Humphrey Wanley's Antiquæ literaturæ septentrionalis liber alter … Librorum Vett. Septentrionalium, qui in Angliæ Bibliothecis extant … (1705) is the second book (and final volume) of George Hickes, Linguarum Vett. septentrionalium thesaurus grammatico-criticus et archæologicus, 2 books in 3 vols. (Oxford: E Theatro Sheldoniano, 1703-5). Wanley's volume is 1 (unpaginated) + 16 (numbered by folio, †a-†d2) + 326 + 56 (numbered by folio, [A]-O2) pp.

Wanley's record for the Beowulf manuscript (now British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius A.xv) is part of his catalog of manuscripts containing Old English in the Cotton Library collection, long before its 1753 acquisition by the British Museum. Item IX in Wanley's enumeration of the manuscript's contents (pp. 218-19) gives the earliest extant transcription, and publication, of any part of Beowulf, and the only one that predates the manuscript's damage in the Ashburnham House fire of 1731.

Wanley prints two extracts from the poem (which he describes as "Tractatus nobilissimus Poeticè scriptus"), as follows:

Præfationis hoc est initium,

Hƿæt ƿe ʒarde na. ın ʒear daʒum. þeod cẏnınʒa þrẏm ʒefrumon hu ða Æþelınʒas ellen fremedon. Oft Scẏld Scefınʒ sceaþena ðreatum moneʒum mæʒðum meodo setla ofteah eʒsode eorl sẏððan ærest ƿearð feasceaft funden. he ƿæs frofre ʒebad ƿeox under ƿolcnum ƿeorðmẏndum þah. oð ̄þ hım æʒhƿẏlc þara ẏmb sıttendra ofer hron rade hẏran scolde ʒomban ʒẏldan ̄þ ƿæs ʒod Cẏnınʒ. ðæm eafera ƿæs æfter cenned ʒeonʒ ın ʒeardum þone God sende folce to frofre. fẏren ðearfe on ʒeat ̄þ hıe ær druʒon aldor - - - ase. lanʒe hƿılc hım þæs lıf frea ƿuldres ƿealdend ƿorold are forʒeaf. Beoƿulf ƿæs breme Blæd ƿıde spranʒ Scẏldes eafera scede landum ın.

Initium autem primi Capitis sic se habet,

Ða ƿæs on burʒum Beoƿulf Scẏldınʒa leof leod Cẏnınʒ lonʒe ðraʒe folcum ʒefræʒe fæder ellor hƿearf aldor of earde oþ ̄þ hım eft on ƿoc heah healf Dene heold þen den lifde ʒamol ⁊ ʒuðreouƿ ʒlæde Scẏldınʒas ðæm feoƿer bearn forð ʒerımed ın ƿorold ƿocun ƿeoroda ræsƿa Heoroʒar. and Hroðʒar ⁊ Halʒatıl hẏrde ıc ̄þ helan cƿen. heaðo Scılfınʒas heals ʒebedda þa ƿæs Hroðʒare here sped ʒẏfen ƿıʒes ƿeorðmẏnd ̄þ hım hıs ƿıne maʒas ʒeorne hẏrdon oðð ̄þ seo ʒeoʒoð ʒeƿeox maʒo drıht mıcel hım on mod bearn ̄þ heal seced hatan ƿolde. medo ærn mıcel men ʒeƿẏrcean þone ẏldo bearn æfre ʒefrumon. ⁊ þær on ınnan eall ʒedælan ʒeonʒum ⁊ ealdum sƿẏlc hım God sealde buton folc scare ⁊ feorum ʒumena.

In hoc libro, qui Poeseos Anglo-Saxonicæ egregium est exemplum, descripta videntur bella quæ Beowulfus quidam Danus, ex Regio Scyldingorum stirpe Ortus, gessit contra Sueciæ Regulos. (218-19; italics as in original; "ƿæs" for "þæs" in first quotation and "seced" for "reced" in second, sic)

In addition to using ezh-shaped lowercase g (ʒ), a dotless form of i, dotted y, and wynn (ƿ) as in the manuscript, Wanley prints the Old English text using typographical forms of several other letters (d, f, r, s, t) that resemble their scribal forms.

• Eileen A. Joy, “Thomas Smith, Humfrey Wanley, and the ‘Little-Known Country’ of the Cotton Library,” Electronic British Library Journal (2005): art. 1, online at https://www.bl.uk/eblj/2005articles/pdf/article1.pdf.

BAM.