Royal MS 13 E I

1. R. HIGDEN, Polychronicon, in 7 books, with no division into chapters. Dates and authorities are given in the margins. Cf. 13 D. I, art. 1. Lib. vi ends (f. 187) 'pro pudore se subtrahere' (cf. Rolls ed., vii, p. 246); the words 'declinato Stigando' are omitted in the first sentence of lib. vii and the book ends with a letter of Edward III to the Bishop of London, 'Teste me ipso aput Westmonasterium xiio die Feb. anno 15^o [134¹/₂]'. A full index with an introduction (beg. 'Ad subsequentis tabule notician) follows (f. 242). There is no colophon at 1327. The text resembles generally Harley MS.

655, and is particularly full in the part concerned with biblical history and in lib. vii, which contains a great quantity of matter which does not appear in the printed text, including a number of letters between Edward III and the Pope (Benedict Xl or XII, 1334-1342), between Edward III and the King of France, and from [John Stratford,] Archbishop of Canterbury (1333-1348), to Edward III and others. Most of these letters are to be found in Rymer's Foedera, ii, part 2, under their dates; see also Walsingham's Historia Anglicana (Rolls Series), which is probably derived from the Harley MS. The correspondence with Philip of France given in French in Rymer is here abbreviated and translated into Latin. f. 1. At f. 143 an abridged version of the Vita Merlini is inserted. The dedication (in 18 lines) to Robert, Bishop of Lincoln (? Robert de Chesney, 1148-1167), beg. 'Fastidici vatis rabiem musamque iocosam'. The poem (in 712 lines) beg. 'Ergo peragratis sub multis regibus annis Clarus habebatur Merlinus in orbe Britannus'. Found also in Harley MS. 655 and Cotton MS. Julius E. VIII (see Ward, Cat. of Romances, i, p. 278).

2. Anonymous life of S. Alban of Mainz. For a printed edition see above, 12 B. XXIV, art. 4. Beg. 'Erat enim in partibus aquilinis (sic)'; ends 'super niuem dealbari. Amen'. Other MSS. are Add. 37400, f. 2, and MS. 100 at Corpus Christi Coll., Cambridge (see alsb Bibl. Hagiogr. Lat. i, p. 34). f. 250.

Vellum ; ff. i + 221. 15⁷/₈, in. x 10⁷/₈ in. Late XIV cent. (before 1387). Gatherings of 8 leaves, with catchwords. There is an original folio numeration to each book. Double columns of 54 lines. A blank leaf precedes art. 2. Sec. fol. 'est ab ortu'. Initials in red and blue. On the fly-leaf (f. 1), 'Iste est liber beate Marie Lincolnie donatus . . . per dom. Iohannem de Warsop canonicum dicte ecclesie, et vocatur policronicon'. See the 15th cent. cat. published by Canon Maddison, Assoc. Archit. Soc. Reports, xxiii, p. 348, the last MS.but six, John Warsop was canon of Lincoln 1361-1386 (Le Neve, Fasti Eccl. Angl., ed. Hardy, 1857, ii, p. 180). Cat. of 1666, f. 7 b or f. 8; not in CMA.