798

October

Notes and Documents

Someremnants
of Bede'slostLiberEpigrammatum
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 Epigrammatumdoes 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 Collectanea.5 Among the manuscripts which Leland inspected was an
'antiquissimum codex epigrammaton'.6 The Collectaneacontain no
notice of where Leland found this 'ancient codex', but we learn from
his CommentariidescriptoribusBritannicisthat he had seen it at Malmesbury.7 Leland's partial transcription in his Collectaneaof this Malmesbury 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,
BaedaeOperaHistorica(Oxford, I896).
2. See R. H. Rouse, 'Bostonus Buriensis and the Author of the CatalogusScriptorum
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.
Literatur des Mittelalters
3. Plummer, p. cliv; M. Manitius, Geschichteder lateinischen
(Munich, I 9I I), i. 86; W. Jaager,BedasmetrischeVita Cuthberti.Palaestracxcviii (Leipzig,
p. 50; M. L. W. Laistner and H. H. King, A Hand-List of Bede Manuscripts
I935),
(Ithaca N.Y., I 943), pp. I22 and I29.
4. On Leland see T. D. Kendrick, British Antiquity (London, I950), pp. 45-64.
(Summary Catalogue nos.
5. MSS. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Top. gen. c. I-4
The Collectaneawere first edited by Thomas Hearne in six volumes (Oxford,
3 II 7-20).
in the Bodleian Library
I 7I 5). My quotations are from the manuscript of the Collectanea
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:
(ed. in
MS. Bodleian Library Top. gen. c. 2 (Summary Catalogue 31 i8), pp. III-I5
Hearnediii. I i4-IH ).
7. Ed. A. Hall (Oxford, I 709), i.- I 34.

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them are otherwise unrecorded, and because editions of Leland's

Collectaneaare 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 757),1 it was through Milred's influence with Offa and the Mercian
subregulithat 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 abovementioned 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],

Aevi Saxonici](London, I839), no.

C[odex]D[iplomaticus

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 heiligenBonifatiusund Lullus. M[onumenta]
G[ermaniae]H[istorica]Epistolae Selectaei (Berlin, I9I6), pp. 243-5. cf. H. Hahn,
BonifazundLul (Leipzig, I 883), pp. 256-9.
3. MS. librumpyrpyri (Tangi, p. 245), which was first identified by E. Kylie, The
EnglishCorrespondence
of St Boniface
(London, I9II), p. 209.
4. A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs, CouncilsandEcclesiasticalDocumentsRelatingto Great
Britainand Ireland(Oxford, I869), iii. 360; also BCS 174.

