The first description of the Beowulf-MS is in 1705 by H. Wanley (Librorum Septentrionalium ... Catalogus, pp. 218—19, Oxoniæ, forming vol. II of Hickes' Thesaurus). Two short extracts from the MS are given by Wanley. He describes the poem as telling of the wars quæ Beowulfus quidam Danus, ex regio Scyldingorum stirpe ortus, gessit contra Sueciæ regulos. The text was printed by Thorkelin in 1815, and the MS was collated by Conybeare, who in his Illustrations (1826) issued 19 pages of corrections of Thorkelin. These corrections were further corrected by J. M. Kemble in 1837 (Letter to M. Francisque Michel, in Michel's Bibliothèque Anglo-Saxonne, pp. 20, 51-8). Meantime Kemble's text had been issued in 1833, based upon his examination of the MS. The MS was also seen by Thorpe (in 1830: Thorpe's text was not published till 1855) and by Grundtvig (pub. 1861). A further collation was that of E. Kölbing in 1876 (Zur Beóvulf-handschrift, Archiv, LVI, 91-118). Kölbing's collation proves the superiority of Kemble's text to Grundtvig's. Line for line transcripts of the MS were those of Holder, Wülker and Zupitza:
1881 Holder, A. Beowulf. Bd. I. Abdruck der Handschrift. Freiburg u. Tübingen. (‡1881, from collation made in 1875.) Reviews: Kölbing, Engl. Stud. VII, 488; Kluge, Literaturblatt, 1883, 178; Wülker, Lit. Cbl. 1882, 1035-6.
1882. 2 Aufl.
1895. 3 Aufl. Reviews: Dieter, Anglia, Beiblatt, VI, 260-1; Brandl, Z.f.d.A. XL, 90.
1881 Wülker, R. P. Beowulf: Text nach der handschrift, in Grein's Bibliothek, I, 18-148.
1882 Zupitza, J. Beowulf. Autotypes of the unique Cotton MS. Vitellius A XV; with a transliteration and notes. Early English Text Society, London. Reviews: Trautmann, Anglia, VII, Anzeiger, 41; Kölbing, Engl. Stud. VII, 482 etc.; Varnhagen, A.f.d.A. X, 304; Sievers, Lit. Cbl. 1884, 124.
Further discussion of the MS by
1890 Davidson, C. Differences between the scribes of Beowulf. M.L.N. V, 43-4; McClumpha, C., criticizes the above, M.L.N. V, 123; reply by Davidson, M.L.N. V, 189-90.
1910 Lamb, Evelyn H. "Beowulf": Hemming of Worcester. Notes and Queries, Ser. XI, vol. I, p. 26. (Worthless. An assertion, unsupported by any evidence, that both the hands of the Beowulf MS are those of Hemming of Worcester, who flourished c. 1096.)
1916 Sisam, K. The Beowulf Manuscript. M.L.R. XI, 335-7. (Very important. Gives results of a scrutiny of the other treatises in MS Vitellius A. XV (see above) and shows, among other things, that the Beowulf MS, before reaching the hands of Sir Robert Cotton, was (in 1563) in those of Lawrence Nowell, the Elizabethan Anglo-Saxon scholar.)
1919 Förster, Max. Die Beowulf-Handschrift, Leipzig, Berichte der Sächs. Akad. der Wissenschaften, Bd. 71. (An excellent and detailed discussion of the problems of the MS, quite independent of that of Mr Sisam, whose results it confirms.) Review: Schröder, Z.f.d.A. LVIII, 85-6.
1920 Rypins, S. I. The Beowulf Codex. Mod. Phil. XVII, 541-8 (promising further treatment of the problems of the MS).
The MS of Finnsburg has been lost. See above, p. [245].
[§ 4]. EDITIONS OF BEOWULF AND FINNSBURG
1705 Hickes, G. Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus. Oxoniæ. (Vol. I, 192-3, text of Finnsburg Fragment.)
1814 Conybeare, J. J. The Battle of Finsborough, in Brydges' British Bibliographer, vol. IV, pp. 261-7; No. XV (Text, Latin translation, and free verse paraphrase in English: some brief notes).
1815 Thorkelin, G. J. De Danorum rebus gestis secul. III et IV. Poëma Danicum dialecto Anglo-Saxonica. (Copenhagen, with Lat. transl.) Reviews: See [§ 7], Textual Criticism, 1815, Grundtvig; also Dansk Litteratur-Tidende, 1815, 401-32, 437-46, 461-2 (defending Thorkelin against Grundtvig); Iduna, vii, 1817, 133-59; Monthly Review, LXXXI, 1816, 516-23; ‡Jenaische Literatur-Zeitung, 1816, Ergänzungsblätter, 353-65 (summary in Wülker's Grundriss, p. 252); Outzen in Kieler Blätter, 1816, see [§ 8], below.
1817 Rask, R. K. Angelsaksisk sproglære. Stockholm (pp. 163-6 contain Beowulf, ll. 53-114, with commentary).
1820 Text of Finnsburg, given by Grundtvig in Bjowulfs Drape, pp. xl-xlv.
1826 Text of Finnsburg, and of large portions of Beowulf, given in Conybeare's Illustrations. See [§ 5], Translations.
1833 Kemble, J. M. Beowulf, the Travellers Song, and the Battle of Finnesburh, edited with a glossary ... and an historical preface. London.