A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

MS. Laud Misc. 571

Summary Catalogue no.: 1493

Contents

Chronicle of England (Brut chronicle) to 1419, extended version (ends imperfectly in 1413; Lister M. Matheson, The Prose Brut (1998), pp. 198–9)
Incipit: Here begynneth a boke yn Englyssh tonge called Brute of Englond, or the Cronykles of Engelond compyled and tretyng of the seyd londe how hyt was fyrst a wyldernesse and nothyng theryn but wylde bestys an fowles and aftirwards how yt ynhabite by whom and yn what manere
Explicit: And yn the firste yere of his reigne for grete||

Preceded by later table of contents, collated with the edition of Notary: "Here beginneth the table of the Brytons Cronicle in writynge."

Language(s): Middle English

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: paper
viii (including later table of contents) + 137 + i leaves.
Dimensions (binding): 290 × 207 × 30 mm.
Dimensions (leaf): 280 × 200 mm.
Foliation: Early-modern pagination on top right of recto side in ink, as well as later foliation in pencil.

Collation

1(12); 2(10); 3–6(12); 7(10); 8(12); 9(11); 10(13); 11(10); 12(13). Leaf signatures (in format ai, aii) for first half of each quire, as well as catchwords.

Layout

210–215 × 165–175 mm.

Hand(s)

A combination of dark brown and black inks, in a littera cursiva antiquior script.

Binding

Limp vellum binding with reinforcing strip.

History

Origin: 15th century ; English

Provenance and Acquisition

"This boke is gevyn to Esabell Allen of the bequest of her hunkull Sir William Crouche Vicary in the close of Salisbury to the extent that sche schuld pray for hym of whom God of his sawle haue mercy delyueryd by the handis of hir ffader and moder William Allen and Elenor his wiff which Elenor desessyd upon S. Mary Mawdlen Eve the yere of kyng H. VII. of whom God of her soule haue mercy; Amen quod Evan."

William Laud, 1633.

Part of his first donation to the Bodleian, 1635.

Record Sources

Description adapted (2025) from the Quarto Catalogue (H. O. Coxe, Laudian Manuscripts, Quarto Catalogues II, repr. with corrections, 1969, from the original ed. of 1858–1885).

2025-06-12: Additional data collected by Lucy Nie and Sarah Ware as part of the 'Big Data' and Medieval Manuscripts workshop held at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford on 12th June 2025. Data encoded in TEI-XML by Sebastian Dows-Miller on 3rd July 2025.

Last Substantive Revision

2025-06-12: Additional data collected by Lucy Nie and Sarah Ware as part of the 'Big Data' and Medieval Manuscripts workshop held at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford on 12th June 2025. Data encoded in TEI-XML by Sebastian Dows-Miller on 3rd July 2025.

Data

The TEI-XML file for this record can be viewed in a GitHub repository.

Tabular data derived from the TEI-XML files is available in a GitHub repository.