Page:Old English Gospel of Nicodemus - Hulme 1904.djvu/1



The texts here printed have not previously been published, either as a whole or in part. While they are both concerned with that very interesting subject, the Evangelium Nicodemi, they are of quite a different character. The first (from the Cotton MS Vespasian D 14) is without doubt a late Old English version of the Gospel of Nicodemus, while the second (from the Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 41) is an OE. homily which discusses with some detail the "Harrowing of Hell" episode from the apocryphal sources of the life of Christ.

I. THE MANUSCRIPT COTTON VESPASIAN D 14 (Fol. 876-100).

When I undertook, a few years ago, to edit the OE. manuscripts of the Gospel of Nicodemus, I did not appreciate the real importance of the version contained in Vesp. D 14. There are two reasons why I did not include this version (or, at any rate, supply variant readings from it) in the reprint of the Cambr. Univ. Libr. MS Ii, ii, 11 and the Cotton MS Vitelius A 15 : first, and chiefly, because I was misled by Wtllker's words, "Nicht zu verwechseln mit dieser Übertragung ist ein Auszug aus dem Pseudevangelium Nicodemi in der Handschrift zu London, Cotton. Vesp. D XIV," as to the importance of the text; in the second place, I had never had a good opportunity to examine the manuscript carefully. These facts also account for the following statement, which occurs in the previously mentioned edition:

In addition to the above mentioned MSS a sort of résumé of the contents of the Gospel of Nicodemus, i.e., of Part II, is found in the Cotton MS Vespasian D 14 (fol. 87b-lOOa incl.) in the form of a homily by Aelfric. 579]