Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 175: Walter of Coventry (attrib.), Memoriale
Memoriale Walteri de Coventria
mixed material
ff. 169
Vellum
double columns of 41 and 45 lines
288
192
1(8) 2(12)-14(12) 15 (five).
in a good hand approaching the charter hand
ff. i-vi + 1-166 + vii-ix
The edition by Stubbs in the Rolls Series contains practically the whole of the text of this volume. In the Introduction to vol. I he gives the history of the manuscript. It was discovered by Leland between 1538 and 1544, seen by Bale in Leland's possession (Index Scriptorum, ed. Poole and Bateson) and acquired by Parker before 1572, in which year the Antiquitates were printed (see MS 110. 7).
post rumo.
lat
frm
CCCC MS 175 contains a copy of an historical compilation called the Memoriale commonly attributed to Walter of Coventry who was writing in the second half of the thirteenth century, the period in which this manuscript of his text was written. In addition, the first few leaves of the manuscript are taken up with a range of historical notes, extracts and genealogical tables, some relating to the archdiocese of York. The manuscript was almost certainly in the hands of the Tudor poet and antiquary John Leland (1506-1552), who thought it was in poor condition - 'Codex erat aliquot locis mancus'. The historian John Bale (1495-1563) saw the manuscript in Leland's collection, but Parker must have acquired it some time before 1572 (possibly from the Cheapside resident William Carye), since the text was used as the basis for the archbishop's Antiquitates published in that year. The manuscript was copied many time in the course of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the details it supplied about church government in Angevin England being keenly studied by church historians.
xiii late
Tituli cardinalium cum brevi descriptione eorum officii -- Historia Britonum per compendium -- Nomina regum Angliae et chronica Saxonum -- Privilegium ecclesiae Sancti Petri Eboraci -- Chronica regum Northumbriae et archiepiscoporum Eboracensium -- Quaedam de conquestu Hiberniae et jure regis Angliae in Scotos -- Prophetiae Sybillae et Merlini -- Memoriale
1275
1299
101
I. 11
https://purl.stanford.edu/wz622sg0521
MS 175
UK, Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, Parker Library
https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:zz105xv9578/MS_175.pdf
https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:fp044hp8487/175.pdf
Tituli cardinalium cum brevi descriptione eorum officii
vir-vir
Tituli cardinalium cum brevi descriptione eorum officii
vir-vir
f. vr-vv is blank
In a hand of xiii-xiv
(vir) Quia primo summo pontifici i. Christo in triumphali ecclesia tres Ierarchie Angelorum obsequntur
List of Cardinals, ending
(vir) Sancte AgatheSancte Lucie in capite suburre S. Kirici Et sic sunt li cardinales
(not in Stubbs)
(viv) An extract from Bale (p. 264) on Walter of Coventry
Historia Britonum per compendium
1r-1r
Historia Britonum per compendium
1r-1r
Huic historiae prefixae sunt Anglice emensuratio et recensio septem regnorum Heptarchiae, illa Gallice, haec Latine. Ipsa historia incipit Britannia insularum optima inter Galliam, et ex Galfredo Monumetensi satis inscite et jejuniter compilata videtur: mores enim sui seculi ad pristinum hoc tempus transtulit autor imperitus, et loquitur de parliamento, baronibus, comitibus, et homagio feudali apud Britonas
The main hand of the book begins here
(1r) Anglia
(1r) La lungure de engleterre cuntent viiic lues ceo est a sauer' de escosce deskes a toteneys en cornwalle. E. en leur ccc lues ceo est a sauer de meneueye la uyle seynt dauid deskes a doure etc.
Length of Ireland
Kingdoms of the Heptarchy in Latin
(Stubbs, Appendix to Preface vol. I).
Nomina regum Angliae et chronica Saxonum
1r-4v
Nomina regum Angliae et chronica Saxonum
1r-4v
In hoc chronico deducitur historia Angliae usque ad Edwardum I. sed ita raptim ut binis saltem constet foliis. Incipit, Adelstanus fuit primus rex de Saxonibus in Anglia qui regnavit post Chadwalladum ultimum regem Britonum; ipse vero Eymundernesse quam a paganis emerat in perpetuam elemosinam ecclesiae Sancti Petri Eboraci dedit.
