Textus Roffensis

The first part is a collection of laws and other, primarily secular documents, whilst the second is the cartulary of the Cathedral priory.{{cite web|url= https://www.le.ac.uk/english/em1060to1220/mss/EM.RCL.htm |title=Rochester, Cathedral Library, A. 3. 5. – The Production and Use of English Manuscripts: 1060 to 1220 |website = LE |access-date=28 July 2018}} 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, though 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:

The second part of Textus Roffensis is just over 100 pages long. It consists of the cartulary for Rochester Cathedral, in Latin. However, 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.

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.{{Cite web|title=The Textus Roffensis|url=http://cityark.medway.gov.uk/query/results/?Mode=Search&SearchMode=explorer&SearchWords=DRc_R1&DateList=&.submit=Submit+Query&Boolean=AND&Results=25&PathList=&.cgifields=Verbose&.cgifields=Exact|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717130712/http://cityark.medway.gov.uk/query/results/?Mode=Search&SearchMode=explorer&SearchWords=DRc_R1&DateList=&.submit=Submit+Query&Boolean=AND&Results=25&PathList=&.cgifields=Verbose&.cgifields=Exact|archive-date=July 17, 2011|website=Medway Council}}

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, 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. However, 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 ({{lang|ang|gefulwad}}) the twelfth-century term {{lang|ang|gefullod}}. Similarly, the scribe substitutes {{lang|ang|þeow}} (slave) for Alfred's {{lang|ang|fioh}} (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

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.{{cite web|url=https://www.rochestercathedral.org/articles/2020/7/17/leaf-through-textus-roffensis?rq=textus%20roffensis|title=Leaf Through the Textus Roffensis|date=July 17, 2020|access-date=1 Dec 2020}} 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.{{cite web|title=A book 100 years older than the Magna Carta goes digital|url=http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/article/?id=13156|publisher=University of Manchester}} The full digital facsimile is available through Rochester Cathedral's website.

A short film was also produced about the book by Rochester Cathedral about its history and digitization process.

{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcMdmjkdYOM |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/GcMdmjkdYOM |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=The Textus Roffensis A Hidden Treasure|author=Phil Smethurst|date=Nov 5, 2014|website=www.youtube.com|access-date=1 Dec 2020}}{{cbignore}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|2}}

• {{cite web|last=Treharne|first=Elaine|title=Textus Roffensis|url=http://www.le.ac.uk/english/em1060to1220/mss/EM.RCL.htm#EM.RCL-objectDesc|work=The Production and Use of English Manuscripts 1060 to 1220|publisher=University of Leicester|access-date=17 November 2012}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.kent.ac.uk/news/stories/textus-roffensis-conference/2010|publisher=University of Kent|title=England's 'Hidden Treasure' is the focus of Kent conference and exhibition|year=2010|access-date=7 August 2012}}
• {{cite web|url=http://luna.manchester.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/Man4MedievalVC~4~4~990378~142729|publisher=John Rylands Library|access-date=12 May 2019|title=Textus Roffensis}} (online facsimile)

• {{cite journal|last=Arnold|first=A. A.|title=Preliminary Account of 'Notes on the Textus Roffensis', by Dr. F. Liebermann|journal=Archaeologia Cantiana|year=1898|volume=xxiii|pages=94–112|url=https://archive.org/stream/archaeologiacan08socigoog#page/n188/mode/2up|access-date=17 November 2012}}
• {{cite book|last1=Oliver|first1=Lisi|title=The Beginnings of English Law|date=2002|publisher=Toronto University Press|location=Toronto|url=http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/texts/abt/view/#edition/commentary-7}}
• {{cite book|title=Textus Roffensis : law, language, and libraries in early medieval England|year=2015|editor1-first= Bruce R|editor1-last= O'Brien|editor2-first= Barbara|editor2-last= Bombi|publisher=Brepols|location=Turnhout, Belgium }}
• {{cite book|last=Parkes|first=Malcolm B.|title=Their Hands Before Our Eyes: A Closer Look at Scribes|year=2008|publisher=Ashgate|location=Aldershot|isbn=978-0-7546-6337-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NCQrYGWCAEUC&q=Their+Hands+Before+Our+Eyes:+A+Closer+Look+at+Scribes}}
• {{cite book|last=Richards|first=Mary P.|title=Texts and Their Traditions in the Medieval Library Rochester Cathedral Priory|year=1988|publisher=American Philosophical Society|location=Philadelphia|isbn=0-87169-783-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sSELAAAAIAAJ&dq=texts+and+their+traditions+in+the+medieval+library+of+rochester+cathedral+priory&pg=PA1}}
• {{cite journal|last=Sawyer|first=Peter|title=Textus Roffensis, Parts I and II|journal=Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile|orig-year=1957|year=1962|volume=VII and XI|publisher=Rosenkilde and Bagger|location=Copenhagen}}

• [http://luna.manchester.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/Man4MedievalVC~4~4~990378~142729 John Rylands Library "The Textus Roffensis"] - scanned images of each of the pages of the Textus Roffensis.

Category:Medieval documents of England

Category:1120s books

Category:English-language manuscripts

Category:12th-century manuscripts

Category:Legal manuscripts

Category:Medieval English law

Category:Anglo-Saxon law

Category:12th-century books in Latin

Category:Manuscripts about England in Latin