Documenta Cisterciensia; England, s. xiii med

Title

Documenta Cisterciensia; England, s. xiii med

Shelfmark

Exeter College MS. 1

Place of origin

England

Date

Later additions after 1312 (*D(i)); 1337 (C(*xi)); 1372 (C(*ix)); 1419–26 (C(*x)); s. xvin (C(*xii))

s. xiiimed

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment FHHF

Physical extent

Written on 78 membrane leaves preceded and followed by two 18th-century paper flyleaves.

Binding

Sewn on six bands. Standard Exeter binding: simple and quite elegant, calf over millboards, the calf bearing blind decoration of a floral type, early 19th century. Red-sprinkled edges.

Provenance

The addition to this volume of Cistercian statutes of items relating to Dore Abbey leaves no doubt that the book belonged to that house, on which see D. H. Williams, White Monks in Gwent and the Border (Pontypool, 1976), 1–58.

How it reached Exeter College is unknown. Despite its absence from Ecloga, it may have been in the College in the medieval period: see Watson, Exeter, Introduction, pp. xxii–xxiii. The reference in CMA, no. 36, ‘De conversation monachorum’, is inconclusive: it may be to this manuscript, for although no such title or rubric has been observed in the book it could have been there when CMA was compiled, or the first, conspicuous, rubric on fol. 1r, ‘Incipit usus monachorum’, may be its source.

Exeter library identifications, inside the front cover, are ‘Ex: Coll: Oxon’, ‘Q6—1 Gall’ (deleted), ‘173–H–10’, the book stamp, and ‘Coxe Cat. no. 1’ (pencil). ‘10’ is on a round label on the spine.