Harley MS 3634

A composite manuscript of 2 parts.

Part 1 (ff. 2v-125r, 195r-205r) contains Thomas Walsingham's Ypodigma Neustriae, Chronica Majora, and a continuation to Thomas Walsingham's Chronicon Angliæ, and was written in southern England in the first half of the 16th century.

Part 2 (ff. 125r-195r) is the original part, containing Thomas Walsingham's Chronicon Angliæ, and was copied in the 4th quarter of the 14th century (after 1387), possibly in Norwich.

Contents:

Part 1:

f. 2v: Note on Thomas Walsingham, beginning: 'Thomas Walsingham patria Nordovolgius sed ad Albani fanum Benedictinorum ordinis Monachus, ac Precentor eiusdem Cenobij, homo in historijs colligendis (Lelando teste) studiosus, atque diligens erat'.

f. 2v: 'Nomina regum quorum res gestas presens historia describit'.

ff. 3r-42v: Thomas Walsingham, Ypodigma Neustriae ('Ypodigma Neustrie per Thomas de Walsingham').

ff. 43r-124v: Thomas Walsingham, Chronica Majora for the years 1273-1344, beginning: 'De tempore Regis Edwardi post conquestum primi'; ending: 'Hec que sequuntur in veteri scripto sunt continuacio Historie Polichronicon sed possunt esse de historia magna Thome Walsingham'.

ff. 195r-250r: A continuation of Thomas Walsingham's Chronicon Angliæ for the years 1387-1422.

Part 2:

ff. 125r-195r: Thomas Walsingham, Chronicon Angliæ, with the added title: 'Continuatio Ranulphi Cestrensis'; short chronicle for the years 1328-1370 and 1382-1387, and full chronicle for the years 1376-1382, detached portion of a copy of the Polychronicon given by Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, to the college of Pleshey in Essex between 1393 and 1397 (this copy is now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 316);

Decoration:

Large puzzle intial in red and blue with pen-flourishing forming a three-sided border (f. 125r). Large intials in blue with red pen-flourishing, often in the form of leaves. Paraphs in red or blue.