Bede, Opera (volume 2), with manuscript leaves, 1521

Dr Christopher Monk leaves through a volume of Bede’s second opera in the Chapter Library collection featuring two medieval manuscript paste-downs.

This printed volume of the works of the Venerable Bede (c.673-735) was produced in Paris in 1521 by Jodocus Badius who was a scholar of note before establishing his own printed house in the French capital in 1503.

Bede is best known today for his Ecclesiastical History of the English People but his biblical commentaries and works on chronology and computes were also very influential during the Middle Ages. He is also noted for his verse and hymns. The medieval library of the Rochester monks contained some of these works; one of these, a 12th-century manuscript of the Ecclesiastical History, survives in the British Library (Harley MS 3680).

The opening of the Rochester Priory copy of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, British Library (Harley MS 3680). folio 2r.

The printed edition here shows the ongoing interest in Bede’s works in a Rochester context, the addressee being named John Fisher, bishop of Rochester (1504-1535). The volume now opens with a vellum leaf, formerly a paste-down carefully removed from an earlier manuscript, and closes with a similar one.

These show evidence of study prior to being glued into the front and back boards of other books: maniculae (pointing fingers) and other indicators, e.g. crowns/profiles, mark out points of note within the text.

Dr Christopher Monk