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Cotton MS Faustina B IX
- Record Id:
- 040-001103909
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001273.0x00005e
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100192319468.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Faustina B IX
- Title:
-
Chronicle of Melrose Abbey; Chronicles of Tynemouth Priory
- Scope & Content:
-
A composite manuscript composed of two parts (ff. 2-75, 76-244), both owned by John Leland (b. c. 1503, d. 1552), poet and antiquary, and probably bound together for Sir Robert Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631).
The first part (ff. 2-75) was made at Melrose Abbey in Scotland between c. 1174 and the 1st half of the 14th century and contains part of the Chronicle of Melrose Abbey. The remainder of the Melrose Chronicle is now Cotton MS Julius B XIII, ff. 2-47 (partially written by the same scribes).
The second part (ff. 76-244) was made at St Albans Abbey in England between the 4th quarter of the 14th century and 1st quarter of the 15th century and contains two Chronicles of Tynemouth Abbey, the first based on Nicholas Trevet's Annales and the writings of William Rishanger, AD 1259-1306, the second based on the 'Short Chronicle' of St Albans and Thomas Walsingham's Chronica maiora, AD 1360-1399.
For a discussion of the Melrose Chronicle based on the first part of this manuscript, see Broun & Harrison, The Chronicle of Melrose Abbey (2007).
Contents:
f. i recto: A set of erased Cottonian binding instructions, inscribed in the upper margin.
f. i verso: A set of early modern memoranda referring to popes and emperors, and to the author Nicholas Trevet (d. in or after 1334).
f. 1r: A list of contents written in the hand of Richard James (b. 1592, d. 1638), the first librarian of the Cotton Library, the first two items corrected in a later hand.
Part 1:
ff. 2r-75v: Chronicle of Melrose Abbey, imperfect, beginning, '[P]ostquam ueridicus hystoriographus et doctor eximius, decus et gloria nostre gentis Beda uenerabilis scribere cessauit…', and ending, 'post dies igitur paucos factum est ut ab admiraldo doloso im...' The chronicle features a number of interpolations, including:
f. 14r-v: Roll-chronicle, AD 1056-1264, dating from the middle to 2nd half of the 13th century.
f. 38r: 'Qualiter capta est Damieta anno gracie moccoxixo', imperfect, dating from the middle of the 13th century, the text beginning, 'L. tituli sancte Crucis in Ierusalem reuerendo cardinali, H. humilis magister domus Teutonicorum in Ierusalem salutem', and ending, 'Insuper omnes captiuos Christianos...'
f. 38v: A record of burials, taken from the Melrose Chronicle, largely erased, dating from the 4th quarter of the 13th century.
f. 54r-v: A record of Anglo-Scottish relations, AD 945-1209, copied from the Melrose Chronicle, dating from the 4th quarter of the 13th century.
f. 63v: Lists of Melrose abbots from Richard (resigned 1148) to Patrick of Selkirk (fl. c. 1273), and of Melrose monks raised to the episcopate, dating from the 4th quarter of the 13th century.
ff. 64r-73v: 'Opusculum de nobili Simone de Monte Forti editum', beginning, '[A]nno Domini moccolxotercio Helionora regina Anglie que credebatur esse radix’, and ending, ‘scilicet pater eius, auus eius, proauus eius, attauus eius, abattauus eius’, dating from the 2nd half of the 13th century.
Certain leaves in this portion of the manuscript have been rearranged since the Middle Ages, with ff. 38 and 54 once serving as medieval endleaves.
Part 2:
ff. 76r-145v: Chronicle of Tynemouth Abbey, AD 1259-1306, based on Nicholas Trevet's Annales and the writings of William Rishanger, imperfect, beginning, 'Rex H. componit cum rege Francie de terris transmarinis pro pecunia. Anno gracie millesimo ccmolixno rex Anglorum Henricus tercius a conquestu anno regni sui quadragesimo tercio in Galliam transfretauit', and ending, 'sed in crastino dimicaret. Igitur subtrahente'.
f. 147r-242v: Chronicle of Tynemouth Abbey, AD 1360-1399, based on the 'Short Chronicle' of St Albans and Thomas Walsingham's Chronica maiora, imperfect, beginning, 'Et accepto breui responsio, que audiuit, regi renunciauit...' and ending, 'et in multis suis maliciis sibi precipue consencientem.'
ff. 242v-243r: Prophecy concerning King Richard II (r. 1377-1399) and Henry IV (r. 1399-1413) of England, and the House of Percy, beginning, '[A]sinus coronatus turbabit regnum et feras sue supportacionis deuastabit’, and ending,‘sic nullum bonum irremuneratum nec ullum malum impunitum'; dated to the 1st quarter of the 15th century.
ff. 243v-244v: Verse elegy for Richard Scope (d. 1405), Archbishop of York, beginning, 'Quis meo capiti dabit effundere’, and ending, ‘Ut spectis infimis letemur superis, Beatus dona ueniam. Amen’ (Walther, no. 16078).
