Rochester, Cathedral Library, A. 3. 5
A. 3. 5
General Information
373
The manuscript consists of two parts, both of which were probably compiled during the time of Bishop Ernulf of Rochester (1115-24). Described within the category of 'legal encyclopaedia' by Wormald (1999), the first part of the manuscript contains mainly laws, genealogies and lists of popes, emperors, patriarchs, and English archbishops and bishops in Old English and some Latin items. Fols 58-80, 'Incipiunt quędam instituta de legibus regum anglorum' contain nine Old English glosses not in the main hand (see Liebermann 1903). The second part contains the cartulary of Rochester Cathedral Priory (Rochester: List of Estates Rochester: List of Serfs) in Latin and Old English, notes of the number of masses to be recited for members of English and Norman religious houses in confraternity with Rochester, and the catalogue of Rochester Cathedral Library (Ker 1957, p. 447).
- Item: fols 1r-3v
- Item: fols 3v-5r
- Item: fols 5r-6v
- Item: fols 7r-v
- Item: fols 7v-8v
Title (B.18.7.1.EM): Lists of Kings, Saints, and Bishops: West-Saxon Genealogy
Incipit: (fol. 7v) Đa ƿæs agangen fram cristes accennednesse
Text Language: English
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fols 9r-32r
- Item: fols 32r-v
- Item: fol. 32v
- Item: fols 32v-37r
- Item: fols 37r-38r
- Item: fol. 38r
- Item: fols 38v-39v
- Item: fols 40r-41v
- Item: fols 41v-42r
- Item: fols 42r-43r
Title (B.14.7.1.EM): I, II Eadweard: I
Rubric (initial): (fol. 42r) Eadƿerdes gerænesse
Incipit: (fol. 42r) Eadƿerd cyning byt ðam gerefum eallum
Text Language: English
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fols 43r-44r
Title (B.14.7.2.EM): I, II Eadweard: II
Incipit: (fol. 43r) Eadƿerd cyning myngode his ƿitan
Text Language: English
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fols 44r-45r
- Item: fols 45r-46r
- Item: fols 46r-47r
- Item: fols 47r-47v
- Item: fols 48r-49v
- Item: fols 49v-57r
Title: Jud. Dei i-iii
Rubric (initial): (fol. 49v) Incipit exorcismus aque
Text Language: Latin
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fol. 57v
Title: Item, Latin
Incipit (Latin): (fol. 57v) Cnud rex anglorum dedit ecclesie cristi brachium Sancti
Text Language: Latin
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fols 58r-80r
Title: Instituta Cnuti
Rubric (initial): (fol. 58r) Incipiunt quedam instituta de legibus regum anglorum
Incipit (Latin): (fol. 58r) Hec est institutio
Text Language: Latin
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fols 80r-81v
Title: Articles of William
Rubric (initial): (fol. 80r) Hic intimatur quid Willelmus rex anglorum cum principibus suis constituit. post conquisitionem anglie
Incipit (Latin): (fol. 80r) Inprimus
Text Language: Latin
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fols 81v-87r
Title: Item
Rubric (initial): (fol. 81v) Exceptiones ex decretis pontificum. quales accusatores accipiantur. et quales non recipiantur.
Incipit (Latin): (fol. 81v) Accusatores
Text Language: Latin
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fols 88r-93r
- Item: fol. 93r-93v
- Item: fols 93v-94r
- Item: fols 94v-95r
- Item: fol. 95r
- Item: fols 95r-95v
- Item: fols 96r-97v
Title: Henry I Coronation Charter
Rubric (initial): (fol. 96r) Institutiones henrici regis
Incipit (Latin): (fol. 96r) Anno incarnationis dominici
Text Language: Latin
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fols 98r-99v
Title: excommunication viii
Rubric (initial): (fol. 98r) Excommunicatio
Incipit (Latin): (fol. 98r) Ex auctoritate dei
Text Language: Latin
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fols 99v-100r
Title: Excommunication ix
Rubric (initial): (fol. 99v) Excommunicatio
Incipit (Latin): (fol. 99v) Auctoritate dei
Text Language: Latin
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fols 101r-v
Title (B.18.7.2.EM): Lists of Kings, Saints, and Bishops: List of Kings
Rubric (initial): (fol. 101r) Đis ys angelcynnes cynecynn þe her gemearcod is.
