opere in medio moriens e carne recessit, 5 linquit et infectum quod vult existere factum. ast ego successor praefati prvsulis ipse pontificis, tribuente Deo, qui munere fungor, quique gero certum Cudbri[g]ht5 de luce vocamen, ocyus implevi omissum hoc opus ordine cepto. IO

[Leland, p. I1I 3; Hearne iii. i i 6] Cuthbert was bishop of Hereford from 736 to 740, at which time he was elevated to the archbishopric of Canterbury (740-58). This poem, which was clearly written at Hereford, commemorates a piece of cross-cloth (vexilla) begun by his predecessor Bishop Walhstod in gold and silver embroidery, and finished after Walhstod's death in 736. Bishop Cuthbert was a friend and correspondent of Milred,6

i. Tatvini Opera Omnia, ed. M. de Marco and F. Glorie, CCSL, cxxxiii (Turnhout, I968), pp. i-zo8; cf. discussion of Tatwine by Manitius, Gesch. d. lat. Lit. d. Mittelalters, i. 203-6.

2. Monasticon Anglicanum, i. 82 (cf. Leland, Collectanea vi. I09, ed. Hearne). 3. H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra (Lond'on, I69I), ii. 7I; see discussion by H. Hahn, 'Die

Rathseldichter Tatwin und Eusebius', Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, xxvi (I886), 601-32, esp. 604.

4. Hearne prints pectore with tempore above as if it were a gloss; an examination of Leland's manuscript, however, shows clearly that lempore is Leland's correction of his own transcription error (pectore). For that reason I have not thought it necessary to print Leland's errors (as Hearne did) when Leland himself corrected them (cf. also Heame's text of no. zi infra, lines 2 and 9).

5. The intrusive -g- in Cudbrigbt is no doubt due to Leland. 6. Supra, p. 799.

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and the poem was perhaps copied into Milred's codex of epigrams as a token of their friendship.

The interest of this epigram, however, lies in the fact that it was quoted by William of Malmesbury in the twelfth century. While describing the various bishops of Hereford in his Gesta Pontificum, William includes these verses which he claims to have seen recently (versus isti nuper mihi visi).1 But William's version of this epigram is defective: he replaces vexilla of line i with the intolerably repetitious veneranda (thus obscuring the very subject of the epigram!), omits line 5 altogether, and hopelessly mangles the final line: omissum implevi quod ceperat ordine pulchro. Nor could these errors in William's text be blamed on the normal process of textual corruption: the manuscript of the Gesta Pontificum on which the printed text is based (MS. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Magdalen College lat. I72) is undoubtedly William's autograph.2 This poses the interesting problem: we know that Milred's codex was at Malmesbury when Leland saw it in the early sixteenth century. There is therefore prima facie some reason to assume that it was at Malmesbury in the twelfth century. Further, this epigram and two others from Milred's codex (nos. zi and 29) are otherwise known only from William of Malmes- bury. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that William had seen Milred's codex (and is thus referring to it by his comment versus nuper visi). And yet how may one reasonably account for the grave errors in transcription which William has made, particularly if Milred's codex was immediately accessible to him?

2I. Epitaph of the Common Tomb of Bishops and Nobles of Hereford by Cuthbert

Qui quondam extiterant famosi late per orbem, corpora sena tenet horum hic marmor adumbrans, tumbaque mirifico prqsens fabricata decore desuper exculpto cohibet cum culmine tecta. hos ego Cudbertus sacri successor honoris 5 inclusi tumulis, exornavique sepulchris. pontifices ex his ternos sacra infula cinxit: Torthere, Walstod[e]3 et Tyrhtil sunt nomina, quorum regulus est quartus Milfrith, cum coniuge digna Quenburga; exstitit e senis haec ordine quinta. IO sextus praeterea est Oshelmi filius Osfrith: en quorum claudit tumba hic corpora sena.

[Leland, p. I I4; Hearne iii. II 7] It would appear from the poem that, sometime during his bishopric at Hereford, Cuthbert collected the remains of six Hereford dignitaries (three of them former bishops) together in one marble tomb; the

I. Gesia Ponfificum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton, RS (London, I870), p. 229. 2. N. R. Ker, 'William of Malmesbury's Handwriting', ante lix (I944), 37I-6. 3. This e is inexplicable and may be an addition by Leland.

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epigram was inscribed on the tomb and hence was copied into Milred's codex.

This poem too was quoted by William of Malmesbury, and again there seem to be some notable discrepancies between Milred's codex and the version which William claims to have seen.' William read obumbrans for adumbrans in line 2, decorata forfabricata in line 3, ex alto for exsculpto in line 4, titulis for tumulis in line 6, sancta for sacra in line 7, and pulchra for digna in line 9; in addition he read line 8 as nomina sunt quorum Walhstodus, Torhtere, Tirhtil.2 Here again the dif- ferences between William's text and that of Milred's codex are puzzling.

zz. Epigram on a Golden Bowl Commissioned by Abbot Cumma

Aurificum manibus vas hoc ego Cumma iubendo abbas, divini nutus moderamine, supplex argenti atque auri perfeci pondere multo.

[Leland, p. I I4; Hearne iii. I" 71 A certain Cumma attests a charter as abbot of Abingdon with bishops Daniel, Wor, Walhstod and Forthere (who held their episcopacies 705 to 737) as co-signatories3; he is thus exactly contemporary with the other English ecclesiastical personalities who are represented in Milred's codex, and is probably the abbot Cumma who commissioned the bowl which the epigram celebrates.

23. Epigram Concerning Verses from Abbot Cunneah to Colman

Cunneah abbas, qui venit huc de transmarina Scottia hos Colmanno, civi tuo, quondam versus diximus.

[Leland, p. I I4; Hearne iii. I I7] It would appear from this very cryptic and incomplete epigram that Abbot Cunneah is sending some verse to an unnamed Irishman, verse which he had formerly sent to one Colmain; Cunneah has apparently come to England from Ireland itself (transmarina Scottia). The name Cunneah (probably for Cyneheah) is English, and it is interesting to find an English abbot coming from Ireland (there were probably several English foundations in Ireland, the best known of which was Mayo).4 Abbot Cunneah is otherwise unrecorded, and the name Colman is much too common to allow any identification,

i. Gesta Pontificun, p. 229. 2. One must entertain the possibility that William has preserved the correct reading

of line 8 and that Leland has made the transposition; there is nothing to choose between the two lines metrically.

3. Sawyer, no. 93 (KCD 8i, BCS I5 5). Sawyer doubts the authenticity of this charter, but one need not doubt, I think, that Cumma was the abbot of Abingdon in the early eighth century.

4. N. K. Chadwick, 'Bede, St Colmin and the Irish Abbey of Mayo', in Celt and Saxon, pp. i86-zo5.

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but this epigram offers yet another instance of contact between England and Ireland in the eighth century.'

24. Epitaph of Bugga (Epitaphium Buggae) Hic Christi vernae corpus sub marmore iacet: supremus mundi concludit terminus isthic quam famulam prisci vocant de nomine Buggae. illius nam gregem sociavit denique Christo; plurima basilicis nutrit pignora puella. 5 artibus est multis edocens et semina serens, sancta suffulta prorsus virtute tonantis. ast hoc nam templum construxit arte perita, qua nunc Christicolae laudant simul ore tonantem: turba fratrum geminis adstant et turba sororum IO classibus, concinnent praeconia regi polorum. Coentuuini haec etiam fuit en pia filia regis dapsilis et clemens, Christi pro nomine felix ....2 ter denis egregium servansque ovile decenter quattuor et simul annos pia rite regebat. I 5

[Leland, pp. I I4-5-; Hearne iii. I I7] From this epitaph we learn that Bugga, whose name is already known to us as the daughter of Centwine, king of Wessex (676-8 S), was in charge - if not in fact abbess - of an unspecified double monastery where she had built a church and where she had been buried after some thirty-four years. The location of the church and some details concerning Bugga herself can be learned from contemporary documents. King IEthelred of Mercia (675-704), in con- cert with his subregulus Oshere (680-93), had granted land for a monastery to be built on the river Tillath (now the Colne) near the present-day village of Withington, Gloucestershire3; the grant was originally made to Dunna and Bugga her daughter. The dates of Oshere's reign (680-93) are therefore the termini for the foundation of the monastery, but there is no means of knowing when the church itself, commemorated in the epitaph, was built.

