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Alternative title

Scotichronicon

Type of resource

mixed material

Extent

ff. 20 + 371

Date created

[ca. 1400-1499]

Language

Latin, English, Middle (1100-1500)

Material

Paper

Layout

46 lines to a page

Height (mm)

292

Width (mm)

203

Collation

a(20) (the first six fragmentary: also 17 and 19), 1(20) 2(20) 3(22)-7(22) 8(20)-13(20) 14(22) 15(20)-18(20) (wants 20).

Writing

in a rather pointed hand

Foliation

ff. i-xx + 1-150

Provenance

Formerly belonged to the Abbey of Inchcolm: see later

Research

This MS. is numbered 3 in Skene's edition of Fordun (1871), p. xvi. Facsimiles of four of the pictures in it are given in National Manuscripts of Scotland II lxxxiii-lxxxvi. The whole of the Scotichronicon (Fordun with Bowmakar's continuation) was edited by W. Goodall in 1759. A good deal of the extraneous matter occurs in the Royal 13 E. 10 (Black Book of Paisley): including most of the genealogical matter, lists of Popes and Emperors, Provinciale, the tracts of John of Bordeaux and St Bernard, the memorial verses and the extracts from St Birgitta's Revelations.

Summary

CCCC MS 171, divided into two parts, A and B, since James' description in 1912, contains the Scotichronicon by Walter Bower (1385-1449), a history of the kingdom of Scotland beginning with its foundation on the arrival of Scota, daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh. This chronicle was a continuation and expansion of the Chronica gentis Scotorum by John Fordun (d. after 1363). The manuscript was written c. 1447-9 at the Augustinian abbey of Inchcolm in Fife and was amended under the direction of Bower himself, abbot of Inchcolm (d. 1449). It is considered to be one of the most important texts of late medieval Scottish historical writing in existence and was used as the basis for the nine-volume edition of the text published under the general editorship of D. E. R. Watt. There are a few coloured full and half-page drawings of major narrative events such as the Battle of Bannockburn and the Coronation and funeral of Alexander III. It is not known how this manuscript came to be in Parker's collection.

Contents

Chronologies. Lists of kings, popes and emperors -- Scotichronicon (Volume 1)

M.R. James Date

xv

Downloadable James Catalogue Record

https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:yh030qj8060/MS_171A.pdf

Superseded Interim Catalogue Record

https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:dz127fq3598/171A.pdf

Contains

• Chronologies. Lists of kings, popes and emperors. iv-xxv

  Note

  The earlier leaves of the first quire are much mutilated
  (ir) blank
  (iv) Part of inner column left: rhyming lines

  Incipit

  (iv) amτm corporis ... / ... leuero maxi labo ... / ... ocie volensattemptar(e) / ... duum opus compilare / etc.

  Note

  Ends

  Explicit

  (iv) deficiens vita sibi detur / ... queso quilibet ut sic sit precetur

  Rubric

  (iv) Sequitur liber qui dicitur Scoticronicon

  Note

  (iv) Distich over coloured drawing of shield of France in lower margin

  Incipit

  (iv) Inclita progenies dono liliata supernoSub carolo tu clara vale, sis leta triumphis

  Note

  (iv) In lower margin on L. of the shield is a fragment of a finely executed grisaille drawing, part of a figure of a scribe at a desk remains
  (iir) Most of one column
  (iir) Anno mo cc xcvito bellum de spot s ...

  Incipit

  (iir) Sunt tria que miserum fi ...

  Note

  (iir) List of dates of battles
  (iir) Prophecy in verse begins in larger script

  Incipit

  (iir) Albion in terris rex primus germine scotus. Jllorum ... Fergusius fuluo ferchard rugientes in arm ... etc.

  Note

  (iiv) Genealogical table with shield of Scotland impaled with that of Edward Confessor
  (iiir) Heading

  Rubric

  (iiir) lib(er)

  Incipit

  (iiir) Quoniam huius sequ... / quorum memorie labilitas ... / que inibi scripta sunt

  Note

  (On the ages of the world)
  Ends

  Explicit

  (iiir) In principio .s. erit corporum resu(rrectio)

  Note

  3v. sqq. in double columns
  Verse chronicle continuing to 6r (Edward III)
  (viv) Single lines
  (viv) ... infrascripto Scoticronicon libro succinctius perstrinximus / ... verantur. Genealogiam regis nostri moderni Jacobi secundi
  (viiv) Ends with descent of James II from Adam
  (viiir) List of Popes from Peter to Eugenius IV. Nicholas V is perhaps original. Other hands continue to Julius II
  (ixr) List of Emperors, with prose prologue, to Sigismund, continued by other hands to Maximilian
  (xv) Provinciale, five columns to page
  (xiiir) Tabula monasteriorum Scocie, 3 columns
  Ends with houses of nuns
  (xivr) List of vicecomitatus Scocie
  14v-20v blank
  (xviir) A fragment
  (xixr) A half leaf, on it is written (xv-xvi)
  (xixr) I schreu hiȝ hert and al ye harnis in hiȝ heed / yt this lef outschar bot gif it be ane / of ye chanouns of the Inche of saint / Columbe
  On verso
  (xixv) I schreu hiȝ hert and al ye harnis in hiȝ heed / yt tuk out yis half lef gif it weȝ dun in / my keping qd gilbert ye hayes

• Scotichronicon (Volume 1). 1r-150v

  James

  Scotichronicon (the History of Fordun with the continuation of Walter Bower or Bowmakar, Abbot of Inchcolm, who died in 1449). 1r-150v

  Incipit

  (1r) Ne scribam vanum due pia uirgo manumdue manum rege cor uirgo maria precor

  Rubric

  (1r) Incipit liber I

  Incipit

  (1r) Debitor sum fateor non necessitate sed caritate compulsus. ... Reddere igitur necesse est quod promisi et ad satisfaci(endum) importunis generosae probitatis militis
  (1r) Domini Dauid Stewar(t) / de Rossiffe (Rossythe) peticionibus acquieui vidz. ad transcribendum sequens inclitum opus historicum per ven. oratorem d. Johannem ffordon. etc.

  Note

  Ends

  Explicit

  (1r) inceptum per se deducere ad perfectum

  Rubric

  (1r) Explicit prologus
  (1r) Incipiunt capitula

  Note

  (1v) Capitula (36 or 37)

  Rubric

  (1v) B. Compilatus incipit liber Scoticronicon. A. per sacre bone memorie Johannem de fforedon
  (1v) Vsque sextum codicem laus sua conualuit. Hinc ad finem operis alter onus subiit

  Note

  (1v) Acrostic on Fordun's name. Incipiens opus etc., Skene I 3

  Rubric

  (2r) Prefatiuncula operis

  Incipit

  (2r) Sicut scribit Euodius ticinensis episcopus. Superflua scribere res iactancie est

  Explicit

  (2r) et quotquot tedio afifecti lectura eius leticie condonentur

  Note

  (2r) Cap. I

  Rubric

  (2r) De mundo sensibili etc.

  Note

  (Skene I 4)

  Incipit

  (2r) Ex variis quippe veterum

  Note

  At top in large letters is

  Rubric

  (4r) Sancti columbe patet emonie liber iste

  Note

  This is the name of the Abbey of Inchcolm, to which the Donibristle MS. also belonged, Skene I xvi
  (14r) Liber II, capitula
  (14v) On lower margin a finely stippled coloured drawing of a shipful of people, mostly armed men: over the principal figure is written gathelos, a woman Scota is in the stern, a sailor is hoisting the sail. Reproduced Nat. MSS. of Scotland II 83
  (15r) Text
  (39v) Liber III, capitula
  (40v) blank
  (41r) Text
  (65v) Liber IV, capitula
  (66v) Text
  (87v) Liber V, capitula
  (88v) Text
  (88r) The lower half has a coloured drawing: de rege malcolmo kenremor et thano de fiffe. The king is seated, in red robe with vandyked sleeves. The thane, a larger figure in front on L. takes his hand. The scene is an interior
  (109v) Liber VI, capitula
  (111r) Text
  On f. 110r is an addition
  (110r) Anno domini mo co vii Eadgarus scotorum rex ... obiit
  Followed by
  (110r) Copia littere manumissionis populi anglorum facta per matildem
  (117v) A break, at 1067, end of VI 23, and in large letters these lines (Skene I xiii)
  (117v) Actenus actorem de fordon sume JohannemHinc opus auctoris et scriptoris superextatAbreuiatiue scriptor nonnulla prioriImmiscit parti protractu marginis apteIntitulata tamen. quos christus protegat amen
  (118r) continues (De episcopis kilreymonth etc.)
  (126v) blank
  (130v) Liber VII, capitula
  (131v) Text

TJames

62

Stanley

F. 9

Repository

UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library

Location

MS 171A

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