Incipit: (fol. 101r) Adam ƿæs se æresta man
Explicit: (fol. 101v) Đa ƿæs æþelred. þa ƿæs eadƿord
Text Language: English
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fols 102r-104r
Title (B.18.7.3.EM): Lists of Kings, Saints, and Bishops: West-Saxon Genealogy
Incipit: (fol. 102r) Eadƿard. ond eadmund. ond æðelred æþelingas . syndon eadgares suna
Text Language: English
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fols 105r-16r
Title (B.18.7.4.EM): Lists of Kings, Saints, and Bishops: Lists of Popes, Emperors, Patriarchs and English Archbishops and Bishops
Text Language: English
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fol. 116v
Title: Lists of names, (a) 'uiginti quattor seniorum', (b) of popes responsible for introducing new forms of service into the liturgy, (c) 'septem archangelorum'
Incipit (Latin): (fol. 116v) uiginti quattor seniorum
Text Language: Latin
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fols 119r-222r
Title: Rochester Cathedral Cartulary
Text Language: Latin
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
- Item: fol. 222r-v
Title: Notes of the number of masses, etc., to be recited for members of English and Norman religious houses in confraternity with Rochester
Text Language: English
Bibliography:
Ker 1957, item 373
Object Description
Codex
Extent:
- c. 225-230 mm x 150-155 mm (dimensions of all - size of leaves)
- c. 170 mm x 95 mm (dimensions of all - size of written space)
Foliation/Pagination: Fols iv + 235 + i, foliated (i-iv), 1-235, (236)
Collation:
Quires: Fols i, 236 are parchment flyleaves of the date of binding. Fols ii-iv are post-medieval parchment flyleaves.
Collation of part A (fols 1-118): 18, 28 + 2 leaves after 3 (fols 12, 13), 38, 412 + 1 leaf after 5 (fol. 32), 58, 610, 7-88, 912 + 1 leaf after 11 and 1 leaf after 12 (fols 85, 87), 108, 118 wants 6-8, probably blank, after fol. 100, 128 wants 6 after fol. 105: the leaf was supplied in s. xii/xiii (fol. 106), 138, 142.
Part B is mainly in eights: fols 164, 166 and 181 are supply leaves, s. xii, and fols 177-80, 193-4, 197, 203-8, 213, 217, 220, 230-5 are additions to the manuscript, mainly of s. xiiex. Note that, according to Wormald, most of the quires are self-contained, as a result of very careful design (1999, p. 247).
Signatures: The quire signatures IX (fol. 47v), II (fol. 73v), IIII (fol. 95v) indicate that fols 40-57 (Quires 5, 6) came at the beginning and fols 58- 87 (Quires 7-9) at the end of part A. Other signatures in this part of the manuscript have been cut off, but traces remain on fols 65v, 87v, 95v. A new series begins with I on fol. 126v and runs to XII (fol. 229v).
Hand Description
Number of Hands: 2 in English
Summary: The main text is written in the same hand throughout. The glosses to a Latin item (fols 58-80) are in a different hand.
Hand: Main text
Scope: Sole
Scribe: 'Textus' scribe
Script: Norman version of Caroline minuscule
Description: fols 1-229. According to Parkes , 'the "Textus" scribe seems to have been influenced by an older Norman monk in his community'. His style is different to that of the other monks at Rochester, and he appears to be conscious of 'the principle of incorporating the cues for legibility in the construction of letter shapes', giving priority to legibility as opposed to convention (2008, pp. 101-2).
Summary of the characteristics of the hand:
- d is insular and regularly rounded in English, of the same size and shape as ð.
- f is insular in English, formed with a very prominent approach stroke beginning well above minim height and the trace forming the headstroke commencing well below the top of the stem. Placed higher than usual, in the position of caroline f.
- g is insular in English.
- h is insular in English.
- r is insular in English. The stem is formed with a very prominent approach stroke and terminates as a descender; the shoulder stroke is a longer, more prominent, complex broken stroke than in Latin and begins well below the top of the stem.
- s the stem is formed with a very prominent approach stroke, beginning well above minim height, and the trace forming the headstroke commencing well below the top of the stem. Placed higher than usual, in the place of Caroline s. Round s occurs at the beginning of the manuscript.
- þ the descender curves to the left.
- y archaic f-shaped y occurs at the beginning of the manuscript.
- ƿ the descender curves to the left.
- Uncial R occurs at the beginning of the manuscript.
- descenders curve to the left in þ and ƿ, but not in r and p.
- Mid-low position of the punctuation point is characteristic of the scribe.
- ri and ru ligatures are not employed, avoiding the loss of the approach stroke to the minim at cue-height, aiding legibility.
