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An Old English fragment from Westminster Abbey
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 September 2008
Extract
Westminster Abbey Muniment 67209 is a strip of parchment sliced from an Old English manuscript, perhaps to be dated to the first half of the eleventh century (pl. IX a and b). It has top and bottom margins preserved, possibly in full, but no part of either side margin. The height of the fragment is 268mm, with top margin measuring 32mm (recto)/34mm (verso) and bottom 46mm (recto)/45mm (verso). Thus the height of the text block is c. 190mm. The strip is unevenly cut, so its width varies, top, 38mm, bottom 42mm, minimum 31mm.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996
References
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10 I am indebted to Dr S. D. Keynes for drawing my attention to this fragment after a seminar in the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in which I had incautiously said it was unlikely we would find very much more Old English manuscript material in the future; to Dr Michelle Brown for advice on palaeography and to Professor D. G. Scragg for comment on an earlier draft of this paper. I also thank the Keeper of the Muniments of Westminster Abbey and his staff for so courteously helping me to study the fragment, and the Librarians of the British Library, Lambeth Palace, London, the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, for giving me access to parallel materials. The plates are reproduced here by courtesy of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.