Nowell Codex
Select Nowell Codex in 'Choose' to open the second collection of Cotton Vitellius A. xv. Use 'Goto' to select an opening in the book.
Life of St. Christopher (fragment)
The first folio has the name 'Laurence Nouell' and the date '1563' at the top
of the page. The folio number is cited as 91(93)r to account for its current
placement (91) and its former misplacement (93). See Manuscript
Foliation.
Wonders of the East (illustrated)
There are many illustrations of monsters and marvels in this text.
And one can closely study any text or illustration by magnifying it from the toolbar.
In 'Left/Right' layout and 'Sequential' browse mode there are many facing pages with interesting contrasts.
The user can combine any two pages in 'Left/Right' or (as here) 'Top/Bottom' layout, and resize the windows as desired.
Alexander's Letter to Aristotle
The end of Wonders and the beginning of Alexander's Letter are part of an unusual 3-sheet gathering in this codex. One can study the make-up of the gatherings in Collate browse mode.
Two gatherings (MS fols. 107-114 and 115-122) were still out of place when the British Museum renumbered Cotton Vitellius A. xv in 1884; later a staff member using the new numbers made notes of these misplacements on the paper frames of MS. fols. 107r and 122v.
The new, double, folio numbers give the correct position with the incorrect number in parentheses. The folios are displayed in their proper sequence in the Electronic Beowulf, but are still out of order in the MS and in the British Library numeration.
The last page of Alexander's Letter faces the first page of Beowulf in the Nowell Codex.
Judith (beginning and original ending gone)
All that is left of Judith is contained in a single gathering, fols. 199-206v, which may be reconstructed and examined by using the collation feature:
Fols. 202v-203r formed the inside of the innermost sheet of this gathering.
The same scribe used a longer writing grid from top ruling to last in Beowulf than in Judith; other differences in format, including execution of initials and fitt numbers, suggest they were originally copied for different codices.
The last lines in Judith were recopied by an early-modern hand, obviously before the following gathering was lost.
