Oxford, Bodleian Libray, Bodley 297 (SC 2468) John of Worcester, Chronicle; "Bede's Death Song;' Excerpts from the Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond, etc.

Abstract

355. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 297 (SC 2468)

John of Worcester, Chronicle; "Bede's Death Song;'

Excerpts from the Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond, etc.

[Ker 306]

HISTORY: The manuscript, given as siglum B in the edition of Darlington and McGurk (1995: 2.xlvi), has a Bury provenance. In their opinion the manuscript is a direct copy of their siglum C (Oxford, Corpus Christi College 157) by two scribes, probably between 1133 and 1143 (Darlington and McGurk 1995: 2.liii). The manuscript has numerous annotations and interpolations connecting it with the "Annals of St. Neots" and with Bury St. Edmunds (pr. Darlington and McGurk 2, Appendix B). The notation 'liber s(an)c(t)i /Edmundi regis 7 m[artyris]' appears at the top of p. 1. McLachlan (1978: 334 and n. 31a) assigns this manuscript to her "Group B;' suggesting scribes trained in the Bury scriptorium of the 1120s and early 1130s. Dumville accepts McLachlan's identification of scribe 2 of Cambridge, Trinity College R.7.28 (770), the "Annals of St. Neots:' as a scribe of Bodley 297 (Dumville and Lapidge 1984: xvi). McGurk (1995: Iii) rejects T. A. M. Bishop's argument (repeated by Dorothy Whitelock 1959: cxli, n. 3) that that the second scribe of Cambridge, Trinity College MS. R.7.28 (770) was the scribe of the genealogy of Norman dukes and French kings in Bodley 297, p. 72. John Taxter (fl. 1244-1270), a monk of Bury St. Edmunds, "probably" used John of Worcester's Chronicle in Bodley 297 for his own 13c chonicle (Gransden 2015: 243). Ker (1955: 16, 22) indicates that the manuscript was in the possession of Sir John Prise (d. 1555), whose hand appears on pp. 35, 39-43, 249, 254-55, and 370. It was afterwards owned by George Broome of Holton, who gave it to the Bodleian Library in 1608. Notice of the gift is printed on the recto of flyleaf 'i: