Genealogical chronicle, Kings of England

Title

Genealogical chronicle, Kings of England

Shelfmark

St John's College MS 23

Place of origin

England (London?)

Date

(with additions, s. xv ex.–s. xvii ex.)

1473 x 1475

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

roll-codex

Support

Vellum (written on FS).

Physical extent

The manuscript is a roll, folded in concertina fashion; see A. C. de la Mare, Catalogue of the Collection of Medieval Manuscripts bequeathed to the Bodleian Library Oxford by James P. R. Lyell (Oxford: Clarendon, 1971) 82 (and 82–5 in general), Scott, 2:315–16. Thus, each ‘folio’ in fact presents two consecutive sections of the original recto of the roll, and the original blank dorse falls between the ‘recto’ and ‘verso’ of each folio. Consequently, the text must be read beginning at the gutter and ending at the leading edge for rectos, and from the leading edge back to the gutter for versos. The original document comprised 21 folios, numbered to 22. Fol. 1 is not in concertina, but the head of the roll, with the recto the blank dorse, and the text beginning on the recto of the original roll, now fol. 1v. Fol. 4 has been split and fol. 4 now numbered 4 (with blank dorse) and its original ‘verso’ now numbered 5 (with blank recto). And the original final ‘folio’ was the tail of the roll, written on the recto only, now fol. 22; this has been cut off 60 mm shorter than the other ‘folios’. To this original production have been added (a) a new ‘foot’ to fol. 22 and its extension as fol. 22v; (b) three additional leaves, fols. 23–5, all only a recto and its dorse. Fol. 24, written on the recto only in a hand which appears elsewhere (see Added Texts [b] and Binding) is probably the blank lower half of fol. 22. Thus, as now bound, there are ii + 24(numbered to 25) + ii (numbered fols. iii–iv) folios. Overall, the original roll measured 9225 mm x 340 mm (including full dimensions for fol. 22 and assuming fol. 24 was the end of the roll); as bound, with the horizontal dimension now the height of the page, each full leaf is 340 mm x 225 mm. To this has been added the extra 60 mm at the leading edge of fol. 22 and a further 675 mm (fols. 22v, 23, and 25).

Hands

Written in textura prescissa . Punctuation by pointand occasional punctus elevatus. The same scribe also copied our MS 58. Indeed, he is responsible for a good many more copies of these texts, in the late Jeremy Griffiths’s account (personal communication), more than fifty in all, including BodL, MS Lyell 33, in English (illustrated de la Mare, plate vi). These rolls were plainly mass-produced in a London (or Westminster?) shop. Our MS is ignored in Watson, DMO, although at least four related books (e.g., no. 637 [115]) are described there. In its original form, the roll includes six lozenges for children of Edward IV (i.e., through Richard, b. 1473, but not including Anne, b. 1475); the scribe wrote in the names of the first four children, perhaps following his exemplar—‘margareta’ and ‘ricardus’ are later additions. And a pair of extra, unfilled lozenges have been added, presumably 1477 x 1479 , predating the more extensive additions noted above.

Decoration

Paragraphs of narrative open with alternate 1-line blue lombards on red flourishing and gold lombards on brownish-purple flourishing.

Golden crowns on various coloured grounds to indicate rulers, their progeny presented in elaborate lozenges in red, blue, and green with connecting lines in the same colours.

At the head, a circular illustration with gold frame: the Fall, with Adam, Eve holding the apple (both in fig-leaves), and the serpent (with a woman’s head) in the apple-tree (fol. 1v).

See further Scott, 2:315–16, where our MS is cited along with other copies of Scott’s ‘Group I’; and AT no. 590 (58) .

Binding

A modern replacement. Sewn on five thongs. At both the front and rear, two modern paper flyleaves (the rear iii–iv). The current fol. 24, probably originally the end of the roll, has been used as a pastedown in a former binding; it has repaired nail-holes from a chain staple attached at the leading edge of the foot of the leaf.

Acquisition

‘Liber Collegij Divi Ioannis Baptistae Oxon Ex dono Ioannis atkinsongenerosi hujus Collegij quodam Conuictoris’ (fol. 1).