The versions of the Customary
In all, six versions of the Sarum Customary are included in this website, both in Latin and in English translation:
Manuscript sources
There are four readings from manuscript sources.
OCO: The Old Customary, from The Register of St Osmund, formerly kept in the bishop’s archives (now Wiltshire and Swindon Archives, D/1/1), copied in the first half of the thirteenth century.
OCR: The Old Customary, formerly owned by the parish church of St Giles, Risby, Suffolk (now British Library, MS Harley 1001), copied in the first quarter of the fourteenth century.
NCC: The New Customary, of undetermined provenance, but possibly associated with Salisbury Cathedral (now Corpus Christi College, Oxford, MS 44), copied in the later fourteenth century.
NCS: The New Customary, from Salisbury Cathedral (Salisbury Cathedral Library, MS 175), copied in the later fourteenth century.
Modern printed edition
The remaining two versions are those published by W. H. Frere, The Use of Sarum, I (Cambridge, 1898).
OCF: The Old Customary, based principally on OCR, but with collation of OCO and two other sources (Cambridge University Library, Add MS 710, ‘The Dublin Troper’, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodl. 443).
NCF: The New Customary, based primarily on NCC, but with collation of NCS and four other sources (British Library, MS Harley 2911 and MS Arundel 130; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson A.371 and MS Jones 59).
Frere’s texts are presented for reference in searchable format and as PDF, both with English translation, but without Frere’s editorial apparatus, which is readily available in the published edition.
Materials supplementary to OCR
In British Library, MS Harley 1001 (which contains the text of OCR), there are two sets of additional materials. One set appears after the Ordinal, the other after the Customary. Both have some materials which specifically supplement the Customary. These additional materials, their full Latin texts and English translations are available here in PDF form only.
A printed edition of the additional materials is included in W. H. Frere, The Use of Sarum, II (Cambridge, 1901), pp. 194-207.
