A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

Christ Church MS. 342

Cartulary of Eynsham Abbey; Eynsham, s. xivex, with additions to s. xvi2/4.

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. Fol. i-iii

Blank

2. Fol. ivr

Note on 'a kyntts fee'. Printed by H. E. Salter, ed., Eynsham Cartulary, 2 vols, OHS, 49 & 51 (Oxford, 1907–1908), 2:2.

This and the contents list that follows are in one hand, datable to after 1531 (see provenance) but patently pre-Dissolution. This anglicana current cursive with secretary elements also intervenes in the cartulary, providing text at fol. 36v, 94v-95, 107, 108r and 108v-109, as well as running headers at fol. 36, 37, 43, 105.

3. Fol. ivv-v
Rubric: Tabula

A contents list written by the hand seen at fol. ivr, with folio numbers added later (s. xvii) in a smaller script which is that of the volume’s foliation, possibly by Anthony Wood.

Fol. vv, vi & vii: blank.

4. Fol. 1–113v
Incipit: Shyfford | Inquisicio capta apud Shyfford per homagium
Explicit: [fol. 113r] de Episcopo Lincolniensi et debet pontagium. [half folio blank; fol. 113v] Pateat universis per persentes me Iohannem Golefre
Cartulary of Eynsham Abbey

Fully edited by Salter, 2:2–154, catalogued as Davis no. 400 (81).

The contents are divided, for the most part, by manor and can be summarised as follows:

  • fol. 1–8v: ‘Shyfforde’, with loss of text after end of quire (Salter 2:15);
  • fol. 9–13v: ‘Wodeton’ (ie Wood Eaton);
  • fol. 14: blank;
  • fol. 15–17v: ‘Cherlebery’ (ie Charlbury), ending at l. 5;
  • rest of fol. 17v and fol. 18: blank;
  • fol. 19–20: ‘Fauelore’ (ie Fawler), ending at l. 7;
  • rest of fol. 20 and fol. 20v: blank;
  • fol. 21–22v: ‘Hundred de Bannebery’, on an inserted bifolium; text ends at l. 7, with rest of folio blank;
  • fol. 23–27v: ‘Eynesham’;
  • fol. 28: presumably originally blank, now with start of charter of 1442–44 concerning ‘Cateshambrygge’ (anglicana, s. xvmed; Salter, no. 608), and stitched to the top of fol. 28v, a slip (113 × 170mm) with short text also relating to Cateshambridge (s. xv2/2, printed by Salter, 2:42n);
  • fol. 29: first of 14 inserted leaves within quire 4, with completion of charter and ‘nota contra abbatem de Letley’ (another anglicana, s. xv; Salter, no. 609);
  • fol. 30–35 and following unnumbered stub: all blank, but with signs of thread that would have held a slip stitched to the bottom of fol. 31;
  • fol. 36–38: various documents relating to Newbottle, Cogges and Langley Park (three s. xvi scripts, the second that of contents list etc; Salter, nos 610–13), the last item occupying only the open quarter of fol. 38;
  • rest of fol. 38r and fol. 38v-40r: all blank;
  • fol. 40v-41v: ‘Registrum de acquietanciis’ (s. xv; Salter, no. 614);
  • fol. 42–45v: (return to original quire structure) ‘Eynesham’ (s. xivex; Salter, no. 615);
  • fol. 46–50: ‘Rolendryght’ (ie Rollright);
  • fol. 50v-51: ‘Brokende’ (ie Brookend);
  • fol. 51v: blank;
  • fol. 52–82v (quire 6, first recto and especially last verso rubbed, suggesting the quire had once stood alone as its own fascicule and been left exposed; the construction of the quire seems also to have developed over time): copies of records relating to various estates (all printed by Salter, nos. 618–672 [88–118]), starting with ‘Fylkyng’, and including ‘Tylgarsle’ (Tilgarsley, part of Eynsham), ‘Mukleton’ (Mickleton, Glos.), Stanton St. John and various forests, as well as disputes involving the Abbey, with fol. 59v, 60r (except for a cancelled note at top),71, 72, 77v (apart from two-line note of expenses [not in Salter] at top) all blank (probably four hands of s. xiv2/2);
  • fol. 83–93v: ‘Stoke’ (ie South Stoke), with last two items (Salter, nos. 675 & 676 [137–38] added, first s. xivmed, second, s. xivex);
  • fol. 94r: blank;
  • fol. 94v-95v: originally blank, now with ‘Redditus assise de Sowthstoke’ (s. xvi2/4, script of contents list etc.; Salter, no. 678 [139–40]), with only two lines at top of fol. 95v;
  • rest of fol. 95v and 96–101: all blank but bounded, and with erased notes at very top of fol. 101v;
  • fol. 102–106v: ‘Carswell’, at fol. 103v occupying only the top quarter of the folio, the rest of which is blank (two hands, s. xivex);
  • fol. 107r: originally blank, now with receipts from ‘Mylcomb’ (s. xvi2/4, same script as contents list);
  • fol. 107v: blank;
  • fol. 108: ‘In omnibus curiis observandis’ (s. xvi2/4, same script as contents);
  • fol. 108v-109r: Abbey appointment of proxies, dated to 1531 (two scripts, s. xvi2/2, the second that of fol. 94v etc), with text ending after two lines at top of fol. 109r;
  • rest of fol. 109r, and 109v-110v: blank;
  • fol. 111r (bottom half only now present, top half cut out): grant by the Abbey, dated 1499 (s. xvi1/4);
  • fol. 111v and 112r: blank;
  • fol. 112v-113r: ‘Pons Cantebrigie’ (s. xivex), with bottom half of fol. 113r now blank, except for an inscription scratched out;
  • fol. 113v (heavily rubbed): originally blank, a record of a receipt (s. xvmed), below and above probationes pennae.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: seliones
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FSOS). The opening three front flyleaves and all at the back are paper added with the binding (two: ‘C&IH’, and Pro Patria (Maid of Dort) watermarks, close to but no match with those in Churchill), but fol. iv-vii are on s. xvi paper (watermark: pot, Briquet no. 12835, Rouen 1535).
Extent: Fols: vii + 114 (numbered fols 1–113, but an unnumbered partial leaf after fol. 35) + iii (numbered fols 114–16)
Dimensions (leaf): 265 × 175 mm.
Dimensions (written): 225 × 125 mm.