(1r) Incipit historia britonum per compendium
(1r) Britannia insularum optima inter galliae (sic)
Ends in 1291 with verses on Edward I
(4v) Eduuardus quartus modo regnat filius huius etc.
(Stubbs I 3-19)
Col. 1 on f. 5r is blank
Privilegium ecclesiae Sancti Petri Eboraci
5r-5r
Privilegium ecclesiae Sancti Petri Eboraci sive epistola Gregorii papae ad Augustinum de ordinatione episcopi Eboracensis qui habeat pallium et jus metropolitanum
5r-5r
Privilege of York
5r-5r
(5r) Reuerentissimi et sanctissimi Patri ffratri Augustino
(Bede Historia Ecclesiastica I 29)
(5r) custodiat reuerentissime frater
(Stubbs I 19)
Chronica regum Northumbriae et archiepiscoporum Eboracensium
5r-6r
Chronica regum Northumbriae et archiepiscoporum Eboracensium
5r-6r
Continet historiam ecclesiasticam istius provinciae a Paulino ad Thurstanum compendiose in uno folio scriptam
(5r) Beatus siquidem Gregorius papa ubi gentem anglorum
(6r) monachus factus obdormiuit in domino sub rege stephano
The greater part of a column blank (Stubbs I 20)
Quaedam de conquestu Hiberniae et jure regis Angliae in Scotos
6r-6v
Quaedam de conquestu Hyberniae et jure regis Angliae in Scotos
6r-6v
(6r) Nota quod ybernia habet octingenta miliaria in longitudine - alienoram uxorem leuwelini ultimi ex alienora sorore henrici quarti patris Eaduuardi illustris regis anglie
(Stubbs I 24)
Blank, part of column 6v
On English rights in Scotland
(6v) (Sciendum ? Item ?) quia in carta Regis Edgari scocie Dunelmensi continetur quod idem rex cognoscit se possidere etc.
Papa Honorius 3us
Gregorius papa scribit regi Scocie
Clemens papa scribens regi anglie
(Stubbs I 24)
Prophetiae Sybillae et Merlini
6v-6v
Prophetiae Sybillae et Merlini
6v-6v
Precedentia haec chronica non Gualtero Coventrensi (si ipse demum subsequentium autor sit habendus) sed potius anonymo cuidam monacho fani S. Petri apud Eboracenses adscribenda videntur, uti satis liquet ex donatione cujus fit mentio in initio chronici Anglo-Saxonum, chartaque et historiis quae illud excipiunt. Nec vero absimile videtur hosce quaterniones codici fuisse postea insertos, nam etsi caractere reliquis simili exarentur, magna tamen cernitur literarum initialium varietas, quae in illis simplici forma sine ornamento rubro atramento delineantur, in reliquo autem codice multo sunt ornatiores et diversis coloribus pictae
(6v) Prophecia sibille et merlini uatis de Albania et Anglis et eorum euentibus
(6v) Regnum scocorum fuit inter cetera regna
(6v) Historie ueteris Gildas luculentus aratorHec retulit paruo carmine plura notans
(Stubbs I 25)
(6v) Sibilla De euentibus regnorum et eorum regum ante finem mundi
(6v) Gallorum leuitas germanos iustificabit
The last seven lines in a different hand, ending
(6v) Papa cito moritur Cesar regnabit ubiqueSub quo tunc vana cessabit gloria cleri
(Stubbs I 26)
Walter of Coventry (attrib.), Memoriale
7r-166r
Annales Angliae per Walterum Coventrensem
7r-166r
Walter of Coventry (attrib.)
