Textus Roffensis
The Textus Roffensis (Latin for "The Tome of Rochester"), fully entitled the Textus de Ecclesia Roffensi per Ernulphum episcopum ("The Tome of the Church of Rochester up to Bishop Ernulf") and sometimes also known as the Annals of Rochester, is a mediaeval manuscript that consists of two separate works written sometime between 1122 and 1124. It is catalogued as "Rochester Cathedral Library, MS A.3.5" and is currently held in the Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre in Strood, Rochester, Kent. It is thought that the main text of both manuscripts was written by a single scribe, although the glosses to a Latin entry were made by a second hand.
Name
A textus was a book with a decorated cover suitable to be kept in the church by the high altar. The term does not mean a text concerning Rochester Cathedral. A liber was a less decorated book, suitable only for the cloister. It is rare that a secular book is a textus, and the name given to the Textus Roffensis by the cathedral is considered indicative of the book's importance during the Middle Ages.
