Skip to search Skip to main content
Parker Library On the Web - Spotlight at Stanford
  • Sign in
  • Feedback

Contact us

Reporting from: https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/catalog/cm287zk2842/metadata
Cancel

Parker Library On the Web

Manuscripts in the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
  • Home
  • Curated Features
    • The Parker on Loan
    • New Site Features
    • Previous Exhibition: The Making of Medieval Manuscripts
    • Previous Exhibition: Worlds Real and Imagined
    • Previous Exhibition: The History of the Book
  • Browse
  • About
  • Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 171A: Scotichronicon (Volume 1)

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 171A: Scotichronicon (Volume 1)

Description

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.

Abstract/Contents

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)

Bibliographic information

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
Location
https://purl.stanford.edu/cm287zk2842
MS 171A
Repository
UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library

Access conditions

Use and reproduction:
Images courtesy of The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For higher resolution images suitable for scholarly or commercial publication, either in print or in an electronic format, please contact the Parker Library directly at parker-library@corpus.cam.ac.uk
License:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).
Download
Stanford Libraries
  • Hours & locations
  • My Account
  • Ask us
  • Opt out of analytics
  • System status
Stanford University
  • Stanford Home
  • Maps & Directions
  • Search Stanford
  • Emergency Info
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Trademarks
  • Non-Discrimination
  • Accessibility

© Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305.