British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius C. II, or the Tiberius Bede, is an 8th-century

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...

Bede Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

's '' Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum''. It is one of only four surviving 8th-century manuscripts of Bede, another of which happens to be MS Cotton Tiberius A. XIV, produced at Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey. As such it is one of the closest texts to Bede's autograph. The manuscript has 155

vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. It is often distinguished from parchment, either by being made from calfskin (rather than the skin of other animals), or simply by being of a higher quality. Vellu ...

folio The term "folio" () has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging Paper size, sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for ...

s. This manuscript may have been the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

text on which the Alfredian

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

translation of Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History'' was based. The manuscript is decorated with zoomorphic initials in a partly Insular and partly Continental style. The manuscript has given its name to the 'Tiberius' group of manuscripts, connected on stylistic grounds and sometimes also known as the 'Canterbury' group, though the region of their production remains unknown –

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

has also been suggested. Apart from the Tiberius Bede, the group includes: Vespasian Psalter, Stockholm Codex Aureus, Barberini Gospels, Book of Cerne,Brown 2005, p. 282 Blickling Psalter, Codex Bigotianus ( BnF MS lat. 281, 298), Royal Bible (

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

MS Royal 1.E.vi), Royal Prayerbook, Book of Nunnaminster, Harleian Prayerbook,Brown 2011, p. 162 Saint Petersburg Gospels, Anglian collection manuscript V (

MS Cotton Vespasian B.vi, folios 104–109), BnF MS lat. 10861, Bodleian Library MS Hatton 93, Salisbury Cathedral Library MS 117, and a number of other manuscripts.Brown 2011, p. 164 n. 213

Notes

References

* ** relevant plates (I–IV) are available online at the end of another article in the same volume of the journal, *
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* * 8th-century illuminated manuscripts Illuminated histories Bede manuscripts Cotton Library {{Manuscript-art-stub