I am mistaken,
if any equally early, and equally well authenticated representation of a
King of England be in existence. The _Historia Normannorum_ is
incomplete, both at the beginning and end, and it does not occupy more
than one-fifth of the volume: the rest is filled with a comment upon the
Jewish History.
The articles among the manuscripts, most valued by antiquaries, are a
_Benedictionary_ and a _Missal_, both supposed of nearly the same date,
the beginning of the twelfth century.
The Abbe Saas, who published, in 1746, a catalogue of the manuscripts
belonging to the library of the cathedral of Rouen, calls this
Benedictionary, which then belonged to the metropolitan church, a
_Penitential_; and gives it as his opinion, that it is a production of
the eighth century, with which aera he says that the character of the
writing wholly accords. Montfaucon, who never saw it, follows the Abbe;
but the opinion of these learned men has recently been confuted by M.
Gourdin[119], who has bestowed considerable pains upon the elucidation
of the history and contents of this curious relic.
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