Peterhouse : Archeion

Peterhouse

<p style='text-align: justify;'>A first edition of William Lambard’s collection of Anglo-Saxon laws, published by London printer John Day in 1568.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Lambard’s text is based on the work of antiquarian and pioneering Anglo-Saxonist Laurance Nowell, who in 1562 transcribed nearly the entirety of MS BL Otho B.xi, a manuscript written at Winchester during the reign of Æthelred, partially in the middle of the tenth century and partially in the middle of the eleventh (per Ker), and containing a variety of significant Anglo-Saxon texts, including laws. The Nowell transcript, now MS BL Additional 43703, is now our only witness to the original manuscript, as the vast majority of Otho B.xi was destroyed in the Cottonian fire of 1731. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The volume is of particular interest for having been heavily annotated by Abraham Wheelocke (1593-1653), the English linguist, Cambridge Reader in Anglo-Saxon and University Librarian (1629 to 1653). Wheelocke borrowed the volume from Peterhouse and annotated it, including additions to the Index and various side notes, in preparation for his own edition of the text, printed in 1644.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The book also previously belonged to Andrew Perne (1519?-1589; Master of Peterhouse, 1553/4-1589), and bears his bookplate.</p>