Writing History in the Anglo-Norman World: Manuscripts, Makers and Readers, c.1066-c.1250 (Writing History in the Middle Ages, 6) 1903153808, 9781903153802

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H

LAURA CLEAVER is the Ussher Lecturer in Medieval Art, Trinity College Dublin. ANDREA WORM is an Assistant Professor at the Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Karl-Franzens-Universität, Graz. CONTRIBUTORS: Stephen Church, Laura Cleaver, Kathryn Gerry, Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Laura Pani, Charles C. Rozier, Gleb Schmidt, Laura Slater, Michael Staunton, Caoimhe Whelan, Andrea Worm Cover image: William the Conqueror, London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 67r © The British Library Board.

YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS

LAURA CLEAVER, ANDREA WORM (eds)

istory was a subject popular with authors and readers in the Anglo-Norman world. The volume and richness of historical writing in the lands controlled by the kings of England, particularly from the twelfth century, has long attracted the attention of historians and literary scholars, whilst editions of works by such writers as Orderic Vitalis, John of Worcester, Symeon of Durham, William of Malmesbury, Gerald of Wales, Roger of Howden, and Matthew Paris has made them well known. Yet the easy availability of modern editions obscures both the creation and circulation of histories in the Middle Ages. This collection of essays returns to the processes involved in writing history, and in particular to the medieval manuscript sources in which the works of such historians survive. It explores the motivations of those writing about the past in the Middle Ages, and the evidence provided by manuscripts for the circumstances in which copies were made. It also addresses the selection of material for copying, combinations of text and imagery, and the demand for copies of particular works, shedding new light on how and why history was being read, reproduced, discussed, adapted, and written.

WRITING HISTORY IN THE ANGLO-NORMAN WORLD

WRITING HISTORY IN THE MIDDLE AGES

WRITING HISTORY IN THE ANGLO-NORMAN WORLD Manuscripts, Makers and Readers, c.1066–1250

An imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge IP12 3DF (GB) and 668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620–2731 (US)

YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS

Edited by L A U R A C L E A V E R and A N D R E A W O R M

Writing History in the Middle Ages Volume 6

Writing History in the Anglo-Norman World

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YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS York Medieval Press is published by the University of York’s Centre for Medieval Studies in association with Boydell & Brewer Limited. Our objective is the promotion of innovative scholarship and fresh criticism on medieval culture. We have a special commitment to interdisciplinary study, in line with the Centre’s belief that the future of Medieval Studies lies in those areas in which its major constituent disciplines at once inform and challenge each other. Editorial Board (2018) Professor Peter Biller (Dept of History): General Editor Professor T. Ayers (Dept of History of Art) Dr Henry Bainton (Dept of English and Related Literature): Secretary Dr J. W. Binns (Dept of English and Related Literature) Dr K. P. Clarke (Dept of English and Related Literature) Dr K. F. Giles (Dept of Archaeology) Dr Holly James-Maddocks (Dept of English and Related Literature) Professor W. Mark Ormrod (Dept of History) Professor Sarah Rees Jones (Dept of History): Director, Centre for Medieval Studies Dr L. J. Sackville (Dept of History) Dr Hanna Vorholt (Dept of History of Art) Professor J. G. Wogan-Browne (English Faculty, Fordham University) Consultant on Manuscript Publications Professor Linne Mooney (Dept of English and Related Literature) All enquiries of an editorial kind, including suggestions for monographs and essay collections, should be addressed to: The Academic Editor, York Medieval Press, University of York, Centre for Medieval Studies, The King’s Manor, York, YO1 7EP (E-mail: [email protected]). Details of other York Medieval Press volumes are available from Boydell & Brewer Ltd.

Writing History in the Middle Ages ISSN 2057-0252 Series editors Dr Henry Bainton, University of York Professor Lars Boje Mortensen, University of Southern Denmark History-writing was a vital form of expression throughout the European Middle Ages, and is fundamental to our understanding of medieval societies, politics, modes of expression, cultural memory, and social identity. This series publishes innovative work on history-writing from across the medieval world; monographs, collections of essays, and editions of texts are all welcome. Other volumes in the series are listed at the back of this book.

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Writing History in the Anglo-Norman World Manuscripts, Makers and Readers, c.1066–c.1250

Edited by Laura Cleaver and Andrea Worm

Y ORK MEDIEVA L PRE S S

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© Contributors 2018 All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owner First published 2018 A York Medieval Press publication in association with The Boydell Press an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK and of Boydell & Brewer Inc. 668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620–2731, USA website: www.boydellandbrewer.com and with the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York ISBN 978 1 903153 80 2 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate This publication is printed on acid-free paper

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Contents



List of Illustrations

vii

Acknowledgements

xi



xii

List of Abbreviations

Introduction Laura Cleaver and Andrea Worm

1

 1 Did the Purpose of History Change in England in the Twelfth Century? 7 Michael Staunton  2 England’s Place within Salvation History: An Extended Version of Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium Historiae in London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII Andrea Worm   3 Computus and Chronology in Anglo-Norman England Anne Lawrence-Mathers

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 4 A Saint Petersburg Manuscript of the Excerptio Roberti Herefordensis de Chronica Mariani Scotti 69 Gleb Schmidt  5 Autograph History Books in the Twelfth Century Laura Cleaver

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 6 Paul the Deacon’s Historia Langobardorum in Anglo-Norman England 113 Laura Pani  7 Durham Cathedral Priory and its Library of History, c. 1090–c. 1150 133 Charles C. Rozier  8 King John’s Books and the Interdict in England and Wales Stephen Church  9 Artistic Patronage and the Early Anglo-Norman Abbots of St Albans Kathryn Gerry

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10 Matthew Paris, Cecilia de Sanford and the Early Readership of the Vie de Seint Auban 189 Laura Slater

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Contents 11 New Readers, Old History: Gerald of Wales and the AngloNorman Invasion of Ireland Caoimhe Whelan

213



Bibliography 233



Index of Manuscripts

263



General Index

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Illustrations

Plates I–V (between pp. 132 and 133) I: Augustine of Canterbury and Pope Gregory the Great, beginning of the line of the archbishops of Canterbury, chronicle added to Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 59r © The British Library Board. II: Heptarchy, Matthew Paris, Genealogy of English Kings from King Alfred onwards, Chronica majora. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 26 fol. IVv © The Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. III: Abbot Richard, Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D I fol. 36v © The British Library Board. IV: Dublin, Trinity College, MS 177 fol. 52r © The Board of Trinity College Dublin. V: Dublin, Trinity College, MS 177 fol. 52v © The Board of Trinity College Dublin. Andrea Worm, England’s Place within Salvation History: An Extended Version of Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium Historiae in London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII Fig. 1: Days of Creation. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 44r © The British Library Board.

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Fig. 2: Adam and Eve, beginning of Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 45r © The British Library Board.

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Fig. 3: Crucifixion of Christ, end of Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 51v © The British Library Board.

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Fig. 4: Peter, beginning of the line of the popes, chronicle added to Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 52v © The British Library Board.

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Fig. 5: Lucius, king of the Britons, beginning of the line of the kings of England, chronicle added to Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 53v © The British Library Board.

42

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Illustrations Fig. 6: Beginning of Anglo-Saxon rule in England and diagram of the heptarchy, chronicle added to Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 62v © The British Library Board.

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Fig. 7: Alfred the Great, chronicle added to Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 63r © The British Library Board.

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Fig. 8: William, duke of Normandy and king of England, transition of rule from the Anglo-Saxon to the Norman kings, chronicle added to Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fols. 66v–67r © The British Library Board.

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Fig. 9: Heptarchy, Matthew Paris, Genealogy of English Kings from King Alfred onwards, Abbreviatio chronicorum Angliae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Claudius D VI fol. 10v © The British Library Board.

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Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Computus and Chronology in AngloNorman England Fig. 1: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14 fol. 132r © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford.

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Gleb Schmidt, A Saint Petersburg Manuscript of Excerptio Roberti Herefordensis de Chronica Mariani Scotti Fig. 1: Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS Lat. O. IV 1 fols. 98v–99r © National Library of Russia.

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Fig. 2: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14 fol. 148v © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford.

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Fig. 3: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 5 19 fol. 22v © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford.

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Fig. 4: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14 fol. 147r © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford.

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Fig. 5: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 5 19 fol. 20r © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford.

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Laura Cleaver, Autograph History Books in the Twelfth Century Fig. 1: Leiden, University Library, MS BPL 20 fol. 15r © Leiden University Library.

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Fig. 2: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Lat. 5506A fol. 6r © Bibliothèque nationale de France.

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Fig. 3: Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 157 p. 390 (detail). By

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Illustrations permission of the President and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. 101 Fig. 4: Dublin, Trinity College, MS 503 fol. 60r © The Board of Trinity College Dublin.

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Fig. 5: London, British Library, Royal MS 14 C II fol. 88r © The British Library Board.

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Fig. 6: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 582, f. 181v © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford.

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Laura Pani, Paul the Deacon’s Historia Langobardorum in AngloNorman England Fig. 1: London, British Library, Royal MS 13 A XXII fol. 2v © The British Library Board.

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Fig. 2: London, British Library, Royal MS 12 C IV fol. 44v © The British Library Board.

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Fig. 3: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 247, fol. 45r © The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford.

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Charles C. Rozier, Durham Cathedral Priory and its Library of History, c. 1090–c. 1150 Fig. 1: Durham, Cathedral Library, MS A.ii.4 fol. 1r, reproduced by kind permission of the Chapter of Durham Cathedral.

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Fig. 2: Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.iv.24 fol. 1r, reproduced by kind permission of the Chapter of Durham Cathedral.

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Kathryn Gerry, Artistic Patronage and the Early Anglo-Norman Abbots of St Albans Fig. 1: Theft from the Tomb of St Cuthbert, Oxford, University College, MS 165, p. 163 © The Master and Fellows of University College Oxford.

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Fig. 2: The Life of St Alexis, St Albans Psalter, Hildesheim, Dombibliothek MS St Godehard 1, p. 57. Property of the Basilica of St Godehard, Hildesheim.

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Laura Slater, Matthew Paris, Cecilia de Sanford and the Early Readership of the Vie de Seint Auban Fig. 1: Dublin, Trinity College, MS 177 fol. 38v © The Board of Trinity College Dublin.

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Illustrations Caoimhe Whelan, New Readers, Old History: Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland Fig. 1: London, British Library, Additional MS 40674 fol. 98r © The British Library Board.

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Fig. 2: London, British Library, Additional MS 40674 fol. 106r © The British Library Board.

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The editors, contributors and publishers are grateful to all the institutions and persons listed for permission to reproduce the materials in which they hold copyright. Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders; apologies are offered for any omission, and the publishers will be pleased to add any necessary acknowledgement in subsequent editions.

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Acknowledgements

This volume has its origins in a conference held at Trinity College, Dublin, in 2015 as part of the ‘History Books in the Anglo-Norman World’ project. The project was supported by a Marie Curie Action Grant (under the Seventh Framework Programme) and the editors are extremely grateful for the funding, which facilitated lively and productive intellectual exchanges both at the conference and subsequently as the papers were revised for publication. The costs of this book have been supported by Trinity Irish Art Research Centre (TRIARC) and the editors would like to thank TRIARC and in particular Dr Yvonne Scott for their commitment to supporting art history publications. As Director of York Medieval Press, Pete Biller has gone above and beyond the call of duty to see this project to conclusion with unfailing patience, wisdom and good humour, and we are extremely grateful to him.

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Abbreviations

ANS Cat. Vet. Conquest Ecclesiastical History

EHR Expugnatio

HL JMH LDE

MGHSS PL SLI

Anglo-Norman Studies Catalogi Veteres Librorum Ecclesie Cathedralis Dunelm, ed. B. Botfield (London, 1838). The English Conquest of Ireland, ed. F. J. Furnivall (London, 1896). Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. and trans. M. Chibnall, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1969-80). The English Historical Review Gerald of Wales, Expugnatio Hibernica: The Conquest of Ireland, ed. and trans. A. B. Scott and F. X. Martin (Dublin, 1978). Historia Langobardorum Journal of Medieval History Symeon of Durham, Libellus de Exordio atque Procursu istius hoc est Dunhelmensis Ecclesie, ed. and trans. D. Rollason (Oxford, 2000). Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores Patrologia Latina Selected Letters of Pope Innocent III Concerning England (1198–1216), ed. C. R. Cheney and W. H. Semple (London, 1953).

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Introduction Making and Reading History Books in the Anglo-Norman World Laura Cleaver and Andrea Worm

After the conquest of England in 1066 by Duke William of Normandy, historians on both sides of the English Channel tried to record and explain the political and social circumstances in which they found themselves in the context of larger conceptions of history.1 The twelfth century, in particular, saw a surge in the popularity of historical writing in the lands controlled by the kings of England. Among the authors whose histories are still widely known and studied are Orderic Vitalis, John of Worcester, Symeon of Durham, William of Malmesbury, and later Ralph of Diceto, Gerald of Wales, Roger of Howden and Matthew Paris. The crafting of new works also led to a renewed interest in earlier historical writing about both the Norman and the Anglo-Saxon past, most notably Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica, and new copies of older texts were made. History was thus being read, reproduced, discussed and reworked, as well as written, in the years after 1066.2 Moreover, the process of making manuscripts sometimes involved the selection and combination of texts in a single volume, or the exploration of the past through the addition of imagery. Most of the essays collected in this volume take as their starting point individual manuscripts or references to particular history books. Through the examination of text, script, design and imagery they explore different facets of the creation and use of history books in the lands 1 M.

Staunton, The Historians of Angevin England (Oxford, 2017), p. 24. medieval historical writing in the lands controlled by the kings of England see, amongst many others, R. W. Southern’s Presidential Addresses, published in the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 20–4 (1970–4); B. Smalley, Historians in the Middle Ages (London, 1974); A. Gransden, Historical Writing in England c. 550 to c. 1307, 2 vols. (London, 1974–82); N. Partner, Serious Entertainments: The Writing of History in Twelfth-Century England (Chicago, 1977); B. Guenée, Histoire et culture historique dans l’occident médiéval (Paris, 1980); L. Shopkow, History and Community: Norman Historical Writing in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Washington DC, 1997); M. Brett and D. A. Woodman, eds, The Long Twelfth-Century View of the Anglo-Saxon Past (Farnham, 2015); P. Damian-Grint, The New Historians of the Twelfth-Century Renaissance: Inventing Vernacular Authority (Woodbridge, 1999); Staunton, Historians of Angevin England.

2 On

1

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Laura Cleaver and Andrea Worm controlled by the kings of England between c. 1066 and c. 1250. The emphasis here is on narrative histories, rather than other forms of documentation, and the essays explore how historians approached their task, notions of time and place, and the varied potential uses of writing about the past. One of the major challenges of working with manuscript evidence is the limited survival of medieval books. Those writing history in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries included both monks and secular clerics with access to the royal court, and these authors addressed their works to a range of audiences, including their own monastic communities, kings and members of the nobility. However, manuscripts appear to have stood a much better chance of survival if they were preserved in monastic libraries, which probably distorts the evidence available to us. Happily, the value of twelfth- and thirteenth-century histories seems to have been appreciated by many early collectors of manuscripts, and thus a substantial number of history books survived the dispersal of monastic libraries in the English Reformation and French Revolution. From the sixteenth century onwards, manuscripts from French libraries were copied and edited, notably by the Maurists, and in England histories (and particularly those of England) proved popular with well-known collectors such as Sir Robert Cotton, and William Howard, who published an edition of the Worcester chronicula (now Dublin, Trinity College, MS 503) as early as 1592.3 Amongst those collecting medieval histories in England in the sixteenth century was Archbishop Matthew Parker, who sought evidence for an English history that was not part of Roman Church history, as well as learned ecclesiastical writing in the vernacular.4 He bequeathed his collection to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. By the time of the Reformation the political boundaries of the lands controlled by the kings of England had shifted and, following the loss of Calais in 1558, the English crown no longer ruled over any territory on the European mainland. The early modern and modern political boundaries played an important role in shaping scholarship on medieval historiography, particularly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with English language scholarship largely concentrating on material concerning England,

3 Florentius

Wigorniensis, Chronicon ex chronicis, ab initio mundi usque ad annum 1118 deductum, ed. G. Howardus (London, 1592); see also M. D. Knowles, ‘Presidential Address: Great Historical Enterprises II. The Maurists’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 9 (1959), 169–87; E. M. C. van Houts, ‘Camden, Cotton and the Chronicles of the Norman Conquest of England’, British Library Journal (1992), 148–62. 4 On Matthew Parker see T. Graham and A. G. Watson, The Recovery of the Past in Early Elizabethan England: Documents by John Bale and John Joscelyn from the Circle of Matthew Parker (Cambridge, 1998); T. Graham, ‘Changing the Context of Medieval Manuscript Art: The Case of Matthew Parker’, in Medieval Art: Recent Perspectives, ed. G. R. Owen-Crocker and T. Graham (Manchester and New York, 1998), pp. 183–205.

2

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Introduction and leaving work on Normandy and the other French territories to French scholars. The nineteenth century saw the creation of new scholarly editions of many histories, often with detailed accounts of the manuscript sources, notably as part of the Rolls Series and the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. The work of editing and translating has continued into the twenty-first century, with some texts receiving modern editions (often as part of the Oxford Medieval Texts series, formerly Nelson’s Medieval Texts). As a result, a wide range of medieval histories are readily available to scholars and students working in different disciplines. Yet easy access to printed editions has often obscured the different levels of circulation of these texts in the Middle Ages, and drawn attention away from the manuscripts in which they survive, resulting in a tendency for scholars to treat such works as sources of historical facts and, more recently, as pieces of literature.5 These publications have also encouraged scholars to work on edited texts to the neglect of others, particularly those whose formats made publication difficult, for example because they were constructed as complex tables or diagrams. There have, of course, been exceptions to these generalizations, notably the work of Antonia Gransden and Beryl Smalley, both of whom explored manuscripts as part of their studies of medieval historical writing, as well as studies of specific volumes, such as Suzanne Lewis’s work on the Chronica Majora.6 Recent investments in digitization have made it significantly easier for scholars to access images of manuscripts, and helped to demonstrate the importance of studying the organization of material, including how words are set out on a page and how they are combined with other elements, such as tables, diagrams, maps, or images. Moreover, some studies of manuscripts have drawn attention to the ways in which their makers engaged with the physical form and visual appearance of their sources.7 Returning to the study of the manuscript evidence for medieval history thus prompts a reconsideration of the makers, readers and functions of these documents, as well as the contexts in which copies were made at particular moments in time. The aim of this volume is to bring together scholars who approach medieval histories from a wide range of perspectives. The emphasis here is mainly on narrative histories, rather than other forms of documentation, but this still covers genres such as chronicles, genealogies, deeds of abbots and

5 G.

M. Spiegel, ‘Theory into Practice: Reading Medieval Chronicles’, in The Medieval Chronicle: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Medieval Chronicle, ed. E. Kooper (Amsterdam, 1999), pp. 1–12. 6 Smalley, Historians in the Middle Ages; A. Gransden, Historical Writing in England, 2 vols. (London, 1974–82); S. Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica Majora (Aldershot, 1987). 7 See, for example, J. Berenbeim, The Art of Documentation: Documents and Visual Culture in Medieval England (Toronto, 2015).

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Laura Cleaver and Andrea Worm the lives of saints. The collection begins with Michael Staunton’s exploration of the claims made by medieval historians about their work. He argues that, despite the widespread use of tropes about the value of history, by the end of the twelfth century, in particular, historical texts reveal authors to be wrestling with current events as much as with the past, and following their own complex interests rather than seeking to create an improving moral exemplar for future generations. The following four essays address the challenges faced by those seeking to write history in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Andrea Worm offers a case study of a remarkable genealogical synopsis made in the early thirteenth century (London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII), which sought to locate England and its rulers within a history stretching back to Adam and Eve through a combination of a diagrammatic structure, text and imagery. The production of this volume required both an engagement with ideas about the past and skilled designers, scribes and artists. The maker of this highly sophisticated volume adapted Peter of Poitiers’ widely used Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi, but extended it to encompass medieval rulers. He also incorporated the earliest known diagram of the heptarchy of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in his attempt to explain the transfer of rule from the Anglo-Saxon to the Norman kings, and thus express the idea of an English identity at a crucial point in time; the eve of the Battle of Bouvines in 1214. Anne Lawrence-Mathers focuses on a major challenge for those writing about the past, namely conflicting information about chronology, a problem also rooted in attempts to make sense of biblical history. She considers the reception of the work of Marianus Scotus at Worcester in the early twelfth century and its impact in England and Normandy. Gleb Schmidt also explores the response to Marianus’s work in England, through an analysis of surviving manuscripts of the work of Robert of Hereford. These books are a particularly interesting case, because they were known to and worked on by other wellknown English historians, including William of Malmesbury and John of Worcester. The writing of books is the subject of Laura Cleaver’s essay, which addresses the evidence for the involvement of individuals including John of Worcester in the execution of the works that bear their names. Through an examination of some of the manuscripts associated with Orderic Vitalis, William of Malmesbury, Eadmer of Canterbury and Roger of Howden, she argues that early copies of manuscripts shed important light on the development of a work and the resources that communities, as well as individuals, were willing to invest in them. The next group of essays addresses the circulation of manuscripts and dissemination of texts. The creation of printed editions of medieval histories enables a modern reader to access a large number of texts, all presented in a similar format. Yet in the Middle Ages some texts were much more widely distributed than others and their size and decoration varied widely. 4

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Introduction Patterns in the visual appearance and textual content of manuscripts can help to establish links between groups of manuscripts, whilst library lists also provide insights into the works available at particular places. Two essays focus specifically on the diversity of the material about the past that was being copied in the Anglo-Norman world, sometimes within a single manuscript. Laura Pani examines the relationships between manuscripts of Paul the Deacon’s Historia Langobardorum created in Normandy and England in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries. In addition, she explores the texts with which the Historia Langobardorum was copied, arguing that these manuscripts demonstrate an interest in history beyond that of either the Norman dukes or the Anglo-Saxon kings. In contrast, Charles Rozier focuses on the collection of historical texts, using Durham Cathedral as a case study. He argues that, in addition to texts connected with Durham and the cult of St Cuthbert, which detailed the rights of the community, the monks at Durham were collecting a wide range of historical material, probably for use in teaching as well as the creation of new texts, and driven by the interests of individual monks. The final part of this volume focuses on the audiences for historical writing, exploring how and why specific texts about the past might have been used and valued. Stephen Church tackles an account of a group of manuscripts that were brought to King John in 1208. He argues that the selection of works of theology and history may have been designed to enable the king to respond to the interdict passed on his kingdom by Pope Innocent III, and explores what the document suggests about royal access to books. Kathryn Gerry examines the account of the Deeds of the Abbots of St Albans, as it survives in a manuscript produced in the middle of the thirteenth century by Matthew Paris, apparently using older texts (London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D I). Concentrating on the accounts of the artistic patronage of Abbots Paul and Richard in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, and in particular their engagement with relics, she explores how these abbots appear to have actively engaged with the physical survivals of this pre-conquest foundation. Her essay calls attention to the layers of history that may be preserved in a remarkable source, and to the challenges of unpicking such rich narratives. Laura Slater also focuses on a work by Matthew Paris, his account of the Life of St Alban (Dublin, Trinity College, MS 177). She argues that this volume could have been made with elite female patrons in mind and explores how this account of the distant past, communicated through text and imagery, might have resonated with one possible early viewer, Cecilia de Sanford. Finally, Caoimhe Whelan examines the continued interest in the work of Gerald of Wales in late medieval Ireland, concentrating on copies of the vernacular English translation made for families in Ireland, to explore how an account of the recent past created in the late twelfth century became valued as an authoritative source by its later readers. The essays collected here call attention to the richness and complexity of medieval history books. They offer new insights into the makers of these 5

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Laura Cleaver and Andrea Worm volumes and the circumstances in which the manuscripts were conceived and created, but also into their contemporary uses, and their later reception and afterlife. Many of the contributions may prove fertile starting points for future work, for example on the combinations of texts found in individual manuscripts and contexts of transmission; and as a whole they demonstrate the potential for a re-examination of the manuscript evidence both to challenge and to shed new light on what we think we know about the medieval past.

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1 Did the Purpose of History Change in England in the Twelfth Century? Michael Staunton

English historical writing flourished in the twelfth century as it never had before. From William of Malmesbury to William of Newburgh, English writers wrote histories that have proved enduringly useful, and that broke new ground. It is to these writers that we owe much of our knowledge and image of the medieval English past. Nor was this achievement limited to a few decades; it lasted through the whole century, apart from a brief hiatus in the early years of Henry II’s reign. That said, there is also quite a degree of difference between historical writing at the start of the century and at the end. The example of Symeon of Durham may find echoes in Roger of Howden’s adhesion to the northern chronicle tradition, and Eadmer of Canterbury is self-consciously followed by some of Thomas Becket’s biographers and by Gervase of Canterbury, but despite the popularity of his work, Geoffrey of Monmouth had no late twelfth century successor in Latin, and there is no writer quite like Gerald of Wales or Richard of Devizes in the first half of the century. Henry of Huntingdon and Aelred of Rievaulx remained relevant in King Richard’s reign, but the concerns of new writers of history appeared to have moved on from theirs. There are a number of ways in which the similarities and differences between English historiography in the first half of the twelfth century and its successors at the end of the century might be explored. One might focus on literary form, exploring the persistence of the chronicle, the continuing development of the monograph, and the new experiments in verse historiography. One might examine specific developments, such as the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of historical writing, or the role of biography. Here I will address a fundamental question that is sometimes asked but not always adequately answered: Why did twelfth-century English historians write history? And I will point it in a more specific direction to ask a question that has not been addressed, despite the great volume and quality of work on the subject: Did the purpose of history in England change over the course of the century? I will focus here on literature in Latin, although the period also produced historical writing in the vernacular by authors including Wace, Gaimar and Jordan Fantosme. 7

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Michael Staunton When scholars address the purpose of medieval histories, they tend to do so in terms of two main functions.1 The first is what medieval historians themselves most often cite as their reason for writing: the didactic purpose of history. Medieval historians regularly acknowledged that history is beneficial to the reader. History teaches us about how the universe works – God’s providential plan for humanity – and also how life ought to be lived, giving lessons of good actions to follow and bad actions to avoid. Modern scholars often pay attention to this, but are usually more concerned to look for something that is not explicated by medieval writers themselves: the social or political utility of the text – in other words, the interests served by a history, whether to a community, a dynasty or an ideology. My recent work has been on historians who wrote in England at the end of the twelfth century and the beginning of the thirteenth century, and there are few obvious reasons why those general imperatives might not be applied to these historians.2 They were all churchmen, writing in Latin, most of them very well educated in the Bible, in Christian tradition, as well as classical learning. Most of them were also highly engaged in society and in politics. They worked for kings or for bishops, or they had an important place in their church, and they knew many of the political actors whom they wrote about. But although I began my study of these historians looking out for these two things – the didactic purpose and the social or political use to which the history was put – I have come to the conclusion that neither of these were particularly strong motivations for the writing of history in late twelfth-century England. Before addressing historians’ motives across the century, those explicitly stated and those implicit in their narratives, it should be noted that there 1 See

G. Simon, ‘Untersuchungen zur Topik der Widmungsbriefe mittelalterlicher Geschichtsschreiber bis zum Ende des 12. Jahrhunderts’, Archiv für Diplomatik IV (1958), 52–119, V–VI (1959–60), 73–153; B. Guenée, Histoire et culture historique dans l’occident médiéval (Paris, 1980); A. Gransden, ‘Prologues in the Historiography of Twelfth-Century England’, in England in the Twelfth Century, ed. D. Williams (Woodbridge, 1990), pp. 55–81; J. Lake, ‘Current Approaches to Medieval Historiography’, History Compass 13 (2015), 89–109 (pp. 92–5). 2 M. Staunton, The Historians of Angevin England (Oxford, 2017). The historians discussed are Roger of Howden, Ralph of Diceto, William of Newburgh, Gerald of Wales, Gervase of Canterbury, Ralph of Coggeshall, Richard of Devizes, Walter Map and Richard de Templo. All are discussed here too, apart from the last, who wrote in the second decade of the thirteenth century. This list excludes writers in Old French, such as Jordan Fantosme, as well as a number of annalists. On historical writing under the Angevin kings of England, see also A. Gransden, Historical Writing in England: c. 550 to c. 1307, 2 vols. (London, 1974–82), I; N. F. Partner, Serious Entertainments: The Writing of History in Twelfth-Century England (Chicago, 1977); J. Gillingham, Richard Coeur de Lion: Kingship, Chivalry and War in the Twelfth Century (London, 1994); J. Gillingham, The English in the Twelfth Century: Imperialism, National Identity and Political Values (Woodbridge, 2000); R. W. Huling, ‘English Historical Writing under the Early Angevin Kings, 1170–1210’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, SUNY, Binghamton, 1981).

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Purpose of History are certain fundamental differences between the picture presented by those historians who wrote before Henry II’s accession in 1154 and those who participated in the revival of historiography in the last three decades of the century. The most striking is the fact that nearly all the historians of Angevin England concentrate on recent events. They were not the first to write contemporary history – Eadmer wrote a Historia Novorum and William of Malmesbury a Historia Novella – nor did all these writers limit themselves to their own time, but there is nonetheless a notable shift in focus over the century. A second, surely related, shift is observable in the kind of historians who wrote history, from monks to clerks. Again, we should not overstate this. We find the seculars Geoffrey of Monmouth and Henry of Huntingdon writing influential histories in the earlier half of the century, and the religious Gervase of Canterbury, Ralph of Coggeshall, Richard of Devizes and William of Newburgh writing in King Richard’s reign (1189-99). Nonetheless, the last decades of the century saw the emergence of some different kinds of historians, notably the ‘administrative’ or ‘civil service’ historians represented by Roger of Howden and Ralph of Diceto,3 and the historians associated with the royal court, Walter Map and Gerald of Wales. Others, such as Richard of Devizes and William of Newburgh, were affected by royal government in a way that earlier historians had not been, for example in their use of informants at court and official newsletters. We could point to political and intellectual factors too. England was a different country at the end of the twelfth century. Royal government had developed a far greater reach, English relationships with their neighbours had been changed by the territorial expansion of Henry II’s reign and English involvement in the Third Crusade. Many of the historians of the later period were shaped too by their education in the continental schools, and the greater appropriation of classical models. It is not surprising that historiography at the end of the century should be different from that at its beginning.

‘The lives of others are our teachers’ In the Gesta Regum, William of Malmesbury reflected on his early studies, and said that he paid particular attention to history, ‘which adds flavour to moral instruction by imparting a pleasurable knowledge of past events, spurring the reader by the accumulation of examples to follow the good and shun the bad’.4 In writing his own history he determined to pass over things that had 3 B.

Smalley, Historians of the Middle Ages (London, 1974), pp. 113–19; Gransden, Historical Writing, I, 220–36. 4 William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1998–9), II, Prologue; III, Prologue: pp. 150–1, 424–5.

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Michael Staunton no practical value, and instead only recount what may provide stimulus for the indolent or example for the active, things of profit for contemporaries and of interest to posterity. Indeed he explicitly stated in his dedication to the Empress Matilda that such histories provided rulers with a sort of pattern for their own lives, from which they could follow some men’s successes while avoiding the misfortunes of others.5 In the prologue to the Historia Novella William wrote that he intended to leave a record of recent events – for what is more benefitting to virtue and justice than to recognize God’s pleasure in the good and punishment of the wicked, and what is more pleasant than to recognize the deeds of brave men, so that others might cast off cowardice and arm themselves to defend their country?6 This idea did not originate in the Middle Ages. Cicero had written that history was magistra vitae, life’s teacher.7 In the Prologue to his History of Rome, Livy wrote: What chiefly makes the study of history wholesome and profitable is this, that you behold the lessons of every kind of experience set forth as on a conspicuous monument; from these you may choose for yourself and for your own state what to imitate, from these mark for avoidance what is shameful in the conception and shameful in the result.8

But nor were medieval writers only influenced by the Roman example. St Paul wrote that whatever things that were written before were written for our learning (Rom. 15:4), a sentiment invoked by medieval writers in defence of history.9 Henry of Huntingdon’s Prologue holds up the pre-eminent place in literature of historical writing, and he explicitly points to both pagan and Christian examples: For nothing is more excellent in this life than to investigate and become familiar with the course of worldly events. Where does the grandeur of valiant men shine more brightly, or the wisdom of the prudent, or the discretion of the righteous, or the moderation of the temperate, than in the context of history.10

5 William

of Malmesbury, Gesta regum, I, Prologue: pp. 10–13. of Malmesbury, Historia Novella (The Contemporary History), ed. E. King, trans. K. R. Potter (Oxford, 1999), I, Prologue: pp. 2–3. 7 Cicero, De Oratore, ed. E. W. Sutton and H. Rackham (Cambridge MA, 1942), II.ix.36, pp. 224–5. 8 Livy, History of Rome, Volume I: Books 1–2, trans. B. O. Foster (Cambridge MA, 1919), pp. 6–7. 9 For a useful sample of pre-modern historians’ prologues, see J. Lake, ed., Prologues to Ancient and Medieval History: A Reader (Toronto, 2013). 10 Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum: The History of the English People, ed. and trans. D. Greenway (Oxford, 1996), p. 3. 6 William

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Purpose of History Homer, he continues, was able to clearly show the prudence of Ulysses, the fortitude of Agamemnon, the temperance of Nestor, and to discuss what is right and proper more effectively in his narrative than moral philosophers were able to do in their many volumes. Likewise, sacred history teaches the moral code, displaying Abraham’s justice and Joseph’s prudence and at the same time the feebleness of Uzziah and the imprudence of Rehoboam. Yes, indeed, in the recorded deeds of all peoples and nations, which are the very judgements of God, clemency, generosity, honesty, caution and the like, and their opposites, not only provoke men of the spirit to what is good and deter them from evil, but even encourage worldly men to good deeds and reduce their wickedness. History therefore brings the past into view as if it were present, and allows judgement of the future by representing the past.11

It is possible to discern two, related, elements to the didactic worth of history, as presented by medieval writers. The first is that history illustrates God’s plan, and the second is that it directs the steps of the audience. John of Salisbury points to both in the Historia Pontificalis (c. 1163) when he writes, My aim, like that of other chroniclers before me, will be to profit my contemporaries and future generations. For all these chroniclers have had a single purpose: to relate noteworthy matters, so that the invisible things of God may be clearly seen in the things that are done,12 and men may by examples of reward or punishment be made more zealous in the fear of God and pursuit of justice.13

If we look to the last decades of the century, the fullest expression of these ideas in the realms of the kings of England is in the prologue to Robert of Torigni’s Chronica: Some may say, ‘What need is there to commit to writing the lives, death and various doings of men, or to preserve in writing the prodigies of the skies, the earth, or the other elements?’ I answer that the good life and customs of our predecessors are set forth for the imitation of those who follow, and the examples of the wicked are described, so that they be avoided. Prodigies or portents may signify famine, pestilence, or any other of the scourges with which God’s vengeance deservedly visits the sins of the children of men. They are committed to memory in writing, so that whenever such things happen, sinners will remember that they have in some way incurred God’s wrath, and will hasten to the remedies of penance and confession, and so reconcile themselves to God.

11 Ibid.,

p. 5. 1:20. 13 John of Salisbury, The Historia Pontificalis of John of Salisbury, ed. M. Chibnall (Oxford, 1986), p. 3; see Rom. 1:20. 12 Rom.

