Yorkshire Museum, York, YORYM: 1993.328

First mentioned in an unprovenanced but post 1843 (and probably post 1860) press-cutting pasted into a manuscript notebook of John Tuting (1785–1865), painter and antiquarian of Ripon (Ripon Cathedral MS 58, p. 198). First published by Hübner (1876) and said to have been purchased for the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society 'of Mr. Sharpin of Ripon, 1872' (Wellbeloved 1881, 69). Richard Hall (1995, 18) first suggested that the stone described in Tuting's notebook might be Ripon 1. The cutting seems quite clear: saying it was 'a genuine Saxon Christian gravestone, of the same type as those found in a long forgotten cemetery at Hartlepool in 1833, 1838 and 1843', and with letters 'exactly similar to those engraved on the coffin of St Cuthbert'. The cutting says of the inscription that it was 'simply the name of the deceased and another word', which seems to fit Ripon (cathedral, St Peter and St Wilfrid) 1 very well (see below). It had been found at the south end of St Marygate 'just east of "Abbott Huby's Wall" and opposite The Residence', in association with several human skeletons and in an area that could well have been part of the graveyard of the seventh-century monastery.

St Peter and St Wilfrid

Incomplete but in good condition

A plain cross-shaft extending into the lower arm of a cross-head of type A10.

A (broad): The face is dressed smooth. The lower arm of the head has no frame or edge moulding, but within it is incised the lower arm of a double-outlined cross of the form known as 'spine-and-boss'. A single dot is punched into the centre of the 'boss'. The shaft panel below is framed by a thin incised line. It is dressed smooth and contains an incised inscription which begins about one third of the way down the surviving face.

Inscription An inscription in three horizontal lines is set within a panel defined by an incised framing line on one of the broad faces of the shaft of the cross (Okasha 1971, no. 102). Letters are damaged or lost at the left-hand end of the second and third lines but, since all four sides of the frame remain in whole or in part, it is clear that the inscription never consisted of more than three lines. The letters are incised and are around 2.4 cm in height. The inscription reads:

At the start of the second line, a diagonal arm projects from the break in the surface of the stone. This could have formed part of a V, or perhaps a Y (see below), giving a personal-name form Adhuse/Adhyse.[3] In the third line the bowed top of a letter survives before the B, and the layout suggests that at least one more letter has been lost before the damaged letter. Taken together with the abbreviation bar that it seems to have shared with the B, the damaged letter can be assumed to have been R, and the whole to have read . This is a common abbreviation for Latin presbyter 'priest' and can be found in an eighth-century inscription at Monkwearmouth (Lindsay 1915, 436–7; Okasha 1971, 101, 157, pl. 92). The whole could then be reconstructed as either + ADH[V]SE [PR(ESBYTE)]R or + ADH[Y]SE [PR(ESBYTE)]R.

Adhyse seems to be an Old English masculine personal name, presumably identical with the Adhysi recorded amongst the nomina clericorum in the ninth-century Durham Liber Vitæ (Sweet 1885, 161, line 278). The second element of the name would be –hyse, a well-attested theme with the lexical sense 'son, young man' (von Feilitzen 1937, 297). The first element is possibly equivalent to standard Old English Ēad–, lexically 'riches, prosperity' (ibid., 229), though the philological explanation of the spelling Ad– is unclear. [4]

Providing that –hyse is correctly identified, the final –e gives a clue to the dating of the inscription. Weakening of unstressed i > e in this position in Northumbrian texts is attested from the second half of the eighth century onwards, though it does not become frequent until the second half of the ninth.[5] On linguistic grounds, therefore, the inscription is unlikely to date from before c. 750 and may be more likely ninth than eighth century.[6]

The inscription was neatly set out in three lines of broad and evenly formed capitals that seem to have followed ruled guide-lines (no longer visible). If the suggested reconstruction is correct, it is probable that the three lines were more or less centred, rather than aligned on the left-hand edge. A balanced layout of the three lines seems to have been preferred to the observance of syllable division in the name (ADH | [V]SE). The inscription opens with an introductory Latin cross that is taller than the capitals (its horizontal arms are level with the tops of the capitals). D, E, H and also B, although it is not clear whether the bows were closed at the centre of the letter, are 'Roman' in form. S follows the angular 'reversed-Z' variant of the capital.