Other manuscripts: According to Parkes (2008, p. 246), other manuscripts in which the scribal hand appears are:
- CCCC 332 (heading on fol. 1)
- CUL Ff. 4. 32
- CTC O. 2. 4 (1108) (part)
- CTC O. 4. 7 (1238)
- Eton College, 80
- Royal 5 B. xii
- Royal 5 C. i
- Royal 6 A. iv
- Royal 6 C. iv
- Royal 8 D. xvi
- Royal 12 C. i (table of contents)
- Royal 15 D. xxii (ff. 110-17)
- Lambeth Palace Library, 76 (ff. 1-147)
- Bodley 134
An elaborate initial begins the cartulary (fol. 119). Other initials are in red, green or purple (Ker 1957, p. 447).
Underlinings in red pencil, for example of 'Ælfuuine preostes sunu' (fol. 191) and 'Lamhetha' (fol. 197v) by Archbishop Parker. A note in Lambarde's hand on fol. 167v dated to 1573: (Ker 1957, p. 447).
Rebound in 1937.
Additional Information
Manuscript described by Elaine Treharne with the assistance of Hollie Morgan and Thom Gobbitt (August 2010; September 2012).
Surrogates:
Sawyer, P. H., ed., Textus Roffensis: Rochester Cathedral Library Manuscript A.3.5, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1957)
History
Written in Rochester in the 1120s but, according to Ker, 'the inscription 'Textus de ecclesia Roffensis per Ernulfum episcopum' (fol. 1) is of s. xiv and cannot be relied upon implicitly' (1957, p. 447).
Provenance: Used by Archbishop Parker, and also by Lambarde for his Perambulation of Kent (1576).
Rochester
Arnold, A. A., 'Preliminary Account of "Notes on the Textus Roffensis, by Dr. F. Liebermann"', Archaeologia Cantiana, xxiii (1898), 94
Bond, E. A., and E. M. Thompson, eds, The Palaeographical Society: Facsimiles of Miniatures and Inscriptions (1873-83)
Davis, G. R. C., Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain: A Short Catalogue (London: Longmans Green, 1958)
Delisle, Léopold, 'Rouleau mortuaire de B. Vital. abbé de Savigny', Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes, 70 (1909), 427-28
Graham, Timothy, and Andrew G. Watson, The Recovery of the Past in Early Elizabethan England: Documents by John Bale and John Joscelyn from the Circle of Matthew Parker, Cambridge Bibliographical Society Monograph, 13 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 1998)
Hearne, Thomas, ed., Textus Roffensis (1720)
Ingram, J., ed., The Saxon Chronicle (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Browne, 1823)
Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957; repr. 1990), item 373
---, English Manuscripts in the Century After the Norman Conquest, The Lyell Lectures, 1952-53 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960)
Liebermann , F., 'De accusatoribus aus Ps.-Isidor', Deutsche Zeitschrift für Kirchenrecht, xi (1902)
---, ed., Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1903), vol. 1: Text und Übersetzung
Ó Crónín, Dáibhí, 'A Seventh-Century Irish Computus from the Circle of Cummianus', Proceedings of the Royals Irish Academy, no. 82 C (1982), 405-30
Parkes, Malcolm B., Their Hands Before Our Eyes: A Closer Look at Scribes (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008)
Perceval, C. S., 'Remarks on an unpublished portion of a charter of King Ethelred, A.D. 1012 from the Textus Roffensis', Proceedings from the Society of Antiquaries, 2, no. 3 (1865), 47-50
Richards, Mary P., Texts and their Traditions in the Medieval Library of Rochester Cathedral Priory, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 78:3 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988)
Robertson, A. J, Anglo-Saxon Charters, 2nd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939)
Sawyer, P. H., ed., Textus Roffensis. Rochester Cathedral Library Manuscript A.3.5, Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile (Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1957)
Southern, R. W., 'Aspects of the European Tradition of Historical Writing 4: The Sense of the Past', Transactions of the Royal History Society, 5, no. 23 (1973), 243- 63, esp. p. 53
Storms, G., ed., Anglo-Saxon Magic (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1948; repr. Folcroft, PA: Folcroft Library Editions, 1975)
Wanley, Humfrey, Antique Literature Septentrionalis Liber Alter (Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1705)
Wormald, Patrick, The Making of English Law: From King Ælfred to the Twelfth Century (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999)
Wright, T., and J. O. Halliwell, Reliquiæ Antiquæ, 2 vols (London: John Russel Smith, 1841-43)
Elaine Treharne