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Octoder

(nos. 20 and 2I). Similarly,Milredincludesin his codex the epitaph

of Bugga, a founder of the double monasteryat Withington, Gloucestershire: her epitaph was no doubt personally interesting to
Milred because it was this monastery which he had, following a
serious dispute, securedfor Abbess IEthelburga,with reversion to
his own churchat Worcester.'
The codex of epigramsitself throws considerablenew light on the
best-knownfiguresof the earlyeighth-centuryEnglish church:Bede
himself, Abbot Ceolfrithof Jarrow, Bishop Cyneberhtof Lindsey,
Berhtwald and Tatwine, successive archbishops of Canterbury,
Abbot Albinus of SS. Peter and Paul at Canterbury,Bishop Hxdde
of Winchester,as well as Cuthbertand Bugga. Milred'scodex containedepitaphsof Berhtwaldand Tatwinewhich have not previously
been noticed by historiansand which add some detailsto their scanty
biographies.A new and unknownfacet of Bede'spersonalityappears
in these epigrams:his part-timeoccupationas occasionalpoet, dedicatingchurchesin Northumbriaand sendingepigramsto friends.An
obscure abbot of Abingdon, Cumma,speaksfor the first time in a
briefepigram.Some otherwiseunknown ecclesiasticsappear,among
them an Abbot Widsith and an Abbot Cyneheah,who apparently
was an English abbot from Ireland.
The majorityof epigramsin Milred's codex are concerned with
these English ecclesiasticalpersonalities,some of whom were known
personallyto Milred.But there are also severalepigramsof obscure
continentalorigin: a fragmentaryepitaph commemoratingan early
sixth-centurypriest from Vercelli (no. I6), found otherwise only in
a manuscriptfrom Lorsch of the early tenth century; some verses
which were possibly inscribed in a chapel at Peronne in Picardy,
perhapswrittenthereby 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 Worcesterin the mid-eighth century? This
question can perhapsbest be answeredby consideringthe function
of the collection as a whole. We know that, at this time, collections
(calledsyllogae)of papalepitaphswere compiledas models or manuals
of epitaph-composition;these syilogaewere to the medieval world
what the stone-cutters'manualshad been in Romantimes.2One such
syllogais the manuscriptfrom Lorsch(MS. Rome, Vat. Pal. lat. 833)
mentioned above, which contains epitaphsof popes up to the time
of Sergius I (ob. 688).3Another yllogafrom St Riquier (now MS.
Leningrad,F. XIV. i) containsepitaphsof variouspopes, the latest
I255
(KCD I24, BCS 2I7). See pp. 8I6-7 infra.
See L. Wallach, 'Alcuin's Epitaph of Hadrian I: A Study of Carolingian Epigraphy',
and idem, 'The Epitaph of Alcuin:
I28-44,
AmericanJournalof Philology,lxxii (95I),
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.

i. Sawyer, no.

2.

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 considerations will emerge more clearly, perhaps, from an examination
of the contents of Milred's codex itself.5
i. ICVRii. 72-94.
That the epitaphs in this liberpontificaliswere derived from such a syllogawas first
noticed by W. Levison, 'Aus englischen Bibliotheken II', Neues Archiv, xxxv (I910),
3 36-424, esp. 35o-66 (on the epitaphs themselves); see further discussion by L. Duchesne,
'Le recueil 6pigraphique de Cambridge', Melangesd'archeologie
et d'hisioire,Xxx (I910),
279-31I.
The epitaphs have been edited by A. Silvagni, 'La silloge epigrafica di Cambridge',Rivistadi archeologia
cristiana,xx (I943), 49-112.
3. See N. R. Ker, MedievalLibrariesof GreatBritain. 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, TheSaxon Pilgrims to Romeand the ScholaSaxonum(Freiburg, 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
2.

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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 scripturaeplenus 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
antistesinto two lines is improbable and the second line is a foot short.
Fortunately he recorded this epigram elsewhere: while discussing
Milred in his Commentariide scriptoribusBritannicis,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 scripturaeplenus et actu.1
This is no doubt the correct version of the epigram.
z. Epigram of Bede on Jerome's Commentary in Esaiam (Versus
Bedaede tractatuHieronymiin Esaiam)
Hieronymus reseratdum mystica claustravidentum,
Hebreas Latio pandit in orbe gazas.
Isaiae clavibus ter sex arcanasubintrat
atque evangelicum protulit inde iubar.
discutiens prisci nam carminacelsa prophetac
cernit apostolicis equiperatatubis.
[Leland, p. i i i; Hearne iii.

5
I I41

In the list of his works at the end of the HistoricaEcclesiastica,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.
2. Plummer, p. clv.
I. Commentarii,i. I I 3.
3. P[atrologia] Lfatina] xciii. cols. 133-4.

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BIEDE' S LOST

'LIBER

803

EPIGRAMMATUM'

'Naturas rerum varias, labentis et aevi

naturarerum.

'1

is prefixed to his de

3. A Poet's Epitaph (EpitaphiumPoetae)

Vivere post obitum vates vis nosse, viator?
quid legis ? ecce loquor: vox tua nempe mea est.

