‘Textus Roffensis’ is an invented name for a book which is really two books. The two constituent manuscripts – which have perfectly adequate titles of their own – were both written in the 1120s, but did not, originally, have anything to do with one another. They were not bound together, as far as one can tell, till some time in the thirteenth century. As for the modern title, which has no authenticity, that only became current among London-based antiquaries at the end of the sixteenth century. It baffles me why anyone would want to continue using that title, in preference to the titles supplied by the original scribe.
Monochrome facsimiles of the two constituent manuscripts, edited by P. H. Sawyer, were published separately in 1957 and 1962. Page images of the entire book have now been made available online, as part of the University of Manchester’s Digital Collections.
A complete transcript of DRc/R1, fos. 1–118, with the quires put back into their original order. A few additions by later scribes are printed grey.
A complete transcript of DRc/R1, fos. 119–229, restored as nearly as possible to the shape that it had when it left the hands of the original scribe.
Another transcript of DRc/R1, fos. 119–229, in the shape that it had when it was bound. The original text is printed grey; additions by other hands are printed black.
Some notes on the history of the book, from the inception of the first of the two constituent manuscripts till now.