Orderic Vitalis is arguably one of the most famous scribes of the twelfth century. His distinct and somewhat unusual handwriting was first identified by Léopold Delisle and has been traced in seventeen surviving manuscripts. This discussion introduces an eighteenth manuscript to the corpus of books copied by Orderic – Rouen, Bibliothèque municipale 540 (olim U. 148) – recently discovered at the municipal library of Rouen. The manuscript contains two texts by Anselm of Canterbury, De libero arbitrio and De casu diaboli, as well a hagiographical text on the Carolingian saint Opportuna. As this chapter will show, Rouen, BM, 540 was partly copied, rubricated, and corrected by Orderic Vitalis, probably between the years 1100 and 1142. The identification of a previously unclassified manuscript featuring the handwriting of Orderic presents an opportunity to re-evaluate the scribal activities of this famous author and scribe, as well as the books he helped to copy at the abbey of Saint-Évroul in the early twelfth century. As such, the discussion of Orderic's additions to Rouen, BM, 540 will be placed within a wider review of his additions to other surviving manuscripts, and of trends within his various roles in the production and care of books at the monastery of Saint-Évroul.

This discussion begins with a brief description of the new manuscript find, Rouen, BM, 540, including an overview of the manuscript's contents, codicological profile, and the points at which Orderic's handwriting can be found. Using this newly identified manuscript as a primary example, this chapter also examines some of the distinctive qualities of his handwriting by means of a brief palaeographical overview. Despite the unique aspect of his handwriting, there are few resources currently available that specifically address his work as a copyist in the scriptorium of Saint-Évroul. To offset this gap in the current scholarship, this chapter offers a nuanced look at various letter-forms, ligatures, and abbreviations frequently used by Orderic, each accompanied by a visual example. Equipped with a better understanding of his handwriting, the final section considers the often cursory, yet prominent, nature of Orderic's scribal contributions in the books he helped to copy.