First select 'Nowell Codex' from 'File' in the top menu:
<%= image_tag "file-nowell.jpg" %>The 'GoTo' menu will then reflect the contents of the Composite codex, Cotton Vitellius A. xv, including the Nowell Codex.
<%= image_tag "GoTo-nowell.jpg" %>Life of St. Christopher (fragment)
The first folio of the Nowell Codex, and of the fragmentary St. Christopher, opens on the right (recto) and has the name 'Laurence Nouell' and the date '1563' at the top of the page.
<%= image_tag "nowell-1563-chris.jpg" %>The folio number is cited as 91(93)r to account for its current placement (91) and its former misplacement (93). See <%= link_to 'Manuscript Foliation', vitellius_category_path(:category => 'prefixedleaves', :anchor => 'MS_foliation')%> and, for an extended analysis, "History of the Multiple Foliations," Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript (pp. 85-109).
Wonders of the East (illustrated)
There are many illustrations of monsters and marvels in this text.
<%= image_tag "nwll-we1.jpg" %>As always, one can closely study any text or illustration by magnifying the image from the toolbar.
<%= image_tag "nwll-we2.jpg" %>In this 'Single' setting with magnification set at 300 percent one can see not only the headless wonder, but also Middle English glosses above the Old English text, wormholes in the vellum, and horizontal line rulings, made with an awl, when the gathering was prepared for copying.
<%= image_tag "magnify.jpg" %>In 'Left/Right' layout and 'Sequential' browse mode there are many facing pages with interesting contrasts.
<%= image_tag "facing.jpg" %>Using the 'Free' feature from 'Views' > 'Change view', one can combine any two pages in 'Left/Right' or (as here) 'Top/Bottom' layout, and then resize the windows as desired.
<%= image_tag "freest_1-2.jpg" %>The end of Wonders and the beginning of Alexander's Letter are part of an unusual 3-sheet gathering in this codex.
<%= image_tag "3sht-qu.jpg" %>One can study the make-up of the gatherings in <%= link_to 'Collate', viewingoption_category_path(:category => 'overview', :anchor => 'collate')%> mode.
<%= image_tag "BL-numb.jpg" %>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.
<%= image_tag "reverse.jpg" %>When viewing Cotton Vitellius A. xv as a manuscript book, the last page of Alexander's Letter faces the first page of Beowulf in the Nowell Codex.
<%= image_tag "128v-129.jpg" %>When viewing the Beowulf manuscript in conjunction with the edition, the default setting is with manuscript pages, recto and verso, in the left frame. For a thorough introduction to the uses of the manuscript with the image-based edition, see <%= link_to 'Studying Beowulf', studyingbeowulf_category_path(:category => 'overview')%>.
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:
<%= image_tag "judi-col.jpg" %>Fols. 202v-203r formed the inside of the innermost sheet of this gathering.
<%= image_tag "rulings.jpg" %>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.
<%= image_tag "206vEnd.jpg" %>The last lines in Judith were recopied by an early-modern hand, obviously before the following gathering was lost.