The later history of this double monastery at Withington has a curious relevance to Milred and Worcester.4 Bugga was the daughter of Dunna (who must accordinglv have been King Centwine's wife:

i. See K. Hughes, 'Evidence for Contacts between the Churches of the Irish and English from the Synod of Whitby to the Viking Age', in England before the Conquest. Studies ... presented to Dorothy Whitelock, ed. P. Clemoes and K. Hughes (Cambridge, 197I), pp. 49I-67.

2. Leland here omits some part of the poem and continues his transcription with the note 'et paulo post in Buggae epit'.

3. Sawyer, nos. I255 (KCD I24, BCS 2I7) and I429 (KCD 82, BCS I56). 4. See discussion by W. Stubbs, 'The Cathedral, Diocese and Monasteries of Worcester

in the Eighth Century', Archaeological Journal, xix (i862), 236-52, who takes Bugga to be Hrotwari's mother; and the more accurate discussion by G. F. Browne, St Aldhelm (London, I903), pp. 235-49. There is also discussion of Withington by H. P. R. Finberg, Roman and Saxon Withington. Dept. of English Local History Occasional Papers viii (Leicester, I955), pp. 6-7; Finberg makes no reference to the Bugga/Hrotwari problem.

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she apparently took up the ecclesiastical life after his death); but when Dunna herself was dying, she willed the monastery and its possessions not to Bugga but to her grand-daughter Hrotwari, who was then a minor (note however: Hrotwari was not necessarily the daughter of Bugga). When Hrotwari came of age, her mother refused to relinquish her control of the monastery (and claimed that Dunna's will had been stolen!). This dispute assumed such propor- tions that in 736 or 737 Archbishop Nothhelm of Canterbury called an episcopal council to settle it; among the bishops present at this council were Daniel of Winchester, Wor of Lichfield and Cuthbert of Hereford.' The council decreed that the monastery be restored to Hrotwari and that, at her death, it should fall under the dominion of the see of Worcester. Hrotwari died in 774, and it was Milred himself who finally secured the monastery for Worcester. From this outline (gleaned from the council's decree), it will appear that Bugga died before Dunna; had Bugga herself been living, Dunna would presumably have willed the monastery to her, not to Hrotwari (a minor). This suggests in turn that Hrotwari's mother, who con- trolled the monastery until Hrotwari came of age, was not Bugga; further, Hrotwari's mother is described by the episcopal council as maritata (hence she was disqualifed by the council); by contrast, the epitaph describes Bugga as sancta, suffulta virtute tonantis. Bugga's epitaph, therefore, which makes no mention at all of the dispute, confirms the conjecture that Bugga had died before the dispute began. But we can see, given the decree of Nothhelm's council concerning Worcester, why Milred had the epitaph copied into his codex of epigrams.

Among the Carmina Ecclesiastica of Aldhelm is a poem commemorating the construction of Bugga's church.2 Withington was only some twenty miles north of Malmesbury, and it is probable that Aldhelm knew Bugga personally and had visited her church. The author of Bugga's epitaph was thoroughly familiar with Aldhelm's poem; the verbal similarities are striking and are worth recording:

Bugga's Epitaph Aldhelm, Carmen ecclesiasticum iii plurima basilicis (5) plurima basilicis (6), plurima

basilicae (69) qua nunc Christicolae (9) qua nunc Christicolae (7) laudant simul ore tonantem (g) laudemus voce tonantem (s o) adstant et turba sororum (iO) conclamet turba sororum (S I) Coentuuini ... flia regis (I z) Centuuini filia regis (z) Christi pro nomine felix (I 3) Christi pro nomine regnum (9) rite regebat (I 5) rite regebat (3) In spite of these verbal similarities, it is highly improbable that Aldhelm wrote Bugga's epitaph: the epitaph contains metrical

i. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii. 3 3 7-8 (= Sawyer, no. I429 [KCD 82, BCS I 5 6]). 2. Carmina ecclesiastica iii (ed. Ehwald, pp. I4--I8).

