British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius C. II, or the Tiberius Bede, is an 8th-century illuminated manuscript of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum.
Characteristics The Tiberius Bede is one of only four surviving 8th-century manuscripts of Bede, another of which happens to be MS Cotton Tiberius A. XIV, produced at Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey.British Library As such it is one of the closest texts to Bede's autograph. The manuscript has 155 vellum folios. This manuscript may have been the Latin text on which the Alfredian Old English translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History was based. The manuscript is decorated with zoomorphic initials in a partly Insular and partly Continental style.
The manuscript has given its name to the 'Tiberius' group of manuscripts, connected on stylistic grounds and sometimes also known as the 'Canterbury' group, though the region of their production remains unknown – Mercia has also been suggested. Apart from the Tiberius Bede, the group includes: Vespasian Psalter, Stockholm Codex Aureus, Barberini Gospels, Book of Cerne,Brown 2005, p. 282 Blickling Psalter, Codex Bigotianus (BnF MS lat. 281, 298),Brown 2011, p. 134 Royal Bible (British Library MS Royal 1.E.vi),Brown 2011, p. 139 Royal Prayerbook, Book of Nunnaminster,Brown 2011, p. 158 Harleian Prayerbook,Brown 2011, p. 162 Saint Petersburg Gospels,Brown 2005, pp. 282–283 Anglian collection manuscript V (British Library MS Cotton Vespasian B.vi, folios 104–109),Brown 2011, p. 164Dumville 1976 BnF MS lat. 10861,Brown 1986 Bodleian Library MS Hatton 93, Salisbury Cathedral Library MS 117,Brown 2011, pp. 163–164 and a number of other manuscripts.Brown 2011, p. 164 n. 213
Facsimiles British Library digitisation
Notes
References
relevant plates (I–IV) are available online at the end of another article in the same volume of the journal, google books preview