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

MS. Rawl. C. 641

Summary Catalogue no.: 12487

Contents

1. (fol. 1, 2)

De peccato originali, et de Incarnatione

Incipit: Deus fecit hominem bonum et iustum
Language(s): Latin
2. (fol. 2v)
Rubric: Precepta Pitagore phylosophi
Incipit: Fugienda sunt omnibus modis et abscidenda igni ac ferro
Language(s): Latin
3. (fols. 2v-3r)
Rubric: Enigmata que Arist(oteles) posuit
Incipit: Staterum ne transileas id est ne pretergrediaris iusticiam
Explicit: Nichil facias quod fecisse peniteat
Language(s): Latin
4. (fols. 3r-10r)
Leges Edwardi Confessoris
Incipit: Post quartum annum adquisitionis regis Willelmi istius terre

Second version.

Early English Laws, ECf2, sigl. Rl
Bruce R. O’Brien, God’s Peace and King’s Peace: the Laws of Edward the Confessor (Philadelphia, 1999)
Felix Liebermann, ed., Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols (Halle, 1903–1916), vol. 1, pp. 627–70
Language(s): Latin
5. (fols. 10r-13r)
Guernes de Pont-ste-Maxence, Vie de saint Thomas Becket (extracts)

Stanzas 479-498 (ll. 2391-2490), , 502 —511 (articles de Clarendon), 231—232, 151-154

p. cxvi

Constitutions of Clarendon (in Anglo-Norman verse)
Incipit: Si uus uulez les leis le rei Henri oir | Que il voleit en sun regne metre e establir
Explicit: Tel erent li capitle des leis le rei Henri, Li bons pape Alisandre Saint Thumas altresi, Les escumunierent tut pur veir le vus di, Il es deivent pas tenir, cil ki sunt deu ami.

Followed by thirty verses: (fol. 12b).

Incipit: Si vuls pleidast de terre en la curt sun seignur
Explicit: I a ni aura un denier de ma terre dime.
Language(s): Anglo-Norman
6. (fol. 13v)
Proverbs
Incipit: ⟨D⟩eez ait tant maistres, dist le crapolt a la herce. | Sic buffo crati, Ve cui sunt dominati. | Buffo crate fatur, Ve turba quibus dominatur
Explicit: De pute espine, pute furdine. | Meuz valt turn de mulin ke pet de mastin.
Edmund Stengel, ‘Die beiden Sammlungen altfranzösischer Sprichwörter in der Oxforder Hs. Rawlinson C.641’, Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur 21 (1899), 1-21 at 3-7 (this manuscript)
Albert C. Friend, ‘The Proverbs of Serlo of Wilton’, Mediaeval Studies 16 (1954), 179-218 (beginning with his proverb 7)
Language(s): Latin and Anglo-Norman
7. (fol. 15)
Proverbs ('Li Proverbe que dit li vilains')
Incipit: ⟨C⟩i sunt li proverbe que dit li vilains. | Qui de tote se guard de alcune estape.| Qui od conseil oure ne fait ablasmer.| Asez set chat ki barbes il leche.
Explicit: Qui riens na rien ne pert ne ses amis nel plaignent.| Fol marchant folement bargaigne.
Edmund Stengel, ‘Die beiden Sammlungen altfranzösischer Sprichwörter in der Oxforder Hs. Rawlinson C.641’, Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur 21 (1899), 1-21 at 7-13 (this manuscript)
Language(s): Anglo-Norman
8. (fol. 19)
Assize of Clarendon
Rubric: Incipit Asisa de Clarenduna, facta a Rege Henrico, scil. secundo, de assensu archiepiscoporum, episcoporum, abbatum, comitum, baronum totius Anglie
Early English Laws, Ass Clar
William Stubbs, ed., Select Charters and Other Illustrations of English Constitutional History, 9th edn, rev. by H. W. C. Davis (Oxford, 1921), pp. 170–3, from this manuscript.
Language(s): Latin
9.
Inquest of sheriffs (1170)
Early English Laws, Inq Sher1
William Stubbs, ed., Select Charters and Other Illustrations of English Constitutional History, 9th edn, rev. by H. W. C. Davis (Oxford, 1921), pp. 175–78, from this manuscript.
Language(s): Latin
10. (fol. 21v)
Magna Carta (1215)
Language(s): Latin
11. (fol. 30)
'Instituta Cnuti'

One of the Latin translations of Cnut's code (I-II Cnut).

F. Liebermann, 'On the Instituta Cnuti Aliorumque Regum Anglorum', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, New Series, Vol. 7 (1893), pp. 77-107
Felix Liebermann, ed., Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols (Halle, 1903–1916), vol. 1, pp. 612-616
Language(s): Latin with Old English
12. (fol. 43)
Coronation Charter of Henry I

So-called 'Rochester' version, i.e. that found in the Textus Roffensis.

Early English Laws, Hn cor
Language(s): Latin
13. (fols. 44r-45r)
Articles of William I
Early English Laws, WI art
Felix Liebermann, ed., Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, 3 vols (Halle, 1903–1916), vol. 1, pp. 486–88.
Language(s): Latin
(fol. 46v)

14th-century (?) table of contents: ‘In isto libro continentur infrascripta .1. Excerpta de legibus sinodis et conciliis paparum et aliorum in principio .2. Instituciones Knuti regis Angl' ante conquestum .3. Instituciones Henrici regis anno domini Mo Cmo primo in Latinam .4. Leges Willelmi conquestoris .5. Tractatus Henrici regis secundi de legibus et consuetudinibus Anglie \compositus per ranulphum Glanvillam/ .6. Assisa de Clarendon facta a rege Henrico secundo .7. Carta de Rovndmeide facto anno regni regis Johannis 17mo.’. Items 4-6 are later (14th- or 15th-century) additions. Item 7 and the addition to item 5 are added by a 16th-century annotator (for whom see below). Of these only items 2-3 can be identified with certainty in the present manuscript; the rubrics on fols. 31r and 43r are in the same hand as the table of contents. (It is likely that ‘4. Leges Willelmi conquestoris’ referred to XXXXX rather than the 'Articles' on fols. 44r-45r.)

Fol. 46r is blank.

Language(s): Latin

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: parchment
Dimensions (): × mm.

Collation

1(8) (fols. 1-8), 2(8+2?) (fols. 9-18, with fols. 17-18 added after 8?) | 3(8+1?) (fols. 19-27, with fol. 27 added after 8?), 4(2) (fols. 28-9) | 5(8)-6(8) (fols. 30-45). Uncertain in places due to 19th-century repairs.

Layout

(fols. 1r-18v, 30r-45r) 31 lines.

(fols. 19r-27r): 29 long lines, written above top line. Two series of prickings in the outer margins, and pricking in the inner margins. Ruled space 130-5 × 90-5 (inner bounding lines) mm.

History

Origin: 12th century and 13th century ; English

Provenance and Acquisition

The structure of the manuscript is not fully clear, not least because of extensive 19th-century repairs, but folios 19-27 appear to be a separate codicological unit

Richard Rawlinson, 1690–1755

Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1755

Record Sources

Summary description abbreviated from the Quarto Catalogue (W. D. Macray, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Bodleianæ...viri munificentissimi Ricardi Rawlinson, J.C.D., codicum...complectens, Quarto Catalogues V, 5 fascicles, 1862–1900).

Bibliography

Last Substantive Revision

2019-10-31: Toby Burrows/Mapping Manuscript MigrationsProvenance and acquisition information added using https://github.com/mapping-manuscript-migrations/oxford-tei-updates/blob/master/update_oxford_prov.rb in collaboration with the Mapping Manuscript Migrations project.