Nowell Codex Facsimile Edition

The Nowell Codex, named for its first known owner, the sixteenth-century historian Laurence Nowell, is a collection of works that together comprise a book of marvels. The manuscript was made around the year 1000 in England and includes portions of a homily on Saint Christopher, the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, the only surviving copy of Beowulf, and one of three known Old English translations of the Marvels of the East. This last text is illustrated with twenty-nine miniatures of the various extraordinary creatures described therein.

The manuscript is also referred to as the Beowulf Manuscript due to the presence of the only copy of the famous Old English epic poem. It was written by two scribes perhaps in Malmesbury. The texts serve as a delightful record of the early English interest in the exotic and monstrous inhabitants of the world.

The Beowulf Manuscript: A Book of Wonders

A common theme that runs through the various texts compiled in the Nowell Codex is their interest in the monstrous, making it a book of wonders. In the Middle Ages, Saint Christopher was believed to be a giant Cynocephalus, of the dog-headed race described in the Marvels of the East. Beowulf's epic struggle against the monster Grendel, the monster’s mother, and a dragon made it the perfect candidate for inclusion. The line between fact and fiction about the natural world was unclear, and these stories of creatures from beyond the boundaries of human civilization known to Europeans were an important source of knowledge in early medieval Europe.

One of Three Illustrated Old English versions of Marvels of the East

While the manuscript is most famous for the Beowulf epic, its only illustrations are within the section of the Marvels of the East, a text popular for its descriptions of monstrous creatures living in the far reaches of the world. The images are typical for the text and display a rather naïve style. The scriptorium was not home to an accomplished artist, suggesting a smaller foundation than those at Canterbury and Winchester. Malmesbury has been suggested based on the probable availability of source material and linguistic clues.

Laurence Nowell and the Study of Old English

Laurence Nowell (d. 1571) was a pioneer in the study of Old English. He compiled the first dictionary of the language called the Vocabularium Saxonicum. He likely added the folios with the poem Judith to the manuscript. His library passed to William Lambarde. The manuscript came to be owned by Robert Cotton, and during this time the Nowell Codex was bound together with the later Southwick Codex, a collection of Old English patristic writings and homilies. The combined manuscript was damaged in the Ashburnham House fire of 1731 resulting in the loss of portions of Beowulf. The folios are now mounted on paper for conservation purposes.