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I975 BEDE S LOST 'LIBER EPIGRAMMATUM' 8I7

howlers (e.g. sifnzil I 5) and grammatical solecisms (e.g. 'ast hoc nam templum' 8) which Aldhelm would not have tolerated. And Aldhelm, who died in 709, had almost certainly predeceased Bugga.

25. Epigram by Bishop Hxdde on a Dedication to St Paul (ex barbaro carmine de consecratione cuiusdarn basilicae)

In honorem almissimi ac doctoris dulcissimi Sancti Pauli solenniter ac vocati feliciter, Hedde, pontifex petitus S ac cum amore accitus, dedicavit deicola atque clarus chlicola.

[Leland, p. II 5; Hearne iii. II 7- 8] Hxdde was bishop of Winchester 676-705. In spite of Leland's comment, it is not clear from the epigram whether Hxdde was dedicating a church or merely an altar or chapel to St Paul, and certain identification is therefore rendered impossible.

More interesting, perhaps, than the dedication itself is the metrical form of Hxdde's poem (called by Leland barbarum carmen): it is written in the rhythmic octosyllables with bisyllabic rhyme (and copious alliteration) that were much favoured by Anglo-Saxon authors of the early eighth century. In a Canterbury manuscript of Theodore's Penitential, a poem from Theodore to Hxdde is preserved in this very metre:

Te nunc, sancte speculator verbi Dei digne dator, Haddi, pie praesul, precor, pontificum ditum decor, pro me tuo peregrino preces funde Theodoro.1

The ultimate origin of this form is in the iambic tetrameter (quanti- tative) hymns of late antiquity, particularly those of Ambrose and Prudentius. In several Hiberno-Latin hymns of the seventh century the octosyllabic line is used; by this time the natural stress patterns of the words have replaced quantity, and monosyllabic rhyme has become common.2 It is probable that the Anglo-Latin rhythmic octosyllables of the early eighth century were influenced by the Hiberno-Latin hymns in this form, but there are several new features

i. MS. Corpus Christi College Cambridge 320, p. 7I; ptd. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils iii. 203; Hahn, Bonifaz und Lul, p. 32; and W. F. Bolton, A History of Anglo- Latin Literature I (Princeton, I 967), p. 62 (with an absurdly inaccurate translation).

2. As, for example, in the hymn, 'Quis ad condictum domini/montem conscendit sinai . . .' (ed. G. M. Dreves and C. Blume, A[nalecta] H[ymnica Medii Aevi], li (Leipzig, I908), p. 277. See W. Meyer, 'Die Verskunst der Iren in rythmischen lateinischen Gedichten', in Gesammelte Abbandlungen Zur mittellateinische Rythmik (Berlin, I936), iii. 303-46.

VOL. XC-NO. CCCLVII EE

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8i8 SOME REMNANTS OF October

in the English octosyllables: the use of bisyllabic and even tri- syllabic rhyme (such as almissimi/dulcissimi in line i supra),1 the extensive use of alliteration, and the careful avoidance of words of more than four syllables. Anglo-Latin octosyllables deserve to be collected and studied together: in addition to the two examples by Hedde and Theodore given above (and no. 26 infra), there are fragmentary examples by Aldhelm,2 who was the successor to Hedde's bishopric and a student of Theodore, and in turn by Ald- lhelm's circle of students and followers, one IEthilwald among them,3 and then again by Boniface and his followers: in Boniface's correspondence,4 in the preface to his de octo partibus orationis,5 and in the letters of Lul and Berhtgyth.6 But the poems by Hxdde and Theodore are the earliest examples of this Anglo-Latin verse form.

26. Epitaph of Balthunus the Priest Quarto idus Octebrium tertio dono dierum cuius sub cVlo conditor Balthunus, atque orditur sacerdotis in seculo 5 functus felix officio; fuisse fertur florido Dei cum auxilio.

