Add MS 37223

JOHANNIS de Fordun Chronica gentis Scotorum: the incomplete work of Fordun himself, not the expansion by Walter Bower known as the Scotichronicon. The text is closely allied to the Wolfenbüttel MS. (A of Skene, Historians. of Scotland, i., 1871) and is probably its archetype. It is also akin to the text used by Bower and to the lost original of Skene's MSS. B, C, E, F, though probably not their actual ancestor. Some of their readings are here represented by contemporary corrections in the margin. The text is in several hands. Contents:-

1. The chronicle proper, in five books. A table of chapters is prefixed to each, and after the first are the verses " Incipies opus hoc," etc., which give Fordun's name. After bk. iii. ch. 25 (f. 51), a blank space of a page and a half is left, presumably that the " sagacior lector" may add a better account of Arthur (see Skene's notes, pp. 110-112, two attempts to supply this, from MSS. B, E and C, F). The name of the first scribe (who ends at bk. iv. ch. 45, laborabant," f. 91) is contained in several partly erased colophons, viz. " per manum A. de H," f. 12 b; " quod H[a]liday," f. 36; " quod A. ll," f. 38; " per moy [Ha]liday," f. 66 b. He is probably the author of the French and English colophons, " Plume me fault," etc., and " Explicit liber secundus. Graces a Dieu," f. 36, " Quod my gray gusse penne," f. 38, and " Dieu en soit loue," f. 68, most of which recur in the Wolfenbüttel MS. Initials have been cut out from the tables of contents and beginnings of bks. i-iv. At the end of bk. v. (f. 116 b) is added in a later (16th cent. ?) hand the note, " Predictos quinque libros dominus Johannes Fordoun presbiter compilauit, residuum uero quod sequitur continuauit dompnus Patriecius Russaill, monachus vallis virtutis ordinis Cartusiensis, et ad finem perduxit, additis tamen interim et insertis nonnullis ab incerto authore, prout et in prioribus quinque libris." This is unmeaning where it stands, and properly belongs to the abridgement of Bower (made at Perth), to which it is prefixed in Barley MS. 4764, f. 114, and in the Donibristle MS.; the same abridgement occurs also in ar) Edinburgh MS., Advocates' Library 35. 6. 7. f. 1.

2. Fifteen chapters intended for book vi. (see Skene's appendix i.). Begin " Cum in vobis Scotorum o reges "; end abruptly, as in the Wolfenbüttel MS., " Willelmus uero." They have but little to do with Scotland, being almost wholly taken from Ailred of Rievaulx' Genealogia Regum Anglorum. The second scribe here as in art. 1, lib. v., prefixes " Spiritus alme deus doctor adesto meus." f. 117.

3. Documents bearing on Scottish history, as in the Wolfenbüttel and Cambridge (Trin. Coll.) MSS. (see Skene, app. ii.). The lectionary notes (" Tu autem, domine," etc.) of the Wolfenbüttel MS. are absent. Begin " Genrose probitatis Scotorum progenies "; end " facultatis euoluere. Reliqua huius lamentacionis scripta sunt supra in libro quinto." f. 125.

4. Forty-one chapters prefixed to the Gesta Annalia, as in the same two MSS. (Skene's app. iii.). The contents are used in another shape in art. 1 (lib. v.) and art. 2. At the head is written "Turgotus episcopus Sancti Andreae," from whose life of St. Margaret passages are borrowed. The rubrics are mostly not inserted. Begin "Sicut in antiquissimis et ueracissimis "; end " uiuat in secula seculorum amen." Art. 5 follows without break. f. 152.

5. Gesta Annalia, without titles or rubrics. The beginning of the proposed books vi. and vii. is, however, indicated. Printed by Skene, p. 254. The text is of the later edition, as in the two MSS. above-mentioned, ending with 1385 and referring to Richard II. " qui nunc est." Begin " Tollens quoque omnis populus end ',mensis Februarii." f. 165 b. On the fly leaves are: (a) Note in a 16th centt. hand that The authors of thes manuscripts of the chronicles of Scotland from the beginning to the death of David Bruess appears the first fyve books to have bein written be Jhon Fordun preist." f. I ;-(b) Note in a 15th cent. hand concerning George Dunbar, 10th Earl of Dunbar and Earl of the March, ',This is pc superscription of pe Erle of Marchis toume or sepultur in his collaig of Dumbar: Heir lyis Erle George pe Brytan, To pir iii. kinges pat bair pc crowne Was of Pair bluid and of pair kynn, And hes gouernit pis land within xlviii 3eires spaice, And deit pan PC 3eir of graice 1416. Scotland Ingland and Denmark." f. 212 b;-

(c) Note on Turgot, cf. art. 4. f. 213. Vellum; ff. ii. + 213. Middle of the XV. cent. Eight illuminated initials cut out; others in red and blue. Owners' names occur as follows ; " Liber magistri Roberti Elphiaton " and " Liber . . . pertinet Roberti Elphinstone rectoris de Kynearin (?) " [Robert Elphinstone, rector of Kincardine, was cousin and tutor of Alexander, 2nd Baron Elphinstone, circ. 1518-1526; see Sir W. Fraser's Elphinstone Family-Book, i. pp. 32, 76.] ff. 1 b, 212 b;-" Hen. Sinclar, episcopus de Ross" [1560-1565], and " W. Sancclair of Roislin, knecht, anno domini m. v' lxv." Both the bishop and Sir William Sinclair of Roslin, who died 1574, were likewise owners of two Scotichronicon MSS. at Edinburgh, Advocates' Library 35. 6. 7 and 35. 6. 8, and the latter also annotated the Donibristle MS. (see Skene and D. Murray's Black Book o Paisley). ff. i., 1, I b, 2, 12 b, 212;-" Hic liber pertinet Johanni Lowys, vicario de Kilmaurys [Kilmaurs, co. Ayr, the original home of the Cunninghams of Caprington]. f.213b;- " Ex libris domini Guilelmi Cunninghame de Caprintoun " [early 17th cent.]. f. i.;-" Mr. Alexander Thomesone,pastor Ed[inbu]r[gh],1636." f.213b. 10 1/4 in. x 7 3/4in.