Of the A, only the right-hand diagonal and the foot of the left-hand diagonal remain. It cannot now be seen what kind of cross-bar it had, if any. [7] There is no head-bar. The damaged letter at the start of the second line could have been 'Roman' V. There are, however, possible traces of a vertical below the remaining section of the diagonal, suggesting that the letter may have resembled a Y in form. If this is right, it may have been a variant of 'Roman' V, which could be explained either as V with a base serif that has developed into a vertical stroke or as the Greek letter upsilon. There are examples of Y-like V in the display script of the Lindisfarne Gospels on fols. 29r and 89v. Alternatively, but less probably, the letter might have been a form of 'Roman' capital Y. Letter strokes are finished off with serifs that are generally wedge-like in shape.

B (narrow): Plain, dressed smooth, an incised framing line only at the foot of the shaft.

C (broad): Dressed smooth, trace of incised framing line only at the bottom left of the shaft.

D (narrow): Plain. Dressed smooth, the lower part damaged.

F (bottom): There is a square dowel hole, possibly modern, in the base.

Collingwood dated the earliest sculptures from Ripon known in his day to what he called 'late A', that is to the latest period of Anglian sculpture before the Scandinavian takeover of the kingdom — and therefore to the first half of the ninth century. One is these is the so-called 'Adhyse' cross, no. 1. The nineteenth-century commentator who defined this as a grave slab similar to those at Hartlepool (see evidence for discovery, above) was perceptive, for as Rosemary Cramp has suggested (1993, 69), this seems to be a fusion between the recumbent cross-incised slab, as at Hartlepool and Lindisfarne, and the plain free-standing cross as at Whitby. In particular it shows the Latin cross with terminals expanded in a circle, adapted from the slab (Cramp 1984, pls. 85.447, 199.1115) to a position in the head of a free-standing cross. As a transitional form, its most likely date is the late seventh century, or perhaps most probably the early eighth century, from which period the Anglo-Saxon and particularly the Northumbrian decorated cross-shaft begins its long journey over the next four hundred years. The process of dissemination of the stone cross form would then be exactly the opposite of that opined by Collingwood, from Deira to Bernicia. The 'spine-and-boss' or 'lorgnette' type of cross which decorated the head went on to be very influential in Northumbrian cross sculpture. It is found again here at Ripon — see no. 2 below (Ill. 639). It also has the commonest disposition of inscription, in which more than one horizontal line of text is set on the shaft of a cross. It is part of the sub-group in which the inscribed panel starts at the top of one of the broad faces of the shaft (Higgitt 1986b, 129–30).

Inscription The text, which consisted simply of a man's name followed by a noun recording his status as a priest, was no doubt intended to mark out this small stone cross as a funerary monument. The cross can be compared in that respect with cross-decorated slabs bearing names and no other text that are found at Northumbrian sites such as Lindisfarne, Hartlepool and Wensley, and in Ireland at Clonmacnois and elsewhere (Okasha 1971, nos. 45, 48–50, 75–7, 80, 120–1; Okasha 1992, 47; Lionard 1961, 98). An unaccompanied name may also have been the only feature on a plain cross at Whitby, although in that case the name was set in the centre of the head of the cross (Okasha 1971, no. 125; Lang 2001, 242–4, ills. 970–2).

Ripon 1 has a particular interest as an identifiable memorial to a priest. Two other Northumbrian monuments of around the eighth century commemorate priests, a cross-slab at Monkwearmouth and a small free-standing cross from St Mary Bishophill Junior in York (Okasha 1971, nos. 92, 148; Higgitt 1979, 364–5, pl. LXIIIa–b; Lang 1991, 85–7, no. 5, ill. 234). All three have well-executed inscriptions but beyond that do not conform to a standard type. The name of Herebericht the priest was substituted at some stage for that of the first commemoratee on the Monkwearmouth slab. The priest on the York cross is not named and the inscription was not necessarily funerary.

The most frequent position for an inscription on an Anglo-Saxon cross was on one of the broad faces of the shaft (Higgitt 1986b, 129–30). Ripon 1 is one of six crosses in this group on which the inscribed panel was set at top of the shaft, the others being at Hexham, Hornby, Lancaster, Whitby and Wycliffe (Okasha 1971, nos. 54, 55, 67, 129, 144).

