Editing Exeter Book (section)

{{Distinguish|Liber Exoniensis|The Exeter Text}}
{{short description|10th-century book of Anglo-Saxon poetry}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2016}}
[[File:Exeter Book.jpg|thumb|Exeter Book]]
The '''Exeter Book''', also known as the '''Codex Exoniensis''' or '''Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501''', is a large [[codex]] of [[Old English]] [[poetry]], believed to have been produced in the late tenth century AD.<ref>{{cite book|last=Fell|first=Christine|editor=[[Malcolm Godden]] and [[Michael Lapidge]]|title=The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature|year=2007|publisher=Cambridge UP|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-37794-2|pages=172–89|chapter=Perceptions of Transience|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-e5YuuS_yicC&pg=PA172}}</ref> It is one of the [[Old English literature#Extant manuscripts|four major manuscripts of Old English poetry]], along with the [[Vercelli Book]] in the [[Cathedral chapter|chapter]] library of [[Vercelli Cathedral]], Italy, the [[Nowell Codex]] in the [[British Library]], and the [[Junius manuscript]] in the [[Bodleian Library]] in Oxford. The Exeter Book was given to what is now the [[Exeter Cathedral]] library by [[Leofric, Bishop of Exeter|Leofric]],<ref name="Johnson2016"/> the first [[bishop of Exeter]], in 1072. It is believed to have originally contained 130<ref name="UoPP2017"/> or 131 leaves, of which the first 7<ref name="UoPP2017" /> or 8 have been replaced with other leaves; the original first 8 leaves are lost.{{cn|date=August 2021}} The Exeter Book is the largest and perhaps oldest<ref name="UoPP2017"/><ref name="Cathedral">
{{cite web |title=The Exeter Book |url=https://www.exeter-cathedral.org.uk/history-heritage/cathedral-treasures/exeter-book/ |website=Exeter Cathedral}}
</ref> known manuscript of Old English literature,<ref name="Johnson2016"/><ref name="Conner2015"/><ref name="EB"/><ref>Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "[[wikisource:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Exeter Book|Exeter Book]]". ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. '''10.''' (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 67.</ref> containing about a sixth of the Old English poetry that has survived.<ref name="Johnson2016">
{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Keith |title=The History of Early English |date=2016 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9781317636069 |url=https://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781138795457/chapter7.php |chapter=7.1 Manuscript collections}}
</ref><ref name="Gameson1996">
{{cite journal |last1=Gameson |first1=Richard |title=The origin of the Exeter Book of Old English poetry |journal=Anglo-Saxon England |date=December 1996 |volume=25 |pages=135–185 |doi=10.1017/S0263675100001988 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/anglo-saxon-england/article/abs/origin-of-the-exeter-book-of-old-english-poetry/47FE0E894DA3A78D0A1C5C359F49B437 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |s2cid=162992373 |issn=1474-0532|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In 2016 [[UNESCO]] recognized the book as "the foundation volume of English literature, one of the world's principal cultural artefacts".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/22/unesco-lists-exeter-book-among-worlds-principal-cultural-artefacts|title=Unesco lists Exeter Book among 'world's principal cultural artefacts'|last=Flood|first=Alison|date=22 June 2016|website=The Guardian|access-date=26 June 2016}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite news |title='Outstanding' Old English poetry book granted Unesco status |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-36581705 |work=BBC News |date=21 June 2016}}</ref><ref name="BL">{{cite web |title=Exeter Book |url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/exeter-book |publisher=The British Library |access-date=7 August 2021 |archive-date=19 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230619064821/http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/exeter-book |url-status=dead }}</ref>