The Benedictional of St. Æthelwold (London, British Library

British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

, Additional MS 49598) is a 10th century illuminated

Illuminated manuscript

An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders and miniature illustrations...

 benedictional

Benedictional

A Benedictional is a book containing a collection of benedictions or blessings in use in the Roman Catholic Church, essentially collected from those in sacramentary....

, the most important surviving work of the Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...

 Winchester School of illumination. It contains the various pontifical

Pontifical

Pontifical may refer to the Roman Pontifical, a Roman Catholic liturgical book used by a bishop.When used as an adjective, Pontifical may be used to describe things related to the office of a bishop, such as the following:*Solemn Pontifical Mass...

 blessing

Blessing (Roman Catholic Church)

Blessing in Roman Catholicism, in the narrow liturgical sense, is a rite consisting of a ceremony and prayers performed in the name and with the authority of the Church by a duly qualified minister by which persons or things are sanctified as dedicated to Divine service or by which certain marks of...

s used during Mass

Mass (liturgy)

"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...

 on the differing days of the ecclesiastical year along with a form for blessing the candle

Candle

A candle is a solid block or cylinder of wax with an embedded wick, which is lit to provide light, and sometimes heat.Today, most candles are made from paraffin. Candles can also be made from beeswax, soy, other plant waxes, and tallow...

s used during the Feast of the Purification. The manuscript was written by the monk Godeman at the request of Æthelwold

Æthelwold of Winchester

Æthelwold of Winchester , was Bishop of Winchester from 963 to 984 and one of the leaders of the tenth century monastic reform movement in Anglo-Saxon England....

, Bishop of Winchester

Bishop of Winchester

The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England diocese of Winchester, with his cathedra at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.The bishop is one of five Church of England bishops to be among the Lords Spiritual regardless of their length of service. His diocese is one of the oldest and...

. The manuscript is decorated on an extremely lavish scale, and is generally accepted as the masterpiece of late Anglo-Saxon illumination

Anglo-Saxon art

Anglo-Saxon art covers art produced within the Anglo-Saxon period of English history, beginning with the Migration period style that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them from the continent in the 5th century, and ending in 1066 with the Norman Conquest of a large Anglo-Saxon nation-state whose...

, and of the Winchester style. There are 28 full-page miniatures, 19 other framed pages, and two historiated initial

Historiated initial

A historiated initial is an enlarged letter at the beginning of a paragraph or other section of text, which contains a picture. Strictly speaking, an inhabited initial contains figures that are decorative only, without forming a subject, whereas in a historiated initial there is an identifiable...

s, one framed. The programme is incomplete, and there were probably intended to be a further 15 full-page miniatures and more framed pages. A wide range of colours, many overpainted to achieve a different effect, and much gold and silver are used. The style of the miniatures is characterized by brilliant colour, exuberant acanthus

Acanthus (ornament)

The acanthus is one of the most common plant forms to make foliage ornament and decoration.-Architecture:In architecture, an ornament is carved into stone or wood to resemble leaves from the Mediterranean species of the Acanthus genus of plants, which have deeply cut leaves with some similarity to...

 ornament, and figures who often overflow the space within the elaborate border and are shown overlapping it.

History

The manuscript was made sometime between 963 and 984, probably during the 970s. Folios 4r and 5v contain a Latin inscription which describes how the manuscript came to be made.

A bishop, the great Æthelwold, whom the Lord had made patron of Winchester, ordered a certain monk subject to him to write the present book . . . He commanded also to be made in this book many frames well adorned and filled with various figures decorated with many beautiful colours and with gold. This book the Boanerges aforesaid caused to be indited for himself . . . Let all who look upon this book pray always that after the term of the flesh I may abide in heaven Û Godeman the scribe, as a suppliant, earnestly asks this

Æthelwold I was Bishop of Winchester from 29 November 963 until his death on 1 August 984, so the manuscript was produced between those dates. The benediction for the Feast of St. Swithun mentions miracles performed by Swithun, which lead H. A. Wilson to conclude that the benediction could not have been composed before the translation of Swithun's relics on 15 July 971. St. Ætheldreda is given a prominence in the manuscript that would indicate that the manuscript was not made until after 970 when Æthelwold had refounded the abbey

Abbey

An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...

 of Ely

Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral is the principal church of the Diocese of Ely, in Cambridgeshire, England, and is the seat of the Bishop of Ely and a suffragan bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon...

, which had been originally founded by Ætheldreda. R. Deshman has argued that the drawings added to the Leofric Missal

Leofric Missal

The Leofric Missal is an illuminated manuscript, not strictly a conventional missal, from the 10th and 11th century, now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University where it is catalogued as Bodley 579....

(Oxford, Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

, MS Bodley 579) in about 979 were influenced by the illuminations of the Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, meaning that the Benedictional was probably produced before 979.

The scribe, Godeman, was a monk at the Old Minster

Old Minster, Winchester

The Old Minster was the Anglo-Saxon cathedral for the diocese of Wessex and then Winchester from 660 to 1093. It stood on a site immediately north of and partially beneath its successor, Winchester Cathedral....

 at Winchester and may have belonged to the group of monks from Abingdon

Abingdon Abbey

Abingdon Abbey was a Benedictine monastery also known as St Mary's Abbey located in Abingdon, historically in the county of Berkshire but now in Oxfordshire, England.-History:...

 that Æthelwold placed in Winchester Cathedral

Winchester Cathedral

Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe...

 to replace the Canons

Canon (priest)

A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....

 that had been there previously. In 973 Æthelwold placed Godeman in the new foundation at Thorney

Thorney Abbey

Thorney Abbey was on the island of Thorney in The Fens of Cambridgeshire, England.- History :The earliest documentary sources refer to a mid-7th century hermitage destroyed by a Viking incursion in the late 9th century. A Benedictine monastery was founded in the 970s, and a huge rebuilding...

, either as Æthelwold's representative with Æthelwold being the nominal abbot

Abbot

The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...

, or as abbot in his own right. After Æthelwold's death Godeman continued as Abbot of Thorney. The Red Book of Thorney states that Godeman was Æthelwold's personal chaplain

Chaplain

Traditionally, a chaplain is a minister in a specialized setting such as a priest, pastor, rabbi, or imam or lay representative of a religion attached to a secular institution such as a hospital, prison, military unit, police department, university, or private chapel...

.

It is assumed that the Benedictional remained at Winchester after Æthelwold's death. However, the binding was reinforced with a 15th century list of relics at Hyde Abbey

Hyde Abbey

Hyde Abbey was a medieval Benedictine monastery just outside the walls of Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was dissolved and demolished in 1538....

, which may mean the manuscript was at Hyde Abbey during some part of the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. In the 17th century it was in the possession of Henry Compton, who was Master of the Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester, and who later became Bishop of Oxford (1674) and then Bishop of London (1675). Bishop Compton died in 1713 and the manuscript passed to his nephew, Gen. Hatton Compton, Lieutenant of the Tower. General Compton gave the manuscript to William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire

William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire

William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire KG, PC was a British nobleman and politician, the eldest son of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire and Lady Mary Butler. A prominent Whig, he was sworn of the Privy Council in 1707, and served as Lord President of the Council from 1716 to 1717 and...

. The Benedictional was purchased by the British Library from the Duke's descendants.

Text

The Latin text contains the blessings read by a bishop during mass

Mass (liturgy)

"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...

. Each day in the liturgical year

Liturgical year

The liturgical year, also known as the church year, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches which determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which portions of Scripture are to be read. Distinct liturgical colours may appear in...

 and each saint's feast day had a different blessing. The manuscript contains blessings for the feast of three Saints, St. Vedast

Vedast

Saint Vedast or Vedastus, also known as Saint Vaast or Saint Waast and Saint Gaston in French, Saint Vedast or Vedastus, also known as Saint Vaast (in Flemish, Norman, and Picard) or Saint Waast (also in Picard and Walloon) and Saint Gaston in French, Saint Vedast or Vedastus, also known as Saint...

, St. Ætheldreda, and St. Swithun which are local feasts and would not have been found in a benedictional from another area. The text seems to be a conflation of a "Gregorian" benedictional which was derived from the supplement by St Benedict of Aniane

Benedict of Aniane

Saint Benedict of Aniane , born Witiza and called the Second Benedict, was a Benedictine monk and monastic reformer, who left a large imprint on the religious practice of the Carolingian Empire...

 to the so-called Hadrianum, a sacramentary

Sacramentary

The Sacramentary is a book of the Middle Ages containing the words spoken by the priest celebrating a Mass and other liturgies of the Church. The books were usually in fact written for bishops or other higher clegy such as abbots, and many lavishly decorated illuminated manuscript sacramentaries...

from Rome that had been in papal use, and an 8th century Gallican text. The manuscript also contains several blessings which were composed at Winchester. The "hybrid" text found in the Æthelwold Benedictional is also found in the Ramsey Benedictional (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS lat. 987), which also may have been written by Godeman. It is not certain which of the manuscripts was the original, although A. J. Prescott has argued that the Ramsey Benedictional was written by Godeman, using instructions given to him by Æthelwold, to be sent elsewhere; and that Æthelwold was so pleased with the result that he had another copy made for himself. Dumville has argued that the hybrid text actually predates both the Ramsey and Æthelwold benedictionals. The hybrid text, however, was to be very influential in England and France in the 10th and 11th centuries.

Further reading

• Deshman, R., The Benedictional of Æthelwold, Studies in Manuscript Illumination, 9, Princeton, 1995.
• Temple, E., Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066, 1976, no. 23 and ills. 85, 86, 88, 90, 91
• Warner, G. F. and H. A. Wilson, The Benedictional of St Æthelwold, Roxburghe Club, Oxford, 1910 - facsimile
  Facsimile
  A facsimile is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of reproduction by attempting to replicate the source as accurately as possible in terms of scale,...
  
  

External links

• Summary of the Iconography, notes by W.O. Hassall for Microform Academic Publishers