[Leland,p.

i i i;

Hearneiii. 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' (saeculariamquidampoeta) had expressed
himself in the epigram.4 The epigram was very probably copied into
Milred's codex from a text of Possidius.5
4. EnigmataBedae[Leland,p. i i i; Hearneiii. i I4]
The antiquity of Milred's codex may be taken as sound evidence that
Bede did in fact compose 'riddles' or enigmatain 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-eleventhcentury manuscript from St Augustine's, Canterbury.7 That the
enigmatain 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 ibidemde ecclesiaPetri et Pauli) [Leland, p. i i i;

Hearneiii.

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 CarminaEcclesiastica (no. i).8
6. Dedicatory Epigram by Bede to St Michael (Epigramm[at]a
Bedaead S. Michaelem)[Leland, p. i i i; Hearne iii. I 41
i. PL xc. col. I87.

Latina(Leipzig, i894), ii. I77 (no. 721); E. Baehrens,Poefae

A. Riese, Anihologia
Latini Minores(Leipzig, i88i), iii. 270.
3. Baehrens, ibid.
4. PL xxxii. col. 64. The text of Possidius reads vatemfor valesin line I and quodfor
quid in line 2; although quodof Possidius's text is clearly the correct reading, I have
punctuated quidlegisof 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', ModernPhilology,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.
2.

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OF

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 (<Epigramma Bedae> ad S. Mariam de consecrationeecclesiaein 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 Ceolfridi4and 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
facit Accae episcopi
Wi/frido episcopoconstructain quibusmentionem

[Leland,p.

i i i;

Hearneiii. 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
oratorioS. Patricii)
Istam Patricius sanctus sibi vindicat aulam
quem merito nostri summo veneranturhonore.
iste medeliferi monstravit dona lavachri:
i. Plummer, ii. 274.

J. Raine, ThePrioryof HexhamI. 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. Studiesin ihe Early BritishBorder,ed. N. K. Chadwick (Cambridge, I963), p. 224,
and idem,Anglo-SaxonArchitecture(Cambridge, I965), ii. 632-4.
3. See W. Levison, 'The Patron Saints of English Churches in the Seventh and
Eighth Centuries', Appendix to Englandand Ihe Conlinenlin IheEighlh Century(Oxford,
2.

I946), p. 263.
4. Ed. in Plummer, i. 396.

5.

Plummer, i. 373 and

38I-2.

6. Raine, The Prioryof Hexham, pp. I4-I 8.

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805

hic nobis Christum,dominumque deumque colendum

iussit, et ignaram docuit bene credere gentem.
5
Calpurnusgenuit, istum alma Britanniamisit;
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 Vermandensis, 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 decerptiex epigrammate

Bedae)
Obsecro, quisque legis, Cynebertumsupplice voto
commendes domino, cuius hic ductus amore
a fundamentis sacrariacondidit alta.
hac et in urbe sibi seseque sequentibus almam
fecit presulibus sedem, qua turba piorum
sumeret aeternaecelestia premia vitae.
[Leland, p. i i i; Hearne iii.

5
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.

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
Sotrcesfor theEarlyHistoryof Ireland:Ecclesiastical,rev. L. Bieler (New York, I966), p. 507
2.

(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', Zeitschriftfur celtischePhilologie, 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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with the Cyneberht (Cyniberctus) whom Bede mentions in the list of

I 2; cf. v. 23), who was alive when the
in 73I, and who had supplied
was
completed
Historia Ecclesiastica
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.

Lindsey bishops (HE iv.

i i.

LiberGeneseos
metricus[Leland,p. I I 2; Hearneiii. II 5]

It is difficult to guess what this title might have referred to: one may
doubt that Cyprianus Gallus's lengthy Heptateuhoswould 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
Widsidiabbatis[Leland,p. i i 2; Hearneiii. 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.bThe 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:

EpitaphiumCeo/fridiabbatis)[Leland,p. i i 2; Hearne iii. II 5]

Corpusaad eximii merito venerabile Petrib

dedicat ecclesiae quem capite alta fidesd
Ceolfridus,eextremis Anglorum finibus abbas:f
devoti aspectusgpignora mitto mei,
meque meosque optans, tanti inter gaudia patris,
in coelis memorem semper habere locum.

