Cotton MS Titus D XXIV, ff 5–156

ff. 6r-13r: Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, excerpt from the year 1066 (Bk VI, chapter 30), beginning: ‘Anno millesimo sexageno quoque seno’.

ff. 13r-15v: De Romanis imperatoribus (About the Roman Emperors), beginning: ‘Augustus Iulio Cesari succedens’.

ff. 16r-19v: The anonymous Sortes duodecim Patriarcharum (The Book of Fate of the Twelve Patriarchs). The text purports to enable divination based on a list of fixed questions and answers and begins: ‘Si vis prodesse sortes anathema nec esse’. See also Cotton MS Vitellius A XII, ff. 124v-125v.

ff. 19v-21r: Marbod, Bishop of Rennes (d. 1123), Liber lapidum (Book of [Precious] Stones), beginning: ‘Gemmis a gummi nomen posuere’.

ff. 21r-23v: A sequence of anonymous hymns, one of which (f. 22v) is attributed to Hildebert of Lavardin (d. 1133). The first hymn begins: ‘In sapiencia disponens omna superna deitas’.

ff. 23v-27v: A sequence of short homiletic and moralizing verses. The first verse has the rubric ‘Invectio Walonis Britonis in monachos’, and begins: ‘Sacrilegis monachis emptoribus ecclesiarum’.

ff. 28r-32v: A sequence of epitaphs for St. Augustine (d. 430), Pope Urban II (d. 1099), Baldwin III (d. 1163) and Amalric I (d. 1174), Kings of Jerusalem, St Werburga (d. c. 700), St Breowa [Winifred] (c. 7th century), and others.

ff. 32v-61r: Lawrence of Durham (d. 1154), Hypognosticon (Summary of Knowledge); four excerpts of varying length from Books 8 and 9 of the beginning: ‘Naturas rerum varias labentis’. Two of the extracts are erroneously attributed to Bede the Venerable (d. 735) due to Lawrence’s citation from Bede’s De natura rerum (On the Nature of Things) (see J. H. Mozley, ‘The collection of mediæval Latin verse in MS. Cotton Titus D. XXIV’, p. 24).

ff. 61r-64v: A sequence of various short verses or verse excerpts. Attributions include Gerard, archbishop of York (d. 1108), and St Patrick (d. 5th century), and two short extracts are from Juvenal (d. 2nd century), Satires, and Ovid (d. 17-18 AD), Fasti. The first verse begins: ‘Rex citharista David Salomon Paris et Menelaus’.

ff. 64v-74r: A moral and religious allegorical poem, written in only 13 lines to a page by only writing on every other ruled line. It begins: ‘Mentis in excessu lati loca ruris amena’.

ff. 74v-79v: Poems associated with Gilla Pátraic or Patricius (d. 1084), Bishop of Dublin, beginning: ‘His ita prodigiis signisque per omnia dictis’.

ff. 79v-80v: Pseudo-Ausonius, Septem sapientum sententiae (Seven Wise Sayings), here given the rubric 'Nomina VII sapientium et sentenie eorum' (The Names of Seven Wise Men and Their Sayings), and beginning: ‘Quenam summa boni mens semper conscia recti’.

ff. 81r-82v: A sequence of epitaphs for St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux (d. 1153), William, Abbot of Rievaulx (d. c. 1160), Pope Eugenius III (d. 1153), Gamellus, Abbot of Rufford (d. c. 1156), and others.

ff. 82v-86v: A sequence of short poems on theological themes (for instance, on the transient nature of life, the Lamb of God, the Trinity, and the usefulness of confession), and hymns, beginning: ‘Mundani tabi quia cernis inania’.

ff. 87r-88r: A poem introduced by two lines in hexameter and then in adonic metre, attributed to ‘Saint Patrick bishop’ (presumably Gilla Pátraic or Patricius, Bishop of Dublin, conflated with Saint Patrick), beginning: ‘O deus omnipotens celorum dindima complens’.

ff. 88r–91r: Epitaphs for Gamellus, Abbot of Rufford. William, Archbishop of Rouen (d. 1110), and others.

ff. 91r-94v: Versus Damasi ad amicum suum (Verse of Damasus to His Friend), often attributed to Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), beginning: ‘Cartula nostra tibi portat Rainalde salutes’. Printed, for example, under the title Carmen paræneticum ad Rainaldum in Jean Mabillon, Sancti Bernardi abbatis Clarae-vallensis: Opera Omnia, vol. II, 4th ed. (Paris: Gaume Fratres, 1839), pp. 1765-72.

ff. 95r-96v: Metrical poems written in the style of an epitaph, perhaps as a metrical exercise (see J. H. Mozley, ‘The Collection of Mediaeval Latin Verse in Cotton Titus D. XXIV’, pp. 39-40), beginning: ‘Scribant sollerti studio metra quique diserti’.

