Diss.--Philosophische Fakultät--Düsseldorf--Heinrich-Heine-Universität, 1989.

In this edition of the British Museum manuscript Cotton Vitellius C.V., I have attempted to give a faithful reproduction of the MS. exactly as it stands. The MS. was damaged in the fire at Ashburnham House in 1731, and is now defective. The edges of the pages are charred; in some places they are only partly legible. I have transcribed all that I have been able to read: where part of a letter is all that remains, I have given the entire letter where possible, although in many words it is extremely difficult to say what the original reading might have been. The MS. has been typed page by page, so that the presentation here is as near the original as possible. The only alteration in the text is the placing of the heading of each homily in a central position above the text. Each homily, moreover, begins on a new page, although there is no such break in the MS. I have set the beginning of each homily at approximately the position it occupies in the MS. arrangement.

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This thesis takes as its starting point the use of extracts from the works of historical authors who wrote in England in the early to mid twelfth-century. It focuses upon the ways in which their works began to be incorporated into three particular texts in the later twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Through the medium of individual case studies – De Abbatibus (Abingdon), CCCC 139 (Durham) and The London Collection three elements are explored (i) how mediaeval writers used extracts from the works of others in ways which differed from modern practices with their concerns over charges of plagiarism and unoriginality (ii) how the structural and narrative roles which the use of extracts played within the presentation of these texts (iii) how the application of approaches developed in the twentieth century, which transformed how texts are now analysed, enabled a re-evaluation and re-interpretation of their use of source material with greater sensitivity to their original purposes This analysis casts fresh light upon the how and why these texts were produced and the means by which they fulfilled their purposes and reveals that despite their disparate origins and individual perspectives these three texts share two common features: (i) they follow a common three stage pattern of development (ii) they deal with similar issues: factional insecurities and concerns about the quality of those in power over them – using an historical perspective The analysis also reveals the range of techniques which were at the disposal of the composers of these texts, dispelling any notion that they were either unsophisticated or naïve in their handling of their source materials. Together these texts demonstrate how mediaeval authors used combinations of extracts as a means of responding quickly and flexibly to address particular concerns. Such texts were not regarded as being set in stone but rather as fluid entities which could be recombined at will in order to produce new works as required.