Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 636 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (E-text) ("Peterborough Chronicle")

Abstract

401. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 636 (1003)

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (E-text) ("Peterborough Chronicle")

[Ker 346, Gneuss -]

HISTORY: The "Peterborough Chronicle" (the E-text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to 1154) was copied at Peterborough Abbey in the 12c. Ker dates the copying to "s. xii1, xii med." On ff. 86v-90v a short prose chronicle of England in Anglo-Norman, "Le Livere de Reis De Brittanie," to the accession of Edward I was added in the margins. Dean (1999) would date the copying of this chronicle to ''XIII414." There are a few Latin notations of the 13c-14c. In the 16c the manuscript was owned by William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520-1598). Laurence Nowell ( d. 157 6) made a transcript of the Peterborough Chronicle (now London, BL MS Add. 43 704) in 1565 while he was in residence at Cecil's house. A number of"Parkerian" underlinings, scorings in the margin, or pointing fingers agree closely with the citations of the Chronicle in the Parkerian "A Defence of Priestes Mariages" (1566/67, STC 17519; see Whitelock 1954: 23). While the manuscript was in Parker's household, John Joscelyn (1529-1603) used the manuscript and made extracts from it. The manuscript was owned by William Lisle (1569?-1637), from whose estate Archbishop William Laud acquired it in 1638 (Laudian inscription, f. 1r, bottom). Lisle collated this manuscript against "Benet" (= "The Parker Chronicle," Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 173 [34]) and a "liber Cottonianus" (= London, British Library Otho B. xi [217), now badly damaged), and he made numerous annotations on the interleaved pages and in some margins. He made transcripts of excerpts from CCCC 173 on the quire of paper leaves that follows the parchment manuscript; other 17c hands added tables of contents directly from homiliaries once owned by Parker and by then in Cambridge. The Bodleian Library received the manuscript from Laud in 1639. Former shelfmark was Laud E. 80.

[Note: A paper quire of 14 has been appended to the original manuscript. It is foliated consecutively '92-103' on the top right rectos and is separately foliated '1-14' on the bottom right. Contents: ff. 92r-97r contain transcripts by Lisle from the A-S Chronicle A, "The Parker Chronicle" (CCCC 173, ed. Barely 1986): Annal '814' [recte 893], '895-900' [894-899], '913-924' [912-920] (for the annals 925-936 another hand has added a reference to 'peterburgensis' and 'Cot.', = Chronicle E, and London, BL, Cotton Otho B. xi), '937', '941' [942], '973' '975'; f. 98r 'The pedegree of WODEN', excerpts from Chronicle A 855. The rest of the qui.re, in various hands, contains 17 c tables of contents of nine Parkerian homiliaries and miscellaneous notes.]