_I.C.C._ _I.E._ FLAMENCDIC FLAMMINGEDICH Robert[us] de Hintona Rodb[er]t[us] de Histona Fulcard[us] _de Dittona_ Osmundus parvus Osmund[us] parvulus Fulcold _homo abbatis de Ely_ Baldeuuinus _cum barba_ Baldeuuinus _cocus_ Æduuin[us] presbyter Æduuinus presbyter Ulfric[us] de teuersham Wlfuric de teuersham Silac[us] _eiusdem villæ_ Syla Godwun[us] _nabesone_ Goduuine _de fulburne_ It is impossible to examine the italicized variations in these parallel texts without coming to the conclusion that they must have been independently derived from some common original, an original containing more detail than either of them. On the other hand, the comparatively close agreement between the texts of the actual returns in the I.C.C. and the I.E. leads one to infer that these were copied with far more exactitude than the comparatively unimportant surnames of the jurors. For us the value of these variations in the jurors' lists lies in the evidence afforded to the origin of the existing MSS. The object of this careful scrutiny has been to prove that as certain errors and peculiarities are found in two independent MSS., they must have existed in the original document from which both were copied, and which was neither the I.C.C. transcripts nor the original Domesday returns. What then was this document? It was, and can only have been, the true _Inquisitio Eliensis_, the date and origin of which I shall discuss below. Further, I should imagine this document to have probably been a roll or rolls, which--on its contents being subsequently transcribed into a book for convenience--was allowed, precisely as happened to the Domesday rolls themselves, to disappear. In perfect accordance with this view we find the whole contents of the _Inquisitio_ arranged for a special purpose, and no mere transcript of the Domesday returns. Thus, after abstracting all the entries relating to the Cambridgeshire estates, and subjoining a list of houses held in Cambridge itself, it proceeds to add up all the items independently, and record their total values to the Abbey. This analysis is carried out for several counties (pp. 121-4), and is, of course, peculiar to the _Inquisitio_, although inserted between the abstracts of the Domesday returns for Cambridgeshire and Herts. So too the breviate or short abstract of the estates (pp. 168-173), which was part of the original document--for it is found in all the derived MSS.--must have been specially compiled for it, and so also was the _Nomina Villarum_ (pp. 174-83).