[Leland, p. II 5; Hearne iii. I I 8] Nothing is otherwise known about this Balthunus sacerdos. He is

i. The well-known hymn beginning 'Sancte sator, suifragator/legum lator, largus dator . . .' which is found in the early ninth-century section of the (English) Book of Cerne (MS. Cambridge U.L., Li. i. io; ptd. AH li. 299-300) is usually taken to be of Irish origin (e.g. F. J. E. Raby, Secular Latin Poetry (Oxford, I934), i. I63) and hence evidence for bisyllabic rhyme in the Hiberno-Latin octosyllable; but G. Baesecke (Das lateinisch-althochdeutsche Reimgebet (Berlin, I948), pp. iz-I4) has demonstrated - very convincingly, I think - that the hymn is of English origin contemporary with Aldhelm.

2. For example, 'Christus passus patibula/atque leti latibula . . .' (ed. Ehwald, p. 235) and 'Pax cunctis sit legentibus/sitque laus utentibus. . .' (Ehwald, p. 5 I 2; probably by Aldhelm).

3. AEthilwald's poems, and those of other anonymous followers of Aldhelm, are printed by Ehwald, pp. 523-37; see discussion of Aithilwald's octosyllables by Meyer, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, iii. 328-46, as well as by I. Schrobler, 'Zu den Carmina Rhythmica in der Wiener HS. der Bonifatius-Briefe', Beitrage Zur Geschichle der deutschen Sprache und Lileratur, lxxix (I957), I-42, and F. W. Schulze, 'Reimkonstruktionen im Offa-Preislied IEthilwalds', ZeitschrifIfir deutsches Altertum, xcii (I963), 8-3I .

4. Ep. ix ('Vale, frater, florentibus/iuventutis cum viribus . .'), ed. Tangl, ubi supra, p. 6; Ep. x ('Vale, vere virgo vite/ut et vivas angelice . . .'), ed. Tangl, p. I 5.

5. 'Vale Christo veraciterlut et vivas perenniter . . .', ed. P. Lehmann, 'Ein neuent- decktes Werk eines angelsaichsischen Grammatikers vorkarolingischer Zeit', Historische VierteljahrschrifI, xxvi (I93I), 755-6. In a subsequent study, Lehmann acknowledged Boniface's authorship of this work: 'Die Grammatik aus Aldhelms Kreise', Historische Viertel]ahrschrifI, xxvii (I932), 75 8-71.

6. Lul, Ep. cxl ('Vale Christo virguncula/Christi nempe tiruncula . '), ed. Tangl, p. 280; Berhtgyth, Ep. cxlvii ('Vale vivens feliciter/ut sis sanctus simpliciter . . .'), ed. Tangl, p. 285, and Ep. cxlviii ('Pro me, quaero, oramina/precum, pandent precipua . . ed. Tangl, p. 286.

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possibly the Bealdhun from Wessex who witnesses a charter in 704.1 The poem as Leland has transcribed it makes little sense (lines 3 and 4 are almost certainly corrupt). By emending cuius in line 3 to ciuis, and conditor to conditur (to restore the rhyme with orditur in line 4), the following sense may be extracted from the epitaph: 'On the fourth ides of October, with the addition of three days (i.e. October (I 2 + 3) I i5), Balthunus is established as a citizen under the heavenly kingdom and begins (his celestial career), having success- fully discharged the office of priest in this world; he is said to have lived with the bountiful support of God'.

27. A Miscellaneous Epigram to be prefixed to a Book Eloquium domini quaecunque volumina fundunt,

spiritus hoc sancto fudit ab ore deus. Esaias domini cecinit miracula vates

atque evangelicis concinit ore tubis. [Leland, p. II 5; Hearne iii. I I 8

I have been unable to identify this epigram. 2 8. Epigram to Albinus accompanying a Volume of Bede's Poetry

Hos, Albine, tibi, merito venerabilis abba, versiculos scripsit verbi celestis amator Beda, dei famulus, mira quos carminis arte composuit doctor, nostro qui clarus in orbe extitit: ingenii cuius monimenta refulgent 5 plurima temporibus nullis abolenda per Vuum.

