Egerton MS 3668

HENRY OF HUNTINGDON, HISTORIA ANGLORUM in ten books, in Latin; written possibly in 1169. Prologue beg. 'Cum in omni fere litterarum studio' (f. l b); book I, 'Britannia igitur beatissima est insularum' (f. 3); book x ends 'et animi pericula non reformidantis fuerit' (f. 156b). The MS. is one of those of the fourth (1145) edition of the chronicle, and concludes where this apparently did originally (see T. Arnold, Henrici Archidiaconi Huntendunensis Historia Anglorum, Rolls Series, lxxiv, 1879, pp. xiii-xiv). However, it is written in three hands, the first of which goes down to the end of the year 1138 (f. 150), where the third (1139) edition finished (see ibid., p. xii). The second hand continues to f. 155, line 2, 'sed patebat cuiusque probitas et gloria' in the account of 1141 (see ibid., p. 275, lines 23-24), after which the third hand completes the text. There are numerous additions and annotations in the margins, the latest event recorded (f. 133) being the archiepiscopate of Walter of Coutances at Rouen (1184-1207). The MS. belonged to Sir Henry Savile and, with another also in his possession and now Add. MS. 24061, was used by him for the editio princeps of the Historia in Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores, 1596. Other copies of the chronicle in the Department are Add. MS. 21088, Arundel MS. 48, Cotton MS. Vespasian A. xviii, Harley MS. 64, and Royal MSS. 13 B. vi and 13 C. ii (see further Arnold, op. cit., pp. xxxvii-xliii). Vellum; ff. iii+ 157. 300 mm.×l30 mm. (?)A.D. 1169. Gatherings of 8 leaves, except for xii² (8 of xi cancelled, 1 of xiii cancelled, 4-6 of xxi cancelled). The original scribe was possibly working in 1169, since on f. 113 he refers by inference to this as the current year. The normal date in question is 1135, namely that of the epilogue to the second edition of the chronicle, which became the introduction to book viii of the work in its expanded form in ten books (cf. Arnold, op. cit., p. xix). The incorrect date has been altered to 1139, which suggests collation against a copy of the third edition of the chronicle, although Arnold thought the epilogue was omitted in this recension (see ibid., p. xiii). However, at the beginning of the epilogue, or book viii, in the MS., the year from the Norman conquest is correctly given as the sixty-ninth and subsequent error may merely be due to confusion. If the original script is as early as 1169, it is one of the earliest dated examples of Gothic text hand. Of the marginal annotations that referring to Walter of Coutances on f. 133 (see above) is by the same hand as others on this page and on ff. 103b, 104b, 105, 110b, 111b, and 155. Many of these relate to the succession of the bishops of Durham and events at the Cathedral Priory there, as do other, contemporary, notes in the margins of ff. 92b, 97, 103, and 105b and early 14th cent. ones on ff. 93 and 108. It seems not unlikely that the MS. was at the Priory circ. 1200-1300. In the 15th cent., according to an erased inscription on f. 1, discovered and deciphered by N. R. Ker (see note on f. iii), it belonged to the Carmelite house at Lincoln and it can be identified with a copy of Henry of Huntingdon seen there most likely by Leland, probably before 1536 (see "'Leland's" Lists of Manuscripts in Lincolnshire Monasteries', Engl. Hist. Rev., liv, 1939, p. 90). Stamped Oxford binding in brown calf (rebacked by 'J.R.', Nov. 1882, see note on f. iii), circ. 1567-1573, when in the possession of Savile, with on the front and back covers an oval centrepiece of the type listed as no. xiii in Ker, Pastedowns in Oxford Bindings, Oxford Bibliographical Soc., new series, v, 1954, and illustrated in pl. viii there. Formerly Phillipps MS. 25151 (see f. iv), acquired by Sir Thomas Phillipps for £240 at the Savile sale at Sotheby's, 6 Feb. 1861 (lot 10, see ff. i and iv). Purchased from the Phillipps collection by William H. Robinson Ltd. (bookplate, f. ii) in 1946.