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Folio 15 verso of British Library manuscript Cotton Vitellius E.xviii, an eleventh-century codex written in all likelihood at Winchester, preserves a short item that begins with the words his is sancte columcille circul.1 The diagram and instructions that follow are for a device meant to protect bees during a swarm. The Old English text for this beekeeping device reads Writ pysne circul mid Pines cnifes orde on anum mealm stave 7 sleah &-nne stacan on middan Pam ymbhagan 7 lege one stave on uppan Pam stacan peet he beo eall under eordan butan Pam gewritenan [Write this circle with the point of your knife on a malmstone, and drive a stake into the ground in the center of your apiary, and put the stone on top of the stake so that it is completely under the earth but for the writing].2 The diagram that is included with these instructions (see figure) consists of two concentric circles; the inner circle is bisected twice to create four quarters. In the upper right-hand quarter of this inner circle, the following Latin text appears, which is the text to be etched on to the malmstone: contra
apes ut
salvi sint
& incorda
eorum. S a h.
[Against bees so that they may be safe and in their hearts. S a h.]3
The other three quarters of the circle include a series of Roman numerals. Charles Singer has identified this arrangement to be a version of Petirosis' circle, a Greek medical prognostic device (350).4 The directions and diagram for "Columcille's Circle" share a page with various items of practical wisdom, including directions for protecting bees from theft, a charm for finding a stolen possession, remedies for cattle and sheep, and charms for livestock and crops.5 The bulk of the manuscript in which this brief item appears is devoted to a Gallican Psalter with Old English interlinear gloss; according to N. R. Ker, the Old English gloss and "Columcille's Circle" are written in the same hand, a hand that is also contemporary with the Psalter itself.6
This brief text-a few lines of Old English mixed in with other bits of practical advice-presents a modern scholar with a small, nearly mute fragment of Anglo-Saxon Benedictine culture. Like a minuscule textual fragment from...