Brut Chronicle (1326 Continuation)

This material is held atUniversity of Manchester Library

  • Reference
    • GB 133 Eng MS 206
  • Dates of Creation
    • 2nd half 15th century
  • Language of Material
    • Middle English
  • Physical Description
    • 1 volume. iv + 102 + ii folios, foliated (i, ii), 1-104, (105-6). Dimensions: 264 x 195 mm. Collation of ff. 3-104: 1-58, 68 lacking 5 and 6 after f. 45, 7-138. Medium: vellum; paper flyleaves. Binding: quarter-bound in tan calf, marbled paper-covered boards, 18th century.

Scope and Content

Brut Chronicle, ending imperfectly in 1326.

Contents: Brut Chronicle beginning (f. 3r): 'Here may a man heren how that Englonde was first called Albion and thurgh whom it had the name. In the noble londe of Surrey...' The manuscript ends imperfectly at f. 104v: 'then shuld he cloo-', with the catchword 'then hym in a': ed. F.W.D. Brie, The Brut (see Bibliography below), p. 244 line 18. Two leaves are missing between f. 45v, which ends 'lorde', and f. 46r, which begins 'Englonde'; the missing text is from Brie p. 90 line 27 to p. 95 line 4. The divisions into chapters follow Brie, but there are no chapter numbers, and there are no chapter headings after f. 48, 'How Cadwalader..'.

Script: A good secretary hand, the same throughout. Written space: c.197 x 118 mm. 34-38 long lines.

Secundo folio: othir into.

Decoration: None; spaces for initials are not filled.

Other features: Frame ruling. There is a 16th-century legal note in the margin of f. 103r: 'The xxith of Henry the viiith it is inacted that no bysshope archedecun Chaunselor comysary officyall or other maner of persone' with authority 'to probatte eny will' shall charge more than sixpence if the goods do not amount to more than £5 (etc.). There is a recipe on f. 102v, 'for to make tethe faste': 'Take of ye barke of thelme...' Manicules on ff. 30v, 33r, 37r, 41v, 42r, 42v, 46v, 74v, 77r, 79r, 85v, 88r and 91r.

The binding leaves, ff. 1-2, are from indexes to two different works dating from the second half of the 14th century (cf. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. II, p. 498). On f. 1r-v entries are mainly theological, letters N, O, P, for example 'Nomen cristi secundum hominem in eternum et qualiter 134.3.13'. On f. 2r-v, letters P, R, S, there are longish entries under Princeps, Puer, Rex and shorter entries like 'Percussionum plura genera sunt 3o libro 63 per totum' and 'Portare scire onera est vtile bellantibus 3o libro 63 a'.

Description derived from N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 421-2. By permission of Oxford University Press.

Access Information

The manuscript is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

Acquisition Information

Purchased by the John Rylands Library at the sale of the George Dunn Collection on 2 February 1913 for £9, through the bookseller Percy Mordaunt Barnard of Royal Tunbridge Wells; invoice dated 25 February.

Other Finding Aids

Detailed description by Gavin Cole available on the Imagining History project website: http://www.qub.ac.uk/imagining-history/resources/short/results.php?record=118.

Custodial History

(1) 16th-century inscriptions: 'William Campinet de Kilworty in Com' Ebor' (f. 15r), 'Campinet me possidet' (f. 73v), and 'W. CAMPINET' in large formal capitals (f. 99v, cf. f. 95v); 'John Peell of Stoke [perhaps Stoke Bardolph] within the County of Nottyngham yemo' is the true onor(?)' [cropped by binder] (f. 10v), and 'John Peell' (f. 73r); 'William Kyechyner wrote this same' (f. 42v); 'dracon de elton in Com' lincolne' (f. 37v); 'William Bannister is My name' (f. 48v); 'Mergret Bannister' (f. 64r); 'Richard Bann' [?Bannister] (f. 80v).

(2) Daniel Parker Coke (1745-1825), barrister and politician, fellow of All Souls. Armorial bookplate.

(3) George Dunn (1865-1912), of Woolley Hall near Maidenhead. Inscribed 'G.D. 1899' on f. 1. Lot 440 in the Dunn sale of 2 February 1913.

Bibliography

Friedrich W.D. Brie, The Brut, or, the Chronicles of England, edited from Ms. Rawl. B 171, Bodleian Library, etc. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner for the Early English Text Society, 1906-8).

N.R. (Neil Ripley) Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 421-2.

G.A. (Godfrey Allen) Lester, The index of Middle English prose. Handlist 2, a handlist of manuscripts containing Middle English prose in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester and Chetham's Library, Manchester (Cambridge: Brewer, 1985), p. 51.

Lister M. Matheson, The prose Brut: the development of a Middle English chronicle (Tempe, Arizona: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1998).

Mark Pottle, 'Coke, Daniel Parker (1745-1825)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/5825.

The Imagining History project website at Queen's University Belfast: http://www.qub.ac.uk/imagining-history/about.