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Michael Staunton For this reason, he writes, Moses recorded the innocence of Abel, the jealousy of Cain, the simplicity of Jacob and the craftiness of Esau. Other biblical writers led readers to virtue and away from vice, as did such Christian writers as Cyprian, Eusebius and Jerome, and in more recent times Marianus Scottus and Sigebert of Gembloux. We should not listen, then, he says, to those who say we should neglect chronicles, for, especially if they are written by Catholics, they will be useful to the studious and astute.14 All through the twelfth century, then, writers are seen to invoke history’s didactic purpose, its role in bringing people to an awareness of God’s plan for humanity, and its value in directing people towards good behaviour and away from evil. But is this really what historians throughout the century did, or even sought to do? Modern commentators would seem to agree that such statements in prologues did not amount to merely lip service, at least for some writers. Sigbjørn Sønnesyn, for example, has shown how William of Malmesbury’s works are infused with ideas about ethics derived from writers like Seneca, Cicero, Augustine and Gregory the Great. William’s histories, Sønnesyn argues, are designed with the purpose of bringing people to the good life.15 Henry of Huntingdon invoked the instructive purpose of history in his prologue, and also framed his history of England as a series of plagues sent by God to punish the sins of the inhabitants. And, as Nancy Partner has discussed in some detail, his work is shot through with the theme of contemptus mundi, showing the mutability of worldly affairs and the permanence of spiritual things.16 Robert of Torigni, however, presents us with different conclusions. As Margaret Gibson notes, despite what Robert wrote in his prologue, he was not concerned with the moral value of history, still less with the sequence of ages or the cosmic pattern of salvation. Instead, he belonged to a long line of historians whose prime interest was in getting the dates right. His Chronicle is in not in any sense a work of interpretation, either of events or the motives of men.17 Leah Shopkow agrees, noting that Torigni read the past mostly literally, his history being an account of human actions and their results, without the allegorical schema of Dudo of Saint-Quentin or the moral inclinations of William of Poitiers and Orderic Vitalis. He rarely commented on the events he narrated, did not argue for any particular direction to the history 14 Robert

of Torigni, ‘The Chronicle of Robert of Torigni’, Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, ed. R. Howlett, 4 vols. (London, 1884–9), IV, 61–2. These words are adapted by Matthew Paris, Chronica majora, ed. Henry R. Luard, 7 vols. (London, 1872–83), I, Prologue, pp. 1–2. 15 S. Sønnesyn, William of Malmesbury and the Ethics of History (Woodbridge, 2012); see also B. Weiler, ‘William of Malmesbury on Kingship’, History 90 (2005), 3–22. 16 Partner, Serious Entertainments, pp. 33–5, 39. 17 M. Gibson, ‘History at Bec in the Twelfth Century’, in The Writing of History in the Middle Ages. Essays Presented to Richard William Southern, ed. R. H. C. Davis et al. (Oxford, 1981), pp. 167–86 (p. 175). See also Lawrence-Mathers in this volume.

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Purpose of History of his own times, avoided arguing for any large patterns in history, and concerned himself with small stories that reflected the concerns of his day.18 But in comparing William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon with Robert of Torigni, perhaps we are not comparing like with like. More apt comparisons might be provided by those more sweeping histories by Roger of Howden, Ralph of Diceto and William of Newburgh, which in their ambitious scope allowed patterns to emerge and room for interpretation. Alternatively, we might look to those other late twelfth-century writers who addressed more limited subjects but approached their task in a reflective way. Roger of Howden’s Gesta and Chronica provide the most detailed account we have of English history between the murder of Thomas Becket and the accession of King John.19 Nor is it merely a record of political affairs – modern scholars from William Stubbs to John Gillingham have pointed to a deeper spiritual purpose to Howden’s work, especially evident in his later chronicles.20 Yet no preface to either of Howden’s works survives, and there is no sign that they were ever written. Ralph of Diceto, too, wrote an ambitious chronicle of recent years, the Ymagines Historiarum, and his compendium of earlier history, the Abbreviationes Chronicorum, is prefaced by various materials, many of them discussions of the historian’s task, drawn from writers ranging from Cassiodorus to Hugh of St Victor. But although these comments show much interest in such topics as the division of time, the organization of material for the utility of the reader, and the dissension among authorities, any attention to the didactic purpose of history is muted, and in neither of his works do we find much explicit indication of such an ambition.21 18 L.

Shopkow, History and Community: Norman Historical Writing in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Washington DC, 1997), p. 107. 19 Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi Benedicti Abbatis, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols. (London, 1867); Roger of Howden, Chronica Magistri Rogeri de Houedene, ed. W. Stubbs, 4 vols. (London, 1868–71). On Howden and his works, see Stubbs’s introductions to Chronica I–IV; F. Barlow, ‘Roger of Howden’, EHR 65 (1950), 352–60; D. M. Stenton, ‘Roger of Howden and Benedict’, EHR 68 (1953), 574–82; Gransden, Historical Writing, I, 222–30; D. Corner, ‘The Gesta Henrici Secundi and Chronica of Roger Parson of Howden’, Historical Research 56 (1983), 126–44; D. Corner, ‘The Earliest Surviving Manuscripts of Roger of Howden’s “Chronica”’, EHR 387 (1983), 297–310; Huling, ‘English Historical Writing’, pp. 37–109; and a number of articles by John Gillingham: ‘Roger of Howden on Crusade’, in Medieval Historical Writing in the Christian and Islamic Worlds, ed. D. O. Morgan (London, 1982), repr. in Richard Coeur de Lion, pp. 141–53; ‘The Travels of Roger of Howden and his Views of the Irish, Scots and Welsh’, ANS 20 (1997), 151–69; ‘Two Yorkshire Historians Compared: Roger of Howden and William of Newburgh’, Haskins Society Journal 12 (2002), 15–37; ‘Writing the Biography of Roger of Howden, King’s Clerk and Chronicler’, in Writing Medieval Biography 750–1250: Essays in Honour of Professor Frank Barlow, ed. D. Bates, J. Crick and S. Hamilton (Woodbridge, 2006), pp. 207–20. 20 Roger of Howden, Chronica, IV, ‘Introduction’; Gillingham, ‘Writing the Biography of Roger of Howden’. 21 Ralph Diceto, Radulfi de Diceto Decani Lundoniensis Opera Historica: The Historical

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Michael Staunton When we turn to some of the monastic historians of the period, the picture is no different. Richard of Devizes was a Benedictine monk of St Swithun’s, Winchester, but his Cronicon is notable for its lack of obvious religious character.22 Its prologue suggests no didactic purpose, being instead an ironic dedication to a former inmate of St Swithun’s who had become a Carthusian, and the work as a whole owes more to the influence of Juvenal’s Satires than to any Christian writer. Ralph of Coggeshall was a Cistercian monk, and his Chronicon features many stories of the marvellous and otherworldly.23 But Coggeshall’s work has no prologue, the authorial voice is as restrained as that of Roger of Howden, and it is such an uneven work that any attempt at imposing a uniform design proves frustrating. Perhaps surprisingly, it is in Walter Map’s De nugis curialium that we find one of the most explicit statements of a moral purpose. He says that he has determined to write down sayings and doings which have not yet been committed to writing, anything that is more than ordinarily inspiring: ‘all this to be set down, that the reading of it may amuse, and its teaching tend to moral improvement’.24 In the prologue to his fourth distinction he sets out a

Works of Master Ralph de Diceto, Dean of London, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols. (London, 1876), I, 4–32. On Ralph’s career and writings, see Stubbs’s introduction, I, ix–c; Gransden, Historical Writing, I, 230–6; D. Greenway, ‘The Succession to Ralph de Diceto, Dean of St Paul’s’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 39 (1966), 86–95; Smalley, Historians, pp. 114–19; B. Smalley, The Becket Conflict and the Schools (Oxford, 1973), pp. 230–4; G. A. Zinn, ‘The Influence of Hugh of St Victor’s Chronicon on the Abbreviationes Chronicorum of Ralph of Diceto’, Speculum 52 (1977), 38–61; C. Duggan and A. Duggan, ‘Ralph de Diceto, Henry II and Becket, with an Appendix on Decretal Letters’, in Authority and Power: Studies in Medieval Law and Government Presented to Walter Ullmann on His Seventieth Birthday, ed. B. Tierney and P. Linehan (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 59–81; Huling, ‘English Historical Writing’, pp. 110–86. 22 Richard of Devizes, The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes of the Time of King Richard I, ed. and trans. J. T. Appleby (London, 1963). See also Partner, Serious Entertainments, pp. 152–14, 173–5, 227–9; N. F. Partner, ‘Richard of Devizes: The Monk Who Forgot To Be Medieval’, in The Middle Ages in Texts and Texture: Reflections on Medieval Sources, ed. J. Glenn (Toronto, 2011), pp. 231–44. 23 Radulphi de Coggeshall Chronicon Anglicanum, ed. J. Stevenson (London, 1875). On Coggeshall’s life and work, see F. M. Powicke, ‘Roger of Wendover and the Coggeshall Chronicle’, EHR 21 (1906), 286–96; Gransden, Historical Writing, I, 322–31; G. N. Hartcher, ‘Ralph of Coggeshall’s “Chronicon Anglicanum”: An Investigative Analysis’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, The Catholic University of America, Washington DC, 1979); D. Carpenter, ‘Abbot Ralph of Coggeshall’s Account of the Last Years of King Richard and the First Years of King John’, EHR 113 (1998), 1210–30; J. Gillingham, ‘Historians without Hindsight: Coggeshall, Diceto and Howden on the Early Years of John’s Reign’, in King John: New Interpretations, ed. S. D. Church (Woodbridge, 1999), pp. 1–26; E. Freeman, Narratives of a New Order: Cistercian Historical Writing in England 1150–1220 (Turnhout, 2002), pp. 179–214. 24 Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium: Courtiers’ Trifles, ed. M. R. James, rev. C. N. L. Brooke and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford, 1983), i.12, pp. 36–7.

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Purpose of History view of history familiar from our reading of historians from the earlier part of the century: It is expedient for the instruction of us all that no one should live with closed eyes or ears, or with any sense inactive; he ought to be edified inwardly by outward things. By them, as we are blind to the future, some parts of the present are made plain and some of the past. Let us make speed to perceive what we did not see ourselves; what we did not hear, let us not scoff at, but submitting the future to God, let us hasten to be taught by the things which the Lord has set before us to imitate or avoid, always praying him who is our refuge that he would grant us the power to choose purely the things that are good, and a way to escape from evil.25

There are certainly serious reflections on events to be found in his work – on the capture of the Cross and the loss of Jerusalem in 1187, and on the death of the Young King in 1183.26 But these reflections are very few in comparison to the satires and jokes at the expense of the Cistercians, the tales of ghosts and revenants, and the lighter stories that Map himself terms nugae or frivola. If we are seeking a writer with a didactic purpose, surely William of Newburgh is the obvious candidate.27 At the start of the twentieth century Rudolf Jahncke, in the first and to date only book-length study of William of Newburgh, described the Historia as a work with a morally uplifting, didactic aim. William, Jahncke believed, conceived of his task in a deeper way than most historians, and filled his work with far-reaching historical reflection, in a way comparable to Otto of Freising. William’s judgements stemmed not from bias, but from a morality based on the Bible and general Christian teaching.28 Nancy Partner discussed this aspect of Newburgh’s work in the 1980s, and although she paid much attention to his use of the supernatural and his explication of divine purpose in natural events, she did not single him out as a historian with a didactic purpose, and instead suggested that his preoccupation with both heavenly truths and worldly minutiae was unremarkable for the time.29 More recently, however, John Gillingham returned to the image advanced by Jahncke to present Newburgh as a more intensely religious man than other English twelfth-century historians, one whose monastic moral

25 Ibid.,

iv, Prologue, pp. 278–9. i.15; iv, Prologue, pp. 40–5; 280–1. 27 William of Newburgh, ‘Historia Rerum Anglicarum’, in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, ed. R. Howlett, 4 vols. (London, 1884–9), I–II; trans. in J. Stevenson, The Church Historians of England, 5 vols. (London, 1853–8), IV, part 2; Books I and II are translated in William of Newburgh, The History of English Affairs, ed. P. G. Walsh and M. J. Kennedy, 2 vols. (Warminster, 1988; Oxford, 2007). 28 R. Jahncke, Guilelmus Neubrigensis. Ein pragmatischer Geschichtsschreiber des zwölften Jahrhunderts (Bonn, 1912), pp. 59–60, 70–3, 124. 29 Partner, Serious Entertainments, p. 189. 26 Ibid.,

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Michael Staunton outlook led him to judge and criticize people in the light of what he believed to be God’s providence.30 There is little explicit statement of history’s didactic purpose in William’s Historia. Although in places he states that he has inserted stories as a ‘warning to posterity’,31 he does not expand on what he means by this. In his dedicatory letter that prefaces the work he compares the ‘easy’ task of historical writing to the more arduous business of writing a biblical commentary.32 His famous prologue demolishes the basis of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s history, rather than troubling itself with reflections on avoiding evil and following good.33 None of this, of course, means that such a motive is absent from his work (just as Robert of Torigni’s inclusion of a prologue on history’s didactic purpose does not mean that this is a central feature of his work). We can certainly see that William of Newburgh is concerned not only to narrate but also to interpret and judge the events that he narrates. It is also clear that he does so on the basis of Christian principles. He sees history as illustrating God’s governorship of human affairs, and as being full of examples for humans to follow or avoid. He regularly identifies a causal relationship between morality and historical outcomes. For example, describing those who persecuted their local churches during King Stephen’s reign, he notes that the unrepentant suffered unexpected death, but those who made amends received God’s mercy. The Scots who invaded northern England in 1173 and 1174 were themselves riven by war and destruction, in divine punishment for their cruelty. Henry the Young King’s transgressions in rebelling against his father were made manifest when he was struck down by fever and died prematurely in 1183.34 All of these stories offer moral lessons: nobles ought not to oppress their churches; the Scots ought not to attack the English; a royal son ought not to attack his father. But is this why William wrote his history, and dedicated it to the monks of Rievaulx nearby? Surely anyone able to read William’s history 30 J.

Gillingham, ‘William of Newburgh and Emperor Henry VI’, in Auxilia Historica. Festschrift für Peter Acht zum 90. Geburtstag, ed. W. Koch, A. Schmid and W. Volkert (Munich, 2001), pp. 51–72 (pp. 55–6); see also J. Gillingham, ‘The Historian as Judge: William of Newburgh and Hubert Walter’, EHR 119 (2004), 1275–87. 31 For parallels see Eusebius, The Ecclesiastical History, ed. H. J. Lawlor, trans. K. Lake and J. E. L. Oulton, LCL 265, 2 vols. (London and New York, 1926, 1932), II, 208–9, 244–5, 250–1; see G. F. Chesnut, The First Christian Histories: Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and Evagrius, 2nd edn (Macon GA, 1986), p. 158; more recently Odo of Deuil, De profectione Ludovici VII in orientem: The Journey of Louis VII to the East, ed. and trans. V. G. Berry (New York, 1948), pp. 24–5, 28–30. 32 For his commentary, see William of Newburgh’s Explanatio Sacri Epithalamii in Matrem Sponsi: A Commentary on the Canticle of Canticles (12th.-C), ed. J. C. Gorman (Fribourg, 1960). 33 Newburgh, Historia Rerum Anglicarum, Prologue, pp. 9–19. 34 Ibid., i.12; ii.24; iii.7: pp. 47–8, 186–7, 233. On the background to this subject, see G. W. Trompf, Early Christian Historiography: Narratives of Retributive Justice (London and New York, 2000).

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Purpose of History was aware of God’s providential scheme, and understood, broadly, what actions to pursue and shun. What William of Newburgh’s readers were less likely to know and understand were the reasons why certain recent events had turned out as they had. How could one explain the puzzling series of events overseas: the seizure of Jerusalem by the Saracens, the limited success of the subsequent crusade, and the prolonged captivity of King Richard by his fellow-Christians in Austria and Germany? Closer to home, how should one regard the recent attacks on Jewish communities in London and York? It is here that William’s deep knowledge of Christian history and theology could be applied. By drawing on the Bible, Augustine, Bede, Bernard of Clairvaux and numerous lesser authorities, Newburgh set out to give answers to these difficult questions. Others had already given some answers by the time he wrote, but Newburgh presented a more sophisticated gloss on these events by relating them to exempla from earlier history. William explained that Christians in the East suffered disaster in 1187 not just because of their sin (as many others had written), but because the history of the land of Jerusalem showed that its inhabitants were always held to a higher standard than those of other lands less special to God. That is why the Israelites of old were sent into captivity, why the city was later sacked by Titus, why the Christians there were punished, and why the current domination by the Saracens would itself be short-lived.35 Invoking Cistercian commentary on the failure of the Second Crusade, William argued that whereas the crusaders had achieved little for the worldly Jerusalem, their sacrifice had helped to build up the heavenly Jerusalem.36 Whereas others criticized the shameful actions of the duke of Austria and the emperor of Germany for imprisoning King Richard on his return from crusade in 1192, William drew parallels with St Peter’s captivity to show this as a trial through which the king grew stronger.37 William addressed the question of why unruly mobs had been allowed to kill England’s Jews in 1189 and 1190 – a people who, although obstinate in their refusal to acknowledge Christ, and hostile to the Christians of England, were nonetheless offered protection by Church doctrine and secular law. His answer, disturbing to modern readers looking for a more sympathetic and humane perspective, is that their killers were an example of God’s evil agents: their acts, though bad in themselves, contributed to a worthy and divinely approved outcome.38

35 Newburgh,

Historia Rerum Anglicarum, ii.15, pp. 249–55. iv.28, 30, pp. 374–5, 379. 37 Ibid., iv.31, 41, pp. 382–3, 404–6. 38 Ibid., iv.1, 7–9, pp. 294–9, 308–24. On this episode, see S. Rees Jones and S. Watson, eds, Christians and Jews in Angevin England: The York Massacre of 1190, Narratives and Contexts (York, 2003), especially N. Vincent, ‘William of Newburgh, Josephus and 36 Ibid.,

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Michael Staunton William’s history is full of moral lessons, but it is the end to which they are used that is significant. William is not so much using recent history to teach moral lessons as he is using moral lessons from the past to explain and judge recent events. Events from recent history could teach lessons, but first those events needed to be explained.

History and political utility It is in Gervase of Canterbury’s Chronica that we find the most explicit opening statement among the histories of Angevin England about the exemplary power of history. Humans, writes Gervase, are drawn to evil by three forces: demons, who instil evil thoughts in the mind; the visible and tangible realities of the world, which provide temptation; and, most dangerous of all, the fragility of the flesh itself. To these evils are opposed three remedies: prohibition, precept and example. The Bible is full of prohibitions and precepts, but more effective than these in changing behaviour are examples. So too may such examples of things to follow and avoid be present in histories, ‘For whatever was written, was written for our instruction’ (Rom. 15:4). There are many people whose minds are more easily driven to avoid evil and do good by examples than by prohibitions or demands.39 Here, then, is an expansive endorsement of the exemplary purpose of history, yet again we find that such aspirations are not matched by the text that follows the prologue. Gervase’s history is certainly instructive, but its lessons concern the narrow political interests of the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, rather than any larger ethical issues. All of Gervase’s major historical works – not just the Chronica but the Gesta Regum and the Actus Pontificum Cantuariensium – take as their focus the cathedral church of Canterbury, its archbishops, its saints, its relics and its monks. Gervase was part of a community that had gained great wealth and importance on account of the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170 and its custody of his shrine, but faced much turbulence between 1184 and 1199 when Archbishop Baldwin, and his successor Hubert, sought to establish a college of canons outside Canterbury, first at Hackington and later at Lambeth. This was at its heart a struggle over who should govern the church of Canterbury, and who should control elections and revenues, and Gervase’s Chronica is primarily a record of that struggle, written from the monks’ perspective.40

the New Titus’, pp. 57–90; more recently, Staunton, Historians of Angevin England, pp. 325–37. 39 Gervase of Canterbury, ‘Chronica’, in The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols. (London, 1879–80), I, 84–7; see Rom. 15:4. 40 For the dispute, see Stubbs’s introduction to Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richard I, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols. (London, 1864–5), II, xxxiii–cxx; repr. in W. Stubbs,

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Purpose of History Gervase presents the arguments of both sides through reported speech (a technique influenced by earlier Canterbury records of disputes involving Anselm and Thomas Becket), and each time comes down on the side of the convent. It is a statement of the monks’ position and a record of their liberties for future reference, based on papal letters and other documentary evidence.41 It is also a record of their victory and an encouragement to subsequent generations of Christ Church monks to fight for their rights in the same way. This would appear to place Gervase’s work in a tradition of post-Conquest Benedictine historical writing. In his fourth lecture to the Royal Historical Society on the European tradition of historical writing, Richard Southern identified the years 1090–1130 as a period of alienation in England that stimulated a revival in historical writing.42 As he described it, the communities of England’s old and wealthy monasteries were both strongly affected by the upheavals brought about by the Conquest and well placed to respond to them. Exposed to the destruction of their old ways of life, and continuing threats to their resources, such communities regarded themselves as the special custodians of the monastic past. All over England, circumstances forced scholarly monks to become historians, and such writers as Eadmer, William of Malmesbury, Symeon of Durham and Florence and John of Worcester drew inspiration and momentum from the need for corporate survival. While the impetus was practical, their precise attention to their communities, guided by a new efficiency with documentary evidence, resulted in a lasting image of the Anglo-Saxon past.43 Southern’s general point – that post-Conquest monks responded to the uncertainty of their position by investigating the pre-Conquest past and connecting it to the present – has often been repeated by scholars, and some have taken his conclusions further.44 Antonia Gransden has pointed to a Historical Introductions to the Rolls Series (New York, 1902), pp. 380–438; also the introduction to Nigellus Wireker, The Passion of St Lawrence: Epigrams and Marginal Poems, ed. and trans. J. M. Ziolkowski (Leiden, 1994), pp. 16–42; C. R. Cheney, Hubert Walter (London, 1967), pp. 135–50; C. E. Woodruff and W. Danks, Memorials of the Cathedral and Priory of Christ in Canterbury (New York, 1912), pp. 103–12; J. Cave-Brown, Lambeth Palace and its Associations (Edinburgh, 1883), pp. 2–9. 41 On Gervase’s use of documentary evidence, see W. H. J. Bainton, ‘History and the Written Word in the Angevin Empire (c. 1154–c. 1200)’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of York, 2010), pp. 38–42, 76–9; Huling, ‘English Historical Writing’, pp. 208, 219–20. 42 R. W. Southern, ‘Aspects of the European Tradition of Historical Writing 4. The Sense of the Past’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th s., 23 (1973), 243–63. 43 Southern, ‘Aspects’, pp. 243–56. 44 Martin Brett points to the threat to the great Benedictine houses from bishops and their agents, canons and secular clergy, and new monastic orders. David Rollason acknowledges that Anglo-Norman monastic historians were reacting to political change, but emphasizes the fact that they had the expertise and books to make

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Michael Staunton similar process at work in the central decades of the century when the instability of Stephen’s reign and the judicial reforms of Henry II made monks at Ely, Peterborough, Ramsey and Battle fear for their traditional rights, and stimulated them to write histories of their houses, with a focus on their privileges.45 But if this is so for much of the twelfth century, Gervase of Canterbury would appear to be an outlier among historians of its last few decades. Richard of Devizes, too, was a Benedictine monk, but although he shows his bishop Godfrey de Luci in a positive light, he has little to say in the Cronica about his abbey of St Swithun’s, Winchester. William of Newburgh says almost nothing of his priory, though John Gillingham has noted how local interests sometimes affected his representation of people and events.46 Ralph of Coggeshall paid a good deal of attention to Cistercian affairs, including the struggle of the order against new taxes, but this mainly occurs in the sections on John’s reign.47 Perhaps the diminished prominence of monastic historians, combined with the focus on recent events, meant that institutionally-focused histories were less relevant at the end of the century than in the time of Eadmer and William of Malmesbury. It could also be that we are searching in the wrong place for histories with a political utility, and instead of looking for monastic historians advancing the rights of their communities, we should look to those close to the monarchy. After all, at the same time as historical writing was being revived in Angevin England, in France a new kind of historiography had developed, centred on the abbey of St Denis, that served to celebrate the deeds of the French kings, and more broadly to promote the interests of the French monarchy. Rigord of St Denis called himself regis Francorum cronographus, and presented his history to King Philip II.48 William the Breton, his continuator, glorified the same king’s victories as the ideal of conquering France.49 Gabrielle Spiegel, who has written about the St Denis historians as official custodians of the royal myth, has more broadly drawn attention to what she calls the ‘social logic of the text’ in the Middle Ages,50 and she has been followed by many it possible. Leah Shopkow points to a parallel process at work in Normandy, at Fécamp, Bec and Mont Saint-Michel: M. Brett, ‘John of Worcester and his Contemporaries’, in The Writing of History in the Middle Ages, pp. 101–26 (pp. 125–6); D. W. Rollason, ‘Symeon’s Contribution to Historical Writing in Northern England’, in Symeon of Durham: Historian of Durham and the North, ed. D. W. Rollason (Stamford, 1998), pp. 1–13; Shopkow, History and Community, p. 54. 45 Gransden, Historical Writing, I, 269–70. 46 Gillingham, ‘Two Yorkshire Historians Compared’, pp. 26–37. 47 Radulphi de Coggeshall Chronicon Anglicanum, pp. 101–10. 48 Rigord, Histoire de Philippe Auguste, ed. and trans. E. Carpentier, G. Pon and Y. Chauvin (Paris, 2006), pp. 109–13. 49 G. M. Spiegel, The Chronicle Tradition of St-Denis: A Survey (Brookline MA, 1978). 50 G. M. Spiegel, ‘History, Historicism, and the Social Logic of the Text in the Middle Ages’, Speculum 65 (1990), 59–86. See also her investigation of how vernacular prose history in early thirteenth century France served to support local baronial interests

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Purpose of History others who have sought to show how historical works served to advance the interests of particular people and groups. As Matthew Innes puts it, by taking this approach, the writing of history ‘emerges as an act of power, in that it sought to influence action in the present’.51 Karl Morrison more baldly states: ‘Historical writing in the Middle Ages is about the realities of power’.52 Commentators on English historiography have tended towards more caution on this subject: Antonia Gransden’s study of propaganda in English medieval historiography concludes that there was no continuous tradition of government-sponsored history comparable to France,53 and Carl Watkins, focusing on Angevin England, suggests that chroniclers and audiences lacked any such ideological cohesion, and that audiences would have acted as a control on historical representations.54 But on the other hand, Martin Aurell has noted how Plantagenet ideology was transmitted in a variety of forms, including poetry and visual art, and John Gillingham has demonstrated how contemporary historians included royal propaganda directly in their works.55 We can certainly point to historians who sought to advance the position of the Angevin kings of England and legitimize their power, but these are mostly restricted to the third quarter of the century, and few of them were English. As early as 1151, Robert of Torigni floated the idea of a genealogical history of the Angevin dynasty,56 and over the following years a number of writers looked back to Henry II’s English, Norman and Angevin ancestors while at the same time looking forward to a glorious reign. In 1153/4 Aelred of Rievaulx wrote a lament for King David of Scotland and added to it a genealogy of Duke Henry, and eight or nine years later he followed this with his Life of King Edward the Confessor, which presented Henry II as the vital link between the English and Norman kings of England.57 Between 1164 and 1174, John

against royal centralizing tendencies: Romancing the Past: The Rise of Vernacular Prose Historiography in Thirteenth-Century France (Oxford, 1993). 51 M. Innes, ‘Introduction: Using the Past, Interpreting the Present, Influencing the Future’, in The Uses of the Past in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Y. Hen and M. Innes (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 1–8 (p. 4). 52 K. F. Morrison, History as a Visual Art in the Twelfth-Century Renaissance (Princeton NJ, 1990), p. 20. 53 A. Gransden, ‘Propaganda in English Medieval Historiography’, JMH 1 (1975), 363–82. 54 C. S. Watkins, History and the Supernatural in Medieval England (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 16–17. 55 M. Aurell, The Plantagenet Empire, 1154–1224, trans. D. Crouch (Harlow, 2007), pp. 83–92, 134–5; J. Gillingham, ‘Royal Newsletters, Forgeries and English Historians: Some Links between Court and History in the Reign of Richard I’, in La Cour Plantagenêt 1154–1204, ed. M. Aurell (Poitiers, 2000), pp. 171–84. See also A. Chaou, L’ideologie Plantagenêt: Royauté arthurienne et monarchie politique (Rennes, 2001). 56 ‘Roberti Epistola ad Gervasium priorem S. Serenici’, PL 202, cols 1307–10. 57 Aelred’s historical works are in PL 195; Aelred of Rievaulx, The Historical Works,

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Michael Staunton of Marmoutier revised and expanded the Gesta Consulum Andegavorum and explicitly linked it to Henry II. In the prologue dedicated to the king, John urges him to take note of the lives, morals and deeds of his predecessors as set out in his book, adding that it should be of use to those over whom he rules, especially the men of Anjou, Touraine and Maine. Sometime between 1170 and 1180 the same author also wrote a biography of Henry II’s father, Count Geoffrey.58 Around 1160 Henry II himself probably commissioned Wace, a cleric from Jersey, to write a history of his Norman ancestors in French verse, a commission that he transferred to the Angevin clerk Benoît of Sainte-Maure around 1173.59 It is no coincidence that the dominance of genealogical history should come to an end around the middle of the 1170s. For one thing, it was no longer needed in the same way as it had been in the 1150s and 1160s when memories of prolonged civil war were still fresh, and the claims of the Angevin dynasty remained precarious. Also, Henry’s role in Becket’s murder made him a distinctly unsuitable subject for laudatory history – to some he would always be the king ‘under whom St Thomas suffered’.60 Even more to the point, the

ed. M. L. Dutton, trans. J. P. Freeland (Kalamazoo, 2005), pp. 1–37. On these works, see W. F. Schirmer and U. Broich, Studien zur litteranischen Patronat im England des 12 Jahrhunderts (Cologne, 1961), pp. 47–57; Freeman, Narratives of a New Order, pp. 15–90; M. A. Mayeski, ‘Secundum naturam: The Inheritance of Virtue in Aelred’s Genealogy of the English Kings’, Cistercian Studies Quarterly 37 (2002), 221–8; M. G. Newman, The Boundaries of Charity: Cistercian Culture and Ecclesiastical Reform, 1098–1180 (Stanford CA, 1996), pp. 178–82; B. Scholz, ‘The Canonization of Edward the Confessor’, Speculum 36 (1961), 38–60 (esp. pp. 49–53). 58 ‘Historia Gaufredi’ and ‘Historia Consulum’, in Chroniques des comtes d’Anjou et de seigneurs d’Amboise, ed. L. Halphen and R. Poupardin (Paris, 1913), pp. 227–310 and 349–64. See Schirmer and Broich, Studien zur litteranischen Patronat, pp. 61–3, and N. Paul, To Follow in their Footsteps: The Crusades and Family Memory in the High Middle Ages (Ithaca NY, 2012), pp. 233–45. 59 Wace, The Roman de Rou, trans. G. S. Burgess, with the text of A. J. Holden, and notes by G. S. Burgess and E. van Houts (St Helier, 2002); Benoît de Sainte Maure, Chronique des ducs de Normandie, ed. C. Fahlin, 4 vols. (Uppsala, 1951–9). On Wace and Benoît, see Schirmer and Broich, Studien zur litteranischen Patronat, pp. 63–88; J-G. Gouttebroze, ‘Pourquoi congédier un historiographe, Henry II et Wace’, Romania 112 (1991), 289–311; J. Blacker, The Faces of Time: Portrayal of the Past in Old French and Latin Historical Narrative of the Anglo-Norman Regnum (Austin TX, 1994), pp. 102–17, 182–4; P. Damian-Grint, The New Historians of the Twelfth-Century Renaissance (Woodbridge, 1999), pp. 53–61; C. L. Urbanski, Writing History for the King: Henry II and the Politics of Vernacular Historiography (Ithaca NY, 2013). On Henry II as Wace’s patron see D. B. Tyson, ‘Patronage of French Vernacular History Writers in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’, Romania 100 (1979), 180–222; K. M. Broadhurst, ‘Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine: Patrons of Literature in French?’, Viator 27 (1996), 53–84; H. Bainton, ‘Le Roman de Rou’, in Vernacular Literary Theory from the French of England. Texts and Translations, c. 1120–c. 1450, ed. J. Wogan-Browne, T. Fenster and D. W. Russell (Cambridge, 2016), pp. 19–25. 60 The Chronicles of Ralph Niger, ed. R. Anstruther (London, 1851), pp. 93, 167–9, 176.

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Purpose of History glorious history of Henry’s family seemed an incongruous subject at a time when that family was tearing itself apart in recurrent civil war. Yet this is also the time when new and ambitious histories of England began to be written, not by monks but by seculars close to the royal court, and taking as their main subject the doings of the kings of England. It is reasonable to turn to writers such as Roger of Howden and Ralph of Diceto in search of politically useful history in Angevin England. Yet these writers, while intensely interested in politics, wrote nothing comparable to the official histories of the French kings that were being produced by the St Denis historians at the same time. For a long time scholars have seen Roger, parson of Howden and royal clerk, as a colourless administrator who set down what he knew with detachment and without warmth, provided no theoretical statements and left analysis largely to the reader.61 More recently, John Gillingham challenged this view, arguing that at least in his earlier chronicle, the Gesta, Howden reveals a passionate, critical and involved authorial voice that was partly repressed in its revised and expanded version, the Chronica.62 There are certainly political positions to be found in both of Howden’s chronicles, and occasionally they are stated passionately. Two important qualifications should be made, however. First, the opinions that Howden appears to express – against the greed of papal envoys, or the corruption of foresters – are entirely uncontroversial, and are to be found in most histories of the time.63 A more fundamental problem is that Howden appears to express these opinions, but they are not necessarily always his own. Howden’s work is famous for its See G. B. Flahiff, ‘Ralph Niger: An Introduction to his Life and Works’, Mediaeval Studies 2 (1940), 104–26 (p. 107 n. 22). 61 Stubbs, introduction to Roger of Howden, Chronica, I, lxix; Barlow, ‘Roger of Howden’, p. 1960; R. W. Southern, Medieval Humanism and Other Studies (Oxford, 1970), p. 150; Huling, ‘English Historical Writing’, p. 58; Smalley, Historians, p. 114. 62 Gillingham, ‘Writing the biography of Roger of Howden’; Gillingham, ‘Roger of Howden on crusade’. 63 On criticism of papal envoys, see Gesta Regis Henrici, I, 24; Roger of Howden, Chronica, II, 28–9, and compare Ralph Diceto, Opera Historica, I, 378–9; William of Newburgh, Historia Rerum Anglicarum, iii.2, 9, pp. 206, 238–9; Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium, i.22, 23; ii.17, pp. 68–71, 168–9. This theme would seem to have its roots in stereotypes about greed in pre-Christian Rome: see W. V. Harris, ‘On War and Greed in the Second Century BC’, in Roman Imperialism: Readings and Sources, ed. C. B. Champion (Oxford, 2004), pp. 17–30. On criticism of foresters, see Gesta Regis Henrici, I, 94; Roger of Howden, Chronica, II, 79, and compare Walter Map, De Nugis Curialium, i.9, pp. 10–11; Jocelin of Brakelond, Chronicle of the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, ed. and trans. Diana Greenway and Jane Sayers (Oxford, 1989), pp. 71–2. On criticism of royal officials by writers in Angevin England, many of them associated with the royal court, see B. Weiler, ‘The King as Judge: Henry II and Frederick Barbarossa as Seen by their Contemporaries’, in Challenging the Boundaries of Medieval History: The Legacy of Timothy Reuter, ed. P. Skinner (Turnhout, 2009), pp. 115–41 (pp. 120–2, 126–31); Aurell, Plantagenet Empire, p. 65; Gransden, Historical Writing, I, 226.

