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Cotton MS Nero D I

Record Id:

040-001102706

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-001101582

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001246.0x0003a4

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Cotton MS Nero D I

Title:

Matthew Paris, Liber additamentorum

Scope & Content:

Matthew Paris, Liber additamentorum, a collection of original literary treatises and historical documents he assembled to support his research, rearranged in the 14th century (with later additions) and by Sir Robert Cotton.

f. 1r: Notes related to the contents of the manuscript in a 17th-century hand.

f. 1v: Table of contents by Richard James (d. 1638).

ff. 2r–25r: Matthew Paris, Vita Offarum.

ff. 25v–26v: Matthew Paris, Cum Danorum rabies: ‘Cum danorum rabies in anglia feralius grassaretur … litteris minime commendatur.’

ff. 27r–29v: Matthew Paris, Tracts on St Alban.

ff. 30r–63v: Matthew Paris, Gesta abbatum monasterii sancti Albani, part I, with attached documents.

ff. 64r–73v: Matthew Paris, Gesta abbatum monasterii sancti Albani, part II, followed by documents of 1255–1257, in roughly chronological order.

ff. 74r–84v: Documents of 1256–1259.

ff. 85–100v: Documents of 1242–1250, copied in or before 1250; ff. 168–169 were probably placed originally before f. 85.

ff. 101r–105v: Miscellaneous documents of 1250 and 1256–1257.

ff. 106r–120v: Documents, mainly of 1252–1254, used in the Chronica maiora.

ff. 121r–129v: Miscellaneous documents, including many of 1254.

ff. 130r–137v: Miscellaneous material of 1257, together with some later material added after Matthew’s death.

ff. 145r–148v: Miscellaneous documents, including Matthew Paris’s tract on the St Albans gems. Formerly, ff. 145–147 followed f. 63; moved to this location when part II of the Gesta abbatum was inserted into its present position.

ff. 149r–161r: ‘Antiqua et primitiua munimenta ecclesie sancti Albani’: St Albans charters and papal privileges. Copied from a lost 12th-century St Albans cartulary.

ff. 162r–167v: List of Popes from Peter to Gregory IX, continued in several hands to Paul II; Liber provincialis; obituary of St Albans from 1216 to 1253; list of Kings of England from Ine to Henry III, with a long note on John (these folios probably added to this volume by Robert Cotton: see Vaughan, Matthew Paris, 1958, p. 78).

ff. 168r–169r: Charges against Hubert de Burgh: ‘Responsiones magistri laurentii de sancto albano pro comite kancie huberto de burgo contra quem mouit dominus rex grauissimas questiones.’

ff. 169v–170v: Drawing and account of the elephant sent to Henry III by Louis IX of France as a gift in 1255.

ff. 171r–v: Coloured drawings of coats of arms of the English nobility.

ff. 172r–175v: St Albans tenants, with copies of charters (14th-century additions).

ff. 176r–183r: Pleas from St Albans (14th-century additions).

ff. 181v–182r: Lands owned by St Albans, ‘Iste sunt firme pertinentes tam ad quoquinam monachorum sancti Albani quam abbatis’, list in Matthew Paris’s hand, with placita added in the 14th century.

ff. 183v–184r: Matthew Paris, mapped itinerary from London to Naples.

f. 184v: Accounts of the children of Thomas of Savoy and Eleanor of Aquitaine, with genealogical trees in the margin.

f. 185r: Note on King Offa; note of the different winds with a diagram, with a drawing of a bird.

f. 185v: Circular diagram of the winds with the names in Latin and Anglo-Norman linked to the elements. Below, verses about the winds, with a rubric, ‘Frater matheus de ventis.’

f. 186r: Diagram showing the parhelion (bright spots appearing on either side of the sun) seen in the sky over England on April 1233; notes on ecclesiastical affairs, including the election of the Bishop of Hereford and the duration of the interdict (1208–1214). Heraldic device of the count of Flanders, count of Brabant and Peter of Savoy. Some Latin verses.

f. 186v: List of saints from a martyrology.

f. 187r: Note of the defeat of Louis IX; a receipt; extracts from Gregory.

f. 187v: Map of Britain, showing four Roman military roads, with notes on St Albans lands.

ff. 188r–193v: Statutes of St Julian’s hospital (near St Albans), its foundation charter, and other charters and papal privileges (14th-century additions).

ff. 194r–v: Monastic rules of the nunnery of Sopwell (14th-century addition).

ff 194v–195r: Rules of St Julian's abbey (14th-century addition).

ff. 196r–v: Letters of John, abbot of St Albans (14th-century addition).

