INTRODUCTION

vii

the twelfth century, in the Hereford books. A careful examination
of the scripts could hardly fail to show the same scribes and decora-
tors at work in a great many of the Cathedral Group. So far, I have
only pitched on a few, notably the Passional and Homiliary, P.7, vi,
8. vii, as being obviously the work of the same man. The proba-
bility has come to my mind that these may hail from Worcester :
the prominence of St. Egwin in the Passional suggests this. It is
by no means improbable a priori that the scriptorium of a great
monastery such as Worcester (or indeed Evesham, the special
shrine of St. Egwin) should be employed by a Secular Chapter to
write books. Do we know enough of the customs of these establish-
ments to say definitely whether or not their members were suffi-
ciently skilled in calligraphy to produce for themselves such work
as we see at Hereford and Salisbury ?
Some indications do point to the existence of local talent.
Such a record as that of the agreement of 1177 between Bishop
Robert Foliot and Hugh de Laci would not, surely, have been
inserted in the MS. which contains it, anywhere but at Hereford !
Yet this record is as fairly written, in as good a book hand as could
be desired, and the hand seems to be that which wrote the body
of the MS. A similar insertion, of a letter about some persons
forcibly removed from sanctuary, as it seems, is in an equally
practised hand. These documents occur in books undoubtedly
of the Cathedral Group, 0.6. xii and xiii. As to the earlier one in
Anglo Saxon inserted in the Gospel Book P.l. ii, there can be no
doubt of its Herefordian provenance.
At any time later than the twelfth century I should not expect
to find Canons engaged in the work of copying. Books of sermons,
indeed, or collections of extracts for their own use, or some un-
common treatises that took their fancy, they might write themselves,
but such volumes are apt to be rather rough and unsightly
things. The work of making stately and handsome copies was
passing into the hands of “ stationers,” and certain classes of books
were becoming the recognised product of definite centres ; from
Bologna were exported Law Books, from Paris Bibles, from some
yet undetermined place the copies of Aquinas and other Schoolmen,
which show a strong family likeness ; from Paris again very likely,
many of the Aristotles and their congeners. If we look through
the gifts of the latest benefactor here, Owen Lloyd, we see almost a
preponderance of foreign work. One of Bayly’s gifts, too, is certainly
Italian.
As to the languages represented in the collection, Anglo-Saxon
is confined to the document in P.l. ii and a word “ wildestodmerse ”
B