History of the Beowulf Manuscript

Known as Cotton Vitellius Axv, the codex which contains the only extant copy of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem, Beowulf, has an intriguing history and legend of its own.

Timeline and Facts about the Beowulf Manuscript.

Timeline of the Beowulf Manuscript

(References are at the bottom of this page)

• est. 1000 - Two scribes transcribed the poem unto parchment. It is generally believed they were writing from a “copy of a copy,” though there are a few that theorize this may be the original copy of the author’s poem.¹



• 1500’s - Beowulf and 8 other texts were combined into one codex (a Medieval book bound by scribes).² (This same codex was later named Cotton Vitellius A xv.)³



• 1563 - “Laurence Nouell” and “1563” were written on top of the first folio of the codex. Lawrence Nowell (lived approximately 1530-1576) was a dean at Lichfield and believed to have been involvd in the preservation of the manuscript.⁴ (Writing the date was often done when a manuscript was obtained by a librarian.)⁵



• Between 1588 - 1631 Sir Robert Cotton (lived 1571 - 1631) collected 958 old manuscripts after Henry VIII’s “Dissolution of the Monasteries.”⁶ Cotton was part of The Elizabethan Society of Antiquaries, preserving old documents. ⁷



• 1631 - Robert Cotton died after King Charles I sealed his library. A pamphlet critical of the monarch had been found to be in the Cotton library.⁸



• 1696 - Thomas Smith cataloged the collection in Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Cottonianae.⁹ Beowulf was not included in this catalog^.10



• 1698 - Humphrey Wanley unsuccessfully tried to get Oxford University to buy the Cotton Library. (If they would have, it would not have been burned.)¹¹



• 1700 - Cotton collection was sold and transferred to Ashburnham House. ¹² (Yikes! Bad name!)



• 1700 - Beowulf is finally read! The librarian Wanley writes to a Swedish scholar after reading the Beowulf manuscript. “Dear Sir, have you any Histories about such a King & such Wars? if you have, be pleas’d to let me have notice of it.” ¹³



• Oct 23, 1731 - Fire! One hundred fourteen of the 958 Cotton manuscripts were destroyed and 98 were damaged (including Beowulf.)¹⁴ (Norton) Beowulf survived because it was thrown out the window but many parts are now unreadable.¹⁵



• 1753 - The Cotton Library was transferred to the British Museum.¹⁶



• 1786/7 - Thorkelin made his own handwritten transcripts. Part of the original manuscript has since crumbled leaving us only Thorkelin’s transcript for several lines. Many question Thorkelin’s accuracy because of errors in the Thorkelin account on parts of the manuscript that are legible. ¹⁷



• 1815 - Grundtvig discovers King Hygelac in the poem is the same as Chlochilaichus in history.¹⁸



• 1837 - 1845 - Gough and Madden conserved Beowulf and the rest of the Cotton Library by placing the original vellum in paper frames.¹⁹ Per Kirian, these frames are preserving the pages well though there are places they cover the original words.²⁰



• 1882 - New binding of the codex was done. ²¹



• 1882 - Zupita publishes pictures of the Beowulf folios (pages) with Old English transliteration based on Thorkelin’s work.²² This allowed the public to view the original folios.



• 2015 - Electronic Beowulf published online - Kirian published an electronic version of the original folios. Anyone now can see the original manuscript folios pages and enlarge it 300%.²³

References

Still under development


1) (Kirian. 1981, pg 6)

2) (Klaeber . 1922, p. xcv)

3) (Bjork, & Niles. 1997, pg 1-3)

4) (Klaeber xcvi)

5) (Wright. 1960, p 118.)

6) (Norman/Hall)

7) (Wright, 1958, p 176.)

8) (Wright, 1958, pg 207.)

9) (Norman)

10) (Wright, C. 1958)

11) (Wright, C. 1958)

12) (Hall. 1901, pg x)

13) (Wright 1940, p 192. )

14) (Norton)

15) (Hall. 1901, pg x)

16) (Hall. 1901, pg x)

17) (Hall. 1901, pg x)

18) (Bjork, & Niles. 1997, pg 196.)

19) (Norman)

20) (Kirian. 1981, pg 326)

21) (Hall. 1901, pg x)

22) (Zupita, 1882.)

23) https://ebeowulf.uky.edu/ebeo4.0/CD/main.html

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