f. 197r: Fragment of a Life of Stephen Langton.

f. 197v: Charter of St Albans documenting a loan of 115 marks from Florentine merchants in London.

f. 198r: Fragment of a Life of Stephen Langton.

f. 199r: Note on the death of the emperor Frederick II followed by a rough drawing of a coat of arms and a signature 'Symons Thomas' on the upper margin; a letter from Pope Innocent IV to the bishop of Ely (14th-century addition).

f. 199v: Copy of Magna Carta with an account of a letter of Innocent IV dated to 1253 and an account of the Battle of Walcheren, 1253 (14th-century addition).

f. 200r: Drawings of coats of arms.

f. 200v: Pen trials, including several names of monks.

ff. 201r–v: ‘Compositio facta inter infirmarium sancti albani et vicarium sancti petri’, with a brief list of expenses (15th-century addition)

f. 202r: 17th-century note regarding the will of Frederick II.

Decoration:

Puzzle initials in red and blue with pen flourishing. Pen flourished initials in red and black. Rubrics in red ink. Some letters are highlighted in red or green. Small initials in red and blue. Indications left for the illuminator in lower margin probably in the hand of Matthew Paris. Line fillers. Sometimes the text in margin is framed in red ink or red and green inks. Paraph signs in red, blue or black ink.

Matthew Paris wrote and illustrated parts of the manuscript, with the drawings of ff. 4v, 5r, 156v, 146r–v, 156v, 169v, 185v, and 186r attributed to him (Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris, 1987).

Forty-five tinted drawings illustrating the Vita Offarum (ff. 2r–25r). Spaces were left for large illustrations at the top of each leaf. Matthew Paris illuminated the first scenes (ff. 2v–4v) and another St Albans artist completed two drawings (ff. 4v, 5r). In the late 14th century a St Albans artist finished the project based on the instructions left by Matthew Paris in the lower margins. The subject of the illustrations are as follows:

f. 2r: Two courtiers encouraging King Warmund to abdicate.

f. 2v: Offa cured of his blindness, both courtiers abandon king Warmund.

f. 3r: Offa is given arms.

f. 3v: Offa defeating the younger son of Riganus.

f. 4r: Offa defeating the elder son of Riganus.

f. 4v: Offa burying the dead.

f. 5r: Warmund receiving his son and lords, and giving homage to Offa.

f. 102v: Frederick II's coat of arm with the rubric 'Testamentum Frederici' referring to Frederick II's will.

f. 112r: A drawing of Magna Carta.

f. 122r: A seal of the Hospitalers in the lower margin.

f. 146r: Gems and rings of the Treasury of St Albans. A cameo is reproduced (f. 146v) entitled Kaadman, in which a man is holding a human figure in his left hand and a sceptre in his right hand.

f. 149r: The martyrdom of St Alban.

f. 156r: A full-page image of an Apocalyptic Christ drawn by William the Englishman, a Franciscan friar. In Matthew Paris hand: 'Hoc opus fecit frater Willelmus de ordine minorum, socius beati Francisci, secundus in ordine ipso, conservatione sanctus, natione Anglicus'. 'Apha et Omega vivens in secula secularum'.

f. 156v: A half-nude veiled figure.

f. 169v: The elephant sent by Louis IX of France to Henry III as a gift in 1255.

f. 171r: 25 coats of arms accompanied with names and notes.

f. 171v: 45 painted shields of arms.

ff. 183v–184r: The itinerary from London to Apulia.

f. 185r: An unfinished diagram of the winds.

f. 185v: A diagram of the winds.

f. 186r: A diagram of the parhelion seen in April 1233.

f. 186r: 3 shields of arms.

f. 187v: A map of Britain showing the 4 Roman military roads.

f. 199r: 27 shields.

Matthew Paris drew a portrait of each abbot the subject of his Gesta abbatum monasterii Sancti Albani. There are 24 coloured portraits of abbots, each framed with red, green or yellow ink. Only the abbot 'Leofric' was treated in a different way, shown standing in the margin, wearing a mitre and holding a cross: Matthew mistakenly wrote that Abbot Leofric was elected archbishop of Canterbury (confusing him with Ælfric, d. 1005). The compilation of documents written by Matthew Paris and by other St Albans scribes contains 5 marginal drawings, 3 folios of coat of arms, 3 maps, 3 diagrams and a full-folio of an apocalyptic Christ drawn by the English Franciscan William the Englishman, a contemporary to Matthew Paris (see Susan Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris (1987), pp. 467-68). Some notae are in the form of an arc (f. 72v); a zither (ff. 69r; 123r); a chalice (f. 80r); a deer (f. 87r); a bird (f. 103v); an axe (f. 113r); 4 knives and a viola (119r); hands counting (f. 124r); or 2 swords crossed (f. 126r).

