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Cambridge. Corpus Christi College, Parker Library MS 171B

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Source
Parker Library On the Web (Cambridge)
Library
UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library
Shelfmark
  • MS 171B
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • 1400 - 1499
Language
  • Latin
  • Middle French
  • Middle English
Title
  • Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 171B: Scotichronicon (Volume 2)
  • Scotichronicon (Volume 2)
Description

  • Summary: CCCC MS 171, divided into two parts, A and B, since James' description in 1912, contains Walter Bower's Scotichronicon by Walter Bower (1385-1449), a history of the kingdom of Scotland beginning with its foundation with 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 funeal of Alexander III. It is not known how this manuscript came to be in Parker's collection.


    Contents :


    151r-371v - Scotichronicon (Volume 2)

    Note: (153v) Liber VIII, capitula

    Note: (155r) Text

    Note: (182r) Liber IX, capitula

    Note: (183r) Text

    Note: (205r) Liber X, capitula

    Note: (206r) Text

    Note: On 205r is a half-page drawing. Alexander III beardless crowned, with massive sceptre, seated between two men, one of whom holds a sword upright: green cross on a base on R. On L. an old man girt with sword steps forward and says benach de re albane alex mak alex. Reproduced Nat. MSS. of Scotland II 84

    Note: (225r) Liber XI, capitula

    Note: (226r) Text

    Note: (225v) Drawing of the funeral of Alexander III, almost without colour. Four men bear the coffin, which has coped lid and white pall with yellow cross, to R. six clerks in copes walking in pairs follow. This is a particularly fine picture. Reproduced Nat. MSS. of Scotland II 85

    Note: (239r) blank

    Note: Chapters 32, 33 seem to be wanting

    Note: (253r) Liber XII, capitula

    Note: (254r) Text

    Note: (265r) a full-page drawing of the battle of Bannockburn. At the top is a castle on a hill, and houses at the foot. Two powerful warriors on horseback are fighting in front. The drawing is animated and clever. Reproduced in Nat. MSS. of Scotland II 86

    Note: (271r) Liber Xlll, capitula

    Note: (272r) Text

    Note: (292v) Liber XIV, capitula

    Note: (293v) Text

    Note: (318r) Liber XV, capitula

    Note: (319r) Text

    Note: (336r) Liber XVI, capitula

    Note: (337r) Text

    Note: Ends

    explicit: (353v) ministerio gramatum de se ad posteros transmittemus

    Note: Verses in larger hand

    Note: (353v) Aura sileto ratis mea litus habet . freta gratisdesero . subsisto . sit laus et gloria ChristoHic opus hoc finit et scribere desinit auctorquod Scoticronicon iure uocare soletContinet iste liber actus gestus uenerandosregum pontificum sic procerum populi Quinque libros fordon . vndenos auctor arabatsic tibi clarescit sunt sedecim numeroErgo pro precibus petimus te lector eorum(ut) sint regnicole scriptor uterque poli... Discolus est Christe cui liber non placet iste

    Note: (353V) Paragraph from Augustinus de doctrina Christiana

    Note: (353V) Table

    Note: Abbas - Zelotipia

    Note: (363R) Colophon

    incipit: (363r) Qui ad honorem dei et profectum legencium

    Note: asks for the prayers of the reader and ends with three distichs. The last

    Note: (363r) Detur autori merces equata la(bori)Dentur autori post mortem gaudia (cell)

    rubric: (363r) Explicit liber Scotic(roni)con. Deo. gracias

    Note: (363r) Verses, on numerical equivalents of letters

    Note: (363r) A caput est numerum quincentumB dicit numerum quem dicimusC centum signat numero si poetc.

    Note: (363v) In a fine small hand which appears here for the first time

    rubric: (363v) Isidori lib. quinto ethimol. de medicina

    Note: Other extracts

    Note: (363v) Arist. libro de problematibus

    Note: Also on the plague

    rubric: (363v) Incipit tractractatus contra pestilenciam

    Note: (John of Bordeaux)

    incipit: (363v) (Hic inc.) nobilis tractatus

    explicit: (364r) alterius non timebit

    rubric: (364r) Epistola Sancti Bernardi ad Ramundum militem de cura et modo rei familiaris

    incipit: (364r) Gracioso et felici militi

    Note: (P. L. CLXXXII 647)

    explicit: (364v) perducat sua dampnabilis senectus

    Note: 365r-369v blank

    Note: (368v) A very badly written note in French about the East. Sardenay, Nazareth are mentioned (12 lines)

    Note: a longer note in the same hand on f. 370r, headed

    Note: (370r) Item ad eundem de Roma

    Note: Beginning

    Note: (370r) de Rome en grece premierement ... / de cicile puille etc.

    Note: On the upper part of this page is a paragraph in the hand of the main text

    Note: (370r) Notandum quod comes orchadie solet antiquitus esse comes Katanesie ... / fuit Rollandus fundator et dotator ecclesie s. magni

    Note: Ends

    Note: (370r) Tercia filia comitis malisii copulatur Gothredo sper qui genu ... / mortuum sine herede de se genito

    Note: (370v) A pedigree of Kings of France and England, the last of whom is Henry V

    Note: Also a damaged note in red

    Note: (370v) >Ao mo ccccxlix in vigilia natiuitatis domini obiit dus Walterus / B(ow)makar abbas insule sancti / (Colum)be qui scripsit hunc librum

    Note: This is preceded by a note in black in the same hand

    Note: (370v) Ultimo die Octobr. Ao cxliiij iiijto obiit / dus Andreas de Kirkaldi abbas / de Dunf(ermline) et in die sancti bricii electus / est ric ... sacrista. Ao / cto obiit / dus Wus broun magister in theologia / monachus de dunf. in festo s. calixti

    Note: (371r) English verses on the Nine Worthies

    incipit: (371r) Hectour of troy throu hard feichtinge in half thrid ȝere slew xix ...

    Note: The worthies are

    Note: HectorAlexanderJulius CesarJosueDavidJudas machabeusArthurCharlez of franceGodfrey bolȝon

    Note: ending with

    explicit: (371r) Robert ye brois throu hard feichting wt few vencust ye mti (miȝti ?) kyng / of Ingland Edward twyse in fit at occupide his realme but rit / at sumtyme was set so hard at had not sex til him toward

    Note: (371r) Yhe gude men at yir bulletis redis Deme ȝe qwha dochtiast was in dedis

    Note: A note on the Stewarts

    Note: (371r) Notandum quod barbarius ponit ... stewartis venisse de wallia et originem habuisse / de fleance etc.

    Note: (371r) A faint note on Walter Bowart follows

    Note: (371v) Latin proverbial verses a good deal mutilated, and some quotations from the Revelations of St Birgitta of Sweden

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  • 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
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