Royal MS 15 A XVI, ff 1r-73v

Contents:

f. 1r: A table of contents written by different hands including an inscription referring to the Benedictine abbey of St. Augustine, Canterbury, preceded by a medieval pressmark. A seal with a ship at the bottom of the folio.

ff. 2r-57r: Juvencus (fl. c. 330), Evangelia (Gospels) with preface (f. 2r). One folio of the original is lacking and the text is supplied (f. 7) by an English 10th-century hand.The last two lines of the poem are erased and replaced, also in a 10th-century hand (f. 57r). Latin glosses throughout the margin.

ff. 59v-73v: Aldhelm (d. 709), bishop of Sherborne, Enigmata (Riddles), imperfect. The prologue is imperfect with the loss of the last 8 lines (f. 59v). Text has been supplied in a 10th-century hand (f. 67). Modern marginal notes (ff. 59v-61v) written by Patrick Young (b. 1584, d. 1652), librarian and scholar.

One of his note refers to another manuscript (Royal 12 C XXIII) collated with this one and owned by the earl of Arundel: ''Hunc librum / collatum esse ad ms / codicem co/mitis Arun/dell' (f. 59v).

f. 73v: An extract from Bede the Venerable (b. c. 673, d. 735), De arte metrica (On the Metrical Art), chapter 25.

Decoration:

Large initial in red and brown and outline drawing of a flower (f. 2v). Page-fillers in the form of inverted triangles (f. 59r). Highlighted initial at the beginning of each line. Bold capitals arranged vertically at the beginning of lines (ff. 1-59v). Bold capitals project into left margin at beginning of chapters with chapter-headings in half-uncial script in margins (ff. 60-71).