Editing Textus Roffensis (section)

==History==
The two manuscripts were bound together in around 1300.<ref name="Medway" /> The first part is a collection of documents which includes the [[Law of Æthelberht]], attributed to [[Æthelberht of Kent]] (c. 560–616), and the 1100 [[coronation]] charter of [[Henry I of England]]. The Law of Æthelberht is the oldest surviving [[English law]] code and the oldest [[Anglo-Saxon]] text in existence. The second part of the ''Textus Roffensis'' is the oldest of the Rochester Cathedral registers. The entire volume consists of 235 [[vellum]] leaves.<ref name=Medway/><ref name=Kent>University of Kent, "England’s 'Hidden Treasure'."</ref>

Over the centuries, the ''Textus Roffensis'' has been loaned, lost and recovered on several occasions and has been in the custody of a variety of different people and places; it was once held at the [[Medway]] Archives Office in [[Strood]] under reference number DRc/R1 and has since been withdrawn. It is currently held in an airtight case in Rochester Cathedral's Crypt.<ref name=RochCath>{{cite web|url=https://www.rochestercathedral.org/articles/2020/7/17/leaf-through-textus-roffensis?rq=textus%20roffensis|title=Leaf Through the Textus Roffensis|date=July 17, 2020|access-date=1 Dec 2020}}</ref> Sometime between 1708 and 1718 the book was immersed for several hours in either the [[River Thames]] or the [[River Medway]] when the ship transporting it overturned; water damage is apparent on a number of pages.<ref name=Medway/>

The book was named 'Britain's Hidden Treasure' by the [[British Library]], and was the subject of a conference at the [[University of Kent]] in 2010.<ref name=Kent/> It has been digitised and published on line by [[The University of Manchester]]'s Centre for Heritage Imaging and Collection Care.<ref>{{cite web|title=A book 100 years older than the Magna Carta goes digital|url=http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/article/?id=13156|publisher=[[University of Manchester]]}}</ref> The full digital facsimile is available through [[Rochester Cathedral]]'s website.<ref name=RochCath/>

A short film was also produced about the book by Rochester Cathedral about its history and digitization process.
<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcMdmjkdYOM |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/GcMdmjkdYOM |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=The Textus Roffensis A Hidden Treasure|author=Phil Smethurst|date=Nov 5, 2014|website=www.youtube.com|access-date=1 Dec 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref>