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PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OE "NOTES ON
THE TEXTUS ROEEENSIS, BY DR. E.
LIEBERMANN."
BY A. A. ARNOLD, E.S.A.
I T is somewhat remarkable that hitherto only some very meagre
references have been made in Archceologia Cantiana to the Textus
Roffensis. The " Catalogue of the Library of the Priory of S. Andrew,
Eochester," taken from it, appeared in Vol. VI., pp. 120—128, but
with that and other slight exceptions, and some allusions to the
pedigrees contained in it in Mr. Haigh's Paper on " The Jute,
Angle, and Saxon Royal Pedigrees" in Vol. VIII.,thebook would seem
to have almost escaped notice hy any of the contributors to our
Society's publication.
The Eev. A. J. Pearman, a member of our Council, in his recent
work on the Diocese of Eochester (one of the series of Diocesan
Histories published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
in 1897), referred to the hook " as one of the most remarkable
documents in existence, and, as such, claiming a notice in any
account of the Diocese of Eochester." He gives a short description
of it, and after several references to Dr. Liebermann's MS.,
Mr. Pearman tells us that " during the seventeenth century this
invaluable manuscript fell into the hands of a physician named
Leonnrd, who secreted it for two years, but was at length forced by
a decree of the Court of Chancery to restore it to its rightful
owners. They were again in imminent danger of losing their
property ; for an accident having happened through stress of
weather to the vessel in which Dr. Harris sent it to London, it lay
for some hours under water. The doctor, who was one of the
canons, had borrowed the MS. for the use of his intended History of
Kent. It is now in safe custody and but little the worse for its
immersion in the Thames."
Mr. Pearman had the advantage, in writing his remarks, of having
before him some valuable notes on the Textus Roffensis which had
heen made hy Dr. Felix Liebermann of Berlin. The learned
"NOTES ON THE TEXTUS ROEEENSIS." 95
Doctor's name is as well known in England as in Germany for his
conscientious researches and accurate work. In 1892 he published
the Quadripartitus, an English law-book of 1114, and is the editor
of the Consiliatio Cnuti, the Leges Anglorum, Leges Edwardi Confessoris,
and of other well-known publications. So far back as 1886
the Textus was lent to the British Museum by the Dean and Chapter
for Dr. Liebermann's inspection and examination ;* and again in
1893 he spent several days in the Cathedral library at Rochester
examining and taking extracts from the volume. It was after this
second examination that he favoured the Dean and Chapter with
the notes which follow, and are the excuse for this introduction;
and the publication of Mr. Pearman's volume having called attention
to the notes, I have been permitted by the Dean and Chapter—with
the approval of Dr. Liebermann—to make a transcript of them for
publication in our Journal Dr. Liebermann has indeed done more
than give his approval—he has kindly revised the proof of the notes,
and not only that, but he has added to them some further notes, and
has made use of such fresh points as have come to his notice during
the five years which have passed since the notes were originally
written by him.
The Textus was exhibited among other MSS. of the same or
* A copy of his letter to the late Dean Scott on his first inspection of the
volume, and which is to be taken as giving only his first impressions, is too
interesting to be omitted, and is here given :—
"LONDON, Sept. 18,1886.
"VEET REVEREND SIE,
"Having twice collated the Textus Roffensis, I have placed the
precious MS. in the hands of Mr. E. M. Thompson, and now beg to thank you
once more for the liberal permission you so kindly granted me to use it.
" I herewith note some points whioh may interest the owners of that
invaluable treasure:—
" 1. The volume once consisted of three parts: the first ended fol. 5V, the
second fol. 118. They were bound together not later than about A.D. 1400, at
which time the foliation was done.
" 2. The first scribe worked in Ernulf's time (this can be proved from the
bishops' lists), though, judging by paleography only, the handwriting would
rather appear to be a little later.
" 3. There is no proof of Ernulf's authorship; the entry on the first page is
not earlier than about A.D. 1300.
" 4. The scribe used a Christ Church (Canterbury) volume, see fol. 57r.
" 5. Eor the Laws of Alfred-Ine he used an ancient MS., whose obsolete
lauguage he was anxious to modernize for his own time: so he alters almost
every o before nasals into a, and i into y, and introduces articles and prepositions
; all this is the scribe's own work done by sharp erasures—your MS.
is in fact almost a palimpsest. This discovery is most valuable for the history
of the English language.
" 6. Among the sources he used there was a collection of lists of English
bishops. As ten out of these end about the year 990, it is quite clear that this
collection belonged to AEtbelred II.'s time.
96 PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OE
similar kind in the British Museum for the Domesday Millenary
commemoration in 1886; ifc was either in connection with this
exhibition by the Paleographical Society, or on the publication of
the Cartularium Saxonicum, that a facsimile of one of the pages of
the volume was made, and I am enabled by the courtesy of Dr. de
Gray Birch, F.S.A., of the British Museum, to add a copy of this
facsimile (see pp. 97, 98). It is folio 44 of the original, and the
passage forms, or rather includes, a portion of folio 50 of Lambarde's
translation of i t in the Archaionomia ; it is a par t of one of
the laws of King Edward (A.D. 900—924), edited by Dr. Liebermann
in his Gesetze, pp. 142,184.
Accompanying the facsimile was a description of the Textus,
which is here given:—
ROCHESTER. CHAPTER LIBRART. Series II, Plate 73.
"TEXTUS ROEFENSIS."—[12TH CENTURY.]
The Laws of Kent and of the Anglo-Saxon kings of England
and of William I., together with a chartulary of the lands of the
church of Rochester, aDd lists of early popes, kings, bishops, etc.;
Latin and Anglo-Saxon. Compiled in the time of Bishop Ernulph,
who died in 1125. Vellum; 234 leaves, measuring 9 by 6-J- inches ;
with 24 lines in a page.
" 7. Eor the short articles of William I. (whioh Stubbs thinks to bo the only
genuine rest of his legislation) your MS. is the oldest text (about 50 years
older even than that which Stubbs first edited).
" 8. Also for Henry I.'s Charter the Rochester text is tho oldest known.
" 9. The bishops' lists, which I hope soon to print, give some now names for
Elmham (Norwich).
" 10. The genealogy of Anglo-Saxon kings, fos. 8, 101, contains some names
more than the text which precedes the (Alfredian) Anglo-Saxon Annals, I shall
edit this form also, whioh was brought down to iEthelred II. {cf. No. 6).
" 11. There existed a common source for your MS. and the Corpus Cambridge
MS. 383. Not only do the readings and faults of both these codices coincide,
but there is also the ' charm for stolen cattle ' in both of them, not yet printed
from the latter MS.
"12. The Decreta Pontificum, f. 81, I find to be excerpted from Pseudo-
Isidorus. They do not come from Oratian's Canon Law. This is very
important for the history of English ecclesiastical law. [Of course the author may
have used a special continental tract, which however I am not able to identify.]
The contents however are hardly worth printing.
" 13. All the other pieces are printed.
" 14. The Catalogue of Rochester books, interesting for the literary history
of the Anglo-Normans generally, mentions our very MS., part L, on fol. 228,1. i.
" 15. The British Museum copy of Hearne's Textus Roffensis contains MS.
Collations (done for Dering) with your Codex. This was not then known to
S. Pegge, whose learned Paper (in the Topogr. Britann., vol. i.) is, I think, by far
the best history of your MS.
" Believe me to remain, Very Rev. Sir,
" Tour obedient Servant,
" E . LlEBEEMANN,"
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