[Leland, p. II 5 ; Hearne iii. I I 8] Albinus succeeded Hadrian as abbot of SS. Peter and Paul in Canter- bury (later St Augustine's) in approximately 710; he died in 732. It was Albinus who had urged Bede to write the Historia Ecclesiastica and who had supplied Bede with information concerning the early history of Kent (HE, praef.). There are some difficulties with this epigram: Bede himself would seem to be dead when it was written ('nostro qui clarus in orbe/extitit'), and Bede died in 73 5. But Albinus, to whom the epigram is addressed, died some three years before Bede in 732. The difficulty is best resolved by supposing that Bede's Liber Epigrammatum was dedicated to Albinus, and that a later poet simply recast the original dedication, after the deaths of both Bede and Albinus, in the present epigram.

29. Bede's Epitaph (Epitaphium Bedae) Presbyter hic Beda requiescit, carne sepultus. dona, Christe, animam in cvlis gaudere per vvum,

i. Sawyer, no. 245 (KCD 50, BCS io8). There is a Balthunus, abbot of Kempsey (in Worcestershire) to whom King Cenwulf grants land in 799 (Sawyer, no. I 54 [BCS 295]). But the late date of this Abbot Balthunus makes it improbable that this epitaph could have been included in a codex compiled c. 750, and in any case his abbacy would have been noted in his epitaph.

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8zo BEDE S LOST 'LIBER EPIGRAMMATUM' October daque illi sophiae debriari fonte, cui tam suspiravit ovans intento semper amore.

[Leland, p. II 5; Hearne iii. I I 8] Bede was buried at Jarrow and his epitaph is presumably the production of one of the Jarrow brethren. This epitaph was also known to William of Malmesbury, who quotes it with the following comment: 'magnum ignaviae testimonium dabunt versus epitaphii sui, pudendi prorsus et tanti viri mausoleo indigni'.1

As with the two poems by Cuthbert of Hereford (nos. zo and zi supra), this epitaph is known only from Milred's codex and from William of Malmesbury. The conclusion is practically unavoidable, that William of Malmesbury had seen Milred's codex somewhere. But one is obliged to account for the very considerable discrepancies between the Cuthbert poems in Milred's codex and the transcription given by William of Malmesbury (the versions of Bede's epitaph are identical). It is safe to assume that the codex was written at Worces- ter, and we know that it was at Malmesbury in the early sixteenth century where it was seen by Leland. How and when the codex got from Worcester to Malmesbury we cannot tell. But the discrepancies in William's transcriptions may perhaps be explained by the assumption that he was quoting from memory; perhaps, then, William had seen the codex at Worcester (there is no difficulty in supposing that William had travelled to Worcester, given his familiarity with John of Worcester). It would be tempting to think that Milred's codex owed its presence at Malmesbury to William himself.

Leland's partial transcription of Milred's codex is a valuable docu- ment for the study of early eighth-century England. It adds two new poems (nos. z and io) to the exiguous canon of Bede's poetical works and confirms the existence of several others (nos. 6, 7 and 8) as well as confirming the fact that Bede composed enigmata (no. 4). It gives us previously unknown epitaphs of Berhtwald, Tatwine and Bugga (nos. I7, I9 and 24) and provides new evidence for English contact both with the continent and Ireland in the early eighth century. Perhaps most important, the codex as a whole provides us with the first specifcally English example of a gylloga, even if its compiler envisioned a somewhat broader application than was usual in continental s)llogae. One can only regret the disappearance of Milred's codex and be grateful that Leland spared himself a few moments among the riches of Malmesbury's library to make some cursory notes on its contents.2

Clare Hall, Cambridge MICHAEL LAPIDGE i. de gestis regum Anglorum, i. 6z, ed. W. Stubbs, RS (London, i 887), p. 67. Other

epitaphs of Bede which have been preserved are printed in PL xc. cols. I22-4. The epitaph preserved in Milred's codex has the strongest claim to being authentic.

2. I am extremely grateful to Peter Hunter Blair and David Dumville (who long ago drew my attention to Leland's Collectanea) for reading and criticizing this article in typescript.

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