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Michael Staunton pioneering use of administrative and legal documents in his history, but this is by no means the only written evidence that he draws upon. In many cases his narrative, or reported speech, can be found to reflect written sources, such as correspondence or earlier histories.64 Howden himself may have held strong political opinions, but he seldom presented them in his chronicles. Instead his work reflects the political views of a range of people who made up the political world in which he lived. Something similar may be said of Ralph of Diceto. Roger and Ralph have both been called ‘administrative historians’ or ‘civil service historians’ not just on account of their administrative service – Roger in the royal court, Ralph at St Paul’s cathedral, London – but because they paid much attention to government, and drew on official documents and letters from highly placed officials. It has also been ventured that Diceto is ‘the nearest to an official historian of the Angevin court’.65 He certainly had positive words to say about royal power. For example, he discusses how in 1179 Henry II, ‘the father of the English’, anxious for the common welfare, sought to regulate the proceedings of the sheriffs by establishing justices throughout the provinces. This, writes Ralph, was a year of bounty, when rain, sun and moderate temperatures restored the fertility of the land, and the same heavenly favour brought reform in civil and ecclesiastical courts.66 Also significant is his treatment of the Becket dispute and the Great Revolt of 1173–4. Ralph praises Thomas as a martyr of the church but also devotes much attention to condemning the rebellion against Henry II. The king’s penance at Becket’s tomb is presented not only as bringing victory for the king, but ultimately as reconciling king and martyr, father and sons, and the warring realm at large.67 Diceto’s history is politically charged, as one would expect of a man so closely connected to powerful figures in the diocese of London and in royal government – see for example, his friendly correspondence with the successive royal chancellors and bitter rivals, William Longchamp and Walter of Coutances. But he shows little sign that he is writing history in

64 See

e.g. Roger of Howden, Chronica, IV, 4, which uses, probably through an intermediate source, Pere Crisòleg, Sermons, 6, ed. A. Olivar (Barcelona, 2001), no. 152, p. 27, and Ovid, Tristia, II, ll. 33–4 in Tristia and Ex Ponto, ed. and trans. A. L. Wheeler, 2nd edn (Cambridge MA and London, 1996), pp. 58–9. 65 Gillingham, ‘Royal Newsletters’, p. 178; J. Gillingham, ‘The Cultivation of History, Legend and Courtesy at the Court of Henry II’, in Writers of the Reign of Henry II: Twelve Essays, ed. R. Kennedy and S. Meecham-Jones (New York, 2006), pp. 25–52 (p. 31). Marcus Bull suggests instead that Howden was the nearest thing in the period to an ‘official’ royal historiographer: ‘Criticism of Henry II’s Expedition to Ireland in William of Canterbury’s Miracles of St Thomas Becket’, JMH 33 (2007), 107–29 (p. 129). Gransden calls his Gesta and Chronica ‘quasi-official’ records of central government: Historical Writing, I, 226. 66 Ralph Diceto, Opera Historica, I, 434–7; see Ps. 65:12. 67 Ralph Diceto, Opera Historica, I, 383–5.

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Purpose of History order to advance the cause of individual kings or dynasties. As with many of the English histories of the time, his reflects the views of a learned and well-connected clerical class. These views tend to be conservative, favouring a strong English monarchy, ecclesiastical liberty and cooperation between the main classes in society. The dean of St Paul’s was someone interested in, and sometimes involved in, politics of the time, but he was also interested in history in all its manifestations. He had read a great amount of history, using the writings of others for his Abbreviationes Chronicorum and prefacing his work with a selection of prologues from a range of pagan and Christian historians. He was curious about what happened in the distant and recent past, how it ought to be written about, and how it ought to be divided up and arranged for the reader. He was interested in precedents and parallels, and could use the distant past to make a point about the present, but he could also draw connections between events that appeared to have no deeper significance. For example, in recording Becket’s murder he notes parallels with the murder of other prelates, and the example of another murder in a church.68 When he reports a conference between Henry II, Henry the Young King, Philip II and William of Scots in 1181 he adds, ‘We have read of four kings dying in one battle, but very rarely do we find four kings meeting peacefully at one conference and departing in peace’.69 There is no comment of a moral or ideological nature here, just a historian communicating his curiosity and discovery. To ask why twelfth-century English historians wrote history is to ask a very general question. To answer it one might need to ask an even more general question: Why do any of us write history? The motives discussed above are certainly part of it. The didactic role of history has not gone away. We can see it explicitly in the title of the BBC documentary series The Nazis: A Warning from History, and implicitly in any number of scholarly and popular histories that try to draw broader lessons from their discussions of specific topics. Nor is the strategic use of history any less popular now than it was in the Middle Ages. The manipulation of historical record notorious from Stalin’s USSR and satirized by George Orwell has found some echoes in the ‘posttruth’ world of the Internet, but history is routinely used too for less sinister purposes, to attract tourists or to foster community identities. There are other motives for writing history that are obvious in a modern context, and these might be summarized as interest and occupation. Historians, professional and amateur, write because they are interested in it: it satisfies curiosity, we want to show off something we have found out, we want other people to 68 Ibid.,

I, 345–6. Hugh, archbishop of Tarragona, and Hamo, bishop of León, were murdered, and William (actually Raymond) Trencavel was murdered in the church of St Mary Magdalene at Béziers. 69 Ralph Diceto, Opera Historica, II, 7.

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Michael Staunton share our enthusiasm or interest. For many people it is also a job: we write history because we are expected to do so, we are paid to do so, we have been asked to write something by a friend or colleague, it is something that we do after a while without really thinking of why we do it. The latter motives are less often invoked when people discuss medieval histories, but perhaps we should pay more attention to them. To illustrate how all these motives – the didactic, the politically strategic, the amateur and the professional – can coexist, I will conclude by turning to the most famous historian of Angevin England, Gerald of Wales.70 Gerald’s clearest invocation of the didactic purpose of history occurs in the preface to one of his least-known works, the Vita Galfridi, written in the 1190s. There he writes that ‘This work will show as an example a certain man of our times, namely Geoffrey archbishop of York, whose merits were not justly repaid with honour’.71 Though Geoffrey, the illegitimate son of Henry II, fought bravely for his father in time of rebellion, he faced great difficulties in his promotion to the archbishopric and his return to England during King Richard’s absence on crusade. In this book, writes Gerald, ‘the reader will be able to see the vicissitude of things, and the volubility of the wheel [of fortune], and how vices were not fully restrained nor virtues fully rewarded in time’.72 In fact, it is very hard to imagine anyone drawing any deep lessons from this book, which is less a Life of Geoffrey than a double biography of Geoffrey and his persecutor, the chancellor William Longchamp. By the end of the book, Gerald has abandoned Geoffrey altogether to concentrate on vilifying the chancellor for his tyranny. As such, it fits more closely to the pattern of a politically-motivated tract, inspired by his closeness to Geoffrey and his antipathy to Longchamp.73

70 Gerald’s

works are published in Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, ed. J. S. Brewer, J. F. Dimock and G. F. Warner, 8 vols. (London, 1861–91). The Expugnatio is published in a more critical edition by A. B. Scott and F. X. Martin. Robert Bartlett’s critical edition of De Principis Instructione will be published in Oxford Medieval Texts in 2018. The Historical Works of Giraldus Cambrensis, ed. T. Wright, trans. T. Forester and R. C. Hoare (London, 1905) contains translations of the Topographia, Expugnatio, Itinerarium Kambriae and Descriptio Kambriae. A translation of the first edition of the Topographia is in The History and Topography of Ireland, trans. J. O’Meara (London, 1983). On Gerald’s life and work see R. Bartlett, Gerald of Wales: 1146–1223 (Oxford, 1982). 71 Gerald of Wales, ‘Vita Galfridi’, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, IV, first prologue, pp. 357–9. 72 Ibid. In a shorter second prologue Gerald directs the book to Geoffrey himself as a mirror, so that he take care that his future deeds do not deviate from the virtuous path he has begun, pp. 361–2. 73 On William Longchamp and Geoffrey of York, see D. Balfour, ‘William Longchamp: Upward Mobility and Character Assassination in Twelfth-Century England’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Connecticut, 1996); Staunton, Historians of Angevin England, pp. 291–307.

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Purpose of History Gerald was prompt to settle personal scores in his writings, especially late in life when he recounted his struggles over the church of St David in his De iure et statu and other works, and railed against Henry II and his sons in De principis instructione. He could also advance a broader political agenda, as seen especially in the Expugnatio Hibernica, where he set out a series of justifications for the English invasion of Ireland, and restored the role of his own relatives from South Wales in the success of the early invasion and colonization. But does anyone believe that that was all there was to Gerald’s historical writing? When we read his writings on the Irish and the Welsh, or his later reflections on Henry II’s family, we can see prejudice and hostility, but also an intense curiosity about the individual details of the past and their significance: the true identity of Merlin, the differences in character between Henry II’s sons, why Normans were less willing to fight than they had been in the past.74 When Gerald temporarily lost his baggage while travelling in Normandy, he was concerned about the loss of money and important letters, but much more so about the loss of notebooks containing his Itinerarium Kambriae, since the toil spent on them was irrevocable.75 Gerald was driven less by any desire to teach lessons or to make political gain than he was by the urge to find out about the past for himself, and make it known to others. Gerald and his contemporaries were given licence to pursue these interests in a way that many historians of the earlier part of the century were not. They were less likely to be restricted by religious profession to a focus on either the moral lessons of history or the privileges of a particular monastic house. Proximity to secular power allowed them to write about political affairs, but the peculiar circumstances of the royal house in the last quarter of the century, combined with the complexities of the court, meant that they retained a certain freedom of perspective in writing about them. Intellectual influences, especially from the continental schools, gave many a wide perspective on events. And above all, their focus on recent events meant that narration and explanation – establishing the first draft of history – were more important than the task of using an established past for didactic or political purposes. These factors allowed other motives, both amateur and professional, to be revealed, but it does not mean that this generation was the first to have such motives. A further examination of the historians of the early twelfth century might show that even as they hold a more pronounced attention to the didactic and the politically useful, other motives are there too.

74 Gerald

of Wales, ‘Itinerarium Kambriae’, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, VI, 133–4; ‘Topographia’, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, V, 195–9; ‘De Principis Instructione’, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, VIII, 257–9. 75 Gerald of Wales, ‘De rebus’, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, I, 82–3.

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2 England’s Place within Salvation History: An Extended Version of Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae in London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII* Andrea Worm

In her 1983 article ‘Genealogy: Form and Function in Medieval Histori­ ography’, Gabrielle Spiegel characterized genealogy as a ‘perceptual grid’, which rose in importance in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and led to a transformation of historical narrative from a simple chronological or annalistic organization of the past towards a dynastic one.1 ‘As a formal structure, genealogy deploys history as a series of biographies linked by the principle of hereditary succession, which succession stands as much for the passing of time as for a legal notion of transference’.2 Moreover, the genealogical lines provide a permanent connection, and a powerful link between the past and the present. It is worth noting that the terms – ‘lines’ and ‘lineage’ – indicate a visual model behind this concept of succession. One of the first scholars to explore this rise of graphic models in historical writing was Gert Melville, whose foundational article on ‘Geschichte in graphischer Gestalt’ came out in 1987.3 Other historians such as Olivier de Laborderie,4 Marigold Anne

* I wish to thank Marigold Norbye, University College London, and Michael Staunton, University College Dublin, who have read drafts of this article at different stages, and made helpful suggestions. 1 G. M. Spiegel, ‘Genealogy: Form and Function in Medieval Historical Narrative’, History and Theory 22 (1983), 43–53; repr. The Past as Text: The Theory and Practice of Medieval Historiography (Baltimore, MA, 1997), pp. 99–110. 2 Spiegel, Past as Text, p. 106. 3 G. Melville, ‘Geschichte in graphischer Gestalt. Untersuchungen zu einem spätmittelalterlichen Darstellungsprinzip’, Geschichtsschreibung und Geschichtsbewusstsein im späten Mittelalter, ed. H. Patze, Vorträge und Forschungen 31 (1987), 57–154; G. Melville, ‘Zur Technik genealogischer Konstruktionen’, in Idoneität – Genealogie – Legitimation. Begründung und Akzeptanz von dynastischer Herrschaft im Mittelalter, ed. G. Melville and C. Andenna (Cologne, 2015), pp. 293–304. 4 O. de Laborderie, Histoire, mémoire et pouvoir – Les généalogies en rouleau des rois d’Angleterre (1250–1422) (Paris, 2013); O. de Laborderie, ‘A New Pattern for

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Andrea Worm Norbye5 and Joan A. Holladay6 followed, devoting their attention predominantly to the often vernacular, and in many cases lavishly illuminated genealogies of the English and French monarchs, which became popular from the late thirteenth century onwards. This article is devoted to a little known early thirteenth-century manuscript copy of a work that was of preeminent importance in the development of visual models, Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi.7 Conceived in the last quarter of the twelfth century, the Compendium historiae originally functioned as a linear survey of biblical history, yet it did not take long before its lines were extended, and the work was thus transformed into a universal chronicle. The first copy of the Compendium historiae in which such an expansion can be observed was written and illuminated around the second decade of the thirteenth century in England (London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII). The aim of this article is first to introduce this manuscript and the complex codicological framework in which the expanded version of the Compendium historiae is to be found, and then to analyse how the genealogical model provided by Peter of Poitiers’ work was put to use in order to propagate England’s privileged position amongst the ruling monarchies of Europe at a time when England and France started to go their separate ways as emerging national states.

English History: The First Genealogical Rolls of the Kings of England’, in Broken Lines. Genealogical Literature in Late-Medieval Britain and France, ed. R. L. Radulescu and E. D. Kennedy (Turnhout, 2008), pp. 45–61; O. de Laborderie, ‘The First Manuals of English History. Two Late Thirteenth-Century Genealogical Rolls of the Kings of England in the Royal Collection’, Electronic British Library Journal 14 (2014), 1–25. 5 M. A. Norbye, ‘Genealogies and Dynastic Awareness in the Hundred Years War: the Evidence of A tous nobles qui aiment beaux faits et bonnes histoires’, JMH 33 (2007), 297–319; M. A. Norbye, ‘Genealogies in Medieval France’, in Broken Lines, pp. 79–101; M. A. Norbye, ‘Arbor genealogiae. Manifestations of the Tree in French Royal Genealogies’, in The Tree. Symbol, Allegory, and Mnemonic Device in Medieval Art and Thought, ed. P. Salonius and A. Worm (Turnhout, 2014), pp. 69–93. 6 J. A. Holladay, ‘Charting the Past: Visual Configurations of Myth and History and the English Claim to Scotland’, in Representing History, 900–1300: Art, Music, History, ed. R. A. Maxwell (University Park PA, 2010), pp. 115–32. 7 The emergence and development of universal chronicles between the twelfth and early sixteenth centuries is analysed more comprehensively in: A. Worm, Geschichte und Weltordnung: Graphische Modelle von Zeit und Raum in Universalchroniken vor 1500 (Berlin, 2018), pp. 40–115. On the broader issue of visualizing history see also: W. Augustyn and A. Worm, eds, Vergangenheit visualisieren – Visualising the Past (Munich, forthcoming).

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Mapping biblical history: Peter of Poitiers and the Compendium historiae A brief introduction to Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae is useful, not least because this work is in many ways characteristic of the intellectual tendencies of its time and the increasing use of visual means to propagate them.8 It will also help to gain a more precise idea about the characteristics of the copy in Cotton MS Faustina B VII. Peter of Poitiers was a theologian at the cathedral school in Paris, about a generation younger than Hugh of St Victor, and the immediate successor of Peter Comestor as chair of theology at the University of Paris, where he also acted as chancellor from 1193 to his death in 1205. Among his numerous theological works, the Compendium historiae, a diagrammatic survey of biblical history, became by far his most popular one. It survives in several hundred copies, dating from the late twelfth to the early sixteenth century,9 and although it never appeared in print, it proved influential on the genre of universal chronicles up to the early modern period. It is important to note that in its original form the Compendium historiae encompasses solely biblical history from Adam to Christ. As an attempt to bring the inherent structure of history to the fore, it has to be situated in the intellectual context of biblical scholarship in the twelfth century.10 Like Peter Comestor’s Historia scholastica, it reflects the particular interest of the period in the sensus literalis, the literal or historical sense of the biblical account as the basis upon which all further exegesis was to be built. The Compendium historiae was a stunning achievement: in an all-encompassing synoptic graph, 8 P.

S. Moore, The Works of Peter of Poitiers. Master in Theology and Chancellor of Paris (1193–1205) (Notre Dame IN, 1936), esp. pp. 97–117. 9 F. Stegmüller, Repertorium Biblicum Medii Aevi, 11 vols. (Madrid, 1950–80), IV, 362–5; Stegmüller’s list is far from comprehensive. The following works focus on copies of the Compendium historiae that were produced in England: W. H. Monroe, ‘A Roll-Manuscript of Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium’, Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 65 (1978), 92–107; H. E. Hilpert, ‘Geistliche Bildung und Laienbildung. Zur Überlieferung der Schulschrift Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi (Compendium veteris testamenti) des Petrus von Poitiers (gest. 1205) in England’, JMH 11 (1985), 315–31; S. Panayotova, ‘Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium in Genealogia Christi, the Early English Copies’, in Belief and Culture in the Middle Ages. Studies Presented to Henry Mayr-Harting, ed. R. Gameson and H. Geyser (Oxford, 2001), pp. 327–41; A. Worm, ‘Visualising the Order of History: Hugh of Saint Victor’s Chronicon and Peter of Poitiers’s Compendium Historiae’, in Romanesque and the Past: Retrospection in the Art and Architecture of Romanesque Europe, ed. R. Plant and J. McNeill (London, 2013), pp. 243–64. I was unable to consult the dissertation of W. H. Monroe, ‘Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth Century Illustrated Genealogical Manuscripts in Roll and Codex. Peter of Poitiers’ “Compendium”. Universal Histories and Chronicles of the Kings of England’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of London, 1990). 10 On the broader intellectual context in the twelfth century and the Victorine tradition see also Worm, Visualising the Past; Worm, Geschichte und Weltordnung, pp. 10–30.

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Andrea Worm all historical information given in the biblical account is presented in an ordered fashion; mapped out, as it were. In the numerous later cases where the Compendium historiae was extended into a universal chronicle, the section on biblical history forms the first part. The main axis is the genealogical line of Christ’s ancestors from Adam (Fig. 2) to Christ (Fig. 3), whose names appear within medallions on this central line. The medallions with Adam, Noah, Abraham, David, King Zedekiah, after whose death the Babylonian Exile began and, finally, the birth of Christ are often enlarged, and sometimes highlighted with images, because they mark out the beginnings of the six ages of the world. The main axis in the centre is flanked on both sides by further lines running parallel: the lines of the Jewish high priests and judges that begin with Moses and Aaron, the lines of the Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian kings, of Alexander the Great and his successors as well as the line of the Roman emperors towards the end of Peter of Poitiers’ work. As a result, both the synchronicity and diachronicity of persons and events in the biblical account become immediately apparent in a comprehensive chart of salvation from the fall of mankind to its redemption through Christ’s sacrificial death. Embedded within this overall diagrammatic framework of the synopsis, four diagrams and one table occur as regular features of the Compendium historiae: two cross-sections of Noah’s Ark; a table with the forty-two encampments of the Israelites on their journey through the desert, a diagram showing the arrangement of the tents of the tribes of Israel around the Tabernacle while on this journey, and finally a circular plan of Jerusalem.11 Not in themselves exegetical, they could be used as tools that facilitated the understanding of the literal sense of difficult or ambiguous passages in the Bible, and thus provided the basis for further exegesis. While these elements appear as constant features throughout the manuscript tradition of the Compendium historiae, images are not an indispensable part of the work, even though in a great number of copies they draw the viewer’s attention to important events and persons such as Aaron, Moses, Alexander the Great or Emperor Augustus. The enormous success of Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae is partly explained by its great practical value: it reduces the historical account and condenses it to its essence. In contrast to Peter Comestor’s Historia scholastica, it is a very short work, which, if transmitted on rolls, takes up about three to six metres; if in codices, about ten to twelve pages on average. While the Compendium historiae almost always functions as an autonomous work on rolls, the opposite applies to codices, where, as a rule, it is co-transmitted 11 For

a close analysis of these diagrams see Worm, Geschichte und Weltordnung, pp. 50–74; A. Worm, ‘“Ista est Ierusalem”. Intertextuality and Visual Exegesis in the Representation of Jerusalem in Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium Historiae in Genealogia Christi and Werner Rolevinck’s Fasciculus Temporum’, in Imaginging Jerusalem in the Medieval West, ed. L. Donkin and H. Vorholt (London, 2012), pp. 123–61.

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England in Salvation History with other works such as the Bible itself, or – most frequently – with Peter Comestor’s Historia scholastica, but also with Peter Riga’s Aurora, later with the Speculum humanae salvationis, and on numerous occasions in theological and devotional compendia.12 Less than a century after Peter of Poitiers’ death, the concept, originally designed for biblical study, was extended to cover history as a whole.

The manuscript context of London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII, a historical miscellany in small folio, is the first known example of a version of the Compendium historiae where the time line does not end with Christ’s death or resurrection, but is brought up to the compiler’s own time.13 Unfortunately, nothing indicates the book’s previous ownership or its provenance before it entered the library of Sir Robert Cotton (1570/1-1631),14 where it received its present binding. Whether this meant that Cotton had a medieval miscellany rebound for his library, or whether the compilation was created from heterogeneous material for his library, is difficult to determine. Today, the codex consists of two parts: the first assembles material of a historical nature, mainly from the thirteenth century with some later additions; the second is the Registrum Honoris de Richmond, the ‘Register of The Honour of Richmond’ from around 1480, which gives an account of the genealogy of the earls of Richmond and provides an inventory of their lands.15 12 On

the transmission of the work in roll and codex and issues of co-transmission see A. Worm, ‘Materialität – Kontext – Funktion: das Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi des Petrus von Poitiers in Rolle und Codex’, in Der mittelalterliche Codex. Material und Materialität, ed. P. Carmassi and G. Toussaint (Wiesbaden, forthcoming). 13 The codex is bound in a seventeenth-century leather binding; it contains 136 folia of parchment, measuring 25.8 x 17.5 cm. The most comprehensive description is by T. Astle, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library (London, 1977), p. 607; A. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts, c. 700–1600 in the Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols. (London, 1979), I, 102; N. Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 1: 1190–1250 (London, 1982), no. 43b, pp. 91–2; Panayotova, ‘English Copies’. 14 On the library of Sir Robert Cotton see C. G. C. Tite, The Manuscript Library of Sir Robert Cotton (London, 1994); C. Wright, ed., Sir Robert Cotton as Collector (London, 1997). 15 The ‘Register of the Honour of Richmond’ was edited from this manuscript by R. Gale, Registrum Honoris de Richmond (London, 1722). On the historical background see L. Butler, ‘The Origins of the Honour of Richmond and its Castles’, in AngloNorman Castles, ed. R. Liddiard (Woodbridge, 2003), pp. 91–104; M. Devine, ‘The Lordship of Richmond in the Later Middle Ages’, in Regions and Regionalism in History. Liberties and Identities in the British Isles, ed. M. Prestwich (Woodbridge, 2008), pp. 98–110.

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Andrea Worm The extended Compendium historiae is embedded in the first section. A slightly simplified list of Cotton Faustina’s contents reads as follows:16 fols. 2r–17v (thirteenth century): list of popes, list of the 72 disciples, archbishops of Canterbury (original hand up to Stephen Langton, 1207–28, then continuation by different scribal hands up to William Whittlesey, 1368–74), bishops of England and Ireland; lists of churches and important locations in Rome.17 fols. 18r–35v (first half of the fifteenth century): Hugh of St Victor’s Chronicon; the last pope mentioned is – as in Hugh’s original version – Honorius II (1124–30).18 fols. 36r–40r (thirteenth century): list of the English Cistercian monasteries from 1114 onwards, when the order first arrived in England, and a list of the abbots of the Cistercian houses in both England and Ireland up to 1234; a list of Cistercian abbeys throughout Europe; the list is divided into two portions; one from 1098 to 1190, and the other from 1191 to 1234.19 fol. 40v (thirteenth century): lists of the kings of England: from the kings of Britain (beginning with Lucius) to the Anglo-Saxon kings and the Norman kings of England from William the Conqueror to Henry III (1216–72). fols. 41r–71v (thirteenth century with later additions): diagram of the Tabernacle, set of diagrams usually placed the Compendium historiae, shield of the trinity (fols. 41r–42v); Peter Riga, De operibus septem dierum (fol. 44r–44v); Peter of Poitiers, Compendium historiae (fols. 45r–71v). fols. 72r–134v (fifteenth century): Registrum honoris Richmondi. The appearance of the manuscript is very orderly and neat throughout, written in distinct, clear hands. While the section containing lists and tables from the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries (fols. 2r–40v) is devoid of any decoration, the part containing Peter of Poitiers’ work (fols. 41r–71v) combines a number of highly ornate diagrams and numerous small images embedded in the historical graph. The ‘Register of the Honour of

16 For

a more detailed description of the contents see Astle, Catalogue, p. 607. are large quire signatures on fol. 2r (III) and fol. 12r (IV), which are, however, of an uncertain date. 18 J. Harrison, ‘The English Reception of Hugh of Saint-Victor’s Chronicle’, Electronic British Library Journal (2002), article 1, 1–33 (p. 3); J. Harrison, ‘Hugh of SaintVictor’s Chronicle in the British Isles’, in Schrift, Schreiber, Schenker. Studien zur Abtei Sankt Viktor in Paris und den Viktorinern, ed. R. Berndt (Berlin, 2005), pp. 263–92. 19 According to Birch, the first part is written ‘in a clear French hand of the early part of the thirteenth century’, and the second ‘in a French hand of the latter end of the thirteenth century’; W. de Gray Birch, ‘On the Date of Foundation Ascribed to the Cistercian Abbeys in Great Britain’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association 26 (1870), 281–99, 352–69 (quote at pp. 292–3). 17 There

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England in Salvation History Richmond’ is richly illuminated, yet, of course, of no further concern in this context. It is difficult to ascertain whether Cotton MS Faustina B VII was compiled from different sections only after these had entered the library of Robert Cotton, or whether its various compartments already formed a unit by then, which would date the compilation to the late fifteenth century and indicate that it was put together in Yorkshire.20 This has, however, little bearing on the question of which parts, if any, might have formed the original codicological environment of the Compendium historiae. Yet a coincidence in dates might be relevant. The first part of the compilation – the list of bishops – can be dated quite precisely to the period after July 2013 and before February 1215.21 The extended version of the Compendium historiae can be dated with an equal degree of precision, and to the same interval; the last pope (whose entry is in the original hand) is Innocent III (1198–1216). Reported at great length is the dispute between Innocent and King John over the appointment of Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury, which had led to the papal interdict against England. The last events recorded are Langton’s return to England from exile and his inauguration as archbishop of Canterbury in July 1213, the visit of papal legate Niccolò de Romanis, bishop of Tusculum, and the end of the interdict in autumn the same year. The momentous battle at Bouvines on 27 July 1214, where France fought the joint forces of England and the Holy Roman Empire is not recorded at all. The entry on the Fourth Lateran Council, which began in November 1215, is written in a different ink by a different hand. In view of this striking concordance in dates, it is more than likely that the first part of the Cotton Faustina manuscript (fols. 2r–17v) and the extended version of the Compendium historiae were part of the same manuscript context even before they were put between two book covers in Robert Cotton’s library. Unlike earlier copies of the Compendium historiae, this particular version would therefore not have been studied in a framework of biblical scholarship and exegesis, but perceived as part of a historical context from the beginning.

20 This

would explain not only the pronounced interest in the Cistercian order – some of the most prominent Cistercian houses in England, Rievaulx and Fountains, were situated in this area – but also the interest in English kings, as the English Cistercians’ economic wealth resulted not least from their intimate ties with the monarchy. 21 The name of Herbert of Salisbury (Herbert Poore, d. 1217), who had returned to his seat in July 1213 (after the end of the interdict), is written in the original hand as the incumbent bishop of Salisbury, while the name of Benedict Sawston, bishop of Rochester (d. 1227), and of Pandulph Verraccio, papal legate and bishop of Norwich (d. 1226), who both took office in 1215, were added by a different scribe: Benedict Sawston was elected on 13 December 1214, and consecrated on either 25 January 1215 or 22 February 1215; Herbert of Salisbury was elected on 25 July 1215. This section can thus be dated not earlier than 1213 and not later than February 1215.

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Universal history unfolds as the lines expand The history chart in Cotton Faustina and the diagrams surrounding it form a carefully crafted and beautifully executed whole. For the lines of the graph and the circles of the synopsis, a brownish black, blue, green and red were used. The use of different colours, however, is not tied to specific contexts, but follows decorative criteria. Important historical persons are singled out through images, which either mark the beginning of a line, like Julius Caesar as the first Roman emperor, Peter as the first pope (Fig. 4), or Lucius as the first king of the Britons, or highlight epochal stages, such as the ancestors on the line of Christ marking off the ages of the world. These figures are executed as fine drawings with washes in a palette that is dominated by shades of green and blue, accentuated by ochre and red. A remarkable diagram precedes the Compendium historiae, which appears like a frontispiece: an elaborate, full-page rendering of the tribes of Israel arranged around the Tabernacle on the desert journey (fol. 41r).22 Then, the aforementioned diagrams (the Ark, encampments and twelve tribes), which usually appear within the Compendium historiae, are separated from the synopsis and arranged on one page (fol. 42r).23 As a result, the historical chart takes a more strictly linear character. Both the diagram of the tabernacle and the schema of the trinity, a so-called ‘Shield of the Trinity’ (fol. 43v), which is placed immediately before the account of universal history, point to a very learned clerical audience to whom the work as a whole must have been addressed. This is confirmed by the placement of the inclusion of Peter Riga’s De operibus septem dierum, an illustrated summary of the seven days of creation (fol. 43r–43v), which functions as a textual and pictorial prologue to the Compendium historiae, and enriches Peter of Poitiers’ work with a universal and cosmological component (Fig. 1). Consequently, the roundels on the vertical line are all perceived as one continuous sequence, and the creation of Adam and Eve – the work of the sixth day (fol. 43v) – leads the viewer to the first illuminated roundel on the opposite recto at the beginning of the Compendium historiae, which begins with the Fall of Man (Fig. 2). The overview of biblical history unfolds through the six ages in the way already described, and ends with a page that shows in quatrefoils and medallions: Mary, then ‘Christus natus’ (the birth of Christ), ‘Christus puer’ (Christ as a boy, referring to his teaching in the temple when he was twelve years old), and ‘Christus passus’ (the death of Christ) (Fig. 3). On the left hand side of the page, the complicated genealogy of Antipater the Idumaean, father of the Roman client-king of Judaea, Herod the Great, and ancestor of the rulers of the Herodian kingdom, unfolds. On the right hand side, on the line of the

22 Worm, 23 With

Geschichte und Weltordnung, pp. 80–3. the sole exception of the circular plan of Jerusalem on fol. 50r.

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Fig. 1. Days of Creation. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 44r.

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Fig. 2. Adam and Eve, beginning of Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 45r.

Roman emperors (which started on the preceding page with Julius Caesar), appear Emperor Augustus (at the same time as the birth of Christ) and Emperor Tiberius (at the same time as his crucifixion). The following opening takes the viewer to the era of the institutional Church; the line of the popes starts with a depiction of St Peter as an enthroned figure in a quatrefoil (Fig. 4). While the ‘linea Christi’ provides the leading structure for the biblical era, the line of the popes takes the same position as a central axis for the post-biblical period (fol. 52v). Thus, the popes do not only appear as the spiritual heirs of Christ and his legitimate successors, but the whole framework of history has the Church eternal at its centre.24 The only other line to be continued from the Compendium historiae is that of the Roman emperors (here Claudius, Nero, Vespasian and Titus), which later leads into the line of the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, in a persuasive rendering of the Translatio Imperii. The line of the Roman emperors appears always on the right hand side of the line of the popes (to its heraldic left), and is thus given 24 This

recalls works by Hugh of St Victor, who used the same concept of the line of Christ’s ancestors being continued into the line of the popes in his treatise on the Ark, the so-called Libellus de formatione arche, and also in the tables of the Chronicon; the text of the Libellus was edited by P. Sicard, Hugonis de Sancto Victore De Archa Noe. Libellus de Formatione Arche (Turnhout, 2001); for an English translation see M. J. Carruthers and J. M. Ziolkowski, The Medieval Craft of Memory. An Anthology of Texts and Pictures (Philadelphia, 2002), pp. 41–70 (translation by Jessica Weiss). See also Worm, ‘Visualising History’.

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Fig. 3. Crucifixion of Christ, end of Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 51v.

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Fig. 4. Peter, beginning of the line of the popes, chronicle added to Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 52v.

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England in Salvation History only a subordinate position, which clearly argues the supremacy of papal power over imperial (secular) power, which is in remarkable accordance with the assertive views held by Pope Innocent III, who, after all, plays a prominent role in the account of English history in Cotton Faustina. Only two pages later (fol. 53v), a third line appears, namely the line of the kings of Britain, with Lucius, a legendary ruler credited with introducing Christianity into Britain in the second century, depicted in a quatrefoil (Fig. 5).25 Thus, Britain is not only represented as the first and most ancient, but also as the earliest Christian kingdom amongst the monarchies of Europe. It is almost three hundred years and some pages later that the kings of the Franks (fol. 57r) enter the stage. The line of the ‘reges Francorum’ begins with Faramund (even though the short text adjoined to his image refers to the Trojan ancestry of the French kings), but it is only Clovis (fol. 58r) whose baptism made France a Christian kingdom – centuries after Lucius, according to the view presented in Cotton Faustina. On the following page (fol. 59r), a fifth line is added to the set: the line of the archbishops of Canterbury, which begins with St Augustine of Canterbury, who was sent on a mission to England by Pope Gregory the Great next to whom he is depicted (Plate I). On folio 63v, the position on the far left of each page, so far reserved for the rulers in England, is taken by a sixth line: the line of the dukes of Normandy, which begins with Rollo in the ninth century, and leads up to folios 66v–67r, where it merges with the line of the English kings. The established sequence of lines from left to right remains the same from here on in: first, the kings of England (at the far left of each page), and the archbishops of Canterbury; then the popes, the Roman emperors followed by the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, and, finally, the kings of France (at the far right). Consequently, a twofold hierarchy is established on the page: one, as has just been described, from left to right, the other from centre to periphery with the lines of the popes in the centre, then (to its heraldic right), the archbishops, and the English kings, and (to its heraldic left) the emperors and the kings of France. In both these hierarchical systems, however, the secular and ecclesiastic rulers of England are granted a privileged position, heralding England’s supremacy over the Empire and over France – whose armies stood against England’s at Bouvines in 1214.

England’s place within salvation history The line of rulers in England is itself constructed with great care. It begins with Lucius, and unfolds in three subsequent stages marked by three figures 25 A. Smith, ‘Lucius of Britain: Alleged King and Church Founder’, Folklore 90.1 (1979),

29–36; F. Heal, ‘What can King Lucius do for you? The Reformation and the Early British Church’, EHR 120 (2005), 593–614. I am grateful to Diarmuid Scully for pointing these references out to me.

