[58] Stanley, _Hist. Mem. of C._ (1868), 42.
[60] B. M. Reg. I. E. vi. may be a part of the Gregorian Bible, or the second copy of the Gospels mentioned above, if this second copy is not Corpus Christi, Camb. 286. Corpus C. 286 is a seventh century book, certainly from St. Augustine’s; it was probably brought to England in the time of Theodore, and though it may be one of the books referred to above, is, therefore, not Augustinian. The Psalter bearing the silver images is “most likely” Cott. Vesp. A. 1, an eighth century manuscript; it is, therefore, not Augustinian, although it may be a copy of the original Psalter given by Gregory.--James, lxvi.
[61] Known as Codex E, or the Laudian Acts (Laud. Gr. 35). Bede refers to a Greek manuscript of the Acts in his _Retractationes_; possibly this is the actual copy. The last page of the book bears the signature “Theodore”; did Archbishop Theodore bring the volume to England? “It is at least safe to say that the presence of such a book in England in Bede’s time can hardly be entirely independent of the influence of Theodore or of Abbot Hadrian.”--James (M. R.), xxiii.
[65] This copy was still at Malmesbury in the twelfth century.--W. of Malmesbury, _Ang. Sacr._, ii. 21.
[66] Sandys, i. 466; _Camb. Eng. Lit._, i. 75.
[68] These foundations were regarded as one house, the inmates being bound together by “a common and perpetual affection and intimacy.”
[69] “Innumerabilem librorum omnis generis copiam apportavit.”--_Vitae Abbatum_, § 4.
[70] “Copiosissima et nobilissima bibliotheca.”--_Ib._ § 11.
[72] Ceolfrid, Benedict Biscop’s successor, added a number of books to the library, among them three copies of the Vulgate, and one of the older version. One copy of the Vulgate Ceolfrid took with him to Rome (716) to give to the Pope. He died on the way. The codex did not go to Rome; now, it is in the Laurentian Library, Florence, where it is known as the Codex Amiatinus. The writing is Italian, or at any rate foreign, so it must have been imported, or written at Jarrow by foreign scribes. This volume is the chief authority for the text of Jerome’s translation of the Scriptures.
[74] Bede frequently quotes Cicero, Virgil, and Horace; usually selecting some telling phrase, _e.g._ “caeco carpitur igni” (_H. E._ ii. 12). In his _De Natura rerum_ he owes a good deal to Pliny and Isidore. In his commentaries on the Scriptures he displays an extent of reading which we have no space to give any idea of. His chronologies were based on Jerome’s edition of Eusebius, on Augustine and Isidore. In his _H. E._ he uses “Pliny, Solinus, Orosius, Eutropius, Marcellinus Comes, Gildas, probably the _Historia Brittonum_, a _Passion of St. Alban_, and the _Life of Germanus of Auxerre_ by Constantius”; while he refers to lives of St. Fursa, St. Ethelburg, and to Adamnan’s work on the Holy Places. Cf. Sandys, i. 468; _Camb. Lit._, i. 80-81. Bede also got first-hand knowledge: the Lindisfarne records provided him with material on Cuthbert; information came to him from Canterbury about Southern affairs and from Lastingham about Mercian affairs. Nothelm got material from the archives at Rome for him.