author
Titulus hic neotericus ex inscriptione ad imum hujus paginae desumptus videtur, quae ita se habet Memoriale fratris Walteri de Coventr et quae manu diversa et recentiori scripta ut placuit Cl. Tannero innuit hoc potius donum fuisse Gualteri quam scriptum. De hac controversia aliorum sit judicium, inscriptio ipsa reliquo codici haud multo recentior mihi videtur; et opus hoc Waltero olim fuisse adscriptum probat titulus deformi manu (seculo xv, si conjecturis uti liceat) in folio rejectitio ad finem codicis exaratus. In annalibus ad finem anni 1154 Explicit chronica Mariani, et similiter ad finem anni 1201 Expliciunt chronica Rogeri Hovedene. Incipiunt Romanorum nonagesimus tertius et continent historiam Angliae ab anno 1025/1003 ad annum 1225
The Annals begin. At the bottom of f. 7r in a very large black hand (xiv early) is: Memoriale fratris Walteri de Couentr.
From the position and script of this I should be inclined to call it a Library mark. See further below
Text
(7r) Romanorum nonogesimus IIIus Henricus regnauit annis xxii
(Stubbs I 27)
Text ends
(166r) literis domini pape acceptis repatriauit
(166v) Verso blank
(viir) On last leaf some references to the text (xvi)
(viiv) On verso scribbles
1 (xv-xvi). ? Mongy
2 (xiv). Cronica Walteri de Conuentren. Anno dni mo co lxxo vjo Rex filius matildis imperatricis fecit fund(itus) destrui Castellum Leycester et menia urbis et Castellum de groby similiter
This seems, to show an interest in Leicester on the part of the scribbler
Stubbs discusses the authorship at length and on pp. xx, xxi comes to the conclusion that Walter of Coventry is probably to be regarded as the author
On p. xxii he says that what little there is of local indication in the book, and it is very little, points to York rather than Coventry (as the home of the writer), possibly the city, but almost certainly to the diocese of York.
On p. xxv: Nasmith's inference that the writer was a monk of S. Peter's York, is of course erroneous: there were no monks at S. Peter's; but if he were a monk at all, there was no lack of monasteries in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. The great abbey of S. Mary's, York, was governed at the very time at which the MS. was written, by Simon of Warwick, who was Abbot from 1258 to 1296: and amongst the names of the monks then under vows there are those of William of Derby prior of S. Bees and afterwards of S. Mary's, and Walter of Leicester a great scholar and most excellent preacher (MS. Bodley 39). If the statement of Pits had any value that Walter was a native of Warwick, we might safely set him down as a follower of Abbot Simon: but anyhow the collocation of names is suggestive
Tanner thought that the inscription Memoriale fratris W. de C. meant that the book was potius donum Gualteri quam scriptum. Stubbs disagrees with him (p. xx) and cites the Memoriale presbyterorum and the Memoriale of Prior Henry of Eastry and of Henry Spenser Bishop of Norwich as instances of the use of the word to mean a collection of facts which the writer desires to be remembered
He does not cite instances which (coupled with the large script, and position of the words) incline me to believe that Tanner is in the right, and that the inscription means that Walter of Coventry presented the book to the library of his monastery and was not the author of it. Instances of such inscriptions are: University Library Ee. 5. 11. Astronomical Tables etc. Memoriale J. Wilton. University Library Ff. 4. 31. Hieronymus in Matthaeum. Memoriale fr. Walteri Hunt doctoris conuentus Carmelitarum oxonie. University Library Gg. 2. 18. Legenda Aurea. Memoriale fr. Joh. de Drayton monachi cuius anime propicietur deus. Lambeth MS. 160. Polychronica. Memoriale fr. Willelmi broscumbe magistri. K. ij. Lambeth MS. 215. Athanasius de trinitate. Memoriale de Lanthonia. The third of these examples, oddly enough, Tanner was inclined to interpret as an ascription of authorship. He had not seen that the work was the well-known Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine. The list might readily be enlarged, but I have thought the examples cited sufficient to show that the formula is an accustomed one for expressing a donation on the part of the person named
Parker Manuscripts
https://purl.stanford.edu/dx969tv9730
Images courtesy of The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For higher resolution images suitable for scholarly or commercial publication, either in print or in an electronic format, please contact the Parker Library directly at parker-library@corpus.cam.ac.uk
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC).