Codex Spirensis talk - Lewes Archaeological Group

The Notitia Dignitatum Occidentis was a record of all the Roman imperial administrative affairs in the early fifth century, in the Western half of the Empire. It was mirrored by a similar manuscript corresponding to the eastern half of the empire. No original of the manuscript exists but it was assiduously copied over the years, and copied again, and some of these copies exist. The earliest copy known to us dates from the 10th century and is known as the Codex Spirensis. It is of particular interest to British historians because it shows in some detail the nature of the country just before the end of the Roman occupation. Britain at the time was ruled by a Roman civil servant, the Vicarius Brittaniarum, and the country was divided into five sub-provinces: Maxima Caesariensis, Valentia, Flavia Caesariensis, Britannia Prima and Britannia Secunda. Lewes found itself in Maxima Caesariensis, which corresponds to what we now call the South East and found its capital, then as now, in Londinium, or London. The book casts light on a military command never mentioned in any other manuscript, the ‘Comes Litoris Saxonici’ or the Saxon shore, probably a series of coastal forts around Kent and East Sussex which provided defence against the Saxons.

Today’s talk, by Christopher Hassall, will, amongst other things, clear up the mystery of the disappearance of the 10th century Codex Spirensis from its then home in Speyer in Germany. The earliest existing copies date back to the 15th century: the most famous, dated 1436, is in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. AG