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Fig. 5. Lucius, king of the Britons, beginning of the line of the kings of England, chronicle added to Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 53v.

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England in Salvation History that are singled out by pictorial representations: Lucius, the legendary first king of the Britons in the second century, then the Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great in the late ninth century (Figs 6–7), and finally, the Norman kings of England from William the Conqueror in the eleventh century onwards (Fig. 8). The opening that shows the transition from the ‘reges britonum’ to the Anglo-Saxon kings starts off with a diagrammatic map of the seven kingdoms of the heptarchy, accompanied by a short explanatory passage on how England was divided amongst the Anglo-Saxons after the period of Briton rule ended (fol. 62v). Alfred the Great, who is depicted with crown and sceptre in a quatrefoil on the opposite recto (fol. 63r), is presented as the king who unified the previously autonomous kingdoms of England, shown in the diagram of the heptarchy. The replacement of the Anglo-Saxon kings by the dukes of Normandy in the aftermath of the Conquest is rendered as a mere transition of power from one genealogical line to another: William the Conqueror is presented twice on this double page, once as duke of Normandy in the medallion on the verso inscribed ‘dux/rex’ (duke/king), and then as king of England, in a large quatrefoil on the opposite recto, depicted as an enthroned ruler with crown and sceptre who faces the viewer strictly frontally (Fig. 8). His image is not only in full-figure, but also the largest and most impressive one among all the ruler portraits in the chronicle, and only matched in size by the quatrefoils enclosing Peter and Innocent III. The text on the connecting line between the medallion on the line of the dukes of Normandy and the line of the English kings reads ‘from these dukes of Normandy came the English kings’, suggesting a legitimate and, as it were, a natural succession. In the text, William’s claim is undisputed; the passage dedicated to Harold Godwinson dismisses him as a perjurer. Other pretenders to the English throne – and there were several – are neither shown in the graph nor mentioned in the embedded text.26 The view of the (Anglo-Saxon) past is clearly determined by the (Norman) present. The history of kingship in England, although it is presented in three sequential stages, is visually interpreted as a sequence, as a continuum, and as a legitimate transfer of power from one dynasty to another.27 Moreover, England’s unity is beautifully and persuasively rendered in the diagram of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

26 E.

Searle, Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power (Berkeley, 1988), pp. 252–64; C. Gravett, Hastings 1066: The Fall of Saxon England (Oxford, 1992); J. Peltzer, 1066. Der Kampf um Englands Krone (Munich, 2016). 27 The page with Thomas of Canterbury (a now lost page before what is now fol. 68) was apparently removed. As a result, there is a gap in the line of the kings of England between Henry I and Richard. On the line of the archbishops of Canterbury Theobald of Bec, Thomas Becket, Richard and Baldwin are missing.

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Fig. 6. Beginning of Anglo-Saxon rule in England and diagram of the heptarchy, chronicle added to Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 62v.

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Fig. 7. Alfred the Great, chronicle added to Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 63r.

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Fig. 8. William, duke of Normandy and king of England, transition of rule from the Anglo-Saxon to the Norman kings, chronicle added to Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fols. 66v–67r.

Andrea Worm

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The aesthetics of unity: Diagramming the kingdoms of the Heptarchy At the time of Alfred the Great, the seven formerly independent Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that were unified under his rule appear in a highly decorative floral diagram on the left hand side of the page, where the line of rule in England is represented (Plate I). The seven kingdoms are arranged around a central medallion like the petals of a flower. Captions label and enumerate them: Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex, Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia.28 In the four outer petals, the cardinal directions are indicated, which orientate the schema to the south. The caption of the inner circle reads ‘this is the disposition of the greater Britain that is now called England’ (‘situs brittanie majoris quae nunc anglia vocatur’). Despite its abstract nature, the diagram of the heptarchy functions essentially as a map that gives a schematic but essentially correct idea of the position of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and also shows that Northumbria is larger than the other areas.29 The text adjoined to the diagram reads as follows: After the times of the Britons, the kingdom was divided amongst the Saxons according to the shape of the diagram inserted here. They, acting wisely, cultivated the fields, and rebuilt cities and towns. Among them, as one can read at the end of the History of the Britons,30 Ethelstan first wore the crown, although in the line of monarchies written below, and according to many chronographers, he is found placed otherwise. It must be noted that the names of the kings who ruled over the parts of the kingdom which the diagram shows, are not inserted in series here, lest they cause tedium to 28 ‘regnum

Cantie, primum; regnum sud sexie, secundum; regnum vuest sexie, secundum; regnum est sexie, quartum; regnum northumbrie, quintum; regnum est anglie, sextum; regnum merciorum, septimum’. 29 The term ‘heptarchy’ for the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, which derives from the Greek for ‘seven’ and ‘rule’, was first used in 1575 on a map by Alexander Neville, secretary to Archbishop Matthew Parker. W. Goffart, ‘The First Venture into “Medieval Geography”: Lambarde’s Map of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy (1568)’, in Alfred the Wise: Studies in Honour of Janet Bately on the Occasion of her Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. J. A. Roberts and J. L. Nelson with M. Godden (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 53–60 (p. 56). In the sixteenth century, the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms appear on maps rather frequently. See R. W. Shirley, ‘Early Printed Maps of the British Isles 1477–1650. Part I: 1477–1555. London’, The Map Collector’s Circle 9 (1972), 3–36; ‘Part II: 1556–1592’, The Map Collector’s Circle 10 (1973), 37–65; ‘Part III: 1593–1610’, The Map Collector’s Circle 10 (1973), 69–99. 30 This refers to the final paragraph in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Brittaniae: ‘The Saxons, on the other hand, behaved more wisely. They kept peace and concord among themselves, they cultivated the fields, and they rebuilt the cities and castles. They threw off completely the dominion of the Britons and under their leader Adelstan, who was first among them to be crowned king, they ruled over the whole of Loegria’. English translation after Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, ed. M. D. Reeve and trans. N. Wright (Woodbridge, 2007), pp. 280–1.

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Andrea Worm the readers of this compendium, and because many of these kings took the realms for themselves one after the other with a violent hand, in grievous battles. Some of them even ruled over two parts at times, sometimes even over three.31

Even though the idea of seven Anglo Saxon kings ultimately goes back to Bede, the diagram in the Cotton Faustina manuscript is its first visual manifestation. Though this has gone almost completely unnoticed, it is of the greatest importance in terms of the post-Conquest concept of the Anglo-Saxon past, and, more generally, the representation of topography and political iconography. In his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, Bede enumerates seven rulers who held the overlordship over the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.32 Yet it is important to note that Bede does not actually refer to seven kingdoms, but to seven rulers, some of whom ruled the same territory. Only in the twelfth century – half a century after the Norman Conquest – did the idea of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms gain interest and take more concrete shape.33 The two crucial authors are William of Malmesbury (c. 1095/96–c. 1143) and Henry of Huntingdon (c. 1088–c. 1157). In the first book of his

31 ‘Post

tempora britonum secundum formam figure hic inserte: regnum inter saxones divisum est. Qui sapientius agentes agros colebant, civitates et oppida reedificabant. Inter quos sicut in fine hystoriae britonum legitur: Ethelstanus diadema primus portavit. Licet in linea monarchie subscripte, et secundum plerosque cronographos disposite aliter inveniatur. Et notandum quod nomina regum qui super divisiones regni quas figura pretendit regnaverunt, hic seriatim non interseruntur, ne lecturis hoc compendium inferant fastidium. Et quia plures illorum regum manu violenta gravibus preliis in invicem sibi regna abstulerunt. Quidam etiam eorum aliquando super duas divisiones, quandoque etiam super tres regnaverunt’. I wish to thank Marigold Anne Norbye for helping me with the transcription and translation of this passage. 32 ‘The first king to hold such overlordship was Aelle, King of the South Saxons; the second was Caelin, King of the West Saxons […], the third, as I have mentioned, was Ethelbert, King of the Kentish folk; the fourth was Redwald, King of the East Angles […]. The fifth was Edwin, King of the Northumbrians, that is the people living north of the Humber, who was a powerful king, and ruled all the peoples of Britain, both Angles and Britons, with the exception of the Kentish folk. He also brought under English rule the British Mevanian Isles, which lie between Ireland and Britain. The sixth was Oswald, also king of the Northumbrians but a most Christian one, who maintained the same frontiers; the seventh was his brother Oswy, who for a while ruled the same territory, and to a large extent conquered and made tributary the Picts and Irish in the northern parts of Britain’. Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, book II, chapter 5; translation after Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. D. Farmer, trans. L. Sherley–Price (London, 1990), p. 111. 33 J. Gillingham, The English in the Twelfth Century. Imperialism, National Identity and Political Values (Woodbridge, 2000), pp. 131–50; see also M. Brett and D. A. Woodman, ed., The Long Twelfth-Century View of the Anglo-Saxon Past (Farnham, 2015).

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England in Salvation History Gesta regum Anglorum, William of Malmesbury describes the kingdoms and their kings and concludes this part with a summary of their areas of rule, in which particular emphasis is put on the bishoprics in these areas. The sequence in which William describes the seven kingdoms is as follows: Kent, Wessex, Sussex, Mercia, East Anglia, Essex and Northumbria.34 William of Malmesbury, however, does not treat the kingdoms in the same sequence as they are enumerated in the diagram. The only ruler mentioned in this context is Ecberht of Wessex, who is given credit for unifying the country politically (and not his grandson, Alfred the Great, as is the case with the diagram in Cotton Faustina). In Henry of Huntingdon’s Historia Anglorum, the kings of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms are listed with their duration of rule, if such information was obtainable.35 The sequence in which Henry treats the kingdoms of the heptarchy is Kent, Wessex, Essex, Northumbria, East Anglia, Mercia and, finally, Sussex, which does not correspond to the enumeration in the diagram either. The only concordance is that they all – the diagram, the Gesta regum Anglorum, and the Historia Anglorum – start with Kent as the first kingdom.36 Even though the enumeration in Cotton Faustina seems to suggest otherwise, the sequence of the kingdoms is apparently not of any real significance to historiographers. What seems relevant, however, is that a shift can be observed from an interest in rulers to an interest in realms. In contrast to Bede – who listed seven kings who ruled over shifting areas of control – in both William of Malmesbury’s and Henry of Huntingdon’s chronicles, the focus shifts from kings to kingdoms, from ruler to realm, from inhabitants to area, and it is interesting to note in this context that Henry II (1154–1189) was the first ruler who used rex Angliae instead of rex Anglorum as his title. It is also remarkable that the concept of the heptarchy took concrete visual shape in the context of a chronicle that propagates a very specific view of salvation history and of the privileged position of England; a chronicle that was compiled at a time of major political conflict: the excommunication of the king, the long years of papal interdict against England, and the dawning of a war against France. From the mid thirteenth century onwards, the diagram of the heptarchy occurs in a number of English chronicles, most prominently in the works of Matthew Paris, the Chronica majora, and the Abbrevatio chronicorum Angliae. The Chronica majora, Matthew Paris’s major historical work (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MSS 26 and 16), was composed between

34 William

of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1998–9), I, 146–9. 35 The Chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon, Comprising the History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Accession of Henry II, ed. and trans. T. Forester, (London, 1853), pp. 64–5. See also Gillingham, The English in the Twelfth Century, particularly ‘Henry of Huntingdon and the Twelfth–Century Revival of the English Nation’, pp. 123–44. 36 Neither sequence, by the way, corresponds to the one used by Bede.

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Andrea Worm 1240 and 1253 (Plate II); the Abbreviatio chronicorum Angliae (or Historia minor) (London, British Library, Cotton MS Claudius D VI), focusses on the period from 1067 to 1253. It was probably begun around 1255, and remained unfinished at Matthew Paris’s death in 1259 (Fig. 9).37 The heptarchy diagram in the Chronica majora is especially close to the one in Cotton Faustina, even though it is oriented eastward. Both schemata correspond not only in the way the kingdoms of the heptarchy are labelled and enumerated, but they also have another feature in common; the largest of the seven kingdoms is Northumbria, which appears at the bottom in the southward oriented map in Cotton Faustina, and on the left in the Chronica majora. This correspondence is noteworthy because in all later cases, including the Abbreviatio chronicorum Angliae, the heptarchy is given a regular shape. Whether these correspondences indicate a connection, perhaps via an intermediate model, remains a question for further research. In the later thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the diagram appears as a prominent feature in many of the English genealogical chronicles, which became popular from the late thirteenth through to the fifteenth century onwards.38 About forty such roll chronicles survive from the period between Edward I’s accession to the throne (1272) and the death of Henry V (1422).39 The vast majority of extant copies contain variants of an anonymous Anglo-Norman text, which is displayed in short captions and provides a commentary on the royal portraits in the interconnected roundels. The genealogy is usually headed by a schema that renders the heptarchy as a set of circles within circles, with an outer ring that records their names and the cardinal directions in small medallions. In contrast to all later examples, however – and that includes Matthew Paris’s work – Cotton Faustina places the diagram of the heptarchy in the context not of a royal genealogy, but of a universal chronicle. It presents to the viewer a vision of the seven kingdoms unified during King Alfred’s reign, but ultimately, of course, an image of the harmonious unity of the different parts of England that is an idealized icon, 37 S.

Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica Majora (Aldershot, 1987). particularly important early example in Princeton (University Library, Princeton MS 57), was published and edited by D. C. Skemer, ‘Frater Richard Bury’s Roll: Ownership and Use of an Early Genealogical Chronicle of the Kings of England’, English Manuscript Studies 1100–1700, 17, ed. A. S. G. Edwards and O. da Rold (2012), 60–106. In this roll the line of English kings is traced from Alfred the Great (r. 871–899) to King Henry III (r. 1216–1272). Even though the text is, as Skemer has shown, related to the genealogical chronicles conceived by Matthew Paris, Princeton MS 57 does not include the diagram of the heptarchy. 39 S. McKendrick, J. Lowden and K. Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London, 2011), pp. 344–7, no. 118 (J. Frońska); O. de Laborderie, ‘La mémoire des origines Normandes des rois d’Angleterre dans les généalogies en rouleau des XIIIe et XIVe siècles’, in La Normandie et l’Angleterre au Moyen Age, ed. P. Bouzet and V. Gazeau (Caen, 2003), pp. 211–36; J. Spence, Reimagining History in Anglo-Norman Prose Chronicles (York, 2013), esp. pp. 110, 124. 38 A

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Fig. 9. Heptarchy, Matthew Paris, Genealogy of English kings from King Alfred onwards, Abbreviatio chronicorum Angliae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Claudius D VI fol. 10v.

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Andrea Worm supra-temporal and universal. On the other hand, in the Chronica Majora and all later chronicles, the heptarchy is given even greater prominence, because it heads the genealogies of the kings of England, and thus becomes an icon of national unity. Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae is a highly complex achievement and turned out as a hugely successful attempt to put history in order. It offers a ‘time map’,40 which uses the page as a two-dimensional matrix to display historical information, and allows for a simultaneous representation and perception of events in both a synchronic and diachronic perspective. History is thereby turned into a visually suggestive, self-evident image. By the very act of visualization, the past (and in case of Cotton MS Faustina B VII that includes both the biblical and the more recent past) is presented as a meaningful and ordered entity, with one central leading axis: the ‘linea Christi’ that is then continued into the line of the popes. The diagrammatic structure itself reveals the teleological consequence of history, so that time unfolds before the eye of the beholder as an unbroken chain of generations in a great tableau. Thus, these carefully crafted graphs do not only apply order to information, but also, perhaps rather, their aim is to reveal the inherent order of history. Cotton MS Faustina B VII, a hitherto hardly known manuscript, contains a remarkable chronicle that takes Peter of Poitiers’ concept to the present day of its compiler. This essay was primarily concerned with the visual concept, and with how history is presented. Further research needs to be done to – I hope – reveal more of the original historical, intellectual, and artistic context of this manuscript. Cotton MS Faustina B VII is not only the first time the linear synopsis of the Compendium historiae was thereby turned into a universal chronicle, but it is also a strikingly elaborate example of a historical graph, both artistically and in terms of the degree of sophistication with which history is interpreted in the process of its visualization. The graph constructs, in both a temporal and a spatial sense, the idea of continuity and unity. The lines are arranged in a manner that privileges the English rulers; they make it evident that England is not only the first Christian monarchy in Europe, but also that there is a continuity of rule in England, one line, that falls in three parts, marking the stages of Briton, Anglo-Saxon and Norman rule in England. The use of a linear graph presents the past of the English as one entity, teleological and consequential, creating a meaningful bond between the (Briton and Anglo-Saxon) past and the (English) present on the eve of war against France. The graph suggests legitimate succession in the line of rule, and also shows England as a nation, consisting of different parts and regions, but standing unified as one in an icon of harmony and beauty.

40 The

term was first coined in a different context by the sociologist E. Zerubavel, Time Maps: Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past (Chicago, 2003).

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3 Computus and Chronologyin Anglo-Norman England Anne Lawrence-Mathers

This essay examines the growing concern amongst computists and historians in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries as they grappled with what turned out to be an insoluble problem. The issue was that the information provided by the gospels as to the dating of the first Easter was, as Bede had already suggested, impossible to match with the information included in the Easter Tables of Dionysius Exiguus, upon which the Church calendar and the dating of major festivals were based. Several scholars attempted to find solutions to the problem, and one of the most influential was that propounded by Marianus Scottus, a computist and chronologer who wrote in Mainz in the late eleventh century.1 Marianus’s work was brought to England by another skilled computist, Robert, bishop of Hereford, who believed so strongly in Marianus’s solution to this ‘scandal’ that he compiled a forceful exposition of its key points. This was known and studied in several English centres; yet, apart from John of Worcester, no chronicler in England or Normandy adopted Marianus’s re-dating of the Christian era, and the problem was left to computists. There are, however, traces of the arguments posed and the solutions offered in the works of chroniclers from the leading centres of Anglo-Norman historical writing, as this paper will show. A key witness is Orderic Vitalis, who visited England during the composition of his own wide-ranging Ecclesiastical History.2 Book III of this work includes an account of the Norman conquest of England, reaching a dramatic and somewhat foreboding climax with the botched coronation of William in Westminster Abbey. This is followed by brief notices of the contemporary historians who covered William’s career and chief battle. A longer space is given to John of Worcester, a monk whom Orderic observed at his chronological labours. These are described as ‘adding to the chronicle of Marianus 1 On

Marianus see also in this volume L. Cleaver, ‘Autograph History Books in the Twelfth Century’ and G. Schmidt, ‘A Saint Petersburg Manuscript of Excerptio Roberti Herefordiensis de Chronica Mariani Scotti’. 2 On Orderic see also Cleaver, ‘Autograph History Books in the Twelfth Century’.

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Anne Lawrence-Mathers Scottus’ and providing a truthful account of the reigns of William and his sons, which was still in progress at the time of Orderic’s visit (which is sadly not clearly dated).3 Orderic is well informed on Marianus, and describes him as a monk of Mainz, whose own chronological work followed in the footsteps of Eusebius of Caesarea and St Jerome. In other words, Marianus had undertaken the daunting task of continuing and revising the fundamental Christian historiographical work of Eusebius, as translated and enlarged by Jerome in the late fourth century.4 It was this Latin version whose synchronistic tables, or Chronici canones, constituted the fundamental skeleton upon which later, and usually more circumscribed, historical accounts were built. They provided not only a rapid overview of the rise and fall of ancient rulers and kingdoms, set alongside one another, but also an implicit demonstration of the triumph of Christianity as a world-historical phenomenon. They also offered a powerfully convincing grid of interlocking chronological reference points, in which regnal years for all the rulers covered were set against a column marking out the sequence of Olympiads (at four-year intervals) and the years from the birth of Abraham (at ten-year intervals). It was thus possible to check which kings and prophets of Israel were contemporary with which rulers amongst the Egyptians, the Medes, the Latins, the Athenians and (when appropriate) the Romans. It is noteworthy that the reader of this work would feel entirely at home with the chronological cross-referencing offered by Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain, which flaunted its scholarly credentials through noting, for instance, that Brutus founded his New Troy on the banks of the Thames at the time when Eli was ruling in Judea, the sons of Hector ruled in Troy and Aeneas Silvius ruled in Italy. He thus outdid Nennius, who had merely recorded that Brutus’s reign was contemporary with the career of Eli and the capture of the Ark of the Covenant.5 The appearance of Julius Caesar as emperor of Rome is marked out by Eusebius-Jerome in some detail and placed at the year 1,969 from Abraham’s birth and the first year of an Olympiad. This is a fundamental anchor point for history. That Orderic was himself very well aware of the weight and complexity of the work involved in updating such a wide-ranging and canonical text is indicated by his comments on those of his own time who were making the attempt. Marianus Scottus is described as having dedicated his life at Mainz

3 Orderic

Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. and trans. M. Chibnall, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1969–80), II, 186 and n. 1 (subsequently Ecclesiastical History). 4 On this see especially R. W. Burgess, Studies in Eusebian and Post-Eusebian Chronography (Stuttgart, 1999); R. W. Burgess, ‘Jerome Explained: An Introduction to his Chronicle and a Guide to its Use’, Ancient History Bulletin 16 (2002), 1–32. 5 Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, ed. M. D. Reeve and trans. N. Wright (Woodbridge, 2007), pp. 30–1; see also Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, trans. L. Thorpe (Harmondsworth, 1966), p. 74, n.2.

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Computus and Chronology to his chronological endeavours, drawing upon historians both ancient and modern as well as upon Eusebius and Jerome, before making his work available to those who were unable to undertake such a study themselves.6 As Orderic admiringly says, Marianus went right back to the Creation, and correlated all the books of the Old and New Testaments with Greek and Roman historians, setting out the years covered by rulers and consuls right down to the time of his own death. This was then not just an updating of EusebiusJerome but a major attempt at a new calculation of history. Such an initiative might appear prideful, if it were not clear that Marianus had full support at Mainz and, as Orderic goes on to explain, at Worcester. John, monk of Worcester, was building upon Marianus’s work, at the command of no less an authority than the saintly bishop of Worcester, Wulfstan II. Orderic is aware that John has added material to Marianus’s chronicle, and that this extension is especially valuable for its account of the Franks, Germans, and other peoples as well as the Romans. He then tactfully refrains from comparing the two, simply affirming that both chronicles offer comprehensive coverage of the ancient rulers of the Hebrews, the Romans and the popes. The reader will also find (in John at least) lists of all the kings and bishops in England. Nor does the new work on world history end there. Orderic now also introduces the name of Sigebert of Gembloux, although calling him Engelbert in error and being less enthusiastic about his work. Sigebert’s work is another contemporary effort at a new conspectus of history and chronology, which, according to Orderic, drew upon his opusculis.7 The phrase is unhelpfully vague, but suggests that the work of both Marianus and John was used, although Sigebert then omitted much of the information about Britain, choosing instead to include accounts of the Goths, Huns, Persians and ‘other barbarian nations’.8 There is perhaps a slight hint of reservation here, although Orderic concludes by saying that he is happy to include these notices in his own work, in order to make these recent achievements better known to scholars, who can benefit from their great learning. Orderic has tracked one down in Worcester itself, and was shown the text of Sigebert at Cambrai.9 It is not clear whether he has seen the chronicle of Marianus separately, or only via the updated copy made at Worcester (or perhaps its exemplar). What is interesting is the strong implication that the laborious journeys to Cambrai and Worcester were linked to Orderic’s research, and to his decision to convert his chronicle to an Ecclesiastical History which fully merited that title (as opposed to the ‘narrative of the restoration of the abbey of Saint-Evroul’ which Orderic undertook at the command of Abbot Roger).10 6 Ecclesiastical

History, II, 186. II, 188. 8 Ibid., II, 188–9. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid., I, 130–1. 7 Ibid.,

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Anne Lawrence-Mathers What is implied by this change of title and approach? The Prologue to Orderic’s revised work goes on to suggest that reading the works of ancient and more recent historians led to a wish to add the story of ‘the fortunes of the Christian people in this present time’ to the cumulative history of ‘the good and evil fortunes of mortal men’ built up by eminent predecessors.11 The suggestion is that Orderic has read widely in preparation for his task, but has concluded that his learning will never be sufficient for him to undertake more than a truthful and straightforward record of what he has seen or learnt from reliable contemporaries. Nevertheless, despite this modest disclaimer, the Prologue concludes with the statement that Orderic has decided to begin with ‘the Beginning that has no beginning’ – in other words with the Incarnation and the life of Christ.12 This is not strictly required if the intention is to focus on providing an accurate and reliable account of the present time, but appears to be approved by the new abbot, Warin, and to be part of the new conception of the work as a contribution, however humble, to the overall history of the Christian people. The list of the illustrious predecessors is also interesting, since it combines those who have laid down the fundamental overviews of history (such as Moses, Daniel, Orosius and Eusebius) with those who have made more delimited contributions (Dares Phrygius, Pompeius Trogus and Paul the Deacon). Bede may perhaps count in both lists, if Orderic has read both his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (a possible model) and his Chronica maiora (which circulated both with his De temporum ratione and separately). No reason is given for the change of plan, but Orderic’s mention in Book III of a visit to Cambrai, and a viewing there of the work of Sigebert of Gembloux, is suggestive. As Timothy Reuter has observed, Sigebert was one of a distinguished group of historians in the regnum Teutonicum who combined historical work with study of computus.13 This group included both Marianus Scottus and the almost-legendary figure of Hermannus Contractus, as well as authors of shorter studies and treatises. What they had in common was that they all made contributions to an ongoing debate on the problems and issues arising from detailed study of the ‘Dionysian era’ – that is, the system of dating years since the Incarnation of Christ. The reasons for this growing concern and attention are the subject of debate; but it is relevant here that the argument, to which Bede had made a fundamental, early contribution, was taken up largely outside the regions which constituted the Anglo-Norman realm. The problems involved were both technical and impossible to resolve completely, due to the nature of the data which needed to be taken into account. It is no coincidence that the 11 Ibid.

12 Ibid.,

I, 132–3. Reuter, ‘Past, Present and No Future in the Twelfth-Century Regnum Teutonicum’, in The Perception of the Past in Twelfth-Century Europe, ed. P. Magdalino (Woodbridge, 1992), pp. 15–36.

13 T.

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Computus and Chronology centres in which new calculations of world-history were undertaken were also those in which scientific studies of astronomy and of the associated science of time-reckoning were equally making advances. Reuter’s survey of historical writing in the Empire demonstrates clearly the number of contributors to this flourishing group of universal chronicles, all distinguished by an attempt to set out the history of the world. The most ambitious, who included Marianus, began with the Creation, whilst others (who were to be followed by Orderic) started more modestly with the birth of Christ.14 However, even beginning with the Incarnation rather than the Creation did not entirely avoid problems of chronology. As mentioned above, the long-established work of Eusebius and Jerome had set out a highly influential grid of synchronicities; and into this system, dates in the new anno Domini mode propounded in the sixth century by Dionysius Exiguus had been added. Bede’s historical and computistical works had made major contributions to this process, even though his Chronica maiora calculated dates solely since the creation of the world. The novelty of the Chronica maiora was in the clarity with which Bede laid out his arguments for very precise dates for the beginning of earthly time and for each of the Ages of This World. Time began with the creation of the luminaries whose circuits marked it out in measurable units, and Bede argued that the day on which the luminaries were made, specified in Genesis as the fourth day of the Creation, would be the vernal equinox.15 The argument was logical; but it was unhelpful both that the precise calendar date of this equinox was a matter of disagreement, and that the precession of the equinoxes was producing an increasing discrepancy between the official dates and the observable, solar phenomenon. To make matters worse, the timing of the vernal equinox was also a key factor in the calculation of the date of Easter each year, since it had to be correlated with an agreed lunar calendar if the correct full Moon was to be lined up with the correct Sunday. If the scandal of rival dates for Easter, which had caused disruption in early Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, were to be avoided, then the system upon which the calculations were based needed to be universally accepted; and this would be greatly strengthened if the theological requirements were also satisfied. It is this interlocking of astronomical, calendrical and theological analysis which brought the study of history and of computus together; and it was the growing awareness of problems in need of resolution which made this a subject to which those with the requisite knowledge felt drawn to contribute. It is necessary to give some account of what was at stake in this argument, if the decisions of Anglo-Norman historians are to be fully understood. This is not the place for a detailed history of the computus or the calendar; but

14 Ibid.,

15 Bede,

p. 33. The Reckoning of Time, trans. F. Wallis (Liverpool, 1999), pp. 24–8, 158–9.

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Anne Lawrence-Mathers since Bede’s work was both widely read and highly authoritative within the Anglo-Norman realm, it provides a helpful point of reference. Bede himself stated that he wrote his longer work on time and the calendar to satisfy twin demands: on the one hand for detail on the calculation of Easter; and on the other to provide more information on ‘the nature, course and end of time’.16 Bede was, as is well known, an enthusiast for Dionysius’s new dating system, and it was the authoritative status of De temporum ratione which helped guarantee its success. Throughout the work Bede links together the different levels and modes of time, from the calculation of the units which make it up, to the methods involved in constructing a calendar, and on to the structures of historical time. He is respectful towards the chronographical work of Eusebius, and yet critical of the latter’s inconsistency in using different translations of the Bible unpredictably and without comment. The consistent use of the best Latin version is crucial for Bede, given that calculations of key periods of historical time depend upon this. Moreover, the Bible provides the authority upon which Bede relies in observing that some periods of time, such as the week, have divine sanction, whilst others, such as months, are merely a matter of human custom (since they do not accord exactly with the movements of either the Moon or the Sun).17 Still more complex is the matter of the dating of the first day on which time existed, which is linked to the truest date for the vernal equinox. Bede argues that a combination of biblical data and astronomical calculation establishes that the most satisfactory date for the equinox is 21 March (12 kal. April), which would thus be the date of the fourth day of the world; and yet only the divisions of the zodiac accord with this date even in theory. Neither the calendar year, nor any individual month, begin at the equinox, although for Bede this is the point at which not only the zodiac but also the ‘great year’ measured by the courses of the planets begin and end.18 Linked to the correct construction of the calendar and the correct calculation of Easter is the still more problematic issue of the dating of the first Easter, which Bede discusses at some length, whilst also linking it to the nineteen-year cycles used in constructing Easter tables.19 Dionysius’s role in establishing the current situation is made very clear when Bede states that it was he who argued for dating the new, Christian era by the years of the Incarnation rather than by the regnal years of a pagan Roman emperor, and further that it was Dionysius who enshrined AD 532 as the first year of his newly calculated, updated Easter cycle. This was slightly cumbersome in its effects, since a full, computistical Great Cycle coincidentally consists of 532 years. The reason for this has nothing to do with the date of Dionysius’s work, 16 Ibid.,

p. 3. p. 13. 18 Ibid., pp. 24–8. 19 Ibid., chapter 47, pp. 126–30. 17 Ibid.,

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Computus and Chronology but is rather the result of taking the nineteen-year cycle as the best unit with which to resolve the unequal lunar and solar calendars (necessary if the solar equinoxes and full Moons were to be kept in correlation) and then multiplying by seven to allow for the days of the week, and again by four to allow for leap years. After this period, as Bede says, ‘the whole luni-solar sequence, going back to its beginning, revolves along the same track’, repeating all its details.20 For this reason, the computistical details of the year AD 533 should also be those of the year of the Incarnation (AD 1). This has the further effect of meaning that the data for the year of the Crucifixion should also be capable of correlation with the Easter cycle. The key information brought together by Bede, from the Bible and an impressive set of patristic sources, establishes that the Crucifixion took place when Christ was in his thirty-fourth year. It was also on a Friday, and tied to the dating of Passover, which linked it to the full Moon (and, according to patristic authorities, to the vernal equinox). Moreover, the leading doctors of the Church accepted that its date in the Julian calendar was 25 March, although there was some space for disagreement, since Theophilus of Caesarea gave a slightly earlier date. Finally, its date in Roman regnal years could also be established, since John the Baptist began to teach in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, making this the earliest year in which he could have baptized Christ. Unfortunately, this amounts to too much information, as Bede goes on to make tactfully but inescapably clear. The computistical details for the year of the Crucifixion and for AD 566 should be the same, given the information set out above. Thus, as Bede says, you should find what you are looking for in Dionysius’s Easter Tables at the year corresponding to the 566th year of the Incarnation – and if you do, you should give thanks to God.21 What Bede does not spell out directly is that you will in fact be disappointed. This was a problem upon which Bede chose not to dwell; and subsequent experts on the computus who noted it tended to make varying suggestions for its resolution, since it did not have an easy answer. A bold suggestion was made by Abbo of Fleury at the end of the tenth century. Abbo observed that all the correct details for the Passion could be found in the year accepted as AD 12, and thus proposed a recalculation of the Christian era.22 Whether Abbo propounded any version of his theories whilst teaching at Ramsey in England is not clear; but he was certainly not alone in recognizing that this year fulfilled the requirements discussed above.23 However, neither Abbo nor most of the computists involved in this debate sought to reconcile the

20 Ibid.,

p. 126. p. 128. 22 For details and discussion see C. P. E. Nothaft, Dating the Passion: The Life of Jesus and the Emergence of Scientific Chronology (200–1600) (Leiden, 2012), pp. 104–6. 23 A fuller account of Abbo’s thought on this subject is given by P. Verbist, ‘Abbon de Fleury et l’ère chrétienne vers l’an mil: un esprit critique vis-à-vis d’une tradition erronée’, in Abbon de Fleury, ed. B. Obrist (Paris, 2004), pp. 61–93. 21 Ibid.,

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Anne Lawrence-Mathers proposed new dating fully with the Christian version of history. It was clear that, if the Crucifixion took place twenty-two years earlier than traditionally accepted, then the same must apply to the Incarnation; but the reconciliation of this with all the other dating formulae provided by the Bible, Eusebius, Dionysius and the other authorities posed a formidable obstacle. The honour for tackling and solving this problem goes to Marianus, whose work was deservedly respected in the early twelfth century.24 Moreover, his new version of world history was, as Orderic testified, brought into Anglo-Norman England and enthusiastically adopted at Worcester. This seems to have been the result of the strong support given to it by Robert the Lotharingian, bishop of Hereford from 1079 to 1095.25 It was almost certainly Robert who brought a copy of Marianus’s treatise and chronicle into England (which may survive in London, British Library, MS Cotton Nero C V). The close friendship between Robert and Wulfstan of Worcester, described by William of Malmesbury, explains Wulfstan’s instruction that the Worcester chronicle should be based upon Marianus’s work.26 It may have been through contacts at Hereford and Worcester that William of Malmesbury himself came to know and appreciate Marianus’s work. Certainly, a diffusion in the AngloNorman realm spreading out from Hereford and Worcester would explain why the enthusiastic reader of histories, Orderic, appears to have encountered Marianus in the ‘Worcester edition’ rather than in Normandy. Further evidence for the importance of Robert of Hereford in particular comes from the growing study of Robert’s own achievements as a computist and chronographer.27 Gleb Schmidt’s research has found no fewer than eleven surviving copies or fragments of Robert’s treatise on dating and on the work of Marianus, most of these originating in England.28 Moreover, whilst the provenance of several is uncertain, two have been identified as Worcester products (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 1 9; and London, British Library, Cotton MS Tiberius E IV). It is certain that one (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14) was made for Malmesbury; and William of Malmesbury himself recorded 24 C.