The manuscript features corrections (text erased on ff. 32r (lines 25-36) and 38v; and added in the margin with signes-de-renvoi ff. 134r, 228v) and marginalia, written by medieval hands (throughout the Chronicle, ff. 2r-75v); by John Leland (ff. 2r-13v, 15r-34v, 35r-37v, 39v-40r, 41r, 44r, 45v-46v, 52v, 54r-56r, 57r-58r, 59r, 60v, 63r, 64r-v, 65v, 66v-68r, 71v-72v, 73v-74v, 78r, 79v, 81r, 82r-v, 84r, 85r-86r, 87v, 89r, 92v-93r, 95v, 96v, 98v-99r, 100r-v, 102v-103v, 105v-106v, 108v, 109v-110r, 111r, 114r, 119r-v, 120v, 121v, 123v, 124v-125r, 133v-134r, 135v, 138r, 143r, 145r-v, 150r-152v, 154v, 156r, 157r-158r, 159r, 164r-165v, 167r-168v, 170r-v, 172v-174v, 176r, 177r-v, 178v, 180v, 182r-v, 187v-188v, 190v-191r, 193v, 194v, 196v-198r, 202v-203r, 204v, 207r, 210r, 213r, 215r-v, 217r, 218v, 220v-221r, 222r, 226v, 230v); by an early modern hand, possibly Matthew Parker or a member of his circle, in orange-red crayon (ff. 2r-3r, 4r, 7v-8v, 9v-22r, 23v-24r, 25v-26r, 27r-v, 29v-30v, 31v-32r, 33v-35r, 37v-38r, 42v-45r, 46v-47v, 49v, 55v-56r, 61r-63r, 64v-66v, 67v-73v, 74v-75v); by John Joscelyn (f. 63v, 'Episcopi assumpti de domo de Melros'); and by a number of other early modern (ff. 96v (cropped), 100r, 111r, 160v, 164v, 166r-v, 167v, 168v-169r, 175r, 189v (erased), 192r-193r, 229r, 234v, 235v, 237r, 238v-239v, 240v, 241v-242r) and post-medieval hands (ff. 8r, 13r (‘Magbeth’), 15r, 16v, 18r (‘Cowton moore’), 25v, 29r, 31v, 33r, 35v, 39r, 50r-v, 52r-53r, 54r-55r, 63v, 66r, 73v, 76r, 77r-v, 78v, 79v-81v, 83r, 127r, 147r, 185v, 194v-195r, 213r).
Decoration:
Part 1:
1 large plain initial in red (f. 15r). Blank space for an initial (f. 2r) and other spaces unfilled (ff. 59v-64r, 71v).
Smaller initials in red and/or blue (ff. 12r, 32v, 35r, 36v, 37r, 37v, 39r, 55r-59r).
Paraph marks in red. Highlighting, annalistic entries and marginal notation in red.
Rubrics.
Part 2:
Marginal drawings of shields (ff. 174v, 180v, 185r, 179r-v (unfinished), 182r (unfinished), 185v (unfinished).
1 large plain initial in red (f. 76r). Blank space for an initial (f. 242v).
Smaller initials in red and/or blue. Line-fillers in red.
Underlining and highlighting of letters in red.
Rubrics.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001103909 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Faustina B IX : Chronicle of Melrose Abbey; Chronicles of Tynemouth Priory - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[1246]/040-001103909
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100192319468.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1169
- End Date:
- 1424
- Date Range:
- c 1174-1st quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment (contemporary patch on f. 18v; post-medieval repairs on ff. 2-12, 14-23, 28-29, 34-35, 39-42, 47, 49, 53-54, 56-57, 59-63, 68, 71-72, 74-75, 9-81, 83, 89, 96-97, 113-114, 119, 121-123, 126-127, 148, 180-181, 191, 193-194, 201, 208-210, 215, 217, 223-224, 228, 243; medieval parchment strips between ff. 6-7, 17-18; outer margin on ff. 26r-v and 228v uncropped).
