546 AV RANCHES MANUSCRIPT OF VACARIUS October catalogue of about the same date, 1 and so had Montfaucon done in 1739 : 2 ' 162 Cod. Justiniani, in foV 3 There appears to be no earlier catalogue of the great library of Mont St. Michel. I lay stress on this detail, because the Worcester Cathedral MS. suffered the same fate for the same reason at the hands of the cataloguers for many years, and it is possible that there are still codices unidentified, or at least small fragments. 1 may venture to warn learned readers still to be on the watch for manuscripts blending extracts of Digest and Code ; for such is the first sign of a Vacarian codex. The obvious echoing of Vacarius's preface, in the account of him given by the chronicler Robert of Torigny, 4 and the fact that the bulk of the important manuscript collection of Avranches comes from Mont St. Michel suggested that the Avranches MS. discovered by Omont might have actually belonged to Robert, who was an avid collector of books and in close touch with England. But, as Dr. Liebermann was careful to point out, 5 MS. Avranches 142 ( = A) must in that case be at least twenty years older than is stated by the catalogue ; for Robert died in 1186. The manuscript has been generously lent to me at the Bodleian Library by the French authorities, and there Dr. H. H. E. Craster confirms the opinion of the French palaeographer. The manuscript is of the first half of the thirteenth century, perhaps of the first quarter, but certainly not of the twelfth century. 6 A is thus more recent than the Worcester Cathedral MS. Plut. 17 N 24 ( = V), also generously lent to me by the dean and chapter, which Dr. Craster and Mr. Falconer Madan date about 1200. The other manuscripts I know at present only from descriptions. They are the Prague Cathedral copy ( = P), 7 the Bruges No. 375 8 ( = B), Wenck's description and partial publica- tion of his lost manuscript ( = W), besides a fourteenth-century manuscript at Konigsberg and small fragments at Oriel, Merton, and All Souls Colleges, Oxford. I gather that P, like V, is older than A, while B and W may be about contemporary with it. 1 Maximilien Raoul (Ch. Letellier), Hist, pittoresque du Mont St. Michel, pp. 234, 278. 2 Bill. bibl. MS., 1357 (Catalogue of Mont St. Michel). 3 I take the identification from the French catalogues of 1872 and 1889. I presume it to be based on the size of the codex, which is the only one described by Montfaucon as in folio ; his 164 and 166 are in quarto, and are identified as the modern 141 (285 X 190 mil.) and 144 (230 X 165 mil.). The number 162 is entered fo. 1 r. in a modern hand. 4 Ed. Delisle, i. 250 ; ed. Bethmann, Mon. Germ. Hist., Scriptores, vi. 498. 6 Ante, xi. 45. 6 Taking into account Bethmann's remarks on the development of writing at Mont St. Michel (Pertz, Archiv, viii. 69). 7 Wenck, Magisier Vacarius, pp. 61, 314-15 ; Opusc. acad., p. 494 ; Savigny, Geschichte, 2nd ed., iv. 423 ; Stolzel, ubi supra. 8 Laude, Catal. des MSS. de la Bibl. pub. de Bruges, p. 315, ' xm e siecle ' ; Stolzel, ubi supra ; and Die Lehre von der Operis Novi Nuntiatio.
