An item acquired in 1999 for the Takamiya collection of manuscripts and early printed books is of great significance for those interested in the history of Anglo-Saxon studies. It comprises sixty-seven handwritten leaves that include a transcription of an Old English legal text and sets of variant readings to Anglo-Saxon law codes, derived from several sources. A series of notes scattered throughout the manuscript reveals both the time period during which it was compiled and the identity of those responsible for it.

The first of these notes occurs on fol. 2v, at the end of the transcription of the Old English text known as Judex: ‘Jan. 28. 1711/12. hæc ego & soror mea unà contulimus’ (‘January 28 1711/12. My sister and I jointly collated this text’). Of immediate interest here is the reference to ‘my sister’, a female collaborator in the enterprise. Other notes are yet more informative, facilitating a more precise identification of the two collaborating scholars. On p. 26, at the end of the list of variants to the law code of King Ine of Wessex, we read:

Initials recur in three other notes. The first of these follows the variants to the laws

of King Edgar (p. 84; see fig. 1):