The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

Shelfmark R.7.28
Manuscript Title

Annals of St Neots; Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum Britanniae etc

Alternative Title

Asser, Geoffrey of Monmouth etc

James Number 770
Century 12th13th14th15th
Physical Description

Three volumes. I. 34 lines to a page. II. 32 lines to a page. III. 27 lines to a page.

Provenance

Given by Nevile. Belonged to Parker: it is paged in red pencil. Perhaps vol. I. is from St Neots. [Ker (1964) assigns to St Neots, but revises this in Ker (1987) to Bury which is confirmed by Gameson (1999)]

Second Folio I entalibus II ferino ritu
Religious House Bury St Edmund's, Suffolk, Benedictine AbbeySt Neots, Huntingdonshire, Benedictine Alien Priory
Donor Puckering [formerly Newton], Sir Henry, third baronet (bap. 1618, d. 1701), Royalist Army Officer and Local Politician
Size (cm) 17 x 12.5
Folio 37 + 61 + 8 ff.
Material Parchment
Language LatinOld English
Collation

110 (10 canc.) 28-58 (wants 5-8 blank) | a8 (5 canc.) b8 (4, 5 canc.) c8-h8.

IIIF Manifest URL https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/R.7.28/manifest.json
Online Since 04/07/2015

Contents


I. p.1 Asserii Annales headed Annales Jo (?) Asser Epi Wigorn.
Margin: Edidit cl. Galaeus ad hoc ipsissimum exemplar Oxoniae Ao 1691.
Igitur brittannia romanis usque ad gaium iulium cesarem inaccessa atque incognita fuit.
In a good xiith cent. hand, marginal notes chiefly dates (? in Leland's hand).
The original hand ends p.74.
Anno dcccc xiiij facta est pax inter Karolum regem francorum et Rollonem ducem northmannorum.
Then an erasure of 3.5 lines(?) beginning with A(nno).
Then the last sentence badly recopied in a later hand.
This is the only old MS. of these Annals, which are commonly called the St Neots Annals and were used by Leland, perhaps in this very copy. There are two other MSS. (1) at Corpus Christi College (no.100) transcribed from an ancient MS. annotated by Leland and (2) at Paris Bibl. Nat. fonds Lat. 6236 transcribed in 1567 by W. Lambarde from a 'vetustissimum exemplar.' See Hardy I.557. Most likely both are copied from this MS.

II. p.75 Galfridi Monumetensis Historia Britonum
The first page, containing the prologue and beginning
of text.
Cum mecum multa... is very faint.
It is of cent. xii or xiii early in a small good hand.
On the lower margin of p.87 in a nearly contemporary hand are written verses on the ancestors of Christ and the meanings of their names.
Pro nobis christum sanctorum nomina patrum
Signant de quorum carne fit ipse caro,
Vox sonat hec abraham pater in populis sibi christus
Nos generando fide se probat esse patrem.
Ends
Est iosaphat iudex quia christus iudicat orbem
Contristans rebrobos (sic).
p.88 is blank. Text continues without break on p.89.
Ends p.194 in latinum sermonem transferre curavi. Finit historia britonum.

III. Two fly-leaves one of which is a late xvth cent. account. The other is blank.
1. Cent. xiv.
p.199 Ffeodum comitum Gloucestr. et heredum suorum in intronizatione archiepiscopi uel electi in archiepiscopum Cant.
Comes predictus summoneri debet per quindenam.
p.201 Iura ecclesie Christi Cant. debit, post mortem suffraganeorum suorum
p.201 Feodum illius qui intronizare debet singulos episcopos Cant. prouincie tam sede plena quam vacante
2. Cent. xiv and xv.
p.203 quantum archiepiscopi Cant. in archiepiscopatu vixerint et in quo gradu et dignitate prius erant
Augustinus primus archiep. Cant. sedit annis xvi.
The original hand goes down to
Robertus cognomento de Wynchelse sedit ann. xix.
vacante ecclesia menses . ix . et ebdom. . i . hic erat prius archidiaconus Essexie (1313).
The hand changes on the next page and goes down to Tunc venit Will. Courtenay etc. (1381).
A xvith cent. hand adds the names and tenures of the Archbishops down to 1559 Math. Parker.

Bibliography

Ker, N. R., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks 3, 2nd edn (London, 1964)

Ker, N. R., and A. G. Watson, Supplement to Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks 15 (London, 1987), Bury.

Gameson, R., The Manuscripts of Early Norman England (c. 1066-1130) (Oxford, 1999), no. 177 [s. xii2/4, provenance Bury St Edmunds]

Keynes, S., Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts and Other Items of Related Interest in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, Old English Newsletter Subsidia 18 (Binghampton, NY, 1992), no. 25 + pl. XXV.

Bishop, T. A. M., 'Notes on Cambridge Manuscripts I', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 1 (1949-53), 432-41, at 432-3.

Robinson, P., Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1988), no. 351, pl. 44 [pp.1-74 datable between circa 1120 and 1140?, written at Bury St Edmunds]

Strongman, S., 'John Parker's Manuscripts: an Edition of the Lists in Lambeth Palace MS 737', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 7 (1977-80), 1-27, no. 7.

Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957), no. 88.

Dumville, D., and M. Lapidge, ed., The Anglo-Saxon chronicle: a collaborative edition, Vol.17: The annals of St Neots, with Vita prima Sancti Neoti (Cambridge, 1985)

Hart, C., 'The East Anglian chronicle', Journal of Medieval history 7 (1981), 249-82.

Thomson, R. M., 'Early Romanesque Book-Illustration in England: the Dates of the Pierpont Morgan "Vitae S. Edmundi"and the Bury Bible', Viator 2 (1971), 211-25.

McLachlan, E. P., The Scriptorium of Bury St Edmunds Abbey in the Twelfth Century (London, 1986)

Mooney, L. R., The Index of Middle English Prose Handlist 11: Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1995), p. 31.

Richards, M. P., 'Liturgical Materials for the Medieval Priory of St Neots Huntingdonshire', Revue Bénédictine 90 (1980), 301-6.

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