P. E. Nothaft, ‘An Eleventh-Century Chronologer at Work: Marianus Scottus and the Quest for the Missing Twenty-Two Years’, Speculum 88 (2013), 457–82. 25 J. Barrow, ‘Robert the Lotharingian (d. 1095)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17026 (accessed 11 July 2016). 26 William of Malmesbury, ‘Life of Wulfstan’, in William of Malmesbury; Saints’ Lives, ed. and trans. M. Winterbottom and R. M. Thomson (Oxford, 2002), pp. 7–155, esp. 140–5; William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum: The History of the English Bishops, ed. and trans. M. Winterbottom with R. M. Thomson, 2 vols. (Oxford, 2007), II, 458–60. 27 A. Cordoliani, ‘L’activité computistique de Robert, évêque de Hereford’, in Mélanges offerts à René Crozet, ed. P. Gallais and Y. T. Rion, 2 vols. (Poitiers, 1966), I, 333–40; G. Schmidt, ‘Le récit sur le recensement de 1086 et la tradition manuscrite de l’Excerptio Roberti de Chronica Mariani’, in Le Sens du temps. The Sense of Time, ed. P. Bourgain and J.-Y. Tilliette (Geneva, 2017), pp. 221–34. 28 See also Schmidt, ‘A Saint Petersburg Manuscript of Excerptio Roberti Herefordiensis de Chronica Mariani Scotti’ in this volume.

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Computus and Chronology his support for Marianus’s work as promulgated by Robert.29 Durham seems to have been an important ‘early adopter’ of Robert’s work, since two copies from the first half of the twelfth century, each containing a different version of the treatise, can both be linked to Durham by their script and illumination (these are now Durham, Cathedral Library, MS Hunter 100, and Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 85). Also possibly a Durham product, from the mid twelfth century, is the computistical collection now Cambridge, St John’s College, MS I.15. This contains a version of Robert’s treatise, as Nothaft has pointed out, on pages 338–41 (although here it is silently incorporated into a range of computistical material).30 This manuscript belonged by the late Middle Ages to the Carmelites of London (not founded until the middle of the thirteenth century) but its minor initials appear to be those of Durham. Moreover, Michael Gullick has argued that it was Symeon of Durham who copied part of Robert’s treatise in Hunter 100, as well as entering annalistic notes for the Great Cycle of 532–1063 in the margins of the Easter tables in Hunter 85.31 The evidence is thus very strong for knowledge of the arguments of Marianus and Robert on the part of historians and computists at three of the main English centres at which chronicles were being composed in the early twelfth century. The question which thus arises is that of the influence which these revolutionary theories exerted on the chronicles themselves. Given the popularity of Robert’s treatise at Durham, and Symeon of Durham’s involvement in its copying, it is perhaps surprising that Symeon’s own Libellus de Exordio bears no discernible trace of influence from Marianus or Robert. Dates are expressed in the standard Dionysian form, without comment; and dating formulae, whilst frequently long and complex, refer mostly to local events and reigns. There is no echo of Orderic’s aim to place his ‘local ecclesiastical history’ within the framework of a wider view of the history of the Christian people. Even the account of Bede, which is as full and favourable as would be expected, barely mentions his works on time or his Chronica maiora except as part of a copy of Bede’s own list of his works.32 It thus appears that the interest in computus and time-reckoning at Durham was confined to medical, astronomical and, perhaps, liturgical studies rather than being taken up in historical work. This is in extreme contrast, of course, to the situation at Worcester, where Marianus’s work was thoroughly accepted. As noted above, the Worcester chronicle was based upon Marianus’s own 29 William

of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1998–9), I, c.292; A. Lawrence-Mathers, ‘William of Malmesbury and the Chronological Controversy’, in Discovering William of Malmesbury, ed. R. Thomson, E. Dolmans and E. Winkler (Woodbridge, 2017), pp. 93–106. 30 Nothaft’s identification of Robert’s text in St John’s MS I.15 is mentioned by Gleb Schmidt in ‘Le récit sur le récensement’. 31 LDE, p. xlvi and nn. 139–41. 32 Ibid. pp. 40–3, 58–9, 64–7, 66–9.

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Anne Lawrence-Mathers composition, and for its early books was in effect a copy of that work. This is not to deny the amount of work which John and Florence of Worcester, and their assistants, put into the checking and revision of Marianus’s lists of rulers and popes, nor the care which went into the editing and layout of their lists of bishops and kings in English territories. All this appears to have occupied a considerable period of time, and its results can be seen in the surviving, partly-autograph copy of John of Worcester’s Chronicon ex chronicis which is now Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 157.33 However, the value placed upon Marianus’s work is demonstrated by the adoption of the revised dating system for anni Domini, which is placed alongside the more familiar dates of the established system. The well-known, fully-illustrated account of Henry I’s dreams provides a case in point. On page 382 is the description of the king’s first two dreams, as recounted by his physician, Grimbald. At the top of the page are the two rival dates: MCLII (the date according to Marianus) placed where a reader begins to view the page, on the left, and written in red; and MCXXX (the standard dating) in a less prominent position at the top right, and in black. However, Worcester and its chroniclers stood alone in this espousal of the ‘scientific’ dating system worked out by Marianus and promulgated by Robert of Hereford. The explanation for this is probably that supplied by William of Malmesbury. It appears to have been William’s own decision to have Robert’s epitome of Marianus’s computistical and chronological arguments copied into the collection of computistical texts produced for Malmesbury under his direction. This manuscript is now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14, and its palaeographical features have been described and discussed by Rodney Thomson.34 What is relevant for this paper is that the tables for a Great Cycle of 532 years entered into the central section of this same manuscript are not the standard ones as calculated by Bede, but rather those of Marianus Scottus.35 Still more surprisingly, the marginal annotations to these tables show clear support for Marianus’s recalculation of history. For instance, a note on folio 132r identifies the year of the Incarnation at the location chosen by Marianus, not that of Dionysius (Fig. 1). In case there were any doubt, this is described as the true year of the Incarnation ‘according to the Gospel’. William’s support for Marianus is thus evident; and yet William did not adopt the new dating system in his historical or hagiographical works. Instead, William provides an account of Marianus’s work as part of

33 High

quality digitized images of the whole manuscript can be viewed at http:// image.ox.ac.uk/show?collection=corpus&manuscript=ms157 (accessed 12 July 2016). The tables presenting information on Anglo-Saxon England are at pages 39–53. 34 See R. M. Thomson, William of Malmesbury (Woodbridge, 1987), pp. 83–5. 35 This was observed by W. Stevenson, ‘A Contemporary Description of the Domesday Survey’, EHR 22 (1907), 72–84.

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Computus and Chronology

Fig. 1. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14 fol. 132r.

his exposition of the learning of Robert of Hereford. Marianus is described as having noticed and criticized the discrepancy between the cycles of Dionysius and the ‘evangelical truth’, and as having been inspired by this to recalculate history from its beginning, adding into it the twenty-two missing years. William is critical of Marianus’s style as an historian; and correspondingly welcomes the contribution of Robert, who not only brought Marianus’s book to England but also prepared a short version of its key points, making them clearer and more convincing.36 Fittingly, it is in the more political narrative of the Gesta Regum that William gives his explanation for the failure of Marianus’s revisionism, despite its application of ‘evangelical truth’. Scholars and writers, says William, ignore or condemn as mere novelties new discoveries, however true, unless they are supported by powerful patrons. Thus knowledge is at the mercy of patronage.37 In this, William’s judgement was proved correct, and the example of the Worcester chronicle remained an isolated one. However, this does not mean that the arguments themselves, especially as propounded by Robert of Hereford, were weak. Moreover, the close interdependence of computus, chronology and chronicle in this period is of interest in itself. This makes it important to look at the case outlined by Robert and the terms in which it was made. The treatise has not been edited, but the capitula given in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 1 9, the Worcester version of the text, demonstrate the nature of the problems covered. Its very first chapter is headed De variis relationibus et diversis opinionibus ex resurrectione domini (‘Concerning the varying accounts and diverse opinions relating to the resurrection of the Lord’). This is followed by a summary of the evidence of the gospels

36 William

of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum, I, c.146.1. of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum, I, 292.1. For further discussion see Lawrence-Mathers, ‘William of Malmesbury and the Chronological Controversy’, pp. 93–106.

37 William

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Anne Lawrence-Mathers concerning the dating of the Passion, and then by discussion of Eusebius and Jerome. From this, we move to the work of Dionysius and the evidence against him, before being taken through the evidence for the true date of the Passion, and its relation to the Incarnation. The technicalities of regnal years, indictions and luni-solar cycles, are all covered, and special attention is given to the place of the Passion in geographical space as well as time. This was something in which the Worcester chroniclers and illuminators appear to have been specially interested, from the evidence of the unique, ‘typographical’ miniature of the Crucifixion added, with an accompanying text, on page 77b of Corpus MS 157, after a copy of Bede’s De locis sanctis, inserted into the Worcester compilation at this point.38 For believers this was a matter of great importance; and its subordination to custom and patronage must have been deeply depressing. It is clear from the evidence discussed so far that Robert of Hereford’s espousal of Marianus’s work had a real impact in leading centres of historical work in Anglo-Norman England, even though it ultimately failed to take hold. Through Orderic, at least, the work of Marianus was also known in Normandy, although here it had even less impact. In the Norman part of the Anglo-Norman realm it was the work of Sigebert which was much better known, especially through the work of Robert of Torigni. Robert began his historical composition at Bec, starting with a revision of the Gesta Normannorum Ducum begun by William of Jumièges. Robert’s rise to become abbot of Mont Saint-Michel (1154–86) did not put an end to his scholarly work, and it was during this later period that he too undertook the composition of an ambitious updating of world history. Robert made the eminently tactful decision to build upon Sigebert’s work, and to be entirely explicit about his use of key predecessors. In this way he avoided becoming embroiled in the chronological arguments and theories being debated in England and the Empire whilst basing his own work upon unimpeachable authorities. That Robert’s reputation as a good judge of historical work was already becoming established whilst he was at Bec is suggested by the weight given by Henry of Huntingdon to Robert’s acceptance of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ‘translation’ of that supposedly long-lost bombshell, the Historia Regum Britanniae.39 Robert’s espousal of Sigebert’s work would thus carry weight. It also had the effect of strengthening the establishment of a canonical construction of world history. Sigebert himself had accepted the work of Eusebius and Jerome, and began his own chronological work

38 For

discussion of this miniature and its location see A. Lawrence-Mathers, ‘John of Worcester and the Science of History’, JMH 39, 3 (2013), 255–74. 39 On this see C. N. L. Brooke, ‘The Archbishops of St David’s, Llandaff and Caerleonon-Usk’, in Studies in the Early British Church, ed. N. K. Chadwick (Cambridge, 1958), pp. 201–42 (p. 231). For a different view see A. Lawrence-Mathers, The True History of Merlin the Magician (New Haven and London, 2012), pp. 30–2.

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Computus and Chronology only at 381.40 This perhaps recommended his work to that careful scholar John of Salisbury, who also drew upon it.41 Robert of Torigni’s level of skill or interest in computus is unclear; but John of Salisbury was well aware of current developments in the liberal arts, of which computus formed part, and Sigebert of Gembloux was expert in the subject. He was the author of a treatise in the form of a dialogue, the Liber decennalis.42 This could only have given further authority to his world history, since it demonstrated at some length that he was fully expert on the state of the argument concerning the dating of the Christian era. Sigebert’s handling of the problem achieved the difficult task of combining informed criticism of the problems caused by Dionysius’s Easter tables with clearly-handled evidence for continuing to use Dionysius’s dates. An important part of the process is the stress placed by Sigebert on the weight of authority behind the accepted dating, and a criticism (even though placed in the mouth of the Pupil rather than the Master) of the ‘novelty’ embraced by those who argue for a complete re-dating.43 This approach makes it possible that Sigebert may have been one of the scholars criticized by William of Malmesbury for recognizing the problem so trenchantly set out by Marianus and Robert, but rejecting their solution on the grounds that it was a novelty and had insufficient support from patrons. One thing which the treatise makes abundantly clear is that Sigebert had researched carefully on the subject, and paid special attention to the issue of the Easter debate. Book III of the Liber decennalis is devoted to a thorough exposition of the points at issue, the testimony of the gospels (especially that of John), and the stance taken by a series of patristic authors. It opens with a seemingly artless question from the Pupil as to the variant date for the first Easter given by Theophilus of Caesarea.44 The Master responds that this is an issue on which the authority and established practice of the Church must carry most weight, and that it is firmly established that the Crucifixion took place on a Friday, 8 kal. April, luna XV, and that the Resurrection followed on Sunday, 6 kal. April, luna XVII. However, this leads into the question of the historical year in which these events took place, and here the Master acknowledges the important work of Marianus, who is described as a chronographer of commendable erudition and life. Marianus is here placed foremost amongst those who have written about the ‘errors’ of Dionysius; and the power of his case is

40 See

‘Sigiberti Gemblacensis chronica cum continuationibus’, ed. L. C. Bethmann, in MGHSS (Hannover, 1844), VI, 268–474. 41 M. Chibnall, ‘John of Salisbury as Historian’, Studies in Church History, Subsidia 3 (1994), 169–77. 42 ‘Sigebert von Gembloux; Liber Decennalis’, ed. J. Wiesenbach, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Quellen zur Geistgeschichte des Mittelalters XII (Weimar, 1986). 43 Ibid., p. 285. 44 Ibid., p. 257.

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Anne Lawrence-Mathers demonstrated by a long quotation from his work.45 Oddly, Sigebert avers that Marianus argued for a re-dating by twenty-one years rather than the actual twenty-two; he also suggests that Marianus is not alone in this. Sigebert gives no immediate judgement of his own, but instead provides further material from Cassiodorus, Victorius of Aquitaine and, at length, Augustine. The latter’s testimony, in the City of God, as to the regnal year and the consulate involved, closes this section even though it does not, in fact, entirely settle the problem. Next to be considered is the work of Bede, and chapter 47 of De temporum ratione is summarized and quoted at length, in the course of which the testimony of Theophilus is rejected. Leaving no stone unturned, the text then takes up the closely-related problem of Christ’s age at the time of the Crucifixion. Once again, neither Sigebert himself nor his character, the Master, is so bold as to venture an individual opinion. The procedure is, once again, to line up authorities and their testimonies, although special emphasis is placed on the decisions of Eusebius and Jerome, and their (qualified) support for placing the Crucifixion in the eighteenth year of Tiberius.46 What is not mentioned here is that Marianus’s rediscovery of the ‘lost’ years had dealt with this evidence and rendered it unproblematic. Instead, the further issues involved in correlating these regnal years, anni Domini and the Year of the World or annus mundi is next tackled. At this point the reader has sympathy for the Pupil, who is moved to criticize those who want to rock the boat of established chronography at this late date. The Master’s response is characteristically judicious.47 He is clear that Dionysius’s tables cannot be reconciled with the gospel evidence as they stand, but he is also critical of those who wish to adjust the accepted date without understanding what is involved. Moreover, the Church is correct to avoid undermining the trust of the people for the sake of anything which does not actually go against the faith itself. Thus authority prevails, and the concluding section of the book, and of the treatise itself, returns to less controversial matters. All this makes the decision of Orderic Vitalis as to the dating of world history in his own work all the more interesting. As has been seen, Robert of Hereford did much to spread knowledge of Marianus’s work in AngloNorman England, even though he was ultimately unsuccessful. In Normandy, the influential Robert of Torigni chose instead to follow Sigebert and his judicious support for authority. Orderic, having studied (at least briefly) the works of both Marianus and Sigebert, and having travelled to both Cambrai and Worcester in the process, finally settled on his own path. He decided to write a history of ecclesiastical affairs and of the fortunes of Christians in modern times, and to begin accordingly with the Incarnation and the life of 45 Ibid.,

p. 259. pp. 270–1. 47 Ibid., p. 283. 46 Ibid.,

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Computus and Chronology Christ.48 This immediately distinguished Orderic from both Sigebert (who began where Eusebius and Jerome left off) and Marianus, and he refers to neither in the early part of his expanded work, even though it was written late in his career. However, this does not mean that Orderic avoided making known his own decisions as to the dating of Christ’s life. The Nativity is dated to 25 December, in the forty-second year of Augustus, the third year of the 193rd Olympiad, the 752nd from the foundation of Rome, and the year 3,952 of the World, according to the ‘Hebrew truth’.49 He thus follows Bede in contradicting Eusebius’s count, although he does not say so. Matters of chronology return in later chapters of Book I, when the thorny problems of dating the ministry and then the Crucifixion arise. Here Orderic follows the route suggested by Sigebert, in staying with dating by the regnal year of Tiberius, whilst citing details from a range of sources; and he is equally cautious when it comes to calculating Christ’s age at the Passion, although he does suggest that this took place within three years of his baptism. Most thorny of all was the dating of the Last Supper and Crucifixion, for which so many contradictory pieces of information were recorded. Chapter Sixteen contains the account of the former, and Orderic stays with his established procedure of strict adherence to the gospels. It is dated by the simple statement that it took place ‘on the first day of the feast of unleavened bread’ and in the evening.50 Still more strikingly, the narrative of the Passion and Resurrection, which is detailed and relies carefully upon Augustine’s resolution of the gospel accounts, avoids all dating and computistical information, except for the isolated statement that the Resurrection was discovered as it began to dawn on the first day of the week.51 The emphasis on established authority continues in Chapter Twenty-two, when Orderic recapitulates his procedure in Book I, and then offers chronological information to link the gospel narrative to world histories. The authorities whom he names for this are Eusebius, Jerome, Orosius, Isidore and Bede. No more modern names are given.52 Moreover, Orderic follows Bede’s Chronica maiora not only in the details given of matters such as imperial reigns but also in not providing anno Domini dates. It is only in Chapter Twenty-four that this changes, when Orderic records that he is venturing into times not covered by Bede or by Paul the Deacon. The date at which Bede’s history of the English stopped is given as 734 ab incarnatione domini without any qualification, and it is thus clear that no controversial ‘novelty’ is going to be followed.53 It is therefore hardly

48 Ecclesiastical

History, I, 130–1. pp. 134–5. 50 Ibid., p. 147. 51 For a translation of the full text (not given by Chibnall) see The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy, trans. T. Forester, 4 vols. (London, 1853–6), I, 60–3, 73–9. 52 Ecclesiastical History, I, 150. 53 Ibid., p. 152. 49 Ibid.,

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Anne Lawrence-Mathers surprising that Marjorie Chibnall finds a series of correlations in Orderic’s account of more recent times with the chronicle of Sigebert. Orderic then, whilst showing his independence and his conscientious research, settled on the side of established authority, as argued for by Sigebert and espoused by Robert of Torigni. The combination of entrenched power (both ecclesiastical and secular) cited by William of Malmesbury, and the potential threat to the authority of the Church and the faith of the people propounded by Sigebert of Gembloux, outweighed the ‘scientific’ arguments of the computists and chronographers as far as the writing of history in the Anglo-Norman realm was concerned.

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4 A Saint Petersburg Manuscript of the Excerptio Roberti Herefordensis de Chronica Mariani Scotti* Gleb Schmidt

By the end of the eleventh century the most ambitious attempt to overthrow the Dionysian chronology of the post-incarnation era had been made. An Irish monk known as Marianus Scottus (1028–82) produced a voluminous work, the Chronicon, expressing his views on Christian chronology.1 Analysing the Gospels and the calculations of his predecessors, Marianus corrected Dionysian chronology by twenty-two years. Unlike other corrections proposed since the tenth century,2 Marianus’s project went beyond the limits of pure computistical theory. It included a substantial historical excursus in which Marianus reconstructed the correct chronology year by year and rediscovered these ‘lost’ twenty-two years.3 The influence of this major historical project on Anglo-Norman historiography cannot be overestimated. Marianus’s text, directly or indirectly, inspired other authors to create their own works and served as an important source for them. However, the main claim of his work was not generally accepted. Although Marianus’s emendation of the Dionysian Christian era had the widest dissemination of all other corrections,4 Marianus failed to achieve his main goal; the work’s impact was not strong enough to replace the existing chronological system. This was largely the result of the complexity of the subject, but also of the confused manner in which Marianus expressed his calculations, which made his conclusions difficult to decipher. In this context,



* This research was supported by the Zeno Karl Schindler Foundation. I am grateful to Professor Alan Friedlander for his help in editing this paper. 1 P. Verbist, ‘Reconstructing the Past. The Chronicle of Marianus Scottus’, Peritia 16 (2002), 284–334; see also in this volume A. Lawrence-Mathers, ‘Computus and Chronology in Anglo-Norman England’. 2 On the corrections of Heriger of Lebbes and Abbon of Fleury see P. Verbist, Duelling with the Past. Medieval Authors and the Problem of the Christian Era, c. 990–1135 (Turnhout, 2010), pp. 15–84. 3 C. P. E. Nothaft, ‘An Eleventh-Century Chronologer at Work. Marianus Scottus and the Quest for the Missing Twenty-Two Years’, Speculum 88, 2 (2013), 457–82. 4 Verbist, ‘Reconstructing the Past’, pp. 331–4; Verbist, Duelling with the Past, pp. 143–6.

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Gleb Schmidt the work written in 1086 by Robert, bishop of Hereford (1079–95), was of particular importance. The Excerptio Rodberti Herefordensis episcopi de Chronica Mariniani, as it was entitled by William of Malmesbury,5 served as an indispensable instrument that allowed intellectuals to familiarize themselves with the ideas of Marianus. Robert’s 24-chapter work, written in 1086, is largely drawn from the computistical preface to the Chronicon of Marianus Scottus as well as from its first two books.6 Robert’s own textual additions and changes are limited and do not alter the sense of Marianus’s conclusions. However, the clearer composition and brief form of Robert’s treatise made it much more understandable than the original source. It was not without reason that William of Malmesbury described Robert thus: highly skilled in all liberal arts, and in particular [… in] the abacus, the reckoning of time by the moon, and the course of the stars in the sky. At that time, there was at Mainz an enclosed monk called Marinianus. In his long seclusion he had had the leisure to study the chronographers, and he was the first or only man to notice the discrepancy of the cycles of Dionysius Exiguus as compared with the gospel truth. […] Robert admired this book beyond all others, marvellously rivalled it, and had it brought to England.7

William’s encomium shows the important role Robert’s work played in the dissemination of the ideas of the Irish monk. Robert’s arguments were not original. According to the Synoptic Gospels, the Last Supper took place on the Thursday which was also the day of Easter full moon, luna XIV (that is, the eve of Jewish Passover). Consequently, the crucifixion fell on Friday luna XV and the Resurrection on Sunday luna XVII. However, in the thirty-fourth year of the Dionysian era, when Christ was considered to have died on the cross, these dates were impossible, because luna XIV fell on a Sunday, 21 March. This was an obvious contradiction to the ‘evangelical truth’. However, twenty-two years earlier, in the twelfth year of the Dionysian era, the dates were fully concordant with the text of the Synoptic Gospels. Having continued these calculations and having established the date of Christ’s birth, Robert concluded that the year of the composition of his treatise, 1086 of the Dionysian era, was, in fact, the year 1108 of the ‘true Christian era’. The authority of Robert’s source, his clear treatment of this source and the well-structured composition of his text stimulated an evident interest

5 Oxford,

Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14, fol. 134r. Cordoliani, ‘L’activité computistique de Robert, évêque de Hereford’, in Mélanges offerts à René Crozet à l’occasion de son 70e anniversaire par ses amis, ses collègues, ses élèves et les membres du C.E.S.C.M., ed. P. Gallais and Y.-F. Riou, 2 vols. (Poitiers, 1966), I, 333–40. Robert uses chapters I, 1–8; II, 1–7, 59–69. See Verbist, Duelling with the Past, p. 144. 7 William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum: The History of the English Bishops, ed. and trans. M. Winterbottom with R. M. Thomson, 2 vols. (Oxford, 2007), I, 458–9. 6 A.

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Chronica Mariani Scotti in this work among the English intellectuals of the first half of the twelfth century, men such as Symeon of Durham, William of Malmesbury and John of Worcester.8 This interest is proved by the fact that each of them copied this treatise and considered it as presenting an important, even if marginal, point of view. Although Robert’s text is secondary to the work of Marianus Scottus from a theoretical point of view, its textual tradition is thus significant. Four surviving copies of Robert’s text undoubtedly relate to activities of major intellectuals of the first half of the twelfth century. Almost all the other surviving copies were also produced in that relatively short period, and thus the study of the relationships between these copies can provide us with valuable information on connections between cultural centres, and can throw light on the history of some manuscripts. Robert’s text is preserved in eleven copies.9 Ten of the manuscripts containing the Excerptio are of English provenance and they are kept in libraries in the United Kingdom. One codex with the work of Robert, most probably the only continental one, is now in the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg. Although these manuscripts have already been extensively examined, the relationships between them have never been outlined, nor has the sole continental copy of the Excerptio Roberti been studied. In this essay, I shall try to sketch out the place of this least-studied Saint Petersburg manuscript in the textual tradition of the Excerptio Roberti.

The Saint Petersburg manuscript The National Library of Russia has a large collection of western medieval manuscripts. Most of these codices were acquired during the turbulent years of the French Revolution by the secretary of the Russian Embassy in Paris, 8 Symeon

of Durham supervised the writing of two manuscripts containing Robert’s text: Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 85 and Durham, Cathedral Library, Hunter MS 100. See M. Gullick, ‘The Hand of Symeon of Durham: Further Observations on the Durham Martyrology Scribe’, in Symeon of Durham. Historian of Durham and the North, ed. D. W. Rollason (Stamford, 1998), pp. 14–31 (pp. 27, 29); the manuscript copied under direction of William of Malmesbury, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14, will be considered below; Robert’s treatise was partly written by John of Worcester’s hand in the Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 1 9. See John of Worcester, The Chronicle of John of Worcester, ed. R. R. Darlington and P. McGurk, trans. J. Bray and P. McGurk, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1995–8), II, xxix. 9 Cambridge, St. John’s College, MS I 15, fols. 338-341; Trinity College, MS O. 7. 41, fols. 37v–54v; Durham, Cathedral Library, MS Hunter 100, fols. 17r–22v; Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 85, fols. 98v–100r; London, British Library, Egerton MS 3088, fols. 85va–99ra; Cotton MS Tiberius E IV, fols. 162ra–176ra; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 1 9, fols. 2v–12r; MS Auct. F 3 14, fols. 134r–148v; MS Auct. F 5 19, fols.1r–22v; MS Digby 56, fols. 194v–195v; Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS Lat. O. IV. 1, fols. 74r–102v.

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Gleb Schmidt Pyotr Dubrovskiy.10 Among these manuscripts, the earliest ones, as well as those which are richly decorated, have already been extensively studied by Russian and European scholars. A substantial group of manuscripts, however, produced in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries needs further examination. One of those manuscripts, Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS Lat. O. IV 1, seems to preserve the only known continental copy of the Excerptio Roberti. The manuscript measures 140 by 95mm and is written on parchment of a good quality. The codex is still in its medieval wooden binding, although the back board has been lost, probably along with one or even several of the last quires. The contents of the codex are set out in Table 1. The text is written in one column in twenty-three lines. In the last four gatherings, the number of lines per folio may vary from twenty-three to twenty-four or even twenty-five. The whole manuscript is written by one very accurate and rhythmic hand. Although its handwriting has many rudiments of Carolingian heritage (wide ‘ct’ ligature, ‘square’ proportions of letters, writing from the first line), it shows, at the same time, evident signs of emerging Gothic script such as feet of minims (‘m’, ‘n’) curving to the right in sharp angles,11 forking ascenders, the interchangeable use of uncial and straight ‘d’.12 Some folios contain occasional notes written in different hands of the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. The beginnings of all texts are annotated by a sixteenth-century librarian. The manuscript is not richly decorated. In most of the gatherings, the initials are traced in ordinary ink, and only in the last gathering has the scribe used red cinnabar to trace initials. There is no reliable palaeographic evidence indicating the exact place and date of origin of the manuscript. However, the appearance of the codex allows us to conjecture that it was produced in the late eleventh century or the first half of the twelfth century in northern France (Fig. 1). The Saint Petersburg manuscript is called in Russian catalogues The Manual on Chronology.13 This title, however, does not represent the exact contents of

10 General

works on Western manuscripts in Saint Petersburg, not to mention many more specific researches: A. Staerk, Les Manuscrits latins du Ve au XIIIe siècle conservés à la Bibliothèque impériale de Saint-Pétersbourg. Description, textes inédits, reproductions autotypiques, 2 vols. (Saint Petersburg, 1910); M. François, ‘Pierre Dubrowsky et les manuscrits de Saint-Germain-des-Prés à Leningrad’, Revue d’histoire de l’église de France 43/140 (1957), 333–41; P. Z. Thompson, ‘Biography of a Library: The Western European Manuscript Collection of Peter P. Dubrovski in Leningrad’, Journal of Library History 19, 4 (1984), 477–503. 11 A. Derolez, The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books. From the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century (Cambridge, 2003), p. 58. 12 Ibid., p. 60. 13 O. N. Bleskina, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum latinorum, qui in Bibliotheca Publica Petropolitana asservantur. Jurisprudentia, philosophia, scientia, monumenta litterarum, ars (Saint Petersburg, 2011), p. 136.

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Chronica Mariani Scotti Table 1: Contents of Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS Lat. O. IV 1 Gathering

Textual unit

Gathering no.

Folios

Text

Folios

1

1r–8v

1r–30r

2

9r–16v

3

17r–24v

Materials drawn from Bede’s De temporum ratione. The prologue is added by the thirteenth-century hand.

4

25r–32v 33r–40v

6

41r–48v

Bede’s De natura rerum. One folio between fol. 40v and fol. 41 with chapters 37–41 is lost.

30r–44r

5

Materials drawn from De temporum ratione and from Jerome’s Liber Interpretationis. Mnemonical tables, multiplication tables.

44r–48v

Added leaf

49

49r–50r

7

50r–57v

Text mainly follows the De temporibus of Bede the Venerable, although its beginning is based on Isidore’s De natura rerum IV De mensibus and Bede’s De temporibus XV De mensibus Anglorum.

8

58r–65v

Pseudo-Bede De ratione computi (vel Dialogus de temporibus)

50r–61v

9

66r–73v

De ortu et obitu patrum a brief list of patriarchs based on Pseudo-Isidore’s De ortu et obitu patrum.

61v–65r

Annales Mosellani

65v–72v

Text based on Bede’s De temporibus liber XIV ‘Argumenta titulorum paschalium’, but modified in line with Marianus Scottus’s calculations (see below).

72v–73v

Excerptio Roberti

74r–102v

Glosses on Prudentius’s Psychomachia

103r–105v

10

74r–81v

11

82r–89v

12

90r–97v

13

98r–105v

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Fig. 1. Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS Lat. O. IV 1 fols. 98v–99r.

Gleb Schmidt

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Chronica Mariani Scotti the miscellany. Some texts in the manuscript are indeed treatises on the computus and calendar, but scientific, historical and exegetical texts also hold an important place in the composition. The works of Bede the Venerable are predominant in the codex and thus, with some reservations, it can be said to follow the ‘classical pattern’ of a calendar manuscript.14 It should be mentioned that the De temporum ratione is presented in the form of excerpts and notes, and all other works of Bede are also in a somehow modified form. The copyist, or the person who had ordered the writing of the codex, seems to have chosen the materials carefully. The composition of the manuscript seems to be very clear. It is a kind of summary composed by some intellectual who has read Bede’s works. He copied the materials in which he was interested and arranged them in a sophisticated way. The major part of these texts represents the ‘orthodox’ Christian chronology. In contrast, the work of Robert of Hereford is part of an alternative chronology. Thus, we are presented with the juxtaposition of two points of view. The inclusion of the Annales Mosellani also seems to be logical given the history of this text and the nature of the annalistic genre in general. The Annales Mosellani cover the period from 703 to 798. Up to 785 these annals accurately follow the Annales Laurissenses without any changes and additions. The rest of the text then misdates all events by one year. Both the Annales Mosellani and Annales Laurissenses (as well as some other Frankish annals) appear to derive from hypothetical (or now lost) Murbach annals, which themselves go back to the sporadic historical notes made on the margins of the Cyclus paschalis, a set of paschal tables accompanying Bede’s De temporum ratione.15 These notes formed the core of a protograph written in the British Isles which was brought to the continent in the middle of the eighth century. Since the annals derive from the paschal tables accompanying Bede’s work, the annals and the greater part of the manuscript’s content are connected ‘genetically’. Thus, the presence of the Annales Mosellani is explicable. The sole text whose presence remains to be explained is the series of the glosses on Prudentius’s Psychomachia. These excerpts are used in the codex in a very interesting and unusual way. At first glance, the choice of copied fragments drawn from glosses seems to be arbitrary. However, detailed analysis of these excerpts allows us to conclude that all the selected fragments from the glosses on Psychomachia were used to comment on words, symbols and images in other texts copied in the manuscript.16 Hence, the glosses on

14 P. A.

Hayward, The Winchcombe and Coventry Chronicles. Hitherto Unnoticed Witnesses to the Work of John of Worcester, 2 vols. (Tempe AZ, 2010), I, 44–5. 15 J. E. Story, ‘The Frankish Annals of Lindisfarne and Kent’, Anglo-Saxon England 34 (2005), 59–109. 16 G. Schmidt, ‘Fragmenty gloss k «Psikhomakhii» Prudentsiya v «Rukovodstve po khronologii» (RNB, Lat. O. IV 1, pervaya polovina XII v.) [Glosses on Prudentius’s

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Gleb Schmidt the late antique poem served as a source of encyclopaedic knowledge on different issues for the compiler of the codex. Thus, the codex turns out to have a much more complicated and well thought out structure than previously assumed. It is not just another copy of Bede’s computistical works; it is a sort of personalized collection which contains carefully chosen texts as well as other materials interesting to the compiler and relating closely to each other. Only the copy of the Annales Mosellani that is preserved in the codex has attracted the attention of scholars, while the structure of this manuscript as well as the history of its other parts, specifically the Excerptio Roberti and the glosses on Psychomachia, have escaped the notice of researchers. However, the least appreciated text in this collection, the Excerptio Roberti, may provide the most valuable information about the history of this codex and the intellectual milieu of the first half of the twelfth century.

The two groups of manuscripts To define the place of the Saint Petersburg manuscript in the textual tradition of the Excerptio Roberti it is necessary to consider two general problems related to the history of this text. As we have already mentioned, the text is preserved in eleven copies, but only nine of them contain Robert’s work in its entirety. These nine codices can be classified into two major groups. The manuscripts of the first group contain a well-known description of the Great Survey of William the Conqueror at the end of the seventh chapter (Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O. 7. 41; Durham, Cathedral Library, MS Hunter 100; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MSS Auct. F 3 14; Auct. F 5 19; Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS Lat. O. IV 1). In the second group, this passage is omitted. However, the manuscripts of the second group contain an additional part of the twenty-fourth chapter on the use of the theory of a 532-year cycle (Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 85; London, British Library, Cotton MS Tiberius E IV; Egerton MS 3088). This chapter is omitted in the codices of the bigger group. One manuscript, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 1 9, occupies a peculiar place in this classification. The copy of the Excerptio Roberti in this manuscript is the most complete. Besides the passage on the Domesday Survey, it contains an additional chapter on the 532-year cycle. The first and the most important question concerning the textual tradition of the Excerptio Roberti is whether the copy of Robert’s text in MS Auct. F 1 9 can be the archetype for the rest of the tradition. This appears not to be the case. First of all, this manuscript has some very specific additions and omissions which are not found anywhere else in the tradition and which Psychomachia in the Manual on Chronology (National Library of Russia, second quarter of the XIIth century)]’, Lyudi i teksty 7 (2014), 131–61 (in Russian with English summary).

