St John's College MS 209
‘Epitome chronicarum cenobij de Bury’
‘Epitome chronicarum cenobij de Bury’
Contents
Language(s): Latin with some Middle English
Becomes a series of annals through 1142; on the MS generally, see Antonia Gransden, Historical Writing in England 2: c.1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century (London, 1982), 412–3 n. 156. A note added above the top line, ‘Ethelred Rex cepit regnare Anno domini DCCClj⟨ ⟩.’.
Includes (fol. 8rv) a note on the election of abbot Sampson of Bury in 1132.
Ends with annals for 1221.
The blanks in the text filled and other material added, in a hand of s. xvi, extending the chronicle through Henry VII.
Most of these annals (along with the lists from fols. 103v–6 and 132v–3v) ed. Thomas Arnold, Memorials of St Edmund’s Abbey, RS 96/3 (1896), 291–300. On fol. 57, the English distich: ‘The ax was sharpe the stokke was harde in the xiiij. yere of kyng Richarde’ (IMEV 3306).
Followed by annals of a generally ecclesiastical stripe, including records of land transactions involving Bury interests, up to the early thirteenth century; then the compiler navigates back into records of earlier kings.
Ending with a list of abbots of Bury through the time of Edward II (fols. 103–4), with further entries on fourteenth-century Bury affairs, a table of dates of construction of various abbeys (fols. 107–8), eventually becoming further notes on Bury history.
Includes (fol. 118rv) a hymn: ‘Aue gemma curatorum | O Iohannes flos doctorum | Rector de merstonia […] ’ and very quickly becomes a variety of notes on St Edmund, his translations, etc., ending with another list of abbots of Bury. The text on fol. 133rv is probably in a different hand (writing after 1479, when Thomas Rattlesden became abbot) and added to fill out the fragmentary list of abbots, with notes on holders of the dependant parishes Totyngham and Drayton, Barnham, and Ratlisden. Hyngham, entered under Barnham, is then probably not the mid-fifteenth-century Bury abbot of the name, but a known Bury monk, reader of English, and scribe; see Richard Beadle, ‘Monk Thomas Hyngham’s Hand in the Macro Manuscript’, in Beadle and A.J. Piper (eds.), New Science out of Old Books: Studies in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books in Honour of A. I. Doyle (Aldershot, 1995), 315–41 at 316–17.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
In long lines, 16 lines to the page. Prickings; bounded and ruled in black ink.
Hand(s)
Written in mixed anglicana/secretary (anglicana a, secretary w and g). Punctuation by point and derivative of punctus versus.
Decoration
Capitals generally unfilled.
Item 1 has red paraphs for separate textual sections and underlining of important sections in text ink.
The ‘Orationes ualde deuote’ at the head of item 10 include headings and paraphs in red, and some 1-line red lombards.
Binding
A modern replacement. Sewn on three thongs. At the front, a marbled paper leaf and two paper flyleaves; at the rear, a paper flyleaf and another marbled leaf (v–vi).
History
Provenance and Acquisition
‘Anno domini MoCCCClviijo. In Festo apostolorum Philippi et Iacobi Thomas Croftis habitum recepit cum alijs tribus’ (fol. 35v, in the blank following the explicit of item 4, boxed in red) (assigned to Bury on the basis of contents, Ker, MLGB 22), . A Thomas Crofts kt. of Drosthale who d. 1442/3, perhaps kin of this Thomas, gave books to two Suffolk houses, Flixton (OSA nuns) and Sibton (OCist); see Ker, MLGB 263, 306.
‘Epitome chronicarum cenobij de Bury’ (fol. 1, vertically in the gutter, s. xvii).
Record Sources
Availability
For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact St John's College Library.
Bibliography
Funding of Cataloguing
Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Thompson Family Charitable Trust
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2023-06: First online publication