Condition: Intact.
Dimensions: 265 x 190 mm (written space varies: 215-217 x 135-137 mm (ff. 2r-11v); 218-224 x 138-143 mm (ff. 12r-13v, 15r-32r, 36v, 38r); 207-212 x 134 mm (ff. 32v-36r, 37r-v); 235 x 144 mm (ff. 39r-40r); 194 x 134 mm (ff. 40v-44v); 207-209 x 125-129 mm (ff. 45r-46v); 206-216 x 131-142 mm (ff. 47v-53v); 216 x 150 mm (f. 54r-v); 198-202 x 129-132 mm (ff. 55r-60v); 208-212 x 136-145 mm (ff. 61r-62v, 64r-75v); 199-212 x 135-138 mm (ff. 76r-145v); 206-214 x 130-136 mm (ff. 147r-192v, 209r-242v); 193-201 x 133-134 mm (ff. 193r-208v)).
Lines per page: 40-41, above top line (ff. 2r-11v); 42-44, primarily above top line (ff. 12r-13v, 15r-32r, 36v, 38r); 33-39, above top line (ff. 32v-36r, 37r-v, 39r-40r, 45r-46v, 47v-53v); 32-33, above top line (ff. 40v-44v); 24, above top line (f. 47r); 32, below top line (f. 54r-v); 30, above top line (ff. 55r-60v); 30-32, below & above top line (ff. 61r-62v, 64r-75v); 34-46, below top line (ff. 76r-145v); 31, below top line (ff. 147r-162v); 35, below top line (ff. 163r-192v, 209r-242v); 32-34, below top line (ff. 193r-208v); 33-36 (ff. 243v-244v).
Foliation: ff. i + 244 (+ 6 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end); ff. i and 1 are early modern parchment flyleaves; f. i is the former front pastedown, with early modern notes inscribed on the verso; 'i, 1-244', written in pre-1731 ink, replacing '1-243' ; every 10th leaf counted in early 18th-century ink (ff. 10v, 20v, 30v, 50v, 60v, 70v, 80v, 90v, 110v, 120v, 130v, 140v, 150v, 160v, 170v, 180v, 190v, 200v, 210v, 220v, 230v, 240v).
Collation: i10 (ff. 2–11), ii10+1 (ff. 12–22; 3rd leaf a fragment mounted on a parchment leaf and inserted after f. 13), iii8 (ff. 23–30), iv8+1 (ff. 31–39; 8th leaf inserted after f. 37), veight (ff. 40–47; perhaps originally a quire of 8 leaves with the 8th leaf excised after f. 45; 8th leaf inserted after f. 46, possibly originally a singleton intended as a replacement, though it is now mounted on a guard and its original position within the quire structure is impossible to establish with certainty. The second bifolium of the quire is now misbound after f. 45; its numbering as ff. 41 and 46 reflects its original position in the quire and the correct order of the text), vi6+1 (ff. 48–54; 8th leaf inserted after f. 53), vii2+1 (ff. 55–57; 1st leaf inserted before f. 56), viiisix (ff. 58–63), ix8 (ff. 64-71), x4 (ff. 72–75); xi8 (ff. 76-83, misbound; the 2nd bifolium (ff. 77 and 82) has been incorrectly bound before the 3rd bifolium (ff. 78 and 81). The correct order of the text is ff. 76, 78, 77, 79, 80, 82, 81, 83), xii8 (ff. 84-91; the catchword does not match the following quire), xiii-xvii8 (ff. 92-131), xviii6 (ff. 132–137), xix8 (ff. 138–145), xx1 (f. 146; an early modern parchment singleton, inserted in the place of a missing quire), xxi-xxv8 (ff. 147–186), xxvi6 (ff. 187-192), xxvii–xxxi8 (ff. 193–232), xxxii10 (ff. 233-242), xxxiii2 (ff. 243–244).
Catchwords: medieval (ff. 83v, 91v, 99v, 115v, 123v, 137v, 145v, 154v, 170v, 178v, 186v, 200v (uncropped), 208v, 216v, 224v, 232v, 242v); post-medieval (ff. 76v, 79v, 84v, 85v, 86v, 87v, 89v, 90v, 92v, 93v, 94v, 95v, 96v, 97v, 98v, 100v, 101v, 102v).
Quire-signatures: Cottonian A (f. i recto); B (f. 2r, ‘B’ duplicated), C (f. 12r, ‘C’ duplicated), D (f. 23r, ‘D’ duplicated), E (f. 31r, ‘E’ duplicated), F (f. 40r), G (f. 47r), H (f. 55r), J (f. 58r), K (f. 64r), L (f. 72r); N (f. 76r), O (f. 84r, ‘O’ duplicated), P (f. 92r, ‘P’ duplicated), Q (f. 100r), R (f. 108r), S (f. 116r), T (f. 124r), V (f. 132r), W (f. 138r), X (f. 146r), Y (f. 147r), Z (f. 155r), AA (f. 163r), BB (f. 171r), CC (f. 179r), DD (f. 187r), EE (f. 193r), FF (f. 201r), GG (f. 209r), HH (f. 217r), JJ (f. 225r), KK (f. 233r), LL (f. 243r).
Script: Scottish Protogothic book script (ff. 2r-13v, 15r-21r); Scottish documentary script (f. 14r-v); Gothic textualis (ff. 21v-42v, 43v-47r6, 55r-60v, 64r-69v); Gothic textualis rotunda (ff. 43r, 47r7-49r, 54r-v, 61r-63r, 70r-75v); Scottish cursive book script (ff. 49v-53v, 63v); mixture of Bastard Anglicana (especially ff. 76r-123v, 139r-145v) & Secretary (ff. 124r-138v); English cursive book script (ff. 147r-242v); Secretary (ff. 242v-244v).
Binding: British Museum in-house (November 1864). Brown leather binding, tooled in gold, with the Cottonian arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers; traces of a Cottonian fore-edge title; refurbished at the British Library in 2007.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Part 1 (ff. 2r-75v):
Melrose, Scotland.
Part 2 (ff. 76-244):
St Albans, England.
Provenance:
Part 1 (ff. 2r-75v):
The whole Melrose codex (Cotton MS Julius B XIII, ff. 2-47 + Cotton MS Faustina B IX, ff. 2-75) was removed from Scotland to Deeping Priory (Lincolnshire) by the 14th century: inscribed,‘Liber de prioratu sancti Iakobi de Estdeping’ in a 14th-century hand the first part of the manuscript (now Cotton MS Julius B XIII, f. 2r, visible under ultra-violet light).
Part 2 (ff. 76-244v):
The second part of the manuscript formerly belonged to Tynemouth Priory, Northumberland (see Ker, Medieval Libraries (1964), p. 191.
Both parts:
John Leland (b. c. 1503, d. 1552), English poet and antiquary: his characteristic symbols and annotations throughout the volume (see Harrison, ‘From Melrose Abbey’; Tite, The Early Records, p. 221).
Matthew Parker (b. 1504, d. 1575), Archbishop of Canterbury: orange-red crayon annotations through the Chronicle possibly written in his hand or a member of his circle; his citation of an entry concerning heresy 'in annalibus cenobii de Mailros in Scotia annoa 1210' (in Dublin, Trinity College, MS. 248, f. i verso).
Robert Glover (b. 1544, d. 1588), English officer of arms and antiquarian: transcribed two series of excerpts from the Chronicle of Melrose Abbey between 1580 and 1586 (the transcriptions are now Egerton MS 3789, ff. 63r-71r and Cotton MS Otho D IV, ff. 141v-154v; see Harrison, ‘From Melrose Abbey’, pp 184-186).
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: in his collection by 1621, when he loaned the manuscript to Patrick Young (b. 1584, d. 1652) and Sir Henry Montagu (b. 1563, d. 1642) (see Tite, The Early Records(2007), p. 221); listed in one of his catalogues (Add MS 36682). Cotton’s collection was augmented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (b. 1594, d. 1662), 2nd baronet, and his grandson, Sir John Cotton (b. 1621, d. 1702), 3rd baronet.
Sir John Cotton 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.
- Publications:
-
Broun, Dauvit, ‘Scribes’, in The Chronicle of Melrose Abbey: A Stratigraphic Edition, I, Introduction and Facsimile Edition, ed. by Dauvit Broun & Julian Harrison, Scottish History Society, 6th Series, 1 (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2007), pp. 87-124.
Carley, James P., ‘“Cum excuterem puluerem et blattas”: John Bale, John Leland, and the Chronicon Tinemutensis coenobii’, in Texts and Controversy from Wyclif to Bale: Essays in Honour of Anne Hudson, ed. by Helen Barr and Ann M. Hutchison (Turnhout: Brepols, 2005), pp. 168–72.
Chronica de Mailros, e codice unico in Bibliotheca Cottoniana servato, ed. by Joseph Stevenson, The Bannatyne Club, 49 (Edinburgh: 'Typis Societatis Edinburgensis', 1835).
Chronicon Angliæ, ab anno Domini 1328 usque ad annum 1388, autore monacho quodam Sancti Albani, ed. by Edward Maunde Thompson, Rolls Series, 64 (London: Longman, 1874), pp. xxviii–xxix.
Duncan, A.A.M., ‘Sources and uses of the Chronicle of Melrose, 1165-1297’, in Kings, Clerics and Chronicles in Scotland 500-1297: Essays in honour of Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson on the occasion of her ninetieth birthday, ed. by Simon Taylor (Dublin: Four Courts, 2000), pp. 146–85.
Gransden, Antonia, ‘The chronicles of medieval England and Scotland’, in Legends, Traditions and History in Medieval England, [collected essays] by Antonia Gransden (London: Hambledon Press, 1992), pp. 199-238, 330-32.
Harrison, Julian, ‘The original codex’, in The Chronicle of Melrose Abbey: A Stratigraphic Edition, I, Introduction and Facsimile Edition, ed. by Dauvit Broun and Julian Harrison, Scottish History Society, 6th Series, 1 (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2007), pp. 56-67.
Harrison, Julian, ‘From Melrose Abbey to the British Library’, in The Chronicle of Melrose Abbey: A Stratigraphic Edition, I, Introduction and Facsimile Edition, ed. by Dauvit Broun and Julian Harrison, Scottish History Society, 6th Series, 1 (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2007), pp. 174-92.
Harrison, Julian, ‘From Melrose Abbey to the British Library’, in The Chronicle of Melrose Abbey: A Stratigraphic Edition, ed. and trans. by Dauvit Broun and Julian Harrison, Scottish History Society, 6th Series, 1 (Woodbridge, Boydell and Brewer, 2007), pp. 174-92.
Ker, N.R., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3, 2nd edn (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), pp. 130, 191.
Planta, Joseph, Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library deposited in the British Museum (London: L. Hansard, printer, 1802), pp. 607-08.
Political Poems and Songs relating to English History, composed during the period from the Accession of Edw. III. to that of Ric. III., ed. by Thomas Wright, Rolls Series, 14, 2 vols (London: Longman, 1859-61).
Rerum Anglicarum Scriptorum Veterum I, [ed. by William Fulman] (Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1684).
Smith, Thomas, Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Cottonianæ (Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1696); facsimile Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library, ed. by Colin G.C. Tite (Cambridge: Brewer, 1984), p. 153.
The Chronicle of Melrose from the Cottonian Manuscript, Faustina B. IX in the British Museum, ed. by Alan Orr Anderson, Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson and William Croft Dickinson (London: P. Lund, Humphries, 1936).
The Chronicle of Melrose Abbey: A Stratigraphic Edition, I, Introduction and Facsimile Edition, ed. by Dauvit Broun and Julian Harrison Scottish History Society, 6th Series, 1 (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2007).
The Recovery of the Past in Early Elizabethan England: Documents by John Bale and John Joscelyn from the Circle of Matthew Parker, ed. by Timothy Graham and Andrew G. Watson, Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Monograph No. 13 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, 1998).
The St. Albans Chronicle 1406-1420, ed. by V.H. Galbraith (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1937), pp. xxxiii–xxxvi, li–liii, lviii–lix.
The St Albans Chronicle: The Chronica maiora of Thomas Walsingham, I, 1376-1394, ed. by John Taylor, Wendy R. Childs, trans. by Leslie Watkiss, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2002-11), I, pp. xxxii–xxxiii, xxxvi, xli, xlvii–xlviii, l, lxx.
Tite, Colin G.C., The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: British Library, 2003), pp. 221-22.
Walther, Hans, Initia Carminum ac Versuum Medii Aevi Posterioris Latinorum, I (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1969).Ward, H.L.D. and J.A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: Printed by order of the Trustees, 1883–1910), I, pp. 319–20.
Willelmi Rishanger, Quondam Monachi S. Albani, et Quorundam Anonymorum, Chronica et Annales, Regnantibus Henrico Tertio et Edwardo Primo, ed. by Henry Thomas Riley, Rolls Series, 28 (London: Longman, 1865), pp. xx–xv.
- Exhibitions:
- Magna Carta, (online), 10 March 2015-
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)