The (Latin for "The Tome of Rochester"), fully titled the Textus de Ecclesia Roffensi per Ernulphum episcopum ("The Tome of the Church of Rochester up to Bishop Ernulf") and sometimes also known as the Annals of Rochester, is a mediaeval manuscript that consists of two separate works written between 1122 and 1124. It is catalogued as "Rochester Cathedral Library, MS A.3.5" and is currently on display in a new exhibition at Rochester Cathedral in Rochester, Kent.It was deposited in the Kent Archives Office in Maidstone in 1969, and was transferred to the Medway office in 1992 following its creation.
It is thought that the main text of both manuscripts was written by a single scribe, although the English glosses to the two Latin entries (items 23 and 24 in table below) were made by a second hand.Treharne, Textus Roffensis. The annotations might indicate that the manuscript was consulted in some post-Conquest trials.Nicholas Kar, 'Information and Its Retrieval' in Julia Crick and Elisabeth van Houts (eds.), A Social History of England, 900-–1200, 375 The glosses are very sparse and just clarify a few uncertain terms. For example, the entry on f. 67r merely explains that the is called in English, ofraceth ordel (insult ordeal = triple ordeal).
There is a clear, digitised version in the Rylands Medieval Collection.
Contents The first part is a collection of laws and other, primarily secular documents, whilst the second is the cartulary of the Cathedral priory. The first part is of fundamental importance to the study of Anglo-Saxon law. It begins with the earliest surviving royal law-code, from King Æthelberht of Kent, dating to c 600, followed by those of two Kentish successors, the joint kings Hlothere and Eadric, c 679–85, and Wihtred, 695. This is the only manuscript source for these three laws. Wihtred's are heavily reliant on the laws of the contemporary West-Saxon King, Ine (see item 6 below). The full contents of the first part are: Item Dates Description Manuscript Pages Language 1 Æthelberht's Laws 1r–3v EnglishThe definitive translation of items 1–3 is now . 2 Hlothere and Eadric's Laws 3v–5r English 3 Wihtred's Laws 5r–6v English 4 Early 11th century Hadbot (compensation for the ordained) 7r–v English 5 ? Lists of Kings (West-Saxon genealogy), Saints and Bishops 7v–8v English 6 Probably after 893; Laws of Ine, c. 694 Laws of Alfred, (Alfred's Domboc), containing the Laws of his West-Saxon predecessor, Ine 9r–32r English 7 ? Ordal 32r–v English 8 990s Walreaf (penalties for grave-robbery) 32v English 9 924–939 Æthelstan's Grately Law Code (II Aethelstan) 32v–37r English 10 924–939 Æthelstan's Exeter Law Code (V Aethelstan) and a fragment from the London Code (VI Æthelstan, 6) 37r–38r English 11 990s Pax ('Peace'), for use in Æthelred's Danelaw territories 38r English 12 Early 11th century Mircna laga 38v–39v English 13 Not from the reign of Edward (899–924) but a fraud, probably written by Archbishop Wulfstan (1002–1023): http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/texts/egu/ Fraudulent peace Treaty between Edward the Elder and Guthrum 40r–41v English 14 10th century? Wer (on bloodfeud) 41v–42r English 15 899–924 Edward the Elder's First Law Code 42r–43r English 16 899–924 Edward the Elder's Second Law Code 43r–44r English 17 942–946 Edmund's First Law Code (ecclesiastical laws) 44r–45r English 18 942–946 Edmund's Second Law Code 45r–46r English 19 Æthelred's First Law Code (Woodstock Code) 46r–47r English 20 1066–1087 Willelmes cyninges asetnysse (laws of William I dealing with lawsuits by Englishmen against Frenchmen) 47r–v English 21 997 Æthelred's Third Law Code (Wantage Code) 48r–49v English 22 Post-1066 Judgement of God X (Iud Dei XV) 49v–57r Latin 23 1016–1035 a text of Cnut's reign 57v Latin 24 1016–1035 Institutes of Cnut (collection of laws) 58r–80r Latin 25 1066–1087 Articles of William I 80r–81v Latin 26 ? Accusatores (Excerpts from the Collectio Lanfranci and other materials on procedural law) 81v–87r Latin 27 c 1008 Æthelstan's Sixth Law Code (London Code)Textus Roffensis is the only source: http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/texts/vi-as/ 88r–93r English 28 ? Geðyncðo (On status) 93r–v English 29 No later than mid-10th Century Norðleoda laga (concerns wergeld in Northumbrian society) 93v–94r English 30 ? Wifmannes beweddung (Of a woman's betrothal) 94v–95r English 31 ? Cattle-Theft Charm 95r English 32 ? Hit becwæð (On bequests: 'he that owned it bequeathed it and died') 95r–v English 33 1100 Henry I's Coronation Charter 96r–97v Latin 34 10th–11th century Excommunicatio VIII (laws on excommunication 98r–99v Latin 35 ? Excommunicatio IX (formula for excommunicating criminals) 99v–100r Latin 36 ? List of Kings 100r–v English 37 ? Lists of Kings, Saints, and Bishops: West-Saxon Genealogy 102r–104r English 38 ? Lists of Kings, Saints, and Bishops: Lists of Popes, Emperors, Patriarchs and English Archbishops and Bishops 105r–116r English 39 ? Lists: of 24 elders, of popes responsible for various liturgical reforms, and of 7 archangels 116v Latin
The second part of Textus Roffensis is just over 100 pages long. It consists of the cartulary for Rochester Cathedral, in Latin. Its final entry (222r–v) is in English, listing the number of masses to be recited for those institutions in England and Normandy which were in confraternity with Rochester.
