11 - The Evidence of the Doublets

Summary

The doublets within LL (73b/163a, 74/171b, 175/186b, 176a/190b, 179a/188b, and 179b/191) and between LL and VC (180b/VC 67 and 210b/VC 66) shed important light on the extent – and the limits – to which the charters’ editors were prepared to go. In this chapter I examine them in turn, in rather more detail than was required in Chapter 10 above. The text of VC is that of Wade-Evans (checked against fo. 40r of BL Cotton Vespasian A.xiv). The LL texts have been lightly edited in respect of capitalisation, word separation, punctuation, and the use of æ.

73b/163a

This charter concerns an estate, apparently a monastery, in the Dore valley. The formulae rarely agree, and where they do agree, in the liberty-formula, the phraseology is so hackneyed that the agreement may be coincidental. Clearly, one cannot rely on the diplomatic of either version. The boundary appears in 73b only and, although of the earliest type, may be an addition, as may the interesting antiquarian details about the dynasty of Ergyng. By contrast, the names of donors, estate, and witnesses correspond closely, and may well derive from a brief original similar to the ‘Chad’ charters in the Lichfield Gospels. The title episcopus given to Elgistus (i.e. Arwystl) in 163a, may have been deliberately omitted in 73b, so as to make it a grant to St Dyfrig in person. The duplication is further justified by making 163a a restoration of land earlier granted to St Dyfrig.

73b De Cvm Barrvc. Sciant omnes quod duo filii Pepiav Cinuin uidelicet & Guidci dederunt tres uncias agri Cum Barruc sancto Dubricio & omnibus sibi succedentibus in æcclesia Landauiæ in perpetuo cum omni libertate sine ullo censu homini terreno nisi sancto Dubricio & suæ familiæ & suis sequacibus & cum omni communione data circumcirca, in campo & in aquis, in silua & in pascuis.

163a Cvm Barrvc. Cinvin rex & Guidci frater suus reddiderunt Deo et Elgisto episcopo tres uncias agri Cumbarruc, cum sua tota libertate & omni communione in campo et in siluis, in aqua & in pascuis, quas in priori tempore accepit sanctus Dubricius archiepiscopus dextralis Britanniæ & sedis Landauiæ a Peibiau rege Ercicg cum sua tota libertate.