Libellus de Exordio - Authorship and Dating

Authorship and Dating

According to the Libellus's preface, the work was carried out on the orders of the monastic leadership of Durham Priory; probably it was Prior Turgot himself who commissioned it. The latest datable contemporary event mentioned in the core of the text (albeit obliquely) is the opening of the tomb of St Cuthbert for his removal into the new cathedral of Durham, 29 August 1104. Manuscripts "C" and "F" are the earliest witnesses of the text, with "C" and "F" written in the same scriptorium while Turgot was prior of Durham, a position Turgot gave up before 1115 at the latest, but perhaps before 1107. The text can therefore be said to have been completed at some point between 1104 and 1107 x 1115.

The work is traditionally attributed to Symeon of Durham, the precentor of Durham Cathedral. The evidence for this are rubrics in manuscript "Ca" and a rubric in manuscript "H". These date respectively to the late 12th century and to around 1300. Though there is nothing in either "C" or "F", modern scholarship has largely reaffirmed the traditional authorship of the text. David Rollason, the text's most recent editor, sees Symeon's role more as that of a lead author and compiler than sole author.