The original f. 197 is now Cotton Vespasian B XIII, f. 133.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Cotton Collection

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-001101582
040-001102706

Is part of:

Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts

Cotton MS Nero D I : Matthew Paris, Liber additamentorum

Contains:

Cotton MS Nero D I, [f iii] : Psalter leaf
Cotton MS Nero D I, ff 2–202 : Contents:ff. 2r-25r: Matthew Paris, Vita Offarum.ff. 25v-26v: Matthew Paris, a part of the Gesta abbatum…

Click here to View / search full list of parts of Cotton MS Nero D I

Hierarchy:

032-001101582[0645]/040-001102706

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Nero_D_I (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Anglo-Norman
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1250

End Date:

1259

Date Range:

1250-1259

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Condition: outer edges of leaves damaged by fire in 1731.

Dimensions: 380 × 250 mm.

Foliation: ff. 202 (+ 2 unfoliated paper endleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end; 2 unfoliated parchment endleaves at the beginning). Multiple series of foliation. The original order has been reconstructed by Vaughan, Matthew Paris, 1958, pp. 78–85, but note that shortly after the publication of this book, f. 120* was relabelled as f. 121 and all subsequent folios were renumbered, meaning that most references after this point must be increased by one to find the folio as now labelled.

Collation: a^one (f. 1; a singleton), i^12–2 (ff. 2–11; 8th, 10th leaves cancelled), ii^10–1+3 (ff. 12–23; 8th cancelled; 9th, 12th, 13th added), iii^6–3 (ff. 24–26; 1st, 5th, 6th cancelled, with f. 25 labelled ‘iii’), iv^three (ff. 27–29; attached singletons), v^14–2+1 (ff. 30–42; 9th added; 10th, 11th cancelled), vi¹⁰ (ff. 43–52), vii² (ff. 53–54), viii^10–1 (ff. 55–63; 8th cancelled), ix^12–2 (ff. 64–73; 10th, 12th cancelled), x⁴ (ff. 74–77; ff. 76–77 labelled ‘o.ii.o’, ‘o.iii.o’), 11⁶⁺² (ff. 78–85; f. 81 a fragment, f. 85 formerly belonged to the following quire), xii^12–1+1 (ff. 86–97; 7th cancelled, 9th added), xiii^8–1 (ff. 98–104; 8th cancelled; erased quire mark at f. 100, perhaps ‘xx’), xiv^6–1 (ff. 105–109; 6th cancelled), xv¹⁰⁺¹ (ff. 110–120; 9th added), xvi^4–1+1 (ff. 121–124; 1st cancelled, 5th added), xvii^4+2? (ff. 125–130; 5th, 6th added, but ff. 125, 126, and 130 are three attached leaves, with 125–126 one likely forming a bifolium), xviii^4–1 (ff. 131–133; 1st added), xix¹⁰⁺¹ (ff. 134–144; 10th added; ff. 135–137 labelled ‘o.v.o’–‘o.viii.o’), xx² (ff. 145–146), xxi^6–2+1 (ff. 147–152; 5th, 7th cancelled; 6th, 8th added), xxii⁶⁺³ (ff. 153–161; 2nd–3rd added, a bifolium, and 8th added), xxiii^6–1+1 (ff. 162–167; 4th added, 6th cancelled), xxiv^6–2+3 (ff. 168–175; 5th–6th cancelled, 7th–9th added), xxv⁴ (ff. 176–179). Some quire signatures. The remainder of the volume consists mostly of single leaves, some attached to one another; ff. 189–92 are two bifolia and ff. 194–5 is a bifolium. The collation of quires i–xxv is shown diagrammatically in Vaughan, Matthew Paris, 1958, pp. 79–80.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house, 1906.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Matthew Paris (b. c. 1200; d. 1259), Benedictine monk and historian: his autograph manuscript (ff. 30r–62r; 63r–68v; 146r–v; 165r–v; 185v) and drawings (ff. 4v; 5r; 156v; 146r-v; 156v; 169v; 185v; 186r). He offered the manuscript to St Albans (f. 2r): ‘Hunc librum dedit frater matthaeus deo et ecclesie sancti Albani. Quem qui abstulerit uel titulum deleuerit anathema [sit]. Anima eiusdem matthaei et anime omnium fidelium defunctorum requiescant in pace’, in his own hand (Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris, 1987, p. 467). Completed c. 1250.

