Ms Royal 2. B.V. in the British Library, London, is a tenth-century Psalter from Winchester, possibly from Nunnaminster. On the last folios of this MS (189-190) were added in the late tenth century, miscellaneous computistical entries, which include the years ofChrist, the ages of the world, the ages and generations, the numbering and reckoning of years and the number of years from the Creation to the foundation of Rome. Two texts, the ‘De longitudine mundi’ (fol. 189) and ‘Longitudo, latitudo et altitudo templi et tabernaculum (sic)’ (fols. 189r and v) precede, and another, ‘De area Noe’ (fol. 189v) follows a short text entitled ‘De aedificatio (sic) ecclesie sancti Petri apostoli’ at folio 189v.With the exception of this last, all these texts are also found in a ninth-century MS, British Library, Cotton Vespasian B.VI (fols. 106-70). To the best of my knowledge, the ‘De aedificatio[ne]’ does not exist in any other manuscript, and there is no known source for it. The present note aims solely at bringing this text to light and providing an edition of it; an examination of its implications for English history and architecture will be provided elsewhere.

The historical circumstances of Lord Castlemaine's embassy are well known. James II, as the Roman Catholic monarch of Britain, wished to pay his respects to the Pope, Innocent XI, and to secure a papal ambassadorial representative to his kingdom. There must have been further urgent requests of a political nature. He sent Lord Castlemaine as ambassador, the husband of Barbara Villiers. The Pope was made anxious by the close ties of James with Louis XIV and was not eager to receive him; a private audience at the Vatican was granted on 19 April 1686 not long after his arrival. The public entry, postponed owing to the indisposition of the Pope, did not take place until 8 January 1687.