Vercelli Book [SEP] language of work or name
Vercelli Book
The Vercelli Book is one of the oldest of the four Old English Poetic Codices (the others being the Junius manuscript, the Exeter Book, and the Nowell Codex). It is an anthology of Old English prose and verse that dates back to the late 10th century. The manuscript is housed in the Capitulary Library of Vercelli, in northern Italy.
Contents.
The Vercelli Book comprises 135 folios, and although the manuscript was probably compiled and written in the late 10th century, not all of the
Council of Vercelli in 1050. Around 1100, further confusion arose when Ratramnus’ name was mistakenly copied in some works as Bertramus, a mistake which endured even into the 19th century.
In the 16th century, Ratramnus’ work once more became the center of controversy. After "De corpore et sanguine Domini" was printed in 1531, Protestant reformers seized upon the book as a counterpoint to the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. It was especially influential in England, where Thomas Cranmer claimed to have been finally convinced against transubstantion by