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Chronica Mariani Scotti make this copy stand apart from any other manuscript. On folio 5ra lines 13–15 the scribe has omitted the following part of the phrase which is present in all other copies: ‘sexta feria annuntiatus est, sexta feria temptatorem suum diabolum superavit’. This omission is quite typical and can be explained by the fact that both the previous and the following part of the same period also begin with sexta feria. The scribe skipped these two small sentences and passed to the last one (I have underlined identical elements; the text in square brackets is omitted in the manuscript): ‘[…] quia [sexta feria annuntiatus est, sexta feria temptatorem suum diabolum superavit,] sexta feria morte sua nos redemit’. However, it is unlikely that an omission of this kind could be restored independently in all other copies of the Excerptio Roberti. There is also a considerable addition at the end of the twelfth chapter. Here, the scribe of MS Auct. F 1 9 added the following reservation to Luke’s account of St. John the Baptist: Nemini credendum patrem Zachariam mire sanctitatis et religionis virum post angelicam visionem ad coniugalem redisse thorum sed ex servato prius semine in matris utero conceptus et natus est Iohannes proles Elisabet filie Esmerie sororis Anne matris beatissime virginis Marie.17

This addition is also unique in the tradition. Finally, on folio 10va lines 32–33 the scribe has committed the same error as in the first case. He passed again from one repeated element to another, skipping some text in between: […] eo die facta est lux, quo sol Arietis signum, revertens ad exordium, ingrediebatur. Qui quarto die conditionis seculi, videlicet duodecimo die kalendarum supradictarum, incipiente creatus est. Quique pari spatio dividens lucem et tenebras sua presentia absentiaque vernale equinoctium [eodem die fecit. Cuius diei initio tunc cum celi locum oriens cepit, quem astrologi quartam partem Arietis esse dicunt, eumque post ccc.lxv. dies et vi. horas rediens. Propter has horas anno sequenti meridie faciens vernale equinoctium] intravit, tertio anno vespere, quarto anno media nocte, v. anno rursum mane, sicut primo occurrit.

These additions and omissions, as well as many other individual variants,18 whose exhaustive analysis would go beyond the limit of this essay, prove that this codex, although it is the most complete, cannot have been the archetype for all other manuscripts or even for any particular group of manuscripts. This does not exclude the possibility that this codex derives from a specific redaction of Robert’s text that served as a prototype for all manuscripts of 17 Oxford,

Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 1 9, fol. 6va lines 28–33. individual variants in the copy of the Excerptio Roberti in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 1 9 contrast it both with the text in MS Hunter 85, the manuscript from the smaller group which has been taken as a base manuscript, and all the versions given by other codices of a bigger class.

18 Multiple

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Gleb Schmidt the larger group. Here we encounter another crucial problem of the textual tradition of the Excerptio Roberti. Did the description of the Domesday Survey, which draws the clear distinction between two groups of manuscripts, form part of the original structure of Robert’s treatise? In 1907, the British historian William Henry Stevenson called attention to an interesting fragment that had escaped the notice of historians. Stevenson examined this fragment in two manuscripts,19 and he arrived at the conclusion that it formed a part of the initial composition of the Excerptum Roberti.20 Stevenson supposed that this note was based on the passage on the Domesday Survey, which occurs on folio 158v in London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero C V, the sole British copy of the Chronicon of Marianus Scottus, which historians reasonably connected with Hereford and Robert’s activities.21 Stevenson supported this idea by demonstrating the textual similarity between the description found in Robert’s work and the passage from the manuscript of Marianus’s Chronicon. Hence, he had no doubt that Robert was the author of both fragments.22 Indeed, the two passages resemble each other to a remarkable extent, and this fact seems to prove Stevenson’s idea that the short description in the London manuscript of Marianus’s Chronicon derives from the text of Robert’s own treatise. MS Cotton Nero C V, fol. 158v (addition to Marianus’s Chronicon)

Excerptio Roberti

Wilelmus, rex Anglorum, fecit describi omnes totius Anglie possessiones in agris, in hominibus, in animalibus omnibus, in omnibus mansionibus a maiori usque ad minimam, et in omni censu, qui ex omnium terris possit reddi, et vexata est terra multis cladibus inde procedentibus.

Hic est annus vicesimus Willelmi, regis Anglorum, quo iubente hoc anno totius Anglie facta est descriptio in agris singularum provinciarum, in possessionibus singulorum procerum, in agris eorum, in mansionibus, in hominibus, tam servis quam liberis, tam in tuguria tantum habitantibus,

19 Oxford,

Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 5 19 fol. 5v and MS Auct. F 3 14 fol. 137r. H. Stevenson, ‘A Contemporary Description of the Domesday Survey’, EHR 22 (1907), 72–84. 21 The palaeographic evidence allows us to connect the production of British Library, Cotton MS Nero C V with Hereford. One of the scribes who wrote this manuscript, the one who was responsible for writing of the additional passage on Domesday Survey (fol. 158v), also produced the endorsement on the dorse of Robert’s charter of 1085, the only preserved document which is contemporary with the bishop. See M. Gullick, ‘The English-Owned Manuscripts of the Collectio Lanfranci (s. xi/ xii)’, in The Legacy of M. R. James. Papers from the 1995 Cambridge Symposium, ed. L. Dennison (Donington, 2001), pp. 99–116 (p. 104). Thus, it is very likely that the brief description of Domesday Survey in the Marianus codex was written in Hereford. 22 Stevenson, ‘A Contemporary Description’, p. 77. 20 W.

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Chronica Mariani Scotti William, king of England, ordered all of the possessions of the whole of England to be described, in fields, in men, in all animals, in all manors from the greatest to the smallest, and in all payments which could be rendered from the land of all. And the land was vexed with much violence proceeding therefrom. 23

quam in domos et agros possidentibus, in carrucis, in equis, et ceteris animalibus, in servitio et censu totius terre omnium. Alii inquisitores post alios, et ignoti ad ignotas mittebantur provincias, ut alii aliorum descriptionem reprehenderent et regi reos constituerent. Et vexata est terra multis cladibus ex congregatione regalis pecunie procedentibus. That was the twentieth year of William, king of England, who ordered that a record be made of all possessions of the whole of England, the fields of every single county, possessions of every single vassal, their fields, manors, men, serfs as well as freemen, those who live in huts as well as those who possess houses and fields, wagons, horses and other animals, services and payment which could be rendered from the whole land. Other investigators followed the first and were sent to counties that they did not know, and where they themselves were unknown, to check the first description and to denounce any wrongdoers to the king.24 And the land was vexed with much violence proceeding from the collection of king’s money.

Yet there are reasons to think that the relationship between the two fragments was quite the opposite. I have analysed this fragment in another article on the issue of the description of Domesday Survey in Robert’s text.25 It 23 Translation of this passage is borrowed from D. Roffe, ‘A Profession of Ignorance: an

Insight into Domesday Procedure in an Early Reference to the Inquest’, in Rulership and Rebellion in the Anglo-Norman World, c.1066–c.1216: Essays in Honour of Professor Edmund King, ed. P. D. Luscombe and P. Dalton (Aldershot, 2015), p. 56, n. 60. 24 Ibid., p. 56. 25 G. Schmidt, ‘Le récit sur le recensement de 1086 et la tradition manuscrite de l’Excerptio Roberti de Chronica Mariani’, in Le Sens du temps. The Sense of Time, ed. P. Bourgain and J.-Y. Tilliette (Geneva, 2017), pp. 221–34.

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Gleb Schmidt is unnecessary to repeat here all the arguments in detail; a short summary will suffice, and the crucial points are as follows. First, since the shorter description in the London manuscript was written in Hereford, it is very likely that it could be connected with Robert’s activity. However, there are three reasons to suppose that the description was not part of the initial structure of the Excerptio Roberti. Since most copies without the description were produced in the first half of the twelfth century when the recollection of Domesday Book was still vivid, the scribe would not exclude such an important fragment, if it had been a part of the initial structure. Second, the manuscripts without mention of the Domesday Survey provide a complete text of good quality, with a better explanation of computistical theory. However, the historical digression (which is the only deviation of such kind in the text) looks extrinsic to a purely theoretical treatise. Third, in the manuscripts without the description, the Excerptio is followed by the early version (the first two chapters) of the De lunationibus of Walcher of Great Malvern (started probably in 1092).26 It is likely that this situation is due to contact between Walcher and his Lotharingian fellow-countryman Robert of Hereford. If the description of the Domesday Survey was not in the initial composition of the Excerptio, we must then ask how the second redaction, the one containing this fragment, could have been produced. The most obvious answer is that this second version of the Excerptio Roberti was created by Robert himself. However, another possibility should not be excluded. This is that the text of Robert’s treatise was interpolated in Worcester (probably by John of Worcester). Both the manuscript of Marianus’s Chronicon with a short description of Domesday Survey and the Excerptio Roberti were known in this centre. Thus, it is probable that all the materials relating to Robert, i.e. the shorter description in the London manuscript and the Excerptio Roberti, were unified in Worcester. Thus, MS Auct. F 1 9 seems to represent a copy of this second, posterior, redaction of Robert’s text, even if this manuscript is not the archetype for all the codices containing the description of the Domesday Book. The codex was partly copied by John of Worcester, whose work on his chronicles seems to have ended in the 1140s, providing a provisional terminus ad quem.27 At the same time, the manuscript contains a copy of the Latin version of astronomical tables of al-Khwarizmi, which were translated by Adelard of Bath

26 C.

Burnett, ‘Mathematics and Astronomy in Hereford and its Region in the Twelfth Century’, in Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology at Hereford. British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions. Vol. 15, ed. D. Whitehead (Leeds, 1995), pp. 50–9 (p. 50). 27 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 1 9, fols. 2v–4ra; John of Worcester, Chronicle, II, xxix.

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Chronica Mariani Scotti after 1126.28 These two points provide date limits for the codex and give us an indication of the existence of the second version by that time.

The Saint Petersburg manuscript and the codex from Malmesbury As we have seen, the textual tradition of the Excerptio Roberti turns out to be more complex than previously thought. This text existed in two versions: the original one, without the description of the Domesday Survey, and the interpolated one, containing the aforementioned description. The history of the second redaction seems to have been closely associated with Worcester (this centre was probably even its place of origin) and this was why it came to be more widely disseminated than the original version. However, the second redaction is preserved in its entirety in only one codex, MS Auct. F 1 9, which, in its turn, cannot be accepted as an archetype for the manuscripts of the second redaction. Other codices with this version of Robert’s text do not contain all the other materials. Most of them omit the major part of the last chapter; some of them present the text in a considerably modified form.29 The manuscript from Saint Petersburg apparently witnesses this second version of Robert’s text. Taken separately, this codex seems to represent a peculiar redaction of the Excerptio Roberti. In this manuscript, there is a mention of Domesday Book, but the last chapter finishes abruptly, and the text is not accompanied by the decennovenal table of Marianus as it is in Cotton MS Tiberius E IV, Hunter 85 and Auct. F 1 9. A similar copy of Robert’s text can be found in one of the best studied manuscripts containing this treatise, namely MS Auct. F 3 14. Another codex now kept in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 5 19, also provides a very close text. MS Auct. F 3 14 was produced in the ‘scriptorium of William of Malmesbury’ in about 1125. William was not only an eminent historian and intellectual of his time, he was also an experienced bibliophile who carefully collected his library, undertook a grand acquisition project, and organized copying of the acquired books. Scholars have identified at least twelve manuscripts connected with the activity of William of Malmesbury.30 Some of them were produced by William personally.31 Out of about fifty hands

28 C.

H. Haskins, ‘Adelard of Bath’, EHR 26 (1911), 491–8 (p. 494). Durham, Cathedral Library, MS Hunter 100. 30 R. M. Thomson, William of Malmesbury (Woodbridge, 2003), p. 77. 31 The hand of William of Malmesbury was for the first time identified at the end of the nineteenth century. See William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton (London, 1870), pp. xi–xix. This observation was amplified by Neil Ker: see N. R. Ker, ‘The Handwriting of William of Malmesbury’, EHR 59 (1944), 371–6. 29 Especially,

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Gleb Schmidt responsible for writing those codices, four are very similar. This fact allowed Rodney Thompson to suppose the existence of the ‘scriptorium of William of Malmesbury’, a hypothetical team of scribes collaborating with William on his major project.32 Almost all the manuscripts copied by William and his companions have traces of ‘editorial’ work. William added commentaries, created colophons, corrected the copied texts. The manuscripts originating from the ‘scriptorium of William of Malmesbury’ are characterized by accuracy, clear-cut organization and rubrication. Among the manuscripts from the ‘scriptorium of William of Malmesbury’, MS Auct. F 3 14 occupies a special place. In this codex, the method of work is not yet well established; the changes of hand do not correspond to the beginnings of quires or chapters and books. These peculiarities made Thompson suppose that this manuscript was produced at the beginning of William’s activity, when copying was not yet well organized and a certain discordance in the work of his team of scribes was perceptible. For this reason, Thompson dated this codex to the early 1120s.33 In addition, in his Gesta pontificum completed by 1125, William calls Marianus Scottus ‘Marimanus’.34 This error can be explained by the spelling of the name of the Irish monk in the manuscript MS Auct. F 3 14: ‘Marinianus’. Hence, the manuscript was produced before 1125. William’s contact with Worcester is well established. It was he who was asked by Warin of Worcester to write the life of St Wulfstan, and John of Worcester and William shared their sources while working on their historical writings.35 William and John maintained contact whilst working on their texts.36 Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk. IV 6, written by John of Worcester, contains the author’s copy of Liber pontificalis of William of Malmesbury.37 William could have obtained a copy of Robert’s work in Worcester, if we accept that the second redaction was created there. MS Auct. F 3 14 was a result of William’s familiarity with the text of the Excerptio. 32 R.

M. Thomson, ‘The “scriptorium” of William Malmesbury’, in Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts & Libraries. Essays presented to N. R. Ker, ed. M. B. Parkes and A. G. Watson (London, 1978), pp. 117–42 (pp. 120–1). 33 Thomson, William of Malmesbury, p. 84. 34 William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum Anglorum, cap. 164: ‘Denique captus Marimani ingenio, quicquid ille largius dixerat in artum contrahens defloravit adeo splendide, ut magis valere videatur defloratio quam ingentis illius voluminis diffusio’. See also commentary on this fragment: William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, II, p. 215: ‘The strange name form “Marimani” must be a slip for “Mariniani”, the form found in the copy made for William in Bodl. Libr., MS Auct. F. 3. 14’. 35 Thomson, William of Malmesbury, pp. 18, 37. 36 M. Brett, ‘John of Worcester and his Contemporaries’, in The Writing of History in the Middle Ages. Essays presented to Richard William Southern, ed. R. H. C. Davis et al. (Oxford, 1981), pp. 101–26 (especially, pp. 113–14). 37 Thomson, William of Malmesbury, p. 74.

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Chronica Mariani Scotti There are two other manuscripts in the tradition which relate closely to William’s copy of Robert’s text. The first is another Oxford manuscript, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 5 19. The second is the codex from Saint Petersburg. These three copies share the same textual structure. Each of them contains the description of the Domesday Survey. The final, twenty-fourth chapter finishes after the phrase ‘Et quia modo in xxiii. xi. magni cycli sumus anno, adiectis xx.iii. ad v.cc.lxvii, fiunt .v.cc.xc, qui sunt anni ab exordio mundi usque in presens’, whereas in all the other copies the text is continued. Even more striking is the fact that in these three codices this phrase is followed by the word VALETE written in rustic capitals (Figs. 2 and 3), a feature which is unique to this group of the three manuscripts and which is not witnessed anywhere else in the tradition. Another peculiarity common to these three codices is a confusion of the name of the prophet in Chapter 10. Before the citation from the Book of Ezekiel, the three manuscripts have the following text: ‘Danihel quoque in visionibus suis [dicit]’.38 In Chapter 22 the three manuscripts have another peculiar feature. In the text a dialogue falsely attributed to Bede, De ratione computi, is cited. MS Auct. F 3 14, MS Auct. F 5 19 and MS Lat. O. IV 1 are the only copies to preserve the division between the question and the answer with rustic INTERROGATIO and RESPONSIO (Figs. 4 and 5).39 It is unlikely that these notable features could appear independently. Thus the three manuscripts are obviously connected. The first and the most evident possibility is that one of the three manuscripts was an ancestor of the others. However, there are some cogent reasons to abandon this hypothesis. All codices of this group have very specific omissions, peculiar to themselves. The codex produced in the ‘scriptorium of William of Malmesbury’ has an omission in the final phrase of the eleventh chapter making the whole phrase meaningless: ‘Item xxx.i. annus nativitatis, in quo iuxta Hieronymum baptizatus est, ipse idem est annus, qui est xxx. etatis annus, [autem xxxiiii. nativitatis, in quo passus est, ipse est annus] xxxiii. etatis’.40 The scribe also skipped some text between two identical phrases in Chapter 8:41 Die, qua clausa est porta paradisi persuasione diaboli in aurem mulieris [contra primum hominem, eadem die salutatione Gabrielis in aurem mulieris] Marie ianua regni celestis aperta est […]

38 Oxford,

Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14, fol. 138v l. 12; MS Auct. F 5 19, fol. 7v line 27; Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS Lat. O. IV 1 fol. 83v line 23. In William’s manuscript this error is corrected. 39 It should be mentioned that in the Saint Petersburg manuscript (fol. 99v) the markers INTERROGATIO and RESPONSIO are not present. However, the space is obviously reserved for them. As are many initials in the manuscript, these markers must have been traced in red cinnabar. The scribe who was responsible for the initials and rubrication seems to have missed them as he did with many red initials. 40 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14, fol. 139v line 13. 41 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14, fol. 138r lines 14–15.

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Gleb Schmidt

Fig. 2. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14 fol. 148v.

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Chronica Mariani Scotti

Fig. 3. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 5 19 fol. 22v.

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Gleb Schmidt

Fig. 4. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14 fol. 147r.

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Chronica Mariani Scotti

Fig. 5. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 5 19 fol. 20r.

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Gleb Schmidt Although the corruption of the text was evident to any reader, it is unlikely that such a long phrase could be reconstituted independently. The same kind of error was committed in Chapter 3. Here the scribe skipped ‘quia eo numero senario corpus Domini perfectum est’ in the phrase ‘Quo numero annorum templum edificatum est, [quia eo numero senario corpus Domini perfectum est], quod mortis passione destructum, triduo suscitavit’.42 In the other two manuscripts, the text is complete in these places. However, both have their own unique omissions and additions. In the Saint Petersburg manuscript, the scribe committed the most common error, skipping some text between two identical fragments: In omnibus igitur operibus tuis, o christiane, recogita quid sis, quid futurus sis, quo pretio, quanto, et quam mirabili redemptus, quo signo signatus, quo fonte renatus, cui militie assignatus, quam hostili carcere inclusus, ubi semper [hostis insistit, sed non videtur, ubi semper] confligitur, et si vincitur hostis, ultima tamen coronanda victoria incerta habetur.43

The same error is made in the fourteenth chapter: Merito itaque ad implendam legem concipiendo luna x. doctor ac magister legis mundum intravit, in lingua legem [et misericordiam portans, legem] et prophetiam implens et omnia sua ratione reddens.44

Although MS Auct. F 5 19 does not have any major omissions or additions, it gives many unique readings whose frequency prevents us from supposing that this codex could be a direct ascendant of either William’s copy or the Saint Petersburg manuscript, even if it stands closely allied to both. Thus, it is much more likely that all three codices had a common source. This is patent in the case of the Saint Petersburg codex and the manuscript from the ‘scriptorium of William of Malmesbury’. Their resemblance is strengthened by the contents of these manuscripts as well as by the structure of the Saint Petersburg codex. Despite some differences in the contents of the two manuscripts, the core of William of Malmesbury’s copy is also a sophisticated collection of texts on computus and calendar and follows the aforementioned ‘classical pattern’ of calendar manuscripts.45 The most interesting and striking resemblance between the two codices is in the part preceding the Excerptio Roberti. Before the text of the Excerptio Roberti, the scribe of William’s manuscript copied a complete set of twenty-eight paschal tables of Marianus. The tables are

42 Oxford,

Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14, fol. 136r lines 2–3. Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS Lat. O. IV. 1, fol. 98r lines 23–24. 44 Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS Lat. O. IV. 1, fol. 89v lines 5–6. 45 A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, 7 vols. (Oxford, 1895–1953), II, n. 2372. 43 Saint

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Chronica Mariani Scotti introduced by a series of explanations based on Chapter 14 ‘Argumenta titulorum paschalium’ of Bede’s De temporibus liber, but transformed in line with Marianian calculations. There is no reason to think that this order of texts is due to any change in the initial structure of the codex, since the beginning of Robert’s text is written on the last leaf of the gathering containing the tables. The text is as follows (rubrication is written in red rustic capitals):46 AD ANNOS DOMINI INVENIENDOS Si nosse vis annos ab incarnatione Domini, scito, quot ordines fuerint indictionum, et multiplica per xv. Adde etiam iiii. regulares, quia xii. indictione natus est Dominus, et indictionem presentis anni, et habebis numerum annorum Domini. PRO INDICTIONE Pro indictione sume annos Domini adiectis xi., quia xii. indictione natus est Dominus, partire per xv., et quot remanent, ipsa est indictio presentis anni. Si nichil remanserit, quinta decima erit. PRO CICLO DECENNOVENALI Pro cyclo xix. subtrahe ii. ex annis Domini, quia xviii eiusdem cycli anno natus est Dominus. Divide postea per xix., remanet cyclus. Si nichil remanserit, nonus decimus est. PRO CICLO SOLARI Pro cyclo solari annos Domini vii. adiectis, quia viii. eius anno nativitas est partire per xx.viii. et restat tibi cyclus predictus. Si nichil remanserit, xx.viii. est. PRO ANNO BISSEXTILI Si vis scire quotus annus sit a bissexto, sume annos Domini, ii. subtrahens, quia iii. anno post bissextum natus est Dominus, divide per quattuor, quot remanent, tot sunt anni bissexto. Si nichil remanserit, bissextus est. PRO EPACTIS Si nosse vis, quot sunt epacte, annos Domini tribus ablatis divide per xix., quod remanet per xi. multiplica, divide iterum per xxx., remanent epacte. Ideo tres anni auferuntur, quia quarto incarnationis anno xi. epacte fuerunt, ex quibus sumitur origo inquisitionis.

In the Saint Petersburg manuscript, the text preceding the Excerptio is identical in every respect, including the rubrics written in rustic capitals. However, before the cited passage there are two additions. One is of unknown origin:47 Si nosse vis unde nascantur vel quomodo formentur regulares paschalium terminorum, collige numerum dierum a kalendis martii usque in terminum paschalem, cuius queris regularem et cum noveris adde regulares quattuor, 46 Oxford, 47 Saint

Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14, fol. 120Av. Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS Lat. O. IV. 1, fol. 72v.

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Gleb Schmidt summamque ipsorum regularium et dierum a kalendis martii collectorum partire per septimam partem. Et si ipsa partio finite fuerit septenario in numero, septem erunt regulares termini, de quo queris. Sin vero de ipsa summa super septenariam subsederit, quicquam divisio qui numerus supererit, ipse regulares quesiti termini.

After that, the scribe of the Saint Petersburg manuscript added a fragment of Servian commentary on Virgil’s Aeneid:48 Causa incendii Aethne hec est. Sunt terre desudantes Sulphur ut pene totus tractus Camapnie ubi est Vesevius [sic] et Gaurus montes quod indicat aquarum odor calentium. Item novimus ex aque motu ventum creari, esse etiam concavas terras. Aethnam constat, et ab ea parte, qua Eurus vel Africus flant, habere speluncas et plenas sulphure et usque ad mare deductas. Hee spelunce in se flatus, ventum creant, qui agitatus igne [sic] gignit ex sulphure. Unde est quod videtur incendium. Hoc autem verum esse illa comprobat ratio, quia et aliis flantibus ventis nihil ex se emittit et pro modo flantum [sic] Euri vel Africi interdum fumum, interdum favillas, nonnumquam vomit incendia.49

No additional explications are found in William’s copy. In spite of these slight differences in terms of the contents, the resemblance between the two codices supports the conclusion that in the production of the manuscripts the scribes must have used one common source. The fact that twenty-eight paschal tables are not now present in the Saint Petersburg manuscript should not surprise us. There are two possible explanations. First, their absence may be due to some change in the initial structure of the Saint Petersburg manuscript. Gatherings could have become separated and lost, because the preserved part is in disassembled form. As has been mentioned, the Excerptio begins with a new gathering. It is quite possible that some quires have been lost from before Robert’s text. Each of the twenty-eight paschal tables has nineteen lines. Some lines are necessary for preliminary data. The manuscript from the National Library of Russia usually has twenty-three or twenty-four lines, thus it was not impossible to place the complete set of tables on one quaternion and one ternion gathering. Second, the scribe of the Saint Petersburg manuscript might have simply omitted the set of paschal tables in his haste to do the work. The traces of this haste are quite obvious in the last three gatherings of the Saint Petersburg manuscript; the number of lines per folio is unstable, and some initials are missing. In any case, one cannot but admit the indisputable resemblance and especially close relationship between the two copies of Robert’s text. Given this fact, we have 48 Saint

Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS Lat. O. IV. 1, fol. 72v–73r. also Maurus Servius Honoratus, In Vergilii carmina comentarii. Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii (Leipzig, 1881), 3.571.

49 See

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Chronica Mariani Scotti to answer the question of how the copy of the Excerptio Roberti (probably the hypothetical common exemplar of the Saint Petersburg copy and William’s copy) was brought to the continent. Orderic Vitalis was familiar with the theory of Marianus Scottus which he had mentioned in his own historical work.50 However, it is unlikely that he possessed his own copy of Marianus’s text. The Chronicon is preserved in only two copies: one produced in Mainz, the other, London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero C V, produced, probably, in Hereford. Thus, Orderic seems to have known the Chronicon by means of his regular contacts with English centres, specifically with Worcester. He could have also familiarized himself with Robert’s text there. It is quite possible that Orderic used Robert’s treatise to understand Marianus’s theory better. Orderic Vitalis maintained his contacts not only with Worcester,51 where the second redaction of the Excerptio was made, but also with William of Malmesbury. About 1131 William visited northern France; he saw the destroyed fleet of Robert I.52 His description of the battle of Hastings can be explained by his hypothetical familiarity with the Bayeux Tapestry, or something like it. Thus, there are some grounds which allow us to offer a hypothesis that the production of the Saint Petersburg codex was connected with the name of Orderic Vitalis. Indeed, the very personal and erudite contents of the codex favour the supposition that it was planned by a major intellectual. The dissemination of the second redaction of the Excerptio via Worcester, as well as personal contacts of the intellectuals who possessed this second redaction, point to Orderic as a possible link between the British Isles and the continent in the history of this text. There is no indisputable palaeographic evidence proving that the Saint Petersburg copy was produced in the scriptorium of Saint-Évroult. Orderic’s hand is well known and in the manuscript from Saint Petersburg there is no trace of it. However, such incontestable evidence is quite rare, especially considering the great number of lost manuscripts. Yet we cannot entirely exclude this hypothesis. In the existing catalogue containing all the titles possessed by the library of Saint-Évroult at the time of Orderic Vitalis, there is one title not identified with any of the preserved manuscripts: Expositiones Bede.53 Given the contents of the Saint Petersburg codex, the description could refer to this manuscript.

50 Orderic

Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. and trans. M. Chibnall, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1969–80), II, 186–7. 51 A. Lawrence-Mathers, ‘John of Worcester and the Science of History’, JMH 39 (2013), 255–74 (p. 256). 52 ‘Reliquiae ratium multo tempore dissolutarum Rotomagi adhuc nostra aetate visebantur’: William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1998–9), II, 180.11. 53 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Lat. 10062, fol. 80v line 17.

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Gleb Schmidt Before the French Revolution, most of the codices now kept in Saint Petersburg were in the collection of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris.54 As Genevieve Nortier has demonstrated, some manuscripts from Saint-Évroult were transported to that abbey. Thus, the proposed hypothesis cannot be abandoned definitely and needs further verification. The case considered above serves as an example of how manuscript evidence can contribute to the study of interconnections between intellectuals and cultural centres. Handwritten materials have already allowed scholars to establish the history of relationships between John of Worcester and his contemporaries. Present observations provide an interesting confirmation of the hypotheses set up over the past few decades. The study of the history of Robert’s text may also serve as a useful adjunct to an investigation of a group of very important manuscripts on the calendar and computus whose categorization yields imperfect results. In the case of the manuscript from Saint Petersburg, the study of its relationships with English codices is the only way to obtain relevant information on its origin and dating. Even if the Saint Petersburg manuscript was not produced at Saint-Évroult under the direction of Orderic Vitalis, Orderic seems to be a missing link in the history of the Excerptio. His possible interest in this text may explain how a text of such limited interest was brought to the continent.

54 G.

Nortier, Les Bibliothèques médiévales des abbayes bénédictines de Normandie (Caen, 1966), p. 235.

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5 Autograph History Booksin the Twelfth Century Laura Cleaver

A remarkable number of twelfth-century histories from the lands controlled by the kings of England survive in manuscripts that have been identified as autographs, that is manuscripts entirely or partially written by the author’s own hand. There is a logic to this. New histories, even when these were heavily derived from existing works, were of unproven value, thus the author was the person with most reason to invest time and resources into the creation of a copy of his work. Indeed it has sometimes been assumed that histories must have begun life as autograph manuscripts, from which copies were made in monastic scriptoria or by professional lay scribes.1 The idea of an autograph is attractive, containing the promise of a physical connection to the author, and a potential insight into his working process through alterations visible in the manuscript.2 However, the composition of a text was not synonymous with writing in this period, nor with the making of books. Texts could be dictated to scribes or drafted on wax tablets and scraps of parchment before being given to a scribe to copy.3 In the context of historical writing, such practices might be driven by the reliance on existing texts for the crafting of new ones. Thus Orderic Vitalis, writing at the abbey of SaintÉvroul in Normandy in the first half of the twelfth century, complained in his Historia Ecclesiastica; ‘I have no scribes who can make excerpts of my material for me’.4 Scribes did not just compile material, they could also be used to 1 See,

for example, The Gesta Normannorum Ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni, ed. and trans. E. M. C. van Houts, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1992), I, lxix; Henry, archdeacon of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum: The History of the English People, ed. and trans. D. Greenway (Oxford, 1996), p. clix. 2 E. Overgaauw, ‘Comment reconnaître un autographe du Moyen Âge?’, in Medieval Autograph Manuscripts: Bibliologia 36, ed. N. Golob (Turnhout, 2013), pp. 3–16 (p. 3). 3 See C. Burnett, ‘Give him the White Cow: Notes and Note-Taking in the Universities in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’, History of Universities 14 (1995–6), 1–30; M.-C. Garand, ‘Pratique de l’écriture et autographes au moyen âge (nouvelles observations)’, Scrittura e Civiltà 20 (1996), 137–52 (pp. 138–9). 4 Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. and trans. M. Chibnall, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1969–80), I, 20–2, 29–30, III, 166–71; M. Chibnall, The World of Orderic Vitalis (Oxford, 1984), p. 34.

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Laura Cleaver produce neat copies of texts and documents. In the 1160s Wace, author of a vernacular history of the dukes of Normandy, the Roman de Rou, grumbled that the nobility were no longer sufficiently generous to ‘present me with enough to employ a scribe for a month’.5 Similarly, Robert of Torigni, who worked on a chronicle and a version of the Gesta Normannorum Ducum, employed a man named Adam as his secretary (scriba) during his time as abbot of Mont Saint-Michel, an office Robert held from 1154 to 1186.6 In such circumstances it is extremely difficult to identify authors’ hands with absolute confidence, even in manuscripts that can be traced to their lifetimes and places of work.7 Nevertheless, modern scholars have been keen to identify manuscripts as autographs, a practice that has gone hand-in-hand with the idea of histories as the compositions of individual authors. Manuscripts have been identified with the hands of twelfth-century historians including Orderic Vitalis, Eadmer of Canterbury, John of Worcester, William of Malmesbury, Robert of Torigni and Roger of Howden.8 However, the evidence of these manuscripts testifies to complex processes of production often involving many people. Thus despite the association of historical texts with particular names in some medieval sources, approaching these manuscripts as the products of individuals is overly reductive. Instead, a comparison of some of the earliest copies of twelfth-century histories sheds light on the resources invested in them and the choices made by those involved in attempting to set down past events, which in turn serves as important evidence for attitudes towards these texts before they were famous. Orderic Vitalis’s claim that he used scribes to make excerpts of his material resonates with the earliest known copy of the version of the Gesta Normannorum Ducum attributed to Robert of Torigni, created during his time as a monk at Bec in the 1130s (with later alterations).9 The manuscript is now

5 Wace,

The History of the Norman People: Wace’s Roman de Rou, trans. G. S. Burgess (Woodbridge, 2004), p. 92. 6 ‘Adam scriba Roberti abbatis’, Robert of Torigni, Chronique de Robert de Torigni, ed. L. Delisle, 2 vols. (Rouen, 1872–3), I, 313. 7 M.-C. Garand, ‘Auteurs latins et autographes des XIe et XIIe siècles’, Scrittura e civiltà 5 (1981), 77–104 (p. 81); for the challenges associated with identifying Robert of Torigni’s hand see B. Pohl, ‘Abbas qui et scriptor?: The Handwriting of Robert of Torigni and His Scribal Activity as Abbot of Mont-Saint-Michel (1154–1186)’, Traditio 69 (2014), 45–86. 8 N. R. Ker, ‘William of Malmesbury’s Handwriting’, EHR 59 (1944), 371–6; R. W. Southern, Saint Anselm and His Biographer (Cambridge, 1966), p. 371; A. Gransden, Historical Writing in England c. 550 to c. 1307, 2 vols. (London, 1974–82), I, 166, n. 5; M. Brett, ‘John of Worcester and His Contemporaries’, in The Writing of History in the Middle Ages: Essays Presented to Richard William Southern, ed. R. H. C. Davis et al. (Oxford, 1981), pp. 101–26 (p. 105); John of Worcester, The Chronicle of John of Worcester, ed. R. R. Darlington and P. McGurk, trans. J. Bray and P. McGurk, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1995–8), II, xxi–xxxv, lix–lxiv. 9 See Gesta Normannorum Ducum, I, lxxviii–lxxx.