The approximately symmetrical layout of the three lines of the inscription would be an unusual feature, if they were indeed centred rather than aligned with the left-hand edge. The inscription on the St Mary Bishophill Junior cross is centred, although there the layout is dictated by a raised annular frame in the centre of the cross-head. The inscription on the probable cross-base from Haddenham, Cambridgeshire, now in Ely Cathedral, would also be a parallel, if it could be dated to the early Anglo-Saxon period, although this is uncertain (Okasha 1971, no. 43). Similar symmetries can be found in display lettering in Insular books, although again they are unusual (Lowe 1960, pl. XI; Alexander 1978, ills. 160, 175; Brown, M. 1990, pls. 17, 19). Centred layouts in Anglo-Saxon inscriptions may betray the influence of book design. It is probable that there were trained scribes at Ripon who transcribed books during the eighth and ninth centuries, but we know nothing of their layout or script.

The few surviving letters of the inscription do not provide much material for analysis or evidence for dating. The mixture of 'Roman' capitals with angular forms (here S) is, however, broadly comparable to the lettering on Dewsbury 1 and 5 (Ills. 190–1, 205–7). The evidence of the lettering cannot be used either to confirm or undermine the arguments on linguistic grounds for a probable dating to after c. 750. On the other hand, the plainness of the Ripon cross, apart from the 'lorgnette' decoration on the head, has been seen as an argument for associating it with the plain memorial crosses at Whitby and for a dating to the first half of the eighth century (Cramp 1978a, 7).

Eighth century(?)

(–––) 1873, 9; Wellbeloved 1875, 48, cat. 11, and 134, cat. (f); Hübner 1876, 65, no. 178, and fig.; Browne 1880–4b, cxiii; Wellbeloved 1881, 69, cat. 13; Allen and Browne 1885, 353; Allen 1889, 213, 221; Allen 1890, 297, 298, 305–6; Allen 1891, 229, no. 1; Wellbeloved 1891, 76–7, cat. 13; Browne 1897, 283–4; Collingwood 1909, 185, fig. on 184; Collingwood 1912, 110, 111, 130, fig. on 110; Collingwood 1913, 169, fig. 2; Collingwood 1915a, 235, 281–2, 289; Collingwood 1927, 94, figs. 116.2, 117; Collingwood 1932, 51; Elgee and Elgee 1933, 193; Okasha 1964–8, 326; Okasha 1971, 107, no. 102, and pl.; Cramp 1978a, 7; Cramp 1984, 85; Higgitt 1986b, 129–30, 148; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 36; Cramp 1989, 223; Higgitt 1991, 45; Lang 1991, 109, 138; Cramp 1992, 224, 339; Okasha 1992, 83; Cramp 1993, 69; Hall 1995, 15, 18; Higgitt 1995, 230, 234; Tweddle et al. 1995, 272; Higgitt 2001, 52; Lang 2001, 43, 52, 268, ill. 1191; Okasha 2004, 277; Coatsworth 2006, 18–19, pl. 1

[1] The following are general references to the Ripon stones: Allen 1890, 293; Collingwood 1932, 48; Brown 1937, 95; Mee 1941, 306; Bailey and Cramp 1988, 16; Lang 1991, 17, 84; Hall 1995, 15; Hadley 2000a, 235.

[2] The following is an unpublished manuscript reference to Ripon 1: John Tuting, 'Notes and cuttings on the history of Ripon' (unpublished manuscript notebook, c. 1860–65), p. 198. Ripon Cathedral MS 58 (held in Leeds University Library).

[3] Page (1964b, 83) suggests that the surviving fragment is more consistent with V than Y, though he then treats V as a representation of linguistic y. Okasha (1971, 107) supplies Y without comment.

[4] Okasha (1971, 107) equates Ad– with Ead– without comment. The second element, –hyse, may perhaps have caused 'double umlaut' in the name (Campbell 1959, §204(2)). Normally this would be expected to give Anglian Ed– here, but there are some instances of Æd– (Campbell 1959, §200(7)). In turn æ can sometimes be written as a in a Latin context. Twice in the same name-combination, however, excites suspicion. Note that Redin (1919, 81–2, 130–1) regards such short names as Ad(d)a, Addi and Aed(d)i as unintelligible.

[5] Dahl 1938, 187–8; Page 1959b, 395 [1995, 36].

[6] These three paragraphs are by David Parsons.

[7] I have not had a chance to re-examine this inscription recently but my notes and sketch show only the right diagonal and the left foot of the A. The photograph in Okasha (1971, pl. 102) shows more of the A than now remains (a horizontal cross bar and left diagonal). Collingwood (1909, fig. facing 185) shows A with a horizontal cross-bar but seems not to be accurate over the head of the A.