ABSTRACT
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 57 contains a collection of Latin Benedictine texts suitable for public reading, and dates from the late tenth or early eleventh century. Close study of the manuscript and its additions reveals much about its intended purpose and actual usage, and provides illuminating insights into the practices of a late Anglo-Saxon monastery. The various types of addition to MS 57 demonstrate the use of the manuscript in different ways by numerous readers over a prolonged period. The excerpt from Ambrosius Autpertus that follows the Rule in MS 57 clearly functions as a tailpiece to it, for it immediately follows the explicit of the Rule and the rest of the page is left blank following the excerpt. Textual and artistic aspects of MS 57 therefore combine with the demonstrable links between Abingdon and Canterbury to suggest that, should the manuscript not have originated at Abingdon itself, Canterbury offers a possible alternative.
