Nowell Codex

The Nowell Codex is the second of two manuscripts found in the bound volume Cotton Vitellius A.xv, one of the four major Anglo-Saxon poetic manuscripts. It is most famous as the manuscript containing the unique copy of the epic poem Beowulf. In addition to this, it contains first a fragment of The Life of Saint Christopher, then the more complete texts Wonders of the East and Letters of Alexander to Aristotle, and, after Beowulf, a poetic translation of Judith. Due to the fame of Beowulf, the Nowell codex is also sometimes known simply as the Beowulf manuscript. The manuscript is located within the British Library with the rest of the Cotton collection.

The current codex is a composite of at least two manuscripts, the first manuscript and the second manuscript. The main division is into two totally distinct books which were apparently not bound together until the 17th century. The first of these, originally owned by the Southwick Priory, dates from the 12th century and contains four works of prose.

It is the second, older manuscript that is more famous. This second manuscript is known as the Nowell codex, after Laurence Nowell, whose name is inscribed on its first page; he was apparently its owner in the mid-16th century. At some point it was combined with the first codex. It was then acquired by Sir Robert Cotton. In his library, it was placed on the first shelf (A) as the 15th manuscript (XV) of the bookcase that had a bust of Vitellius, giving the collection its name. The Nowell codex is generally dated around the turn of the first millennium. Recent editions have specified a probable date in the decade after 1000.

Vitellius A. xv was heavily damaged in 1731 when a fire partially destroyed the Cotton library. While the volume itself survived, the edges of the pages were badly scorched; no serious attempt at restoration was made until the 19th century, by which time the margins had crumbled irreparably, and the edges of many pages are now illegible.

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