Cotton Vitellius A XV
E114827
Cotton Vitellius A XV is the medieval manuscript in the British Library that famously preserves the only surviving copy of the Old English epic poem Beowulf.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Cotton Vitellius A XV canonical | 4 |
| Cotton Vitellius A.xv | 4 |
| Cotton Caligula A XV | 1 |
| Cotton Vitellius A. xv | 1 |
| Cotton Vitellius A.xv (part 2) | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T975135 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cotton Vitellius A XV Context triple: [Beowulf, manuscriptShelfmark, Cotton Vitellius A XV]
-
A.
Libius Severus
Libius Severus was a little-known Western Roman emperor who reigned from 461 to 465 AD as a puppet of the powerful general Ricimer during the empire’s final decline.
-
B.
Sextus Julius Severus
Sextus Julius Severus was a prominent 2nd-century Roman general and governor, best known for his decisive role in suppressing the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judea.
-
C.
Vitellius
Vitellius was a short-lived Roman emperor in 69 AD, the tumultuous "Year of the Four Emperors," known for his downfall amid civil war and succession by Vespasian.
-
D.
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus was a Roman senator and aristocrat of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, best known as the biological father of the emperor Nero.
-
E.
Herodian
Herodian refers to a member of the Herodian dynasty, the ruling family of client kings in Judea and surrounding regions during the late Second Temple period under Roman authority.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Cotton Vitellius A XV Target entity description: Cotton Vitellius A XV is the medieval manuscript in the British Library that famously preserves the only surviving copy of the Old English epic poem Beowulf.
-
A.
Libius Severus
Libius Severus was a little-known Western Roman emperor who reigned from 461 to 465 AD as a puppet of the powerful general Ricimer during the empire’s final decline.
-
B.
Sextus Julius Severus
Sextus Julius Severus was a prominent 2nd-century Roman general and governor, best known for his decisive role in suppressing the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judea.
-
C.
Vitellius
Vitellius was a short-lived Roman emperor in 69 AD, the tumultuous "Year of the Four Emperors," known for his downfall amid civil war and succession by Vespasian.
-
D.
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus was a Roman senator and aristocrat of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, best known as the biological father of the emperor Nero.
-
E.
Herodian
Herodian refers to a member of the Herodian dynasty, the ruling family of client kings in Judea and surrounding regions during the late Second Temple period under Roman authority.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Old English manuscript
ⓘ
codex ⓘ medieval manuscript ⓘ |
| access | available in digital facsimile ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Beowulf manuscript
ⓘ
linked to:
Beowulf
Nowell Codex ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Anglo-Saxon England ⓘ |
| cataloguedBy |
Robert Cotton
ⓘ
linked to:
Sir Robert Cotton
|
| collection | Cotton Library ⓘ |
| condition | fire-damaged ⓘ |
| conservationStatus | stabilized but fragile ⓘ |
| containsText |
Beowulf
ⓘ
Judith ⓘ Letter of Alexander to Aristotle ⓘ The Passion of Saint Christopher ⓘ The Wonders of the East ⓘ |
| culturalContext | Anglo-Saxon monastic culture ⓘ |
| currentLocation | British Library ⓘ |
| damagedIn | Ashburnham House fire ⓘ |
| date |
early 11th century
ⓘ
late 10th century ⓘ |
| dateOfEvent | 1731 Ashburnham House fire ⓘ |
| digitizedBy | British Library ⓘ |
| folioCount | approximately 130 folios ⓘ |
| formerOwner | Sir Robert Cotton ⓘ |
| genreOfContents |
heroic poetry
ⓘ
religious prose ⓘ |
| hasPart |
Beowulf section
ⓘ
linked to:
Beowulf
prose texts section ⓘ |
| holds | Beowulf ⓘ |
| language | Old English ⓘ |
| material | parchment ⓘ |
| partOf | Cotton collection of manuscripts ⓘ |
| preserves | only extant manuscript copy of Beowulf ⓘ |
| regionOfOrigin | England ⓘ |
| repository |
British Library, London
ⓘ
linked to:
British Library
|
| script | Insular minuscule ⓘ |
| scriptType | book hand ⓘ |
| shelfmark | Cotton MS Vitellius A XV ⓘ |
| significance |
key witness for Old English language studies
ⓘ
primary source for the text of Beowulf ⓘ |
| subject |
Germanic epic poetry
ⓘ
Old English literature ⓘ |
| writingSupport | vellum ⓘ |
| writingSystem | Latin alphabet ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Cotton Vitellius A XV Description of subject: Cotton Vitellius A XV is the medieval manuscript in the British Library that famously preserves the only surviving copy of the Old English epic poem Beowulf.
Referenced by (11)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Cotton Vitellius A XV
linked to: Cotton Vitellius A XV
linked to: Cotton Vitellius A XV
linked to: Cotton Vitellius A XV
linked to: Cotton Vitellius A XV
linked to: Cotton Vitellius A XV
subject linked to:
Beowulf Manuscript (Nowell Codex)
subject linked to:
Beowulf Manuscript (Nowell Codex)
linked to: Cotton Vitellius A XV