The last is the famous Exeter
book, still preserved in the library. A small folio of 130
leaves of vellum, it is remarkable to the student of
manuscripts for its bold, clear, and graceful calligraphy, and
priceless to the student of literature as the only source of
much of our small store of Anglo-Saxon poetry. Some
other Leofrican books remain. In the library of Corpus
Christi College, Cambridge, is an eleventh century copy
of Bede's history in Anglo-Saxon, which was given to
Exeter by Leofric, although it is not mentioned in the list
of his gifts in the Bodleian manuscript. The inscription in
it reads: Hunc librum dat leofricus episcopus ecclesie sancti
petri apostoli in exonia ubi sedes episcopalis est ad utilitatem
successorum suorum. Si quis illum abstulerit inde, subiaceat
malediction). Fiat. Fiat. Fiat.[1] A manuscript of Bede on
the Apocalypse, now at Lambeth Palace, seems almost
certainly to have come from St. Mary's Church, Crediton,
and it bears the inscription:--"A: in nomine domini.
Amen. Leofricus Pater."[2] Another book given by Leofric,
a missal dating from 969, is preserved in the Bodleian
Library.
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