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.