Provenance:

The Benedictine monastery of St Albans: Matthew Paris's gift to the abbey (see inscription above); several additions of different later hands: the 14th-century continuation of drawings illustrating the Life of Offa; the continuation of the list of popes in the late 14th and 15th centuries (f. 163r); 14th-century pen trials including several name of monks (f. 200v); in a 15th century hand: 'Compositio facta inter infirmarium Sancti Albani et vicarium Sancti Petri' (f. 201r); a list of expenses related to St Alban's in an early 15th-century hand mentioning the name of Johannes Matthew (f. 201v); an early 15th-century inscription 'Symons Thomas' (f. 199r).

Edward Ferrers (b. 1524×7, d. 1564) and Henry Ferrers (b. 1550, d. 1633), antiquary: their names, and those of Christfar Comons, Thomas Ward, Henry (?) Sengeord, William (?) Bery, with an added note regarding the will of Frederick II (f. 202r–v).

Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: signatures (ff. 2r, 162r) and notes of his librarian Richard James (ff. 1r–v). Cotton’s collection was augmented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (b. 1594, d. 1662), 2nd baronet, and his grandson, Sir John Cotton. Sir John Cotton (b. 1621, d. 1702), 3rd baronet: bequeathed the entire Cotton collection of books and manuscripts to trustees ‘for Publick Use and Advantage’, 12 and 13 William III, c. 7. Formed one of the foundation collections of the British Museum in 1753.

Information About Copies:

Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.

Publications:

Carey, Frances, The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999), pp. 74-75.

Crick, Julia C., ed., Charters of St Albans, Anglo-Saxon Charters, 12 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).

Davis, G.R.C., Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. by Claire Breay, Julian Harrison, and David M. Smith, 2nd edn (London: British Library, 2010), no. 831.

Dean, Ruth J., and Maureen B. M. Boulton, Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts, (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, Occasional Publications Series, 3, 1999) nos. 391.1; 712.

Hahn, Cynthia ‘The limits of text and image? Matthew Paris’s final project, the Vitae duorum Offarum, as a historical romance’, in Excavating the Medieval Image: Manuscripts, Artists, Audiences: Essays in Honor of Sandra Hindman ed. by David S. Areford and Nina A. Rowe (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), pp. 37–58.

Hunt, Tony, ‘Anglo-Norman rules for the priories of St Mary de Pré and Sopwell’, in De mot en mot: Aspects of medieval linguistics. Essays in honour of William Rothwell ed. by Stewart Gregory and D. A. Trotter (Cardiff: University of Cardiff, 1997), pp. 93–104.

Ker, Neil. R., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 166.

Lewis, Suzanne, The Art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica Majora, California Studies in the History of Art, 21 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987).

Little, A.G., 'Brother William of England, Companion of St. Francis, and some Franciscan drawings in Matthew Paris manuscripts', in Collectanea Franciscana, I, British Society of Franciscan Studies, 5 (Aberdeen, 1914), pp. 1-8.

Little, A.G., Franciscan History and Legend in English Mediaeval Art (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1937), p. 38.

Luard, Henry Richards, Matthæi Parisiensis, monachi sancti Albani, Chronica majora(London: Longman, 1882), VI, pp. 491–523 [list of manuscript contents with references to printed editions].

Martin, Richard, ‘The Lives of the Offas: the posthumous reputation of Offa, king of the Mercians’, in Æthelbald and Offa: Two Eighth-Century Kings of Mercia. Papers from a Conference held in Manchester in 2000, ed. by David Hill and Margaret Worthington (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005), pp. 49–54.

Morgan, Nigel, Early Gothic Manuscripts,1190–1285, 2 vols (London: Miller, 1982–88), no. 87.

Planta, Joseph, ed., A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library Deposited in the British Museum (London: Hansard, 1802), p. 236.

Smith, Thomas, Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum bibliothecae Cottonianae (Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1696), p. 56.

Swanton, Michael, The Lives of Two Offas/Vitae Offarum Duorum (Crediton: Medieval Press, 2010).

Tite, Colin G.C., The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: British Library, 2003), p. 136.

Vaughan, Richard, Matthew Paris (Cambridge: University Press, 1958), pp. 78–91, https://archive.org/details/matthewparis012094mbp.

Watson, Andrew G., Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), no. 542.

Exhibitions:

Chroniclers of History, St Albans Museum and Gallery, St Albans, 29 July 2021 - 31 October 2021
Picturing places, (online), 27 April 2017-
The Wonders of Rome from a Northern Perspective: From Antiquity to the Present, Diözesanmuseum, Paderborn, 31 March 2017 - 13 August 2017

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Related Archive Descriptions:

Royal MS 13 D I/1