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

Bede relates in his Historia Abbatum (c. xv) that Ceolfrith, abbot of
had ordered three pandects of the Bible to be
Jarrow (682-7I6)
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 OldestEnglish 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 CodicesLatini Antiquioresiii. ed.
E. A. Lowe (Oxford, I938), no. 299. See discussion of the Codex Amiatinus by B.
Fischer, 'Codex Amiatinus und Cassiodor', BiblischeZeitschrift,vi (I962), 57-79, and
P. HunterBlair,TheWorldofBede(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 apparatus 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 apparatus): 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 CeolfridusAnglorum(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 disregarded, it will nonetheless be clear that the version in the Vita
Ceolfridihas 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 Anglorumfinibus abbas for Anglorum extremis
definibusabbasin line 3, and aspectusfor affectusin line 4, thus producing a completely garbled version of the original epigram.
I4.

Versussybillinidedie iudicii[Leland,p.

i i 2;

Hearneiii.

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 versussybillini.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 sommoPonteficeLeoneXIII. Omaggiogiubilaredella BibliotecaVaticana(Rome, I 888);

H. J. White, 'The Codex Amiatinus and its Birthplace', StudiaBiblicaet Ecclesiastica,ii

and Lowe, English Uncial,pp. 8-I3.
273-308;
4. Ed. J. Fraipont, in Bedae VenerabilisOpera 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 Versusde Die Iudicii', Philoxxiii (I944), I93-22I.
logical.Quarterly,
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 Regumattributed to Symeon of
Durham (ed. T. Arnold, R[olls] S[eries] (London, i885), p. 23) as 'Lamentatio Bedae
presbyteri'.
(I890),

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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 civitateDei 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 quoda CintilaneregeRomaedirectumest)
Discipulis cunctis domini prelatusamore
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 (636-40).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

(Gembloux,I95
Josephde Ghellinck
den OraculaSibyllina',in Melanges

I),

i.

z2I-47;

on

circulation of the verses cited by Augustine see esp. p. I 26, n. I4.

eEOY YIOE EQTHP ETAYPO?;
2. These verses begin IHTOY2 XPEI?TOE
Schriftchristlichen
they are edited by J. Geffcken, Die OraculaSibyllina,in Die griechischen
(Leipzig, I902), pp. I 5 3-7.
stellerdererstendreiJahrhunderte
3. See W. Bulst, 'Eine anglo-lateinische Ubersetzung aus dem griechischen um 700',
ZeitschriftfuirdeutschesAltertum, lxxv (i938), I05-II.
4. On Chintila, see E. A. Thompson, The Gothsin Spain (Oxford, I969), pp. I80-9.
5. de Rossi, ICVR ii. 254; Riese, AnthologiaLatina ii. 5I (no. 494); J. Vives, Inscripcionescristianasde 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,deductumor dicatumin 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 directumand so confirms de Rossi's conjecture.

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i6. Fragment of an Epitaph

Vltima concludens praesentis muneravitae
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 praesentistempora uitae
presbiterhoc positus tumulo per saecla quiescit
Dalmatius superasmeritis rediturusad auras,
gratus in officiis atque omni strenuus actu;
magnanimispuroque fratrumdilectus amore,
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 CorpusInscriptionum
Latinorum,ed.
V. ii. 747 (no. 6742).
2. MS. Vatican, Palatinus lat. 833, fo. 52.

