Conservé à la British Library avec les autres éléments de la bibliothèque Cotton, il est surtout connu … Wikipédia en FrançaisĬotton Vitellius A.xv - Codex Nowell Première page de Beowulf Le Codex Nowell, également appelé Cotton Vitellius A. xv, est l un des quatre codex anglo saxons majeurs. xv - Codex Nowell Première page de Beowulf Le Codex Nowell, également appelé Cotton Vitellius A. It is likely, however, that Beowulf was written much earlier (most scholars favor the eighth century, but other guesses range into the 10th) and probably in Mercia or Northumberland.Ĭotton Vitellius A. Scholars generally agree that the Cotton Vitellius A.xv manuscript was produced roughly in the year 1000, and in Wessex. The manuscript was rebound in 1845 with paper frames added in an attempt to slow the deterioration of the fire-damaged vellum pages. The Cotton collection was moved to the British Museum after the fire, where it still resides. The fire did damage the edges of the manuscript, however, and some passages of the texts were lost. It was moved shortly thereafter because of the deterioration of Cotton’s estate, and barely escaped disaster when it was tossed from a window when its new home, Ashburnham House in Westminster, caught fire in 1731. The manuscript was donated to the English people along with the rest of Cotton’s collection in 1700.

In addition to Beowulf, the Cotton manuscript contains the Old English poem JUDITH and some prose works. Nearly all of the approximately 30,000 lines of Old English poetry survive in four manuscripts (the EXETER BOOK, the JUNIUSMANUSCRIPT, and the VERCELLI BOOK are the other three).

Cotton vitellius manuscript