NOTE ON THE CERNE CARTULARY, 



BY THE TRANSLATOR. 



This cartulary, which was bound up with the Liturgical MS. 

 known as the Book of Cerne, itself consists of five documents 

 put together at some time, possibly when they were bound into 

 the Book. The catalogue of MSS. in the University Library at 

 Cambridge describes them as in the handwriting of the early 

 1 2th to the late i4th century. I am no expert in handwriting : 

 and I have only had the opportunity of looking at the original 

 MSS. for half-an-hour at Cambridge. The few comments I have 

 to make are from internal evidence apart from handwriting. 

 The transcript has been furnished by Mr. Rogers, of the 

 University Library, who has carefully revised it from time to 

 time. 



The documents are respectively marked A B C D and E. A 

 contains ff. i and 2 : B contains ff. 3 and 4 : C contains ff. 5 to 

 8 : D contains ff. 9-18 : and E contains ff. 19-26. They are not 

 in chronological order, and not always even in the order of the 

 events which they respectively chronicle. 



B for instance appears to be the latest, containing (i) a copy 

 of the record of a lawsuit in 21 Edward III., and (2) a list of 

 the Kings of England from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth. 



If B be transferred to the end, the latter half of A and the 

 first half of C appear to be consecutive. For ff. 2 (in A) and 

 5, 6 (in C) all deal with the same question viz., a dispute as to 

 the amount of taxation of the Abbot's lands held on military 

 service which was settled in 54 Henry III. : and all the previous 

 entries appear to be notes of earlier charters and records support- 

 ing the then case of the Abbot. The earliest of these is of 

 2 Henry II. (the earliest date expressly mentioned in the 

 cartulary) : but I infer that all the entries were made at or after 

 the decision of the question at the end of Henry III.'s reign. 

 The rest of C deals partly with events of the following reign, 