T. Mommsen (Berlin, I 877),

3. Ed. F. Buecheler, AnthologiaLatina. CarminaLatina Epigraphica(Leipzig, I 895), i.

(no. 703). The lapidary inscription reads ... Idofor the MS. Dalmatiusin 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
Recordsii (New York, I932). The Vercelli Book is of the late tenth century: see K.
Sisam,Studiesin theHistoryof OldEnglishLiterature(Oxford, I953), pp. II3-I8, and
N. R. Ker, Catalogueof ManuscriptsContainingAnglo-Saxon(Oxford, 1957), p. 464.
332-3

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Epitaph of Archbishop Berhtwald (Epitaphium Berthwaldi

archiepiscopi)
Egregii patris Berthwaldi corpus humatum
tumba tenet praesens, more sacrumsolito.
hanc in carne manens proprio pius ore iubendo
artificummanibus fecerat ipse sibi,
5
quem deus ecclesiis, quas ampla Britannialate
diffusasretinet, censuit esse patrem.
atque adeo ingentis magno auxit munere doni
precipui decorans nobilitate gradus,
solus ut illum pontificii preibat honore,
IO
regmine qui fruitur sedis apostolice.
ecclesiamquesuam ter denos rexeratannos,
octonosque simul, semper amore pio;
perfecte, ut decuit, postquam iam cuncta peregit
ordinis iniuncti munera sacrasibi,
terque quaterquedecem transactisac tribus annis
I5
extremumetatis clauseratipse diem;
cuius mox anima credenda est ut soluet alto
gaudia namque deo summa petisse polo,
aeternaequefrui per secula lumine vitae,
20
ac facie ad faciem cernere leta deum.
dictanti titulum mihi te sancte oro sacerdos
succurrasprecibus 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 longaconsumtus
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 MonasticonAnglicanum,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 frequentanduspater 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 (EpitaphiumCJ et Sigberti)

Pausantesuno paritercubile3tenentur
C-5et Sigbertus, dominumque deumque colentes,
laudibus Dtheriiscvli super astra locati
qua simul aeternis donentur in axe coronis,
angelicosque inter cDtussine fine manentes
perpetuamChristo 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
deumquecolentesin 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 archiepiscopiCantuarensis)

Hoc tegitur corpus venerandi praesulis antro

Tatwine qui dictus nomine vivus erat.

nam tribus huic sedi perfecte ubi prqfuitannis
corporis in fragili desinit esse domo.
hunc deus omnipotens praesentirector ut esset
ecclesiae dederat, sed cito raptus abiit.
naturaesed enim mortali accessit et aetas,
fessa gravisque nimis pondere iam senii.
terraeigitur propriamsummo moderamineiussus
partem restituens, spiritus exit ovans
aeternumque,4ut credo, domino dante omnipotente
protinus intravit aetheris arce domum,
cunctorumquebono fruitur sine fine bonorum
iam illic perpetuo pastus amore dei.
[Leland, p. II 5; Hearne iii.

IO

I I61
I. W. Dugdale, MonasticonAnglicanum(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 Sigberti), hence Cud-berti.
3. Apparently a slip for cubili.
4. Probably a mistake for aelernarnque
(agreeing with domum,f.), or else the author
took domusto 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-onthe-Hill in Leicestershire. Bede remarks that he was sacris litteris
nobiliterinstructus(HE v. 23) and he is also known as the author of
an Ars Grammaticaand 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 venerandacrucis Christi vexilla sacratae
cqperatantistes venerandusnomine Walhstod
argenti atque auri fabricaremonilibus amplis.
sed quia cuncta cadunt mortaliatempore4certo
ipse opere in medio moriens e carne recessit,
linquit et infectum quod vult existere factum.
ast ego successor praefatiprvsulisipse
pontificis, tribuente Deo, qui munere fungor,
quique gero certum Cudbri[g]ht5de luce vocamen,
ocyus implevi omissum hoc opus ordine cepto.
[Leland,p. I1I3; Hearneiii.

IO

ii

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 OperaOmnia, 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.
Anglicanum,i. 82 (cf. Leland, Collectaneavi. I09, ed. Hearne).
2. Monasticon
3. H. Wharton,AngliaSacra(Lond'on,I69I), ii. 7I; see discussionby H. Hahn,'Die
zur deutschenGeschichte,xxvi (I886),
Rathseldichter Tatwin und Eusebius', Forschungen
601-32, esp. 604.

4. Hearne prints pectorewith temporeabove as if it were a gloss; an examination of

Leland's manuscript, however, shows clearly that lemporeis 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 Cudbrigbtis 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
(versusisti nupermihi 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
impleviquodceperatordinepulchro.Nor could these errors in William's
text be blamed on the normal process of textual corruption: the
manuscript of the Gesta Pontificumon 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 Malmesbury. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that William had seen
Milred's codex (and is thus referring to it by his comment versus
nupervisi). 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 extiterantfamosi late per orbem,
corpora sena tenet horum hic marmoradumbrans,
tumbaque mirifico prqsensfabricatadecore
desuper exculpto cohibet cum culmine tecta.
hos ego Cudbertussacri successor honoris
inclusi tumulis, exornavique sepulchris.
pontifices ex his ternos sacrainfula cinxit:
Torthere, Walstod[e]3et Tyrhtil sunt nomina, quorum
regulus est quartusMilfrith, cum coniuge digna
Quenburga; exstitit e senis haec ordine quinta.
sextus praetereaest Oshelmi filius Osfrith:
en quorum claudit tumba hic corpora sena.
[Leland,p. II4; Hearne iii.

IO

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.
N. R. Ker, 'William of Malmesbury's Handwriting', antelix (I944), 37I-6.

2.

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
obumbransfor adumbransin line 2, decorataforfabricata in line 3, ex
alto for exsculptoin line 4, titulis for tumulisin line 6, sanctafor sacrain
line 7, and pulchra for dignain line 9; in addition he read line 8 as
nominasunt quorumWalhstodus,Torhtere,Tirhtil.2 Here again the differences between William's text and that of Milred's codex are
puzzling.
zz. Epigram on a Golden Bowl Commissioned by Abbot Cumma
Aurificum manibusvas hoc ego Cummaiubendo

abbas,divininutus moderamine,supplex
argenti atque auri perfeci pondere multo.
[Leland, p. II4; 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

Cunneahabbas, qui venit huc de transmarinaScottia

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 (transmarinaScottia).
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.

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.
2.

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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 (EpitaphiumBuggae)
Hic Christi vernae corpus sub marmore iacet:
supremusmundi concludit terminus isthic
quam famulamprisci vocant de nomine Buggae.
illius nam gregem sociavit denique Christo;
plurima basilicis nutrit pignora puella.
artibus est multis edocens et semina serens,
sancta suffultaprorsus virtute tonantis.
ast hoc nam templum construxit arte perita,
qua nunc Christicolaelaudant simul ore tonantem:
turba fratrumgeminis adstant et turba sororum
classibus, concinnent praeconiaregi polorum.
Coentuuini haec etiam fuit en pia filia regis
dapsilis et clemens, Christi pro nomine felix ....2
ter denis egregium servansqueovile decenter
quattuor et simul annos pia rite regebat.
[Leland, pp. I I4-5-; Hearne iii.

IO

I5
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 concert with his subregulusOshere (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 terminifor 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 Englandbeforethe Conquest.
Studies... presentedto Dorothy Whitelock,ed. P. Clemoes and K. Hughes (Cambridge,
197I),

pp. 49I-67.

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', ArchaeologicalJournal,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,
RomanandSaxon Withington.Dept. of EnglishLocal HistoryOccasional
Papersviii (Leicester,
I955), pp. 6-7; Finberg makes no reference to the Bugga/Hrotwari problem.
2.

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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 proportions 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 controlled 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 CarminaEcclesiastica 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:
Aldhelm, Carmenecclesiasticum iii
Bugga's Epitaph
plurima basilicis (6), plurima
plurima basilicis (5)
basilicae (69)
qua nunc Christicolae (7)
qua nunc Christicolae (9)
laudemus voce tonantem (s o)
laudant simul ore tonantem (g)
conclamet turba sororum (SI)
adstant et turba sororum (iO)
Centuuini filia regis (z)
Coentuuini ... flia regis (I z)
Christi pro nomine regnum (9)
Christi pro nomine felix (I 3)
rite regebat (3)
rite regebat (I 5)
In spite of these verbal similarities, it is highly improbable that
Aldhelm wrote Bugga's epitaph: the epitaph contains metrical
i.
2.

iii. 337-8 (= Sawyer,no.

