The late thirteenth-century manuscript, Oxford, Bodleian Library Digby 86, contains a personal anthology of nearly 100 texts in French, English and Latin, including secular literature, devotional material, and texts with practical applications, ranging from medical care for humans and birds to games and party tricks. Many of the texts are unique to this manuscript. It contains 18 English texts, including lyrics, the earliest English Fabliau (Dame Sirith), and the
beast-epic, `The Fox and the Wolf'.
The manuscript, which was assembled by a layman associated with Redmarley d'Abitot (Gloucestershire), provides and important witness to the context in which these texts were preserved and read.