Name A textus was a book with a decorated cover suitable to be kept in the church by the high altar. The term does not mean a text concerning Rochester Cathedral. A liber was a less decorated book, suitable only for the cloister. It is rare that a secular book is a textus, and the name given to the Textus Roffensis by the cathedral is considered indicative of the book's importance during the Middle Ages.
The Textus Roffensis Scribe The unknown scribe was remarkable for his knowledge of old forms of English, and was able to transcribe accurately from a range of original manuscripts written in Anglo-Saxon dialects, including the local Kentish used for the laws of the kings of Kent. Two or more generations after the Norman Conquest of 1066, this was distinctly unusual.Julia Crick, 'English Vernacular Script' in R. Gameson (ed.), The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, vol. 1 (2011), 185–6 Few of his records were contemporary and, to read the Laws of Aethelberht, he was looking back at an obsolete dialect of early Anglo-Saxon English, some 500 years old.
He followed standard practice of distinguishing between written English and written Latin. The overall aspect is Protogothichttp://www.le.ac.uk/english/em1060to1220/mss/EM.RCL.htm, 'Hand Description' with, for example, narrow letter-forms and forked tops to ascenders. He used a modified Insular Minuscule for the English and a modified Caroline Minuscule for the Latin. This was standard practice in the years around 1000, but proficiency in writing Insular Minuscule was in terminal decline by the time of the Textus Roffensis.Julia Crick, 'English Vernacular Script' in R. Gameson (ed.), The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, vol. 1 (2011)
The double-page opening of f95v and f96r is a good place to examine differences in the two scripts. The left-hand page contains the end of Hit becƿæð. ond becƿæl in English and the right-hand page the start of Henry I's Coronation Charter, in Latin. It is not only the general letter-shapes which show some differences. In the English, the only abbreviations are the tironian et for ond and the suspensions on dative endings e.g. beÞinū/ beminū for –um (concerning yours/ - mine). The number of abbreviations, suspensions and ligatures in the Latin give a different look, accentuated by different letter-forms, such as g, h and r in gehyrde (f.95v, line 11) and erga uos habeo (f.96r, line 9); the f in forðam (English, line 10) and in facio (Latin, line 10)For image, see the digitised manuscript: http://enriqueta.man.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/Man4MedievalVC~4~4~990378~142729?qvq=q:%3DTextus%2BRoffensis%2B&mi=0&trs=2
The Roffensis scribe made remarkably few errors and only some minor edits which lightly modernise the text.For details, see Stefan Jurasinski, 'Scribal Malpractice and the Study of Anglo-Saxon Law in the Twelfth Century' in B. R. O'Brien and B. Bombi (eds.), Textus Roffensis Law, Language, and Libraries in Early Medieval England (2015), 83–101 This can be seen in the Laws of Ine. The original laws were written in the late seventh century. They were already updated when recorded in Alfred's Domboc two centuries later. The earliest preserved version is from c. 925.Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 173, ff. 47r-52v
In clause 2, this has Cild binnan ðritegum nihta sie gefulwad ('a child shall be baptised within thirty days'). The scribe substitutes for the tenth-century term for baptism () the twelfth-century term . Similarly, the scribe substitutes (slave) for Alfred's (wealth). There is some dispute whether this reflects the changing position of slaves after the Conquest or whether it is just correcting the term, since slaves were chattels.Jurasinski, 99
Overall, the Roffensis scribe treated his sources with respect. He did not, for example, make erroneous 'corrections' to the Old English law texts, unlike the "incompetent translations of Quadripartitus's author".Jurasinski, 99, 94
History The two manuscripts were bound together in around 1300. The first part is a collection of documents which includes the Law of Æthelberht, attributed to Æthelberht of Kent (c. 560–616), and the 1100 coronation charter of Henry I of England. The Law of Æthelberht is the oldest surviving English law code and the oldest Anglo-Saxon text in existence. The second part of the Textus Roffensis is the oldest of the Rochester Cathedral registers. The entire volume consists of 235 vellum leaves.University of Kent, "England’s 'Hidden Treasure'."
Over the centuries, the Textus Roffensis has been loaned, lost and recovered on several occasions and has been in the custody of a variety of different people and places. It was once held at the Medway Archives Office in Strood under reference number DRc/R1 and has since been withdrawn. It is currently held in an airtight case in Rochester Cathedral's Crypt. Sometime between 1708 and 1718 the book was immersed for several hours in either the River Thames or the River Medway when the ship transporting it overturned. Water damage is apparent on a number of pages.
The book was named 'Britain's Hidden Treasure' by the British Library, and was the subject of a conference at the University of Kent in 2010. It has been digitised and published on line by The University of Manchester's Centre for Heritage Imaging and Collection Care. The full digital facsimile is available through Rochester Cathedral's website.
In 2014, a short film was produced about the book by Rochester Cathedral about its history and digitization process.
Notes
Citations
Sources
(online facsimile)
Further reading
External links John Rylands Library "The Textus Roffensis" - scanned images of each of the pages of the Textus Roffensis.