10 - A new Approach to the Compilation of the Book of Llandaf

Summary

The charters in LL that were not forged from scratch at the time of compilation must have been based on earlier charters, of varying authenticity, gathered together in the twelfth century or before from Gospel Books, single sheets, cartularies, and so on. Although it is inherently unlikely that none of the charters used were copies of copies, I have not been able to find any evidence for a ‘long history of interference’ with the material before Urban chose to make it the basis of his claims. The indications of more than one stage of editing, such as the ‘circular’ features discussed above, need indicate no more than that LL went through several drafts in the Llandaf scriptorium, as one would expect with so large a project. As we have seen, no diplomatic features have been detected that prove or even indicate the existence of pre-Llandaf, intermediate collections of charters, and the present arrangement of LL can be explained solely in terms of the Llandaf compilers’ inconsistent attempt at arranging all the bishops in a single chronological sequence, with the aid of their notions about the three patron saints, the internal evidence of the charters themselves, and the incomplete list of ninth- to eleventh-century consecrations. It is difficult to imagine any circumstance before the advent of the Normans and the new ideas about ‘proper’ diplomatic form that Urban or his collaborators may have acquired at Worcester or elsewhere that would have led early Welsh clerics to attempt any purely diplomatic revision of their ancient charters. Given their evident reverence for ancient books, it would be strange for them to have attempted to rewrite their ancient documents merely in order to have crisp new copies. One of the proofs of ownership in the early Irish Laws was a senscríbend deodae, ‘an ancient ecclesiastical writing’, and it is reasonable to suppose that a similar attitude would have prevailed in Wales. Manipulation in favour of a different recipient was another matter, of course; but there is little evidence that the LL charters had suffered any such alteration before Urban associated all their bishops with Llandaf in support of his great cause, a cause which had its roots not much further back, so far as we know, than the episcopate of his predecessor Bishop Herewald.