Collation

18 26 38+2 (+7 and +8, an intercalated bifolium [fol. 21 & 22]) 48+14 (+5 to +18, inserted within the original quire with 12, a cut-down blank, unnumbered [so added leaves are fol. 29–41]) 56 628+4 (+5 to +8, a four-leaf intercalated quire [fol. 56–59]; -12, a stub [before fol. 63]) 724 (-15, -19, -21 to -23, all stubs and probably all blank) 812. Each quire has been signed with a letter (a-h) at the centre foot of the first leaf, s. xviin.

Layout

In long lines of varying format, mostly typically 34–36 (but up to 42) lines to the page.

Signs of pricking in quires 1 and 5; pages bounded, but not ruled, usually in reddish crayon or by stylus.

Hand(s)

Written in a variety of anglicana scripts, in the main s. xivex, but many additions up to the 1530s.

Generally unpunctuated, occasional point or virgula.

Decoration

The first quire and fols 15–16, 46–51 (all the work of one s. xiv2/2 scribe) have red crowned three-line lombards, red paraphs, brackets, lines, and (at fol. 3v, 4, 6, 7) maniculae. Otherwise without any decoration.

Binding

Brown reversed calf, s. xvii4/4, over millboards, presumably the work of Richard Sedgley (see D&C vi.c.1 (= MS 340), binding). An outline fillet in blind with fleurons in the corners. Sewn on four thongs. At the head of the spine, ‘3’ on a paper tab, obscuring a note of contents written in pen in same hand as on our D&C vi.c.2 (= MS 338) etc; in the upper spine compartment, in gilt on a red leather label ‘Cartulari Eynesham’.

History

Origin: England (Eynsham); s. xivex, with additions to s. xvi2/4

Provenance and Acquisition

The quire signatures demonstrate that this cartulary had taken its present form by the early sixteenth century, and it was in use in the 1530s when a contemporary document was transcribed into the manuscript at fol. 108v-109 (it is Salter, no. 694 [150–52]); as that document is listed at the end of the contents list as ‘A proxye’ (fol. v), the contents list must have been added only after that point, but before the surrender of the monastery, at the end of 1538 (see D&C vi.c.1 (= MS 341), provenance). There is little internal evidence to reveal the volume’s peregrinations immediately post-Dissolution. At the centre of fol. 113, there is a note of five lines, cancelled by scratching, which may be an ownership note, though the first line may read ‘Robertus ⟨faryndone⟩ abott F’; as he was abbot, 1457–69, this may be a pre-Reformation note.

The first definite evidence for its presence at ChCh are the notes taken from it on 2nd October 1644 by William Dugdale (1605–86) in what is now BodL, MS Dugdale 21, at fol. 10v-11v. After the Restoration, it was certainly seen by another antiquary. At top left of fol. 1: ‘Liber cœnobij Ensham’, in a script identifiable as that of Anthony Wood; for his borrowing and use of the manuscript from ChCh, see the description of its companion, D&C vi.a.2, and D&C vi.c.1. The foliation and folio numbers added to the contents list may be by Wood.

In ChCh, the manuscript was held in the Chapter House, and was included in the 1771 Catalogue of the books located there, along with our D&C vi.a.2 (which see for further details); by a process of elimination, it can be identified as number 27 in the catalogue: Christ Church Archives, D&C iv.a.l, fol. 13. See also the Headnote to Chapter House Manuscripts.

Record Sources

Ralph Hanna and David Rundle, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Western Manuscripts, to c. 1600, in Christ Church, Oxford (Oxford, 2017).

Availability

For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact Christ Church Library.

Last Substantive Revision

2017-07-01: First online publication.

See the Availability section of this record for information on viewing the item in a reading room.