Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 546: Genealogical Chronicle (Adam to King Harold)

purl.stanford.edu/rz142sc9927

Title:

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 546: Genealogical Chronicle (Adam to King Harold)

Language:

English

Extent:

1 roll

Dimensions:

5280 Height (mm) and 150 Width (mm)

Approximate Date:

1527

Provenance:

Given by Thomas Whincop, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in 1692.

Notes:

This MS description is not part of the M. R. James catalogue; it is based in part on the description given in Vaughan and Fines, ’Handlist’,p. 115

Table of contents:

Genealogical chronicle, Adam to King Harold

Description:

CCCC MS 546 is a paper genealogical roll made by Ambrose Middelton of the Inner Temple, London, in 1527, and given to Corpus by Thomas Whincop, fellow, in 1692. In its seventeen feet of length it traces the history of the world from Adam, via Noah and other Biblical figures, through such legendary early kings as Lud and Arthur, down to the Anglo-Saxon kings. It concludes with Harold II, and his death in the Norman Conquest of 1066. It is written in English, in a crabbed secretary hand. Presumably it was copied from a medieval roll; however, usually such a genealogy would extend beyond the Norman Conquest, so it is interesting that Ambrose Middelton chose to conclude at this point.