ff. 97r–v: Epitaphs for Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre (d. 448), and St. Gregory the Great (d. 604).

ff. 98v- 99r: A moralising verse in hexameters, beginning: 'Cui satis est quod habet satis'.

ff. 99v-100v: A moralising verse in elegiac couplets, beginning: ‘Hoc metro tactus sic corporis inspice lapsus’.

ff. 100v–106r: Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, excerpt from Bk I, chapter 6, with two anonymous verses incorporated (f. 102r and f. 105r), beginning: ‘Proprie vero Britannie est proprium’.

f. 107r: An epitaph for St Gregory the Great that, apart from omitting the first five lines, is the same as the one on f. 97v, beginning: ‘Qui numinis semper vivit usque bonis’.

ff. 108r-112r: Passio Sancti Mauricii (The Martyrdom of Saint Maurice), beginning: ‘Dum cohibere parat gallos’.

ff. 112r-118v: Marbod of Rennes, Vita Sancti Laurentii (The Life of Saint Lawrence), beginning: ‘A decio tentus gladioque furente peremptus’.

ff. 119r-v: Hildebert of Lavardin, Versus de mysterio missae (Verse on the Rite of the Mass), here with the rubric Versus Cenomanensis Episcopi de corpore Christi (Verse of the Bishop of Le Mans on the Body of Christ), beginning: ‘Tollimur e medio fatis’.

ff. 119v-120r: Orderic Vitalis (d. 1142), Historia ecclesiastica (Ecclesiastical History), verse excerpt on Saint Nicholas, beginning: ‘Tempore quid miseris heu nobis accidit isto’.

ff. 120v-124v: Hildebert of Lavardin, Vita beatae Mariae Aegyptiacae (Life of St Mary of Egypt), beginning: ‘Sicut hiems laurum non urit nec rogus aurum’.

f. 124v: Another epitaph for Pope Eugenius III, beginning: ‘Urbis et orbis honor sed iam dolor Urbis et orbis’. Five lines have been added as a continuation by a hand of the second half of the 14th century.

ff. 125r-127r: Hildebert of Lavardin, De excidio Troiae (The Fall of Troy), beginning: ‘Pergama flere volo fato danais data solo’.

ff. 127r–132v: De coloribus et mixtionibus (On Colours and Pigments), a text of recipes for colours and pigments (see R. Dean and M. Boulton, Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts, no. 387). Written in Latin (ff. 127r-130v), and Anglo-Norman (ff. 131r-132v). The rubric begins: ‘De distemperandis coloribus ad scribendum vel illuminandum…’; and the text begins: ‘Azorium color est optimus’.

ff. 132v-134v: Excerpt about various gemstones from an alchemical treatise, beginning: ‘Crisolitus lapis quasi aurum fulget’.

ff. 134v-138v: The anonymous Miraculum de duobus clericis (Miracle of the Two Clerics), beginning: ‘Civitas est Brittaniae Namnnhetis \dicta/ domine’.

ff. 138v-140r: A metrical calendar of feast days starting with Christmas, beginning: ‘Parturit octavis dominum Maria kalendis’.

ff. 140r-v: Anonymous poem, beginning: ‘Aura puer mulier tria sunt reprobanda parata’.

ff. 141r-143v: Pseudo-Bede the Venerable, poems on the calculation of time, lunar movement, and the progression of the moon through the zodiacs. The first poem begins: ‘Addita lux luci cum quarta parte diei’.

ff. 144r-147r: A computistical text, now imperfect and missing an unknown number of folios at the beginning. The remaining text begins: ‘ad sequentem marcium et q[uo]ta’. F. 147 is smaller in size than the rest of the codex and appear to have been added to supplement the computus with additional notes.

ff. 148r-150r: A series of short computistical texts on various topics, for example: on observing the moon and the sky, the epacta (the number of days in the age of the moon at the beginning of the year), and on leap years.

ff. 150r-156r: A series of orders for celebrating the divine office on Sundays, with the rubric: ‘Ordo de dominicalibus officiis et de domine ne in ira ante septuagesimam’.

ff. 156r-v: Bilingual formulas for the visitation of the sick, in Anglo-Norman, Latin, and Old English, beginning: ‘Este vus ici freire le cors nostre’. The green ink used for several of the formulas is now almost illegible.

[f. 147v is blank.]

Decoration:

Medium initial in a green outline filled with a simple zig-zag pattern introduces the text on f. 112r. Minor initials introducing the separate sections of the text in red and with simple flourishing, ff. 6r-15v.

For verses, the first letter of each line is consistently in red, but sometimes also in green, and occasionally in blue (for example f. 120v) or in a light yellow (for example f. 122v).

The separate texts are written in alternating black, red, and green ink on ff. 150r-156v.