Cambridge, Trinity College R.7.28 (770) ''Annals of St. Neots" ( with Bede's " Death Song"); Geoffrey of Monmouth, "Historia Regum Britanniae"; episcopal documents

Abstract

82. Cambridge, Trinity College R.7.28 (770)

''Annals of St. Neots" ( with Bede's " Death Song");

Geoffrey of Monmouth, "Historia Regum Britanniae";

episcopal documents

[Ker 88, Gneuss -]

HISTORY: Three booklets probably brought together for the first time in the 16c. Booklet A was written in Bury St Edmunds in the first half of the 12c (1120 x 1140 according to Dumville 1985: xiv) and was the copy seen and annotated by John Leland (1506?-52) at St Neats (1709: 152; 1770: 3. 214-9). How or when Booklet A went from Bury to St Neots remains a mystery (for discussion see Dumville 1985: xix-xxi). Part A contains the unique copy of the so-called "Annals of St. Neats;' a Latin chronicle (60 B.C.-A.D. 914) derived from the "A-S Chronicle;' A-S regnal lists, Asser and other hagiographical and continental historical materials. Booklet B, containing Geoffrey of Monmouth's "Historia Regum Britanniae" is 12c/13c; Booklet C contains accumulated episcopal entries dated 14c-16c. The combined manuscript belonged to John Parker (1548-1618/9), son of the archbishop (who probably owned it before the son), and was given to Trinity College by Thomas Nevile (d.1615), whose brother Alexander was a member of the Parker household (Strongman 1977-80: 6-7, 10, no.7). It was used by Thomas Gale for his edition (1691). The volume is relatively small in size, having been heavily cropped by the binder. It probably suffered this fate on more than one occasion, since in the second half of the 16c the missing top line of p. 36 was supplied at the bottom of p.35, and the Parkerian pagination and marginal notes have also been trimmed (Stevenson 1904: 113; Hart 1981: 250, 271; Dumville 1985: xix).

Interest in the contents of Booklet A is shown by the transcripts made ofit in the 16c or 16c/17c: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Top.gen.c.2 (3118), pp. 190-94 (extracts by Leland, printed 1770: 3.214-19); Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 100, pp. 261-319 (written under the aegis of Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury 1559-75); London, British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius E. xiv (extracts by Parker's secretary, John Joscelyn [1529-1603]); Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, MS lat. 6236 (written by William Lambarde [1536-1601)); and perhaps slightly later, 16c/17c, London, British Library, MS Harley 685, ff. 1-45r (cf. Dumville 1985: xxiii-xxvii).