This composite manuscript contains two parts that were produced at
separate locations in England and at separate moments during the
12th century. The first part (ff. 1r-17v) contains the Annals of
Chichester and was produced at the Cathedral church of Holy
Trinity, Chichester. The second part (ff. 17r-166v), is the only
extant witness to the letters of Osbert of Clare (d. after 1139),
Prior of the Benedictine abbey of Westminster. The letters show his
commitment to re-establishing the English feast of the Conception
that had been removed from the liturgical Calendar after the Norman
Conquest. The two parts were most likely joined together in the
library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631).Contents: ff.
1r-16r: A chronicle of Chichester from the birth of St John the
Baptist to 1164. f. 16v: A list of bishops present at a great
council. ff. 17v-164v: Osbert of Clare (d. after 1139), Epistolae
(Letters) The manuscript contains a number of additions:f. 17r:
Excerpts of Latin poems and proverbs. ff. 23v-24r (lower margin):
an anonymous poem on the Passion, begining ‘Mens, affectus,
ratio, sensus convenite’. f. 26r (lower margin): an anonymous
poem entitled ‘Iohannis lucicij contra legistas et decretistas
indiscretos’. ff. 164v-165v: The second part (‘secunda pars’)
of the poem on the Passion on ff. 23v-24r (lower margin); with
moral and satirical notes in the margins. ff. 165v-166v: Three
anonymous poems on the Virgin Mary, the first incomplete at the
beginning; the first complete stanza begins: ‘Mater caput agita
manibus levatis’. f. 166v: An anonymous poem on the three men
revived by Christ, here entitled De Tribus Mortuis (On the Three
Dead Men), beginning ‘Intro, foris, sub humo, recubat, vehitur,
veterascit’. f. 166v: Maximianus (fl. 6th century), Elegiae
(Elegies), excerpts [written vertically]. f. 166v: An anonymous
saying about the three types of unhappiness, beginning: ‘Tres
infelices in mundo novimus esse’. f. 166v: Aesop, Fabulae
(Fables), 26: De Agno et Lupo (On the Lamb and the Wolf), excerpt:
‘Nil melius sano monitu, nil peius iniquo. Consilium sequitur
certa ruina malum’. [ff. i recto, i verso, ii verso are
empty].Decoration:See the separate descriptions of parts 1 and 2.