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Autograph History Books Leiden, University Library, MS BPL 20 (fols. 2–32), and it demonstrates the challenges of identifying manuscripts or texts dealing with history as the work of a single author. As has long been recognized, the text of the Gesta in this manuscript was completed in stages, with one hand copying the sections of the text taken from the earlier version of the Gesta Normannorum Ducum attributed to Orderic (itself derived from the work of William of Jumièges), leaving spaces into which other hands copied the additions to the text.10 This was possible because most of the additions were also taken from other sources, and thus the spaces could be estimated with reasonable accuracy, although the added text on folio 15r has been stretched to fill the space, and that on folio 15v has been squashed, with excess text fitted into the lower margin (Fig. 1).11 Benjamin Pohl has recently argued that Robert’s hand may be identified with some of the corrections to the text, but there is no reason to think that he wrote the bulk of the work.12 The manuscript is large, measuring approximately 32 by 22cm and the text is set out in two columns. Initials have been added in red, blue and green, usually in spaces left for them in the text block, with larger and more ornamented initials marking the start of new books, but the loss of the start of the text means there is no way of knowing if the work was given an even more elaborate opening initial. (The only figurative decoration in this part of the manuscript is a face drawn into an initial O on folio 24r at the entry for the death of William Rufus.) Thus although the manuscript appears to be the volume in which this version of the Gesta Normannorum Ducum was first compiled, it is a relatively high-quality product, representing a significant investment of resources. In this case, the fact that it was an adaptation of an existing work, rather than a new composition, may have helped to justify the use of materials and the scribes’ time. Strikingly, Robert’s name, like Orderic’s, is not attached to any of the surviving copies of the Gesta Normannorum Ducum, and Robert’s involvement is instead suggested by references in his other writings.13 The presence of multiple hands in the Leiden manuscript suggests that it was made in the scriptorium at Bec, with Robert directing the work but not undertaking the labour of writing. In contrast to the Leiden manuscript, a copy of Orderic’s Ecclesiastica Historia has one of the best claims to be an autograph manuscript, or rather 10 See

L. Delisle, ‘Note sur un manuscript original de Robert de Torigni’, in Matériaux pour l’édition de Guillaume de Jumièges, ed. J. Lair (Paris, 1910), pp. 29–43; Gesta Normannorum Ducum, I, cix–cx, cxxvi. 11 Gesta Normannorum Ducum, I, cxxvi. 12 On Robert’s hand see ‘Sigeberti Gemblacensis chronica cum continuationibus’, ed. L. C. Bethmann, MGHSS (Hannover, 1844), VI, 268–474 (p. 294); see also Robert of Torigni, ‘Chronicle of Robert of Torigni’, in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, ed. R. Howlett, 4 vols. (London, 1884–9), IV, xxxix; Pohl, ‘Abbas qui et scriptor?’, pp. 45–86. 13 Chronique de Robert de Torigni, I, 96–7, II, iii, 338–40; see also Gesta Normannorum Ducum, I, lxxvii–lxxix; Ecclesiastical History, VI, 552–3.

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Fig. 1. Leiden, University Library, MS BPL 20 fol. 15r.

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Autograph History Books manuscripts.14 As is well known, the work survives in three of an original four volumes, now Bibliothèque nationale de France MSS Lat. 5506A and B (which has a thirteenth-century ex libris from Saint-Évroul on fol. 1) and 10913.15 The manuscripts appear to have been almost entirely written by one hand, and the same hand has made corrections, which together with Orderic’s complaint about a lack of scribal help makes it plausible that the hand is his own.16 Yet there are relatively few alterations to the text, suggesting that this was a neat copy, rather than a first attempt at composition. Unlike the Leiden manuscript, the three volumes of Orderic’s history are all small, measuring approximately 24 by 15cm.17 Although the parchment has been well prepared, there are indications of economy, notably in the use of the edges of the skins, resulting in many irregular leaves.18 Nevertheless, despite the quality of the parchment, the scribe appears to have wanted to produce an attractive and readily legible volume. Divisions in the text are indicated by initials in red, green and blue, and at the start of the work larger initials contain foliage and dragons (MS Lat. 5506A fols. 6, 7). As the initials at the start of the work have been added in what appears to be the same ink as the text, it is possible that they, and the coloured initials, were also executed by the scribe (Fig. 2).19 The hand that wrote the three surviving volumes of the Ecclesiastica Historia has been identified in at least fifteen manuscripts, although the level of his contribution varies.20 This is not a particularly remarkable amount of writing for a lifetime at Saint-Évroul, but it suggests that if this is Orderic’s hand, he was involved in the regular activities of the scriptorium, as well as creating his own texts. This hand was involved in copying other historical material, notably Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica (now Rouen, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 1343), but also copied and corrected a wide range of texts.21 It is thus unwise to read too much significance into the contents of the surviving manuscripts containing this hand as evidence of Orderic’s interests, although they do 14 See

Delisle, ‘Les manuscrits autographes d’Orderic Vital’, pp. 7–27; G. Nortier, Les Bibliothèques médiévales des abbayes bénédictines de Normandie (Caen, 1966), pp. 224–5; Gransden, Historical Writing, I, 152; Ecclesiastical History, II, xxxix, I, 201–3; D. Escudier, ‘Orderic Vital et le scriptorium de Saint-Évroult’, in Manuscrits et enluminures dans le monde normand, ed. P. Bouet and M. Dosdat (Caen, 1999), pp. 17–28; Garand, ‘Auteurs latins’, p. 88; J. Weston and C. C. Rozier, ‘Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts Featuring the Hand of Orderic Vitalis’, in Orderic Vitalis: Life, Works and Interpretations, ed. C. C. Rozier et al. (Woodbridge, 2016), pp. 385–98 (pp. 389–90). 15 Ecclesiastical History, I, 118–21. 16 Ecclesiastical History, I, 118, II, xxxix–xl, where it is suggested that a second hand wrote 5506B fols. 1–20. A different hand wrote part of fol. 91 in that manuscript. 17 Ecclesiastical History, I, 118. 18 Ibid. 19 Ibid. 20 Escudier, ‘Orderic Vital’, pp. 17–28; Weston and Rozier, ‘Descriptive Catalogue’, pp. 385–98. 21 See Weston and Rozier, ‘Descriptive Catalogue’, pp. 385–98.

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Fig. 2. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Lat. 5506A fol. 6r.

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Autograph History Books indicate that he knew those texts. In this context it is also worth noting that Orderic was not the only monk interested in history at his monastery, as he identified one John of Reims as his teacher and credited him with having written a life of St Évroult, again emphasizing that Orderic worked in the context of a community.22 Orderic’s monastic life also helped to ensure the preservation of his work, as the manuscripts of the Ecclesiastica Historia remained in Saint-Évroul’s library. The association of the version of the Gesta Normannorum Ducum that was adapted by Robert of Torigni with Orderic Vitalis rests primarily on the fact that a copy survives that has been written by the hand that wrote the Ecclesiastica Historia.23 This manuscript is now Rouen, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 1174 fols. 116–39. Like the Leiden volume, and in contrast to the Ecclesiastica Historia, this is a substantial manuscript, measuring approximately 30.5 by 21.5cm.24 However, unlike the Leiden volume, the text was written by a single hand, giving it a more even appearance, and it was decorated with two large initials.25 The initial at the start of the text includes an image of a monk presenting his work to a king, and a second initial has been cut out at folio 123. The imagery, together with the use of a single scribe, lends weight to the idea of history books as the work of individuals, but Orderic is not named in the text, which instead identifies the history as the work of William of Jumièges and the king as William the Conqueror. The fact that this was a reworked, rather than substantially new, text may once again help to explain the investment of resources in this copy. The initials do not appear to have been executed by the person who created those in the Ecclesiastica Historia, making it unlikely, though not impossible, that Orderic was also the artist. The artist of Rouen MS 1174 worked on other manuscripts in which Orderic’s hand has been identified, but also appears to have decorated volumes that are not otherwise associated with Orderic (notably Alençon, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 11).26 If Orderic created the 22 Ecclesiastical

History, I, 20–2, 29–30, III, 166–71; Chibnall, World of Orderic Vitalis, p. 34; V. Debiais and E. Ingrand-Varenne, ‘Inscriptions in Orderic’s Historia ecclesiastica: A Writing Technique between History and Poetry’, in Orderic Vitalis: Life, Works and Interpretations, ed. C. C. Rozier et al. (Woodbridge, 2016), pp. 127–44 (pp. 129–30). 23 Delisle, ‘Les manuscrits autographes d’Orderic Vital’, pp. 7–27; Ecclesiastical History, II, xxxix–xl; Gransden, Historical Writing, I, 152; E. M. C. van Houts, ‘Quelques remarques sur les interpolations attribuées à Orderic Vital dans les Gesta Normannorum ducum de Guillaume de Jumièges’, Revue d’histoire des textes 8 (1978), 213–22; Ecclesiastical History, I, 118, 201–3; Garand, ‘Auteurs latins’, pp. 86–8; Escudier, ‘Orderic Vital’, pp. 17–28. 24 Ecclesiastical History, I, 30; Gesta Normannorum Ducum, I, lxviii, ciii–civ; cxxv–cxxvi. 25 Weston and Rozier, ‘Descriptive Catalogue’, p. 396. 26 The manuscripts decorated by this artist that feature Orderic’s hand are Alençon, Bibliothèque Municipale MSS 6, 14, 26; Rouen, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 31 and Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Lat. 10062.

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Laura Cleaver text of the new version of the Gesta as well as writing it, therefore, he seems to have drawn upon the resources available at Saint-Évroul for its decoration. In the Ecclesiastica Historia, Orderic recorded that on a visit to Worcester he saw a chronicle by Marianus Scottus that had been continued ‘at the command of the venerable Wulfstan’ by John, ‘who had entered the monastery of Worcester as a boy’.27 The manuscript that Orderic saw was probably Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 157, which is a very complex volume.28 In this manuscript John is mentioned in the entry for the year 1138, in a rubric that states, ‘Let the reader here correct John if he errs’ (p. 390) (Fig. 3).29 The hand that wrote the entry about John appears to have rewritten the text from 1128 (p. 379) to the chronicle’s (incomplete) end in 1140, and to have made substantial alterations to the earlier parts of the manuscript, but this is not the only hand that worked on the volume.30 If John had been directly commissioned by Wulfstan, who died in 1095, he would have been an old man (by medieval standards) by 1140, though not impossibly so. However, the chronicle’s entry for 1118 mentions the death of a monk named Florence, and claims that his ‘scholarly labours have made this chronicle of chronicles (chronicarum chronica) outstanding among all others’.31 Intriguingly, a copy of Marianus Scottus’s work also associated with Worcester (now London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero C V) contains a note beginning ‘meum nomen ut dignum cronica cronicarum’ (fol. 4v). In addition to the textual evidence of the involvement of multiple men in the development of Marianus’s chronicle, the Oxford manuscript’s irregular quire structure, together with changes of hand, and alterations to the volume, suggest that its production can be divided into a series of phases. The first phase of the composition of the text can be dated, on the basis of changes of hand in the lists of bishops, to c. 1114 suggesting that these lists could have been compiled during Florence’s lifetime.32 Florence’s involvement with a project to rework Marianus’s chronicle may thus have laid foundations for the production of the Oxford volume, though his contribution, if any, to the creation of that manuscript remains unclear. The bishop lists in Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 157 (pp. 39–45) provide a terminus post quem of c. 1114 for the creation of that section of the

27 Ecclesiastical

History, I, 25, II, xxi, 186–9; see also A. Lawrence-Mathers, ‘Computus and Chronology in Anglo-Norman England’, in this volume. 28 A digital facsimile of the manuscript is available at http://image.ox.ac.uk/show?c ollection=corpus&manuscript=ms157 (accessed 29 December 2016). 29 ‘Corrigat ista legens offendit siqua Iohannes’, John of Worcester, Chronicle, II, xviii, III, 244–5; Gransden, Historical Writing, I, 144. 30 Brett, ‘John of Worcester’, p. 105; John of Worcester, Chronicle, II, xviii–xxxv. 31 John of Worcester, Chronicle, III, 142–3. 32 Brett, ‘John of Worcester’, p. 105; John of Worcester, Chronicle, II, xxxiv–v, lxxv. See also T. D. Hardy, ed., Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the End of the Reign of Henry VII, 3 vols. (London, 1862–71), II, 133; Gransden, Historical Writing, I, 143; John of Worcester, Chronicle, II, lxxi.

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Fig. 3. Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 157 p. 390 (detail).

volume. The ambition of the project at this point is indicated by the size of the manuscript, which measures 33 by 25cm; however many of the leaves contain unrepaired holes, suggesting that the makers of the volume were willing to compromise on the quality of the parchment. The bishop lists were part of extensive prefatory material (pp. 5–29, 35–71) that was carefully set out in tables and diagrams, using green, red, blue and purple pigments to help the reader navigate the contents.33 This first phase of the work probably also included the image of the crucifixion on p. 77b and an image of the cross in the main chronicle text on p. 189.34 There is no obvious change of style in the Oxford manuscript at the chronicle entry for 1118 (instead a change of hand occurs in the entry for 1102 on page 364), but assuming that the volume was written by scribes in the Worcester scriptorium, a change in the project’s director would not necessarily result in a change of hands.35 Additions were made in the margins of the Worcester chronicle by multiple hands, and these hands also made alterations to the text. It is not clear when these additions and alterations were made, but, in addition to changes to the bishop lists made after c. 1128, the list of popes (pp. 29–34) was erased and rewritten (with the addition of an extra bifolio pp. 31–4), now ending with Honorius II (1124–30). This scribe made 33 See

John of Worcester, Chronicle, II, xxii–xxvii. M. Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts 1066–1190 (London, 1975), pp. 87–8. 35 John of Worcester, Chronicle, II, xxix; A. E. Lawrence-Mathers, ‘John of Worcester and the Science of History’, JMH 39:3 (2013), 255–74 (p. 258). 34 C.

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Laura Cleaver other alterations to the prefatory material. In particular, he added a copy of Bede’s De locis sanctis (pp. 72–6), resulting in a very small gathering of just four leaves (pp. 71–77b).36 The hand responsible for the new list of popes appears to be the same as that which wrote the section of the chronicle in which John is named, and it has thus been identified as John’s hand. Some of the changes associated with John’s hand in the Oxford manuscript had been made before the work, including chronicle entries for the year 1131, was copied into other volumes. Further, and even more radical, changes were then made to the Oxford manuscript by the same scribe, who erased and rewrote the entries for 1128–31 and extended the chronicle to at least 1140 (where the manuscript now breaks off).37 At this point the chronicle was apparently perceived as a working manuscript to be altered and updated, and the text’s editors have described the work of the scribe in this section as being less ‘formal’ than his earlier alterations to the manuscript.38 There are similarities between this hand and the work of the other scribes in this volume, but even at its best John’s hand is less even and consistent than the first phase of work. The rewritten entries at the end of the chronicle incorporated imagery (which was not the work of the artist who had executed the image of the crucifixion on page 77b), including a diagram of sunspots on page 380 featuring a small amount of gilding, and well-known images of Henry I’s dreams.39 However the reuse of leaves (rather than their removal and replacement with new parchment) perhaps indicates that limited resources were available when the chronicle was revised.40 Given that the volume had previously been copied, it is possible that John intended this new section as a model for further, high-quality copies, but there is no evidence that such volumes were made. The possibility that some of the changes to the Oxford manuscript of the Worcester chronicle might have been made by John’s own hand as part of authorial revisions is complicated by the survival of a second manuscript substantially written by the hand that wrote the last sections of the Oxford volume.41 Unlike the chronicle, this manuscript (now Dublin, Trinity College, MS 503) is very small, measuring just 12 by 9cm, with a shorter text and

36 John

of Worcester, Chronicle, II, xxix; Lawrence-Mathers, ‘John of Worcester’, pp. 262–3. 37 John of Worcester, Chronicle, II, xxxv, lxviii, III, xxxii; J. Collard, ‘Henry I’s Dream in John of Worcester’s Chronicle (Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 157) and the Illustration of Twelfth-Century English Chronicles’, JMH 36 (2010), 105–25 (pp. 121–3); Lawrence-Mathers, ‘John of Worcester’, pp. 263–5. 38 John of Worcester, Chronicle, II, xxix. 39 M. Camille, ‘Seeing and Reading: Some Visual Implications of Medieval Literacy and Illiteracy’, Art History, 8 (1985), 26–49 (p. 27); Collard, ‘Henry I’s Dream’, pp. 114–19. 40 Collard, ‘Henry I’s Dream’, p. 115. 41 John of Worcester, Chronicle, II, xxxiv.

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Autograph History Books as a result it is known as the chronicula (or little chronicle).42 However, the relationship between the two manuscripts is far from straightforward.43 The chronicula contains similar material to the chronicle, opening with genealogical material (fols. 1r–16r), followed by lists of popes (fols. 16v–24v), disciples (fols. 25r–28r), and bishops (fols. 28v–36v).44 Some of these sections contain the same wording as the chronicle, with only minor variations. For example on folio 14v a passage about the kings since Edward the Confessor closely resembles that on page 54 of the chronicle (although slightly abridged and with an additional final sentence), and it even begins with a very similar initial. However, this section also contains material not found in the chronicle, and some, though not all, of the text taken from the chronicle is updated. For example, the list of kings on folio 3 makes reference to the reign of King Stephen, thereby indicating a date of execution after 1135, and if the genealogical material in the chronicula was derived from MS 157, the information was used selectively, with many (albeit minor) alterations. The editors of the chronicle judged that prefatory material in the chronicula was not in John’s hand.45 However, they concluded that the next section of the chronicula, which continues with a description of Britain and a series of annals, was written by John up to part of the entry for 1123 (fol. 113v). Strikingly, much of the early part of the text is not a copy of the chronicle’s text.46 On folio 60 a simple diagram in red has been incorporated into the text to represent the appearance of a cross around the moon, in an arrangement not unlike the combination of text and imagery in the reworked part of the Oxford manuscript, but the textual content is not found in the Oxford volume (Fig. 4).47 Instead both text and imagery were probably derived from a version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as a similar image is found in London, British Library, Cotton MS Domitian A VIII, fol. 51. Another hand (or hands) continued the work in the chronicula from the entry for 1123 to 1141. At the point at which the new hand takes over the text is a close copy of the material in MS 157.48 It is thus possible that John asked someone to copy text for him, although the inclusion of additional material pertaining to Gloucester suggests that this scribe had access to other sources.49 Alternatively, the manuscript was taken over and

42 See

ibid., II, lix–lxv. Woodman is currently working on an edition of the chronicula which will shed further light on this. I am very grateful to him for discussion of this manuscript. 44 John of Worcester, Chronicle, II, lxvi–lxvii, III, xlvii. 45 Ibid., II, lix, lxii–lviv. 46 Ibid., II, lxiii. 47 ‘signum crucis mirabili modo in luna apparuit feria V incipiente aurora hoc modo’, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition, Vol. 8: MS F, ed. P. S. Baker (Cambridge, 2000), p. 59. 48 John of Worcester, Chronicle, III, xlii. 49 Ibid., II, lxiii. 43 David

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Fig. 4. Dublin, Trinity College, MS 503 fol. 60r.

expanded by someone with access to the Worcester material.50 It seems likely that the chronicula was begun by John as part of his work revising the project initiated by Wulfstan, but the presence of at least one other hand is a reminder of the complex processes through which some histories were developed, and of the potential for scribal, and perhaps also intellectual, collaboration, even in the creation of manuscripts of very small format. 50 Ibid.,

III, xlvii.

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Autograph History Books The small size of the Worcester chronicula finds parallels in two earlier manuscripts that have been identified as autographs: William of Malmesbury’s Gesta Pontificum and Eadmer of Canterbury’s Historia Novorum. The manuscript identified as the autograph of William of Malmesbury’s Gesta Pontificum, made c. 1125, now Oxford, Magdalen College, MS 172, measures 18 by 12.5cm, whilst Eadmer’s work, also made in the 1120s, now Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 452, is fractionally smaller at 17.5 by 12cm (although it has been trimmed).51 One of the possible explanations for the choice of a small format could be portability, but in both cases the identification of the volume as an autograph rests partly on evidence for their preservation at Malmesbury and Canterbury respectively. Instead, the volumes’ small size again suggests that limited resources were made available for the production of these works. The parchment quality is relatively good at the start of Eadmer’s volume, but later the text has been written around large holes, and on page 315 a large hole has been patched with a piece of parchment, which itself contains a small hole. Similarly, folio 33 in William of Malmesbury’s work contains a large hole that has been written around, and the use of all available parchment is further suggested by the inclusion of irregularly shaped leaves that have been made using the edges of the skins. Limited availability of materials is further suggested in the William of Malmesbury volume by the significant variation in the size of script, with the number of lines of text per page varying between twentynine and fifty-six, at which point the text is tiny.52 However, the appearance of the early part of the book, which is in a relatively large and regular script, with large initials marking new sections of text, indicates William’s ambition when he first began work on the volume. Similarly, Eadmer’s manuscript, in which the text is laid out much more consistently, contains coloured initials to help the reader navigate the text and add to the aesthetic appearance of the volume. Despite the limited resources invested in these volumes, therefore, their makers aimed to produce neat and attractive manuscripts.53

51 On William of Malmesbury see: Willelmi Malmesbiriensis monachi: De Gestis Pontificum

Anglorum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton (London, 1870), pp. xi–xvii; Ker, ‘William of Malmesbury’s Handwriting’, pp. 371–6; William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum: The History of the English Bishops, ed. and trans. M. Winterbottom with R. M. Thomson, 2 vols. (Oxford, 2007), pp. xi–xii. On Eadmer see: Southern, Biographer, p. 372; M. Brett, ‘A Note on the Historia Novorum of Eadmer’, Scriptorium 33 (1979), 56–8; T. Webber, ‘Script and Manuscript Production at Christ Church, Canterbury, After the Norman Conquest’, in Canterbury and the Norman Conquest: Churches, Saints and Scholars 1066–1109, ed. R. Eales and R. Sharpe (London and Rio Grande, 1995), pp. 145–58 (pp. 148–52); M. Gullick, ‘The Scribal Work of Eadmer of Canterbury to 1109’, Archaeologia Cantiana 118 (1998), 173–89; R. M. Thomson, William of Malmesbury (Woodbridge, 1987), pp. 76–7. 52 See also Thomson, William of Malmesbury, pp. 80–1. 53 See also ibid., p. 82.

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Laura Cleaver William of Malmesbury’s Gesta Pontificum was written in a single hand, as was the first part of Eadmer’s Historia Novorum (to page 298), however the later part of this text was completed by a second hand.54 The hands identified with William and Eadmer have both made alterations to the text, which is a general argument for authorial involvement.55 William’s manuscript contains major revisions, as William chose to tone down some of his initial criticisms of individuals.56 For example, on folio 72 the text on the upper part of the folio has been erased and rewritten, apparently by the same hand, but in a larger script, making use of the available space.57 These revisions happened after copies of the original version had been made.58 Thus by this point the value of the text was at least beginning to be recognized. William presumably decided to rework the existing text in the manuscript, rather than rewriting every word, for efficiency, and he then entrusted the manuscript to others for the production of neat copies. As monks, both William and Eadmer could draw upon the resources of their respective scriptoriums, and like Orderic Vitalis, both seem to have contributed to the copying of other texts. Rodney Thomson has judged that twelve manuscripts can be ‘directly associated’ with William’s ‘copying, supervision or acquisition’, whilst Eadmer is recorded as having copied Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo.59 The two hands found in the Historia Novorum manuscript also worked on a copy of Eadmer’s other works (now Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 371), further emphasizing the significance of the scriptorium for the production of his manuscripts, but raising questions about the likelihood that either of the scribes was Eadmer himself.60 In contrast to all the authors discussed thus far, Roger of Howden was not a monk.61 He thus did not have immediate access to a scriptorium, and there is no reason to believe that he had been trained to write a book-hand. Nevertheless, the earliest surviving copies of his chronicle shed further light on the processes involved in both the composition of text and the creation of high-quality copies. Roger of Howden’s hand has been identified in two

54 William

of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum, I, xii. also M. Gullick, ‘The Two Earliest Manuscripts of the Libellus de Exordio’, in Symeon of Durham: Historian of Durham and the North, ed. D. Rollason (Stamford, 1998), pp. 106–19 (pp. 113–15). 56 William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum, I, xvi. 57 Ibid., I, 438–41. 58 Ibid., II, xxiv. 59 The Letters of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, trans. W. Fröhlich, 3 vols. (Kalamazoo, 1990), II, 115; Southern, Biographer, p. 371; Thomson, William of Malmesbury, p. 77; Gullick, ‘Scribal Work’, pp. 182, 185. 60 Southern, Biographer, pp. 371–2. 61 See J. Gillingham, ‘Writing the Biography of Roger of Howden, King’s Clerk and Chronicler’, in Writing Medieval Biography, 750–1250: Essays in Honour of Professor Frank Barlow, ed. D. Bates, J. Crick, and S. Hamilton (Woodbridge, 2016), pp. 207–20. 55 See

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Autograph History Books volumes of his chronicle produced in the first years of the thirteenth century.62 Both volumes are large, originally measuring about 34 by 24cm, with text set out in two columns. The first part of the chronicle, up to and including the year 1180, survives as British Library, Royal MS 14 C II. This appears to be primarily a ‘clean’ copy of the text, written in a regular bookhand by one or more professional scribes, decorated with initials in red, blue and green (although those in the final quire have not been fully completed), and incorporating images of the standard from the Battle of the Standard and William of Sicily’s rota (Fig. 5).63 The first part of the text, up to the year 1148, was taken from a text known as the Historia Post Bedam.64 This part of the new history was thus primarily a process of copying, rather than new writing. The text’s editor, William Stubbs, identified the work from 1148 onwards as an attempt at an ‘original arrangement and composition’ of material.65 For the period 1169–92 Roger adapted his own earlier work, the Gesta Regis (or Gesta Henrici II Benedicti abbatis), and for the final annals to 1201 he produced new text, incorporating a large number of documents.66 After the entry for 1180, the London manuscript contains a genealogy of the dukes of Normandy ending with King John (providing a terminus post quem for the volume of 1199) and a collection of legal material.67 Unfortunately the leaves at the beginning and end of the volume are early modern replacements. However, the final folio of the medieval part of the volume contains the beginning of the annal for 1181, and the replacement leaf claims that the continuation of the text could be found in another volume, at an image of a bird, and beginning ‘scripsit etiam Alex. Papa Archiepis.’.68 Although the London manuscript of Roger’s chronicle appears to be a high-quality copy, it nevertheless retains some curious features. The text to 1174 runs without spaces left for additions, but a change of ink, together with the use of the lower margin, suggests that text was added into space left at the end of the entry for 1174 (fol. 149), before the start of the entry for 1175 at the top of the second column. From this point space has been left at the end of the text for each year, suggesting that Roger intended to add to and revise

62 Roger

of Howden, Chronica magistri Rogeri de Hovedene, ed. W. Stubbs, 4 vols. (London, 1868–71), I, lxxv; J. C. Holt, ‘The Assizes of Henry II: The Texts’, in The Study of Medieval Records: Essays in Honour of Kathleen Major, ed. D. A. Bullough and R. L. Storey (Oxford, 1971), pp. 85–106 (pp. 88–9); D. Corner, ‘The Earliest Surviving Manuscripts of Roger of Howden’s “Chronica”’, EHR 98 (1983), 297–310 (pp. 305–6). 63 Roger of Howden, Chronica, I, lxxviii; Holt, ‘Assizes of Henry II’, pp. 87–8. 64 Roger of Howden, Chronica, I, xxxi–xxxvi. 65 Ibid., I, xli. 66 Ibid., I, li, IV, vii; see also Gransden, Historical Writing, I, pp. 228–30; Corner, ‘Manuscripts’. 67 Roger of Howden, Chronica, I, lxxvi. 68 Ibid., I, lxxviii.

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Fig. 5. London, British Library, Royal MS 14 C II fol. 88r.

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Autograph History Books the work, in a process not unlike that in Leiden, University Library, BPL 20, although the length of space left is dictated by the decision to start each new entry at the beginning of a new page. The entry for 1176 starts at the top of folio 156v, and from this point the entry for each new year begins at the start of the recto of a leaf. The other major changes in the London manuscript are alterations to accommodate an added leaf (fol. 63) with a charter of Thomas, archbishop of York, resulting in the erasure and rewriting of text on folio 64, and marginal additions taken from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae and Alain of Lille’s Anticlaudianus.69 The marginal texts are added in a different, and much less formal, hand, which has been identified as that of Roger of Howden.70 The hand associated with Roger of Howden appears again in a copy of the latter part of Roger’s chronicle, now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 582. The quire numbers in the latter part of this volume (beginning xlviii on fol. 109v, which is now the end of the thirteenth quire in the volume) suggest that this was once part of a larger manuscript, and the enormous size of such a volume presumably prompted its division into two parts. The Oxford manuscript begins with the start of the entry for 1181, but the first two folios were rewritten, in a contemporary hand, and crudely stitched into the volume.71 The manuscript is similar in size to the British Library volume, and also set out in two columns. Moreover, the start of each entry for each year up to and including the year 1189 and the coronation of Richard I, is written in a bookhand that seems to be the same as that responsible for most of the Royal manuscript.72 However, this manuscript does not contain an image of a bird or an obvious break at ‘Scripsit etiam idem papa archiepiscopis’ (on fol. 3), suggesting that it was not (as has been suggested) the original companion to the Royal manuscript, but instead the second part of the latter’s model.73 Indeed the division of the volume at 1181 is also reflected in a later copy (London, British Library, Harley MS 6302). The major difference between the British Library and Bodleian manuscripts is that in the latter, from 1187 onwards, many hands, of varying degrees of formality, have added to the text by the main scribe, often erasing the ends of entries as part of the process of alteration. From 1190 the annals were entirely written by other hands. Spaces have also been left where information was lacking, usually for names, although this occasionally also occurs in the London manuscript (Fig. 6).74 Amongst the continuing hands is the hand responsible for the marginal additions in the London manuscript, and given

69 See

ibid., I, 137, 157, 187, 190, II, 4, 35; Corner, ‘Manuscripts’, p. 306. of Howden, Chronica, I, lxxv. 71 Corner, ‘Manuscripts’, pp. 301–2. 72 Holt, ‘Assizes of Henry II’, p. 89. 73 Roger of Howden, Chronica, I, lxxiv. 74 Ibid., I, lxxix. 70 Roger

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Fig. 6. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 582 f. 181v.

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Autograph History Books that this hand indicates minor changes to be made in the early part of the Oxford manuscript it is possible that this is Roger’s own hand.75 The distribution of the work of this hand also suggests a relationship to the director of the project. For example, this hand is responsible for the first page of two replacement leaves (both singletons) at the start of the entry for 1196 (fols. 157–8), and a rewritten leaf that forms part of an inserted bifolio detailing the end of Richard’s reign (1199) (fols. 176–7). In the annal for the first year of John’s reign (the remainder of 1199) the first part of the entry appears to have been written by one scribe, with marginal notes in ‘Roger’s’ hand, before this hand extends the entry (fols. 180v–181v). ‘Roger’s’ hand writes the first lines of a papal document, before another scribe copies the rest of that text (Fig. 6). The end of this scribe’s work (fol. 183) is erased, and ‘Roger’s’ hand then extends the text once more, leaving gaps for names, before another hand copies a second document, and ‘Roger’s’ hand then finishes the annal on folio 192v. It seems plausible that Roger executed the sections of text that he composed and employed scribes to copy the documents selected for inclusion, and this unusual hand thus has a strong claim to be Roger’s own. The reappearance of this hand, and that of the scribe who wrote the start of the entries to 1189, in the London manuscript suggests that the London volume was produced at Roger’s direction, and perhaps also that he repeatedly collaborated with some scribes. Early copies of medieval histories provide important evidence for the processes involved in their production, which can be used to flesh out the clues provided in texts. Each medieval manuscript is unique, but comparison of their physical features provides evidence for the people and resources involved in the work’s creation, and sometimes for changes to the volume over time. The search for autograph manuscripts carries significant risks of developing circular arguments, leading scholars to find what they went looking for. There are no fixed criteria for the appearance of authorial hands. Men who spent time thinking about history might not have been trained to produce high-quality book-hand, resulting in hands like those attributed to John of Worcester and Roger of Howden, but equally they might have been involved in the regular work of the scriptorium, as the owners of the hands attributed to Orderic Vitalis, William of Malmesbury and Eadmer of Canterbury seem to have been. Similarly, alterations to texts are often evidence of authorial involvement, but this need not mean that the author executed his desired changes with his own hand. Small volumes, made of mediocre or poor parchment, can suggest limited investment of resources, and thus the development of a new work of unproven value, but large manuscripts such as the Worcester Chronicle and Roger of Howden’s chronicle could also be reworked with additional ‘new’ material. Overall, however, this survey of

75 Ibid.,

I, lxxv; Corner, ‘Manuscripts’, p. 305.

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Laura Cleaver some of the suggested autograph histories of the twelfth century, has drawn attention to the collaborations involved in making histories. In monasteries would-be authors had access to the materials necessary for book production and scribes, who might be tasked with compiling sections of text or writing out neat copies (or even part copies). Roger of Howden presumably had to employ professional scribes, and seems to have chosen to do so in creating his ‘working’ text as well as the ‘clean’ copy apparently produced under his direction. Although some authors were keen to identify their works under their names, therefore, it is significant that many histories, including that from Worcester and the revised versions of the Gesta Normannorum Ducum, were not explicitly identified as the work of a single individual. Not only did those composing text draw heavily on earlier sources, but the process of making manuscripts also facilitated practical and sometimes intellectual collaboration in the crafting of history.

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6 Paul the Deacon’s Historia Langobardorum in Anglo-Norman England* Laura Pani

In this essay I will discuss a group of manuscripts from the late eleventh and twelfth centuries that contain Paul the Deacon’s Historia Langobardorum (HL) – either alone or, more often, together with other texts – all of which may be associated with English monasteries and cathedrals. I will highlight their origins and their textual relationships and offer a few thoughts on the presence of Paul the Deacon’s History of the Lombards in Anglo-Norman England. Paul the Deacon was born in the third or fourth decade of the eighth century in Cividale del Friuli (at that time known as Forum Iulii), the capital of a Lombard duchy, and the first place where the Lombards had settled at the time of their invasion of Italy in AD 568. Paul was a Lombard, but spent most of his life – apart from his early youth – far away from Cividale, at the Lombard courts of Pavia and Benevento, and in France at Charlemagne’s court, before returning to Southern Italy, and to Montecassino, where he ended his life in the very last years of the century.1 According to tradition, Paul the Deacon wrote the History of the Lombards (subsequently HL) at the end of his life, aiming to narrate in six books the history of his people from their mythical origins to King Liutprand’s death in 744. Whether the HL ends thirty years before Charlemagne’s conquest of Northern Italy because its author died before completing it, or because he deliberately avoided relating the defeat of the Lombards, remains under discussion. Moreover, this end point also raises the wider question of the political meaning of Paul the Deacon’s most famous work: for whom did he write it? Did he write it for the Lombards themselves, in a vengeful mood against the Franks? Or, as recent scholars have tended to think, did he write it for the Franks in order to secure

* I am most grateful to Laura Cleaver for her careful revision of my paper and my English. 1 The most recent and complete biographical note on Paul the Deacon is L. Capo, ‘Paolo Diacono’, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, LXXXI (Rome, 2014), pp. 151–62.

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Laura Pani for the Lombards an ideological integration inside the Carolingian establishment? These questions have been much discussed in recent decades.2 As a result the early tradition of the HL, that is the dissemination of ninth-century manuscripts, has been much more studied than the work’s later circulation. The manuscript tradition of the HL is rather complex. The only complete critical edition of the HL was published in 1878 for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. The German editors’ recensio includes 101 witnesses;3 a more recent check-list which I published in 2000 consists of 115 manuscripts and now needs a few more updates.4 The manuscripts date from the early ninth to the end of the fifteenth century and testify to a vast interest in Paul the Deacon’s History of the Lombards throughout the Middle Ages. In order to establish the stemma codicum, the manuscripts containing the HL were divided by the German editors into eleven families, marked from A to L. The manuscripts I will discuss in this paper belong to the branch of the tradition represented by the family D, which has to be considered one 2 For

centuries the HL was considered a piece of ethnic history like Gregory of Tours’s Historia Francorum, Jordanes’ De origine actibusque Getarum or Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. Walter Goffart then argued that the Lombards of Benevento were Paul the Deacon’s intended audience, but Rosamond McKitterick has compellingly suggested that the HL was intended by its author (and received by its Frankish addressees) as a political legitimation of the Franks’ conquest of Lombardy in 774 – seen as a relatively peaceful incorporation or at least a political coup. Therefore the HL could be a means to provide the Lombards with an identity and a history comparable to that of the Franks. The origin of a number of ninthcentury manuscripts in Northern Italy, some of which may be related to Pippin’s court, seems to confirm this assessment. See W. Goffart, The Narrators of Barbarian History (A.D. 550–800). Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon, 2nd edn (Notre Dame IN, 2005), pp. 378–80, 430; R. McKitterick, History and Memory in the Carolingian World (Cambridge, 2004), pp. 60–83. 3 ‘Pauli Historia Langobardorum’, ed. L. Bethmann and G. Waitz, MGH Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI–IX (Hannover, 1878), pp. 28–41. 4 L. Pani, ‘Aspetti della tradizione manoscritta dell’Historia Langobardorum’, in Paolo Diacono. Uno scrittore fra tradizione longobarda e rinnovamento carolingio, ed. P. Chiesa (Udine, 2000), pp. 367–412 (pp. 404–12). While Engelberg, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 28.I (no. 42) must be cancelled from the list as it contains the so-called seventeenth book of Paul the Deacon’s Historia Romana, the fragments Salzburg, Universitätsbibliothek, MS M I 496, and Wiesbaden, Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, MS Abt. 360 Lorch no. U 1a, and the manuscript Wrocław, Biblioteka Universytecka, MS I F 118 (see A. J. Stoclet, Fils du Martel: la naissance, l’éducation et la jeunesse de Pépin, dit «le bref» (v.714–v.741) (Turnhout, 2013), p. 186 n. 48) must be added, as well as Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 2795VI, a membrum disiectum of London, British Library, Harley MS 5383 (no. 55). On this item see L. Pani, ‘«Propriis manibus ipse transcripsit». Il manoscritto London, British Library, Harley 5383’, Scrineum Rivista 9 (2012), 305–25; http://www.fupress.net/index.php/scrineum/ article/view/12156/ (accessed 30 December 2016); and L. Pani, ‘«Simillima pestis Florentie et quasi per universum orbem»: Boccaccio e la Historia Langobardorum di Paolo Diacono’, in Giovanni Boccaccio: tradizione, interpretazione, fortuna. In ricordo di Vittore Branca, ed. A. Ferracin and M. Venier (Udine, 2014), pp. 93–131.

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Historia Langobardorum of the most significant families of HL witnesses for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is the most numerous one, amounting to nearly twenty manuscripts or fragments.5 Secondly, it is one of the most homogeneous ones in the age and the provenance of its witnesses. Apart from the two Vatican manuscripts (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. Lat. 597 and MS Reg. Lat. 801) both dating to the middle of the ninth century, and a couple of late medieval manuscripts (Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 94 and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Lat. 14693 from the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries respectively), all its witnesses date to the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Moreover, the manuscripts all come from Norman and Anglo-Norman monasteries or episcopal chapter libraries. Last but not least, there are close textual relationships between these witnesses, which in many cases form entire sequences of antigraphs (models) and apographs (copies). Most of the manuscripts of the HL for which an English origin or provenance can be demonstrated belong to family D and to the bulk of manuscripts copied in – or at any rate brought to – Anglo-Norman monasteries or cathedrals after the Conquest.6 In contrast, the presence of the HL in England before the Norman Conquest is rather elusive. The work is not mentioned in any of the thirteen surviving Anglo-Saxon booklists,7 nor its existence proved by the evidence of manuscripts.8 However, Michael Lapidge has recently pointed out that the

5 In

Pauli Historia Langobardorum, pp. 33–4, sixteen witnesses are attributed to family D, to which the ‘folia Abrincensia’ (ibid., p. 42), that is the flyleaves of Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale, MSS 88 and 94, together with Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. Lat. 597 and Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 94, both unknown to the German editors, must be added. 6 Exceptions are Salisbury, Cathedral Library, MS 80 and its copy Oxford, Magdalen College, MS Lat. 14, both of which belong to the odd branch of the tradition represented by family L, which contains a reworking of Paul the Deacon’s text. 7 M. Lapidge, ‘Surviving Booklists from Anglo-Saxon England’, in Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England. Studies presented to Peter Clemoes on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, ed. M. Lapidge and H. Gneuss (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 33–90; further discussion in M. Lapidge, The Anglo-Saxon Library (Oxford, 2005), pp. 53–62. 8 The only doubt arises from London, British Library, Cotton MS Otho A.X, destroyed by fires in 1731 and 1865. It consisted of three codicological units, the second of which is described in the oldest catalogue of the Cottonian Library as ‘Historiae gentis Longobardorum libri sex, characteribus antiquis et elegantissimis’; T. Smith, Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library 1696. (Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum bibliothecae Cottonianae). Reprinted from Sir Robert Harley’s copy, annotated by Humfrey Wanley, together with documents relating to the fire of 1731, ed. C. G. C. Tite (Cambridge, 1984), p. 67. There is no way to know if it was a copy of the HL produced in England, like the first and third codicological units, at the time the only surviving – and now forever lost – copies of Aethelweard’s Chronicle and Aethelred’s Book of Laws respectively: A. Prescott, ‘Their Present Miserable State of Cremation: the Restoration of the Cottonian Library’, in Sir Robert Cotton as Collector. Essays on an Early Stuart Courtier and his Legacy, ed. C. J. Wright (London, 1997), pp.

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Laura Pani HL seems to have been known to two Anglo-Saxon authors: Asser of Saint David’s in his Vita Aelfredi and Byrhtferth of Ramsey.9 While some passages of the first work do not seem to contain more than verbal reminiscences of Paul the Deacon’s text,10 a couple of more literal quotes may possibly be found in Byrhtferth’s Vita Oswaldi and a quite long one in his Glossae in Bedam. The verse ‘Psalmicen assiduus numquam dabat otia plectro’, taken from Paul the Deacon’s hymn to St Benedict in HL i.26, is quoted twice in Vita Oswaldi (iii.2 and v.19).11 However, it must be noted that at least three different versions of this poem circulated separately from the rest of the work.12 More striking, and therefore more persuasive, proof of the presence of HL in Anglo-Saxon England is the long quote from HL i.5 in Byrhtferth’s commentary to chapter 31 of Bede’s De temporum ratione.13 However, as Lapidge himself declared, ‘other than these quotations by Byrhtferth, there is no secure evidence that the Historia Langobardorum was ever known in Anglo-Saxon England’.14

The manuscript evidence The presence of the HL in England seems therefore closely linked to the Norman Conquest. This is demonstrated by the manuscript(s) brought from the continent a few years after the Conquest, when ecclesiastics coming

391–454 (p. 393 and pp. 419–21 on the fire of 1865); E. C. Teviotdale, ‘Some Classified Catalogues of the Cottonian Library’, in Sir Robert Cotton as Collector, pp. 194–207 (p. 194). It is well known that the Cotton manuscripts often consisted of codicological units of very different age and provenance which had been assembled after entering the Cotton Library. I am thankful to Dr Helen Conrad O’Briain for pointing my attention to the fact that such a description of the palaeographical features as that of the HL manuscript in the Cotton catalogue usually refers to manuscripts in Caroline minuscule. 9 Lapidge, Anglo-Saxon Library, pp. 239, 272. 10 According to Lapidge, Anglo-Saxon Library, p. 239, the HL is somehow recalled in four chapters of Asser’s Vita Aelfredi: iii.29 in chapter 6 (‘per fugam elapsi’ / ‘per fugam elapsi sunt’); iv.37 (but actually iv.51) in chapter 18 (‘fugam arripuit’ / ‘fugam arripiunt’); i.24 (but actually i.23) in chapter 67 (maybe ‘commisso itaque proelio’ / ‘initoque navali proelio’ or ‘consertoque navali proelio’); v.36 in chapter 83 (‘maximae populorum factae sunt strages’ / ‘post incendia urbium stragesque populorum’). See also Asser’s Life of King Alfred, together with the Annals of Saint Neots erroneously ascribed to Asser, ed. W. H. Stevenson (Oxford, 1904). 11 Also, an allusion to HL ii.28 is made in v.5 (‘Fuit autem statura procerus’ / ‘Stabat ipse statura procerus’). Byrhtferth of Ramsey, The Lives of St Oswald and St Ecgwine, ed. and trans. M. Lapidge (Oxford, 2010), pp. 54, 156, 196. 12 K. Neff, Die Gedichte des Paulus Diaconus. Kritische und erklärende Ausgabe (Munich, 1908), pp. 25, 27–34 (edition). 13 PL, 90, col. 431. M. Lapidge, ‘Byrhtferth of Ramsey and the Glossae Bridferti in Bedam’, The Journal of Medieval Latin 17 (2007), 384–400 (p. 394). 14 Byrhtferth, Lives, p. 54, n. 10.

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Historia Langobardorum from northern French abbeys and monasteries settled in English monasteries and bishoprics. Other surviving manuscripts that were produced from the end of the eleventh century onwards in cathedrals or Benedictine abbeys or monastic priories may be closely connected with northern French monasteries. In addition there are mentions of the work in library inventories, and it was used by English authors such as William of Malmesbury. There are five extant Anglo-Norman codices of the HL datable within the end of the twelfth century. In chronological order they are: London, British Library, Royal MS 13 A XXII London, British Library, Royal MS 12 C IV London, British Library, Royal MS 15 C VI Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 247 Oxford, Balliol College, MS 256 Apart from Royal MS 13 A XXII, all these manuscripts were copied in England. As for their palaeographical features, they all exhibit the typical Norman Caroline minuscule, which is very similar from hand to hand (more than one hand usually sharing the copying of a single manuscript), from book to book, and from scriptorium to scriptorium. See, for example, the contrast between thick strokes and serifs, forked ascenders, the various forms of a, with an upright back often extending above the level of the other letters, the elongated and open tail of g, sometimes closed by a little stroke, the c-shaped stem of t, capital letters at the end of some words, the cup-shaped titulus for abbreviations, display scripts, and decoration in green, red and violet (Figs. 1–3).15 Therefore, in the absence of more precise data on their provenance it is hard to define the place of their origin. However, the place of their very early conservation can be deduced in several cases thanks to library inventories or ex libris. The first copy of the HL circulating in England after the Conquest seems to have been Royal MS 13 A XXII, which was probably brought to England from the Continent by the end of the eleventh century (Fig. 1).16 It contains the HL (fols. 2r–69r), followed (fols. 69r–71r) by a short extract from Freculf of Lisieux’s Chronicon in turn taken from Flavius Josephus and concerning Moses’ age, a text also found in the same position in two other French-Norman manuscripts of the HL.17 A poem on a miracle supposed to have happened in 15 N.

R. Ker, English Manuscripts in the Century after the Norman Conquest (Oxford, 1960), pp. 22–39. 16 H. Gneuss, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100 (Tempe AZ, 2001), p. 83, no. 485 considers in fact this manuscript as copied at Mont Saint-Michel but kept in England at the end of the eleventh century. 17 Frechulfus Lexoviensis, Historiarum libri XII, I.2.17: Frechulfi Lexouiensis episcopi Opera omnia, ed. M. I. Allen, 2 vols. (Turnhout, 2002), I, 111–15. The other two

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Laura Pani

Fig. 1. London, British Library, Royal MS 13 A XXII fol. 2v.

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Historia Langobardorum the French abbey of Saint-Bertin, added on fols. 71v–72r by a contemporary or slightly later hand, confirms the close relationships, even before the Conquest, between England and Flanders, and particularly between Canterbury and Saint-Bertin itself, from whence many monks left to bring their cultural contribution to the other coast of the Channel.18 According to the current literature, this manuscript was copied at Mont Saint-Michel in the second half of the eleventh century. This is demonstrated by its decoration and script, and particularly by the presence on fols. 70r (from line 10)–71r of the hand of a Mont Saint-Michel scribe, Maurice, whose name is found in a contemporary manuscript now kept in the Bibliothèque Municipale at Avranches and whose script has been recognized in a couple of other codices from the eighth or ninth decade of the eleventh century.19 Royal MS 13 A XXII is mentioned in the fifteenth-century inventory of St Augustine’s, Canterbury, where it is said to have been brought by Scottlandus, a monk and scribe from Mont Saint-Michel and first abbot of St Augustine’s from 1072 to 1087. In addition, it still contains the former shelfmark and ex libris of St Augustine’s library.20 It has recently been noticed that a collection of history books with similar material characteristics, including this one, London, British Library, Royal MS 13 A XXIII (a copy of Ado of Vienne’s Chronicon possibly with Maurice’s hand), and Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 276, containing Paul the Deacon’s Historia Romana with a slightly

manuscripts where the HL is followed by this Freculf’s excerptum are Alençon, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 18 and Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, MS BPL 71. The Alençon manuscript, from the eleventh century, comes from the abbey of Saint-Évroult as proved by the old ex libris ‘Historia Langobardorum. Hic liber est de armariolo Sancti Ebrulfi’ on fol. 1r and by its mention in the twelfth-century inventory of the abbey library: H. Omont, Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothéques publiques de France. Départements II (Paris, 1888), pp. 468–9 (‘Historia Longobardorum, cum Gestis pontificum’: the Liber pontificalis actually precedes the HL on fols. 7r–162v). The Leiden manuscript and its membrum disiectum Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Lat. 5094, another copy of the Liber pontificalis, are probably its apograph. 18 C. R. Dodwell, The Canterbury School of Illumination, 1066–1200 (Cambridge, 1954), p. 55. 19 Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 58, fol. 119v: ‘Ultimam partem istius libri ob amorem Michaelis frater Mauritius scripsit’, probably referring to fols. 120r–125r, the last of the manuscript, containing an extract of Hincmar of Reims’s Explanatio super ferculum Salomonis (PL, 125, cols. 817–34). Maurice’s hand has also been identified in London, British Library, Royal MS 13 A XXIII (see below, note 22). Apart from Maurice, and from the additions on fols. 71v–72r, Royal MS 13 A XXII is copied by a main hand (fols. 2r–69r) and a second one (fols. 69v–70r line 10). 20 ‘Di(stinctio) X, G(radus) II. Liber Sancti Augustini Can(tuariensis) cum A’ (fol. VI [= 1]r), corresponding to the inventory ‘Historia Longobardorum. cum A 2° fo egressionis D’ 10a Grad(us) 2°’; B. C. Barker-Benfield, St. Augustine’s Library, Canterbury, 3 vols. (London, 2008), II, 925–6.

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Laura Pani later addition of Dudo of Saint-Quentin’s Historia Normannorum,21 can be related to the presence of Scottlandus in Canterbury.22 Royal MS 12 C IV is probably the oldest copy of the HL made in England after the Conquest (Fig. 2). It certainly corresponds to the first mention of the HL in an English library inventory, which is also the oldest library inventory after the Norman Conquest.23 This is the one contained in the famous Textus Roffensis, from 1122/3, the collection of legislative texts and copies of documents aiming at legitimating and celebrating the past of Rochester and at preserving the priory from outside interference.24 Forty-nine out of ninetythree manuscripts described in the library inventory of Rochester cathedral still survive, Royal MS 12 C IV among them. Royal MS 12 C IV consists of three codicological units: Hyginus’s De astronomia followed by a short text usually found with Hyginus and attributed to Hyginus himself or to Aratus, and by an excerpt from Macrobius’s commentary to Somnium Scipionis (fols. 1r–43r), Paul the Deacon’s HL (fols. 44r–137r) and, after a blank folio (fol. 137A), a group of texts on Alexander the Great (fols. 138r–170r).25 Though different in their mise en page, these three sections were made in the same time, probably in Rochester at the beginning of the twelfth century. One of the hands occurring in the manuscript, all of 21 However

B. Pohl, Dudo of Saint-Quentin’s Historia Normannorum. Tradition, Innovation and Memory (York, 2015), pp. 24–6, 51–2 dates both the texts of the Cambridge manuscript to the early twelfth century. 22 Barker-Benfield, St. Augustine’s Library, I, lx; II, 925–6. I was not able to identify in London, British Library, Royal MS 13 A XXIII the same hand as in fols. 70r–71v of British Library, Royal MS 13 A XXII, nor am I completely persuaded on the identification of the supposed Mauritius’s hand in the latter with the one in the Avranches codex. Certainly, Royal MSS 13 A XXII and 13 A XXIII, which contains some brief annals of Mont Saint-Michel on fol. 96r–v, share many similar codicological, palaeographical and ornamental features. See also F. Avril, ‘La décoration des manuscrits au Mont Saint-Michel (XIe-XIIe siècles)’, Millenaire monastique du Mont Saint-Michel, ed. R. Foreville (Paris, 1967), pp. 203–38 (pp. 205–6); R. Gameson, The Manuscripts of Early Norman England (c. 1066–1130) (Oxford, 1999), p. 119, nos. 549–50. 23 R. M. Thomson, ‘The Norman Conquest and English Libraries’, in The Role of the Book in Medieval Culture, ed. P. Ganz, 2 vols. (Turnhout, 1986), II, 27–40. The inventory is edited in R. Sharpe et al., English Benedictine Libraries. The Shorter Catalogues (London, 1996), pp. 471–92. 24 Facsmile: Textus Roffensis. Rochester, Cathedral Library. Manuscript 1.3.5, ed. P. Sawyer, 2 vols. (Copenhagen, 1957–62); M. P. Richards, Texts and Their Traditions in the Medieval Library of Rochester Cathedral Priory (Philadelphia, 1988), pp. 43–60; C. Hough, ‘Palaeographical Evidence for the Compilation of Textus Roffensis’, Scriptorium 55 (2001), 57–79 and plates 16–25, with further bibliography. A digitized copy of the Textus Roffensis is available online: http://enriqueta.man.ac.uk/luna/ servlet (accessed 30 December 2016). 25 Namely Julius Valerius’s Epitome (fols. 138r–160r), followed by an epitaph (fol. 160r) and another short text (fol. 160r–v, inc. ‘Quicquid in humanis constat virtutibus altis...’) and the Epistola Alexandri Macedonis ad Aristotelem magistrum suum de itinere suo et de situ Indiae (fols. 160v–170r). On the Alexander texts, see below note 53.

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Historia Langobardorum

Fig. 2. London, British Library, Royal MS 12 C IV fol. 44v.

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Laura Pani which are very similar to each other, copied both the first unit (fols. 1r–43r) and the last ten folios of the third (fols. 160v–70r); the coloured inks used for decoration (red, green and violet) are apparently the same through the whole manuscript. All of this allows us to identify this manuscript with item number seventy-three of the inventory (‘Iginus de spera mundi, et Hystoria Longobardorum et Gesta Alexandri regis Macedonum, in .i. volumine’)26 and with item ninety-two of a later inventory from 1202 (‘Yginus de spera cum historia Longobardorum et aliis. in .i. volumine’),27 which is confirmed by the ex libris from the fourteenth century on folio 1r (‘Liber de claustro Roffensi per G. Cellerarium’).28 Moreover, due to the palaeographical and codicological evidence there is no reason to believe Royal MS 12 C IV is a later copy of the manuscript described in the first inventory of Rochester cathedral, as has been supposed.29 The many hands – at least nine30 – sharing the copying of the whole manuscript show many typical features of the script of Rochester as it has been described in a group of codices datable between 1107 and 1122/3,31 at least thirteen of which also exhibit the same ruling by plummet and pencil as Royal MS 12 C IV.32 The Textus Roffensis can therefore be considered a terminus ante quem for the dating of the manuscript. 26 Sharpe

et al., English Benedictine Libraries, p. 487. pp. 499–526 (p. 508). 28 On similar ex libris in many Rochester manuscripts and on the role of the people mentioned in them: Sharpe et al., English Benedictine Libraries, pp. 465–7. 29 Unfortunately Royal MS 12 C IV was not taken into account by K. Waller, ‘The Library, Scriptorium and Community of Rochester Cathedral Priory c. 1080–1150’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Liverpool, 1980), based on forty-three out of forty-nine surviving manuscripts, not including this one (p. 69). Richards, Texts and Their Traditions, p. 31 speculates it could be a ‘later copy?’, as does Gameson, Manuscripts of Early Norman England, p. 118, no. 541; N. R. Ker, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain (London, 1964), p. 63 dates it to the thirteenth century. 30 A: fols. 1r–43r, 160v–170r; B: fol. 44r (lines 2–5); C: fols. 44r (line 6)–v (line 6), 45r–54r (line 13), 55r–59r, 60r (line 2)–108r; D: fol. 44v (from line 7); E: fols. 54r (from line 13), 59v–60r (line 1); F: fols. 108v–111r (line 6); G: fols. 111r (from line 6)–133v, 134v–135v (line 3), 136v–137v; H: fols. 134r, 135v (from line 4)–136r; I: fols. 138r–160r. ‘The hands of the scribes of these manuscripts are very difficult to separate […]. The task is all the more complicated because at Rochester there were so many scribes at work’. Waller, ‘Rochester’, p. 85. 31 Waller, ‘Rochester’, pp. 86–110 identifies twelve scribes and describes the main features of their scripts but, as declared ibid., p. 110, at least twenty-two more hands are present, though less regularly, in the examined codices. Unfortunately the only copy of Waller’s PhD dissertation I could consult had no photographs. However, for example, in British Library, Harley MS 3680 I noticed three of the hands that copied the manuscript (on which see ibid., p. 287) had a remarkable similarity to those of Royal MS 12 C IV. 32 Ruling by a colouring tool, quite a ‘modern’ technique, seems to be common enough in Rochester manuscripts before 1122, though more widely used in the following decades: Waller, Rochester, p. 104. According to Ker, English Manuscripts, p. 42, it is used in Canterbury manuscripts even before 1100. 27 Ibid.,

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Historia Langobardorum As for the manuscript’s position in the textual tradition, there are close relationships between it and Royal MS 13 A XXII from Mont Saint-Michel/ Canterbury (discussed above), but it is more probable that an intermediate copy existed.33 Whether it was a lost copy of the HL mentioned in a later inventory of Christ Church, Canterbury, from which Rochester is known to have borrowed many books, remains a mere hypothesis.34 There are certainly close textual relationships between Royal MS 12 C IV and another Royal manuscript in the British Library, Royal MS 15 C VI, its direct copy, as proved, among other facts, by the omission of an entire line of the model, which occurs twice. On folio 77r, in iv.28, Royal MS 15 C VI has ‘Filia vero regis mox a tata [!] statim defuncta est’, due to the omission of ‘Ravenna Parmam rediit; ob difficultatem partus pericli//’, which exactly corresponds to line 17 of folio 97v in Royal MS 12 C IV. Similarly on folio 77v, in iv.33, the scribe of Royal MS 15 C VI writes ‘qui fuit prinis [!] et ex 33 London,

British Library, Royal MS 12 C IV and its apograph Royal MS 15 C VI present some original readings filling lacunae or correcting the textual sequences which can hardly have been introduced by the scribes during the copying. For example, in the tabula capitulorum of ii.18 and ii.20 respectively the words ‘et de Emilia decima’ and ‘et de quarta decima Samnium’, missing in all the witnesses of the families C and D including Royal MS 13 A XXII, are in Royal MS 12 C IV substituted by ‘et de Emilia que est decima’ and ‘et de Samnia que est quarta decima’. In the tabula capitulorum of the fifth book, chapter thirty, missing in Royal MS 13 A XXII (where a blank space can be noticed) as well as in some other northern French witnesses, is substituted by the original reading ‘De Constantino Constantii augusti filio, quomodo pervenit ad imperium et de Theodoro et Adriano, quomodo a Vitaliano papa sunt in Britanniam directi’. Lastly, in the tabula capitulorum of the sixth book the sequence of chapters thirty-six to thirty-nine is no longer inverted (38, 39, 36, 37) as in Royal MS 13 A XXII and other French witnesses. On the other hand, the words ‘et de undatione Tiberis’ appear at the end of chapter thirty-nine instead of chapter thirty-six, which probably depends on a misreading of Royal MS 13 A XXII by the scribe of the supposed intermediate witness (or by the scribe of Royal MS 12 C IV itself). In the tabulae capitulorum of many manuscripts of the HL, the blank parts of the lines are sometimes filled by writing some words of the following chapters, when exceeding the length of the line. So on folio 56r of Royal MS 13 A XXII the words ‘de undatione Tiberis’ of chapter thirty-six are written on the line above the one with chapter thirty-nine, which was perhaps understood as a prosecution of the chapter thirty-nine itself written in the following line. 34 A ‘Historia Langobardorum, libri VI’ is described in the detailed inventory of the library of Christ Church from the time of Henry of Eastry (1284–1331) among the books of the Distinctio prima, concerning a part of the library which was already formed in Thomas Becket’s time: M. R. James, The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover. The Catalogues of the Libraries of Christ Church Priory and St Augustine’s Abbey at Canterbury and of St Martin’s Priory at Dover, 2nd edn (Cambridge, 2011), pp. xxxv, xxxix, 13–142. On the many Rochester codices copied from exemplaria of Christ Church see Waller, ‘Rochester’, pp. 150–65. According to Richards, Texts and Their Traditions, p. 6: ‘the Rochester scriptorium looked to Norman and other English sources for texts that Christ Church, Canterbury, was unable to provide. On occasion St. Augustine’s, Canterbury, contributed to Rochester library’.

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Laura Pani illo tempore’, overlooking ‘//micerius notariorum ab episcopis qui erant sub Roma//’, that is the line 15 of fol. 98v in its Rochester model, Royal MS 12 C IV. In addition, some obvious mistakes in Royal MS 12 C IV are copied into Royal MS 15 C VI, for example ‘de autia’ instead of ‘de audatia’ in the tabula capitulorum of the sixth book, chapter 38 (a later hand adding ‘-da-’ in the linespacing). Moreover, in the final sentence of ii.19 Royal MS 12 C IV has ‘ex hac causa Picenus nomen accepit’ instead of ‘hac de causa’, but the scribe himself adds in the line-spacing (fol. 75r, line 9) ‘vel hac de’ as a correction, which the scribe of Royal MS 15 C VI understands as ‘vel hac de ex hac causa’ (fol. 63rB, lines 16–17). Thus Royal MS 15 C VI appears to have been copied directly from the Rochester manuscript Royal MS 12 C IV. Royal MS 15 C VI is mentioned in another twelfth-century inventory, this time from Bury St Edmunds, from the third quarter of the century, as item sixty-one: ‘Romana Historia et Historia Langobardorum et Gesta Alexandri’.35 This entry seems to precisely describe the contents of this manuscript, where the HL (fols. 51rA–102rB) follows Paul the Deacon’s Historia Romana (fols. 4rA–50rB) and precedes the same sequence of texts on Alexander the Great found in Royal MS 12 C IV.36 Royal MS 15 C VI is datable on internal grounds to the second quarter of the twelfth century: a list of popes from St Peter to Honorius II (1124–30) is copied on fols. 1v–2v, a bifolium added to the rest of the codex together with a third folio (fol. 3), by a different hand from that of the main scribe.37 The names of popes from Innocent II (1130–43) to Eugenius III (1145–53) are added on folio 2vB by a hand that is also present within the manuscript itself, doing some corrections and filling some lacunae on folios 9r, 11v, 17r, 93v, 95r.38 Assuming that such additions and corrections were made before 1153, they therefore represent a terminus ante quem for dating the manuscript to the fifth decade of the century, during the abbacy of Anselm (1121–48), a time when the scriptorium at Bury was flourishing, and many of the more than one hundred extant twelfth-century codices were copied.39 Nevertheless it is

35 Sharpe

et al., English Benedictine Libraries, pp. 52–87 (p. 62), without identification of the item. On the dating of the inventory see R. M. Thomson, ‘The Library of Bury St Edmunds Abbey in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, Speculum 47 (1972), 617–45 (pp. 618–19). 36 See above, note 25. 37 Therefore the date written by this hand at the end of the list, ‘Anni Domini milleni CXXX, indictione VIII’ cannot be considered the date of the whole manuscript, as argued by Waitz (‘Pauli Historia Langobardorum’, ed. Bethmann and Waitz, p. 31: ‘anno 1130 exaratus’). 38 Some more hands add the names of the popes from Anastasius IV (1153–4) to Innocent III (1198–1216) on folio 3v. Folio 3 was once correctly bound with the present verso as a recto. 39 Thomson, ‘Library of Bury St. Edmunds’, pp. 630–1; E. Parker McLachlan, The Scriptorium of Bury St. Edmunds in the Twelfth Century (New York, 1986), pp. 26–7.

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Historia Langobardorum doubtful whether Royal MS 15 C VI was also produced in Bury or in another East Anglian house,40 more because of its ornamentation, which is slightly different from the contemporary Bury codices, than because of its script. As in many Norman and Anglo-Norman codices, the ornamentation of Royal MS 15 C VI consists of red or green initials, with a pen-flourished decoration in both colours at the beginning of the main texts of the book. Such a style, though similar to that of a number of contemporary French and English manuscripts, has ‘subtle differences’ compared with the Bury one, particularly lacking that ‘cream horn’ motif which has been considered typical of Bury.41 In any case the latter’s script, mostly by only one hand,42 shares many features with the writings of Bury from the second decade to the mid twelfth century, making it more likely that the manuscript was copied at Bury than somewhere else.43 Among the witnesses of the HL circulating in England after the Norman Conquest, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 247 is probably the most famous. It contains Victor of Vita’s Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae (fols. 2r–43r), Paul the Deacon’s HL (fols. 44v–122v), Einhard’s Vita Karoli (fols. 123r–138v), a Sententia beati Augustini de imagine Dei in homine (actually a short philosophical passage by Alcuin44) (fols. 168v–170r), a sequence (once again) of texts on Alexander the Great (fols. 171r–203v), and the romance Historia Apollonii regis Tyri (fols. 203v–223r). But is best known for its illustrated bestiary, a Latin version of the Physiologus, which forms a different but contemporary codicological unit (fols. 139v–168v).45 The origin of this

40 Ker,

Medieval Libraries, p. 22; ‘For instance, B.M. 15 C.VI, which comes from an East Anglian house, but whose Bury provenance is rejected by Ker […]’, Parker McLachlan, The Scriptorium, p. 53, n. 1. 41 Parker McLachlan, The Scriptorium, p. 53, n. 1. 42 Apart from fols. 1v–2v, two more hands occur on fols. 102rA–B and 124rA–130vB respectively. 43 E. Parker McLachlan, ‘The Scriptorium of Bury St. Edmunds in the Third and Fourth Decades of the Twelfth Century: Books in Three Related Hands and their Decoration’, Mediaeval Studies 40 (1978), 328–48 (pp. 335–8); Parker McLachlan, The Scriptorium, pp. 40–5. 44 J. Marenbon, From the Circle of Alcuin to the School of Auxerre: Logic, Theology and Philosophy in the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 32, n. 10, 158–61 (no correspondence with the explicit in the manuscript). 45 Consequently the vast literature on this manuscript is mostly concerned with the Bestiary. To the bibliography in M. Tischler, Einharts Vita Karoli. Studien zur Entstehung, Überlieferung und Rezeption, 2 vols. (Hannover, 2001), II, 978–80, n. 211 must be added at least R. Baxter, Bestiaries and Their Users in the Middle Ages (London, 1998), pp. 83 and 174; J. Leclercq-Marx, ‘Du monstre androcéphale au monstre humanisé. À propos des sirènes et des centaures, et de leur famille, dans le haut Moyen Âge et à l’époque romane’, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale 45 (2002), 55–67; Das Bestiarium aus Peterborough. Ms. 53 (fol. 189-210v). The Parker Library. College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Cambridge, 2 vols. (Lucern, 2003); K. Bitterling, ‘Physiologus und Bestiarien im englischen Mittelalter’, Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 40 (2005), 153–70; D. Higgs Strickland, ‘The Jews, Leviticus

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Laura Pani manuscript remains undetermined, although again Canterbury, either Saint Augustine’s or Christ Church, has been suggested, and again a dating to the first decades of the twelfth century seems appropriate for the palaeographical features of the five hands that shared the copying of the manuscript (Fig. 3).46 As for its text of the HL, it is not closely related to the witnesses examined above. It shares a number of variants (and the manuscript itself shares sequences of texts) with a couple of French-Norman codices, namely Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Ottob. Lat. 909 (fols. 1–48), from Fécamp,47 and Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (ÖNB), MS 182, from an unidentified French house.48 More precisely, MS Ottob. Lat. 909 seems to have been used in copying both Bodleian, MS Laud Misc. 247 and Vienna, ONB, MS 182. One of the most significant proofs of such a relationship is chapter 27 in the tabula capitulorum of the fifth book: ‘Quomodo rex Grimuald Forum Populi expugnans delevit’,49 where the scribe of MS Ottob. Lat. 909 wrote ‘nomen civitatis’ on ‘Forum Populi’, and which in MSS Laud Misc. 247 and Vienna, ÖNB 182 becomes ‘Forum Populi expugnavit et nomen civitatis delevit’. Similarly, in iii.12 the name ‘Sophia’ is written in the margin of the MS Ottob. Lat. 909 following ‘insidias ei preparans’, which in MS Laud and Unclean in Medieval English Bestiaries’, in Beyond the Yellow Badge. Antijudaism and Antisemitism in Medieval and Early Modern Visual Culture, ed. M. B. Merback (Leiden, 2008), pp. 203–32; Barker-Benfield, St. Augustine’s Library, II, 898; III, 1834. 46 Gameson, Manuscripts of Early Norman England, p. 140, no. 752; Barker-Benfield, St. Augustine’s Library, III, 1834. The five hands are: A: fols. 2r–138r, 170r (lines 4–8); B: fols. 139v–168v (line 5); C: fols. 168v (from line 6)–170r (line 4); D: fols. 171r–182v; E: fols. 183r–223r. 47 On folio 48v is the fourteenth- or fifteenth-century ex libris: ‘Iste liber est de ecclesia Sancte Trinitatis Fiscan(ensis)’. This manuscript, now bound together with a fourteenth-century, richly decorated copy of the French epic poem Ami et Amille (fols. 49–102), once formed a single volume with the present Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Lat. 5062, as proved by the codicological and palaeographical evidence (same mise en page, consecutive quire signature, same hand) and by the textual sequence as also specified by the fourteenth-century contents table on folio 1r of MS Lat. 5062: ‘In hoc volumine continentur ea que secuntur: Egesippi libri quinque; Vita Alexandri Magni; Epistola eiusdem ad magistrum suum Aristotelem de situ Indie; Vita Karoli Magni; Historie Langobardorum libri sex’. MS Lat. 5062 in fact opens with Hegesippus’s Bellum Iudaicum, followed by the Vita Alexandri and a part of the pseudo-Alexander’s letter to Aristotle, which continues and finishes on folios 1rA–2rA of MS Ottob. Lat. 909. The latter contains Einhard’s Vita Karoli (fols. 2rB–9vA) and the HL (fols. 10rA–48vB). Again, it is uncertain whether this collection of historical or pseudo-historical texts was also copied in the scriptorium of Fécamp in the eleventh or the twelfth century (B. Branch, ‘Inventories of the Library of Fécamp from the Eleventh and Twelfth Century’, Manuscripta 23 (1979), 159–72 (p. 165, n. 16) or in another Norman French centre. See F. Avril, ‘Notes sur quelques manuscrits bénédictins normands du XIe et du XIIe siècle’, Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire. École française de Rome 77 (1965), 209–48 (pp. 213–14). 48 On this manuscript Tischler, Einharts Vita Karoli, particularly II, 987–91. 49 ‘expugnavit’ in MS Ottob. Lat. 909, as well as in several other witnesses of family D.

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Historia Langobardorum Misc. 247 reads ‘insidias ei preparans Sophia’, and which Vienna, ÖNB 182 changes into an ablative absolute: ‘insidias ei preparante Sophya’. Moreover, while the sentence of vi.4 ‘Ea hora tantae haranearum telae in medio populi ceciderunt, ