Page:The Legal Code of Ælfred the Great.djvu/26

14 duodecimo, and very thick. It is of heavy parchment. Many layers throughout the volume, which is a collection of laws, are wanting. What remains, however, is in an excellent state of preservation.) Leaves 45a—48a contain the chapter headings of our code. Immediately upon these on the same page, 48a, follows, '', then, still on the same page, ' etc.', which extends to fol. 50b. On the blank part of this page is written a Latin version of Ælf. Introd. 49, 9, presumably by Joscelin according to Bromton). Leaves 51a—57b contain the text of the code to Introd. 49, 5 ðæt, within two words of the end of the Apostolic Letter. — The hand of Headings and Introduction is unquestionably the same with that of the pieces separating them. It is round and not especially beautiful. The scribe leaves almost no margin and gets 19 lines on the small page. Capitals are sparingly used. The D of Drihten (the first word) is here altogether wanting. A number of careless mistakes are made, E. g. Be þan ðe mannes geslalige for geneat stalige LXVI. G has a large number of accents. The headings of this Ms., excepting I and XLIV (Be ines domum) are glossed in Latin, by Joscelin according to Bromton, no doubt, who puts Ine's Laws before the rest of the code and omits these two headings. The text is glossed from Ms. E., some words being crossed because wanting in E., and then all the rest of the code is added accdg. to E., except the chapter headings inserted over each chapter, which are sometimes from G. All this is the work of Joscelin. As no erasures were made, the Ms. is not injured, and the additions may be simply disregarded.

This Ms. seems to belong to the last quarter of the eleventh century.

This manuscript is in the strong room of Rochester Cathedral, where it has been for some seven centuries. It is commonly called Textus Roffensis, also Chronicon Claustri Roffensis. It was made in the reign of Henry I at the command of Bishop Ernulf of Rochester, who died in 1124. That it was written,