Royal MS 13 C VI

1. MARTINUS POLONUS, Chronicon summorum Pontificum atque Imperatorum Romanorum; cf. 13 B. IX, art. 2. Without title or colophon. The chronicle of Emperors is brought down to the death of Frederic II (1250), that of Popes to the death of Nicholas IV(1292). It is of the more extended form, as printed in 1477 and 1559, and contains the passage relating to 'Pope Joan f. 1.

2. 'De Saxonibus, Anglis et Iudis, et vnde orti sunt . . . secundum uenerabilem Bedam, &c., sc. Hist. Eccl. i. 15; followed by the 'Recapitulacio cronicalis ven. Bede', &c., the chronological summary to 731. (v. 24), and the short continuation to 734 ending 'propriam reuersa' (ed. Plummer, i, p. 361). f. 36.

3. Peter de Ickham (?), Compilatio de gestis Anglorum. Without title or colophon. 'Prefacio in opusculum subscriptum' beg. 'Non solum audiendis scripture sacre verbis'; text, 'Britannia occiani (sic) insula'. Ends with the deaths of Eleanor of Provence (1291) and Eleanor of Castile (1290), both being assigned to 1289, though in the former instance the date has been here corrected. The same chronicle occurs in Cotton MSS. Calig. A. x (where it ends at the same point), Dom. A. III (where it is continued to 1299), and Cleop. B. XIII, f. 91 (continued first to 1299 and then in a different hand to 1305). See Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue, iii, pp. 271, 276; but the ascription of the Chronicle to Worcester in the former passage is due to a confusion (which appears in the description of no. 473 on pp. 263, 264) between two different articles in Calig. A. x. For the supposed author see Dict. Nat. Biogr. s. n. f. 37.

4. C. Julius Solinus, Polyhistor sive Collectanea rerum memorabilium. Without title or colophon. Prologue beg. 'Quoniam quidem impaciencius'; text, 'Sunt qui uideri uelint Rome uocabulum'. For the classification of the MSS. see Mommsen's ed. (Berlin, 1864). The present copy contains the prologue, which is characteristic of the second and third classes, but otherwise it belongs to the first (and least interpolated) class. f. 64 b.

5. 'Vita sancti Thome de plurium narracione collecta' se. the 'Second Quadrilogus' (see J. C. Robertson, Materials for the History of T. Becket, Rolls Series, iv, p. xix; text printed ib., pp. 266-424). Prologue beg. 'Post summi fauoris dote uestitos'; text, 'Thomas Londoniensis urbis indigena'. Followed by (a) 'Cathalogus eruditorum beati Thome martyris' (ib. iii, p. 523). Beg. 'Quoniam in historia hac'; omits the end (from 23) as there printed, and substitutes a short paragraph, ending 'ecclesie tales secum et tantos patronos conquisivit'. f. 127;-(b) Constitutions of Clarendon, entitled 'Causa exilii et martyrii beati Thome martyris' (ib. i, p. 18). Beg. 'Huic etiam libello nostro inserere studuimus'. f. 128;-(c) 'Alie constituciones', of 1169 (ib. vii, p. 147). Beg. 'He sunt constituciones quas constituit 'rex' Henricus in Normannia'. Followed by the 'epistola missa archiepiscopo super iis', beg. 'Sciatis hunc esse tenorem' (ib. vii, p. 146). f. 129;-

(d) The three letters of Pope Alexander III on the canonization of S. Thomas, 1173. Beg. 'Gaudendum est universitati', 'Redolet Anglia', and 'Quia vice beati Petri' (ib. vii, pp. 545-550). f. 129 b. f. 92.

6. 'Liber moralium de regimine dominorum qui alio nomine dicitur Secretum Secretorum editum ab Aristotele ad Alexandrum' (cf. 5 F. XIV, art. 5). In the dedicatory preface (to which the proem is attached, without distinction) the writer's name appears as John instead of Philip (probably by confusion with the first translation from Arabic). The epistola ad Alexandrum' is not separated from the prologue, which is preceded by a table of chapters. The text agrees generally with that of the Paris ed. of 1520; at the end (ff. 147 b-149) are some sections which are omitted at their proper places on ff. 140 and 140 b, after which a page of writing has been obliterated. f. 130.

Art. 7 is an insertion, in a later 14th cent. hand, on a leaf which had been left blank.

7. 'Visio beati Pauli de penis inferni'. Beg. 'Dies dominicus est electus'. Incomplete, ending 'qui orphanis et viduis nocuerunt'. See Ward, Cat. of Romances, ii, pp. 404, and for other MSS. of the same tract, pp. 397- 408. f. 150.

8. Guilelmus Tripolitanus, 'De statu Saracenorum, de Mahometo pseudopropheta eorum et de ipsa gente et eorum lege et fide'. Beg. 'Venerabili patri ac domino Theobaldo Leodiensi ecclesie archidiacono [Tedaldo Visconti, Archdeacon of Liège, Pope Gregory X 1271- 1276] digno sancte terre peregrino sancto frater Gullermus Tripolitanus, Aconensis conuentus ordinis predicatorum, &c.: Quoniam intellexi illuminantem fidem'. Printed by H. Prutz, Kulturgeschichte der Kreuzzüge, Berlin, 1883, p. 575. Colophon, 'Opusculi consummacio, de predicatoribus collacio'. f. 151.

9. Brief chronicle from the origin of the Lombards to 1250, inserted in cap. 176 of the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine. Printed by Graesse, Leipzig, 1850; cf. Monum. Germ. Hist., Scriptores, xxiv, p. 168. Given here under the rubric 'De Pelagio papa'. Beg. 'Pelagius papa multe sanctitatis'. f. 157 b.

10. Extracts from the Legenda Aurea (ed. Graesse, 1846), viz.:-(a) 'De dedicacione ecclesie', beg. 'Dedi. cacio ecclesie inter alias' (cap. 182). f. 162 b;-(b) 'De natiuitate Domini', beg. 'Natiuitas Domini nostri I. C. secundum carnem' (cap. 6). f. 165 b;-(c) 'De sancto Stephano', beg. 'Stephanus fuit vnus de vii dyaconibus' (cap. 8). f. 167;-(d) 'De inuencione sancti Stephani prothomartyris', beg. 'Inuencio corporis prothomartyris' (cap. 112). f. 168 b;-(e) 'De natiuitate beati Iohannis Baptiste' beg. 'Natiuitas beati I. B. ab archangelo' (cap. 86). f. 169 b;-(f) 'De decollatione sancti Iohannis Baptiste', beg. 'Decollatio sancti I. B. quattuor decausis' (cap. 125). f. 171 b.

On the fly-leaf (f. 174b) are the opening words of a document containing the names of Rob. de Catisfeld [? Catsfield, near Battle Abbey, co. Suss.] and Edm. Turtil.

Vellum ; ff. i + 174. 12³/₄ in. x 8¹/₄ in. XIV cent.; probably in or before 1317, since on f. i is a note that from the Creation to A. D. 1317 inclusive is a period of 6416 years. Gatherings of 12 leaves (iii⁸, xiii⁹), with catchwords; the first six leaves in each were numbered in red, though this has often disappeared. Double columns. Sec. fol.'-num Albanorum'. Initials in red and blue. Cat. of 1666, f. 8; CMA. 8344, 8357, 8325.