Biblical exegesis at Wearmouth-Jarrow before Bede? The Hereford commentary on Matthew

This article examines a previously neglected fragment of an early medieval commentary on Matthew’s Gospel, the bifolium Hereford Cathedral Library, P. II. 10. I argue on palaeographical grounds that this fragment was produced in Bede’s monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow in the first decades of the eighth century, at roughly the same time as the production of the Codex Amiatinus. This leads into a study of the text itself, which is in fact a compilation of two quite different texts. Its second part is mostly based on a known early medieval commentary, one of the supposedly ‘Hiberno-Latin’ texts identified by Bernard Bischoff in the 1950s. Its first part, however, is unique to this fragment, has few clear analogues, and has never previously been studied. I consider the implications of this fragment – both as a codicological artefact and as a piece of biblical exegesis – for our understanding of Bede’s monastery at a crucial early point in its history. The article’s appendix includes an edited text and translation of the fragment.