This is a diplomatic and digital edition of the first four pages of the Southwick Codex. It presents the first three pages as a fragment from a now lost text that once preceded the Old English Soliloquies and the fourth page as the actual introduction to the Old English Soliloquies. The three-page fragment is here newly understood. Traditionally, it has been believed to be a paratext to the Old English Soliloquies. It has been called the Preface, Prologue, Vorrede, or Vorwort to the Old English Soliloquies, but in this edition is treated as a separate text, provisionally called the Southwick Idyll. The fourth page thus becomes in itself the Introduction to the Old English Soliloquies. The first half of the fourth page has usually functioned as the concluding paragraph to the traditional preface, except in Leslie Lockett’s edition where it stands as the first paragraph of Book I in the Old English Soliloquies (2022, 186). In this edition, the entire fourth page is understood to be introductory to the Old English Soliloquies. The reasoning that supports my re-interpretation of these two texts can be found in the Introduction.

The edition presents the Old English text as found in the manuscript. Where there is damage to the manuscript, and letters have become partially legible or entirely illegible, the edition may supply letters in square brackets. It does so in consultation with Franciscus Junius’s transcription which was made at least eighty years before the manuscript suffered damage during the fire at Ashburnham House in 1731. The edition makes one correction to a scarcely noticeable scribal error in the Latin notice of ownership at the bottom of the third page. That correction is also indicated by square brackets. The Old English text, however, remains without emendation or correction.

The edited text is displayed in different formats. It comes in a lineated format, which follows the lineation of the text in the codex, and in block format without the manuscript’s lineation. The lineated format offers the text in two modes, Original and Regularized. In the Original mode, the letter forms of the manuscript are followed as closely as Unicode fonts allow. In this mode, readers will find some letters that may look unfamiliar. The scribe usually writes the letter g in the Insular form (ᵹ), but sometimes writes it in a Caroline form, which closely resembles the contemporary form (g). Likewise, with the letter s, the scribe usually writes it in the long insular form (ſ ), but sometimes, particularly for majuscules, uses the familiar curved form (S). The scribe always writes the letter d in the insular form (ꝺ), always leaves the letter i undotted (ı), always uses the insular form for the letter t (ꞇ), and always dots the letter y (ẏ). The Original mode also preserves the scribe’s use of runic wynn for the letter w (ƿ). In the Regularized mode all these letters are put into contemporary letter forms. However, the Regularized mode leaves unchanged the form of thorn with a stroke (ꝥ), representing þæt, and the Tironian note for Latin et (⁊), representing and.

As is frequently the case in medieval manuscripts, the scribe’s spacing between words varies. Most often words are separated with a space, but sometimes two words have no intervening space between them. On the other hand, the scribe sometimes writes a single word with a space between parts. This especially occurs with compound words. In the Original mode, where two distinct words have no intervening spacing, the two words remain unseparated. On the other hand, where there is a space between parts of a word, a hyphen is provided to indicate a single word. In the Regularized mode the manuscript’s spacing is adjusted so that distinct words are separated by spaces and words with separate parts are unified without a hyphen.

The scribe uses the punctus sparingly, but not simply for punctuation. Usually, of course, it indicates a break in syntax, whether a full stop or a partial stop. But it may also indicate emphasis, or call for heightened attentiveness, such as when placed in front of the name Ieronimus on fol. S 1v, or in front of the title Soliloquiorum on fol. S 2v. On the second page (fol. S 1v), the punctus appears above the line a few times and is represented in the transcription with a raised dot. The Original mode records the punctus as written in the manuscript. The Regularized mode sometimes interprets the punctus as a comma instead of a period, and in a very few places adds a punctus or period in square brackets where a full stop seems necessary. Those added full stops have square brackets around them. In the edition of the Old English text, no commas are added for partial stops; the Old English syntax is left to speak for itself. In the translation, commas are sometimes added to make the text conform to written modern English.

To toggle between the Original and Regularized modes, readers will find a button on the webpage with the transcription and its translation. The translation into modern English remains the same for both modes. Readers will find a similar button to remove square brackets and simplify the text for ease of reading.

The accompanying translation and commentary interpret the text as found in the manuscript. The translation appears in a central column on the webpage, to the right of the edited text. Comments on the text are accessible through superscript letters throughout the transcription: C for codicological, H for historical, LG for linguistic, LX for lexical, P for paleographic, and T for textual. Clicking on a superscript letter makes a note appear in stable text in a column to the right of the translation. Hovering over a superscript letter makes a note appear as a pop-up that overlays the edited text.

The edition is designed for readers to consult the manuscript while they read the text. A superscript I follows the folio numbers at the top of each page. Clicking on it brings up the British Library’s facsimile image of that page in the manuscript. Two different folio numbers identify each page. The first records what is written on the vellum’s recto side and is indicated by the siglum S (for Southwick). The second records the number written on the recto side of the paperboard backing that surrounds and protects the vellum. This folio number is placed in parentheses and is indicated by the siglum V (for Vitellius). The reason that this edition gives precedence to the foliation in the Southwick Codex is explained in the Introduction. For simplicity and ease of reading, the comments in the notes refer only to the foliation in the Southwick Codex. The British Library’s foliation can readily be identified by adding three to that of the Southwick Codex.

This edition was first developed in XML code, in accordance with TEI guidelines, with the expert assistance of the University of Exeter’s Digital Humanities Lab. It has since been rendered into HTML at the University of British Columbia where it is currently hosted.