Catalogue description Abbreviatio (abridgement) of Domesday Book, possibly compiled around 1241 in the...

Abbreviatio (abridgement) of Domesday Book, possibly compiled around 1241 in the scriptorium of Westminster abbey. At the beginning are two folios of illuminated scenes from the life and miracles of Edward the Confessor, and the folios for the first two counties (Kent and Sussex) include in the margins 19 illuminated portraits of main landholders in circular frames. These then cease, but there are some lovely decorated capitals in later margins, usually 'I' or 'R' at the beginning of sections for the king's land in a particular county. The one at the beginning of the Derbyshire section shows a man with a black face and curly hair, hanging from the foot of a large letter 'I'. In the text initial letters are frequently illuminated in gold, red and blue, and there are marginal annotations against a few entries. Another, later, abbreviation of Domesday is in E 164/1.

Flyleaf: list of contents, 17th cent, and notes by Peter le Neve, temp Anne; Illuminated and rubricated throughout; fos 1v-3v Three full page illuminations of miracles of St Edward, King and Confessor Edward accuses Earl Godwin of the murder of the aetheling; Earl Godwin prepares to take the ordeal; drowning of King Svein of Denmark; the seven sleepers of Ephesus; Edward and Earl Leofric at mass see appearance of Christ in the Eucharist; return of ring given to a beggar who was St John the Evangelist in disguise two pictures within each frame; Annotated by Peter le Neve with cross references to Ailred's life of King Edward; fo 3: Initial letter showing king enthroned; ff 3-4v, 7-10 marginal medallions, illuminated and gilt, of lay and spiritual lords; fos 10, 19, 24, 38v46v, 56v, 65, 76v, 88v, 94v, 97, 103 (with bull and mythical beast)110, 116, 126, 131 (standing king), 138, 145, 149, 157, 165 (standing king, with sceptre), 172 (standing king, with sceptre) 177v (standing king)182, 189, 196 ('negro' pendant to letter I), 201, 248v, 257, 208, 230, 271 (standing king) 290v (standing man/king)initial letters, illuminated and gilt, with tracery and/or mythical figures; some with drolleries attached; Rubricated throughout; Possibly compiled in the 1240s.