Textus Roffensis

The Textus Roffensis, or in full, Textus de Ecclesia Roffensi per Ernulphum episcopum ("The Book of the Church of Rochester through Bishop Ernulf"), refers to a manuscript in which two originally separate manuscripts written about the same time, between 1122 and 1124, are bound together. It is catalogued as Rochester Cathedral Library, MS A.3.5 and is currently held in the Kent County Archives, Maidstone.

The two books were brought together around 1300.[1] It is thought they were written by a single scribe.

The first part collects the Anglo-Saxon laws from the Law of Æthelberht, attributed to King Æthelberht of Kent (c. 560–616), to the coronation charter of Henry I in 1100. The second part is the oldest of the Rochester Cathedral registers.

Over the centuries the combined book has had been recovered on several occasions, and has been in the custody of various places; it is now held at the Medway Studies Centre in Rochester, Kent.

The book has survived several theft attempts and was even submerged in the River Medway for several hours after the ship transporting it back to Rochester sank. The water damage can be seen on a number of the pages.

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