Haddanand Stubbs,Councils,
iii (ed. Ehwald, pp. I4--I8).
Carminaecclesiastica

I429

[KCD 82, BCS I 56]).

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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
barbarocarminede consecratione
cuiusdarnbasilicae)
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 barbarumcarmen): 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 (quantitative) 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,
Councilsiii. 203; Hahn, Bonifaz undLul, p. 32; and W. F. Bolton, A History of AngloLatin LiteratureI (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[ymnicaMedii Aevi], li (Leipzig,
I908),
p. 277. See W. Meyer, 'Die Verskunst der Iren in rythmischen lateinischen
Gedichten', in GesammelteAbbandlungenZur mittellateinische
Rythmik (Berlin, I936), iii.
303-46.
VOL.

XC-NO.

CCCLVII

EE

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October

in the English octosyllables: the use of bisyllabic and even triin line i supra),1the extensyllabic rhyme (such as almissimi/dulcissimi
of words of more
avoidance
careful
and
the
sive use of alliteration,
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 Aldlhelm'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 octopartibus orationis,5and 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 cVloconditor
Balthunus,atque orditur
sacerdotisin seculo
functus felix officio;
fuisse fertur florido
Dei cum auxilio.

[Leland,p. II 5; Hearneiii. 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, SecularLatin Poetry(Oxford, I934), i. I63) and hence
evidence for bisyllabic rhyme in the Hiberno-Latin octosyllable; but G. Baesecke (Das
has demonstrated- very
Reimgebet(Berlin, I948), pp. iz-I4)
lateinisch-althochdeutsche
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'spoems, and those of other anonymous followers of Aldhelm, are
printed by Ehwald, pp. 523-37; see discussion of Aithilwald's octosyllables by Meyer,
GesammelteAbhandlungen,iii. 328-46, as well as by I. Schrobler, 'Zu den Carmina
Rhythmica in der Wiener HS. der Bonifatius-Briefe', BeitrageZurGeschichleder deutschen
SpracheundLileratur, lxxix (I957), I-42, and F. W. Schulze, 'Reimkonstruktionen im
Offa-Preislied IEthilwalds', ZeitschrifIfir deutschesAltertum, 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 neuentdecktes Werk eines angelsaichsischenGrammatikers vorkarolingischer Zeit', Historische
xxvi (I93I), 755-6. In a subsequent study, Lehmann acknowledged
VierteljahrschrifI,
Boniface's authorship of this work: 'Die Grammatik aus Aldhelms Kreise', Historische
xxvii (I932), 758-71.
Viertel]ahrschrifI,
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 cuiusin line 3 to ciuis,
and conditorto conditur(to restore the rhyme with orditurin 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)
Ii5), Balthunus is established as a citizen under the
heavenly kingdom and begins (his celestial career), having successfully 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 quaecunquevolumina fundunt,
spiritus hoc sancto fudit ab ore deus.
Esaias domini cecinit miraculavates
atque evangelicis concinit ore tubis.
[Leland, p. II 5; Hearne iii.

II8

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 clarusin orbe
extitit: ingenii

cuius monimenta

refulgent

plurimatemporibus nullis abolenda per Vuum.

[Leland, p. II 5; Hearne iii.

5
I I 8]

Albinus succeeded Hadrian as abbot of SS. Peter and Paul in Canterbury (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 Epigrammatumwas 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 (EpitaphiumBedae)

Presbyterhic Beda requiescit, carne sepultus.

dona, Christe, animamin 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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BEDE

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'LIBER

October

EPIGRAMMATUM'

daque illi sophiae debriarifonte, 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 Worcester, 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 document 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 regumAnglorum,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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