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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 May 2003
‘Eaduuius surnamed Basan’ is one of the small number of late Anglo-Saxon scribes to be known by name, and he is unquestionably the most important. Eadwig Ü the Old English name represented by the Latin ‘Eaduuius’–identified himself in a colophon to the small but exquisite gospelbook, Hanover, Kestner-Museum, WM XXIa, 36 (see pl. V); and his distinctive hand has been recognized in a further three gospelbooks or lectionaries, three psalters, and three or four charters. It is on this corpus of material that our knowledge of him rests. The colophon does not, unfortunately, contain much information and it is highly formulaic; it is all the more important, therefore, to interpret its words judiciously. Before we turn to the text, however, it will be helpful to rehearse the salient points of Eadwig's career, in so far as they are known.
