Introduction

Summary

THE MANUSCRIPT

The cartulary of the priory of St. Michael's Mount inCornwall Passed into the hands of the Cecil familywhen the Mount, with many of its possessions, wassold to Robert, earl of Salisbury, by the Crown in1612. It remained with the family when William, thesecond earl, sold most of the Cornish property toFrancis Basset of Tehidy in 164O, and it is now MS.315 of the Salisbury manuscripts in the library atHatfield House.

There are four leaves of paper in the manuscript beforethe cartulary proper begins. The first (pasted tothe front cover) contains the arms and crest of ‘The Right Hon^ble. James Cecill Earl ofSalisbury Visconnt Cranborne and Baron Cecill ofElsingdon', and various annotations in ink andpencil relating to the press-marks of the manuscriptat different times. The nort three pages are blank.The fourth page has the title, Registrum Cartarum Prioratus Monasterij montisSancti Michaelis de Cornubia, Celle Abbatie S.Michaelis de Periculo Maris in Normannia,in a hand which appears to be earlyeighteenth-century in date. The reverse of thefourth page is blank and then the cartularybegins.

The cartulary contains 57 folios of vellum each 8½-in.x 5⅕-in. The pages are slightly cropped. The presentnumbering of the folios in aribic numerals was madelater than the text; though holes at the head mdfoot of the right-hand margin of each folio showthat there was a different arrangement of the foliosbefore the manuscript, as it is today, was reboundin 1712. Three folios are out of place. Folio 36follows f.7, and there may be at least one foliomissing here.8 The grant numbered l8 in the text hasbeen assigned to f.l6r. in accordance with thepresent arrangement of the folios, though only partof this grant is now extant. Folios 24 and 25 follow57. The cartulary would appear to be incomplete, asthe rubric with which it ends abruptly on f.25v.cannot be related to any other position within thepresent arrangement. There are short titlesunderlined in red to all the charters, preceded byparagraph marks, and there is abundant evidence ofthe ruling of margins lines.

The cartulary is written in Latin throughout in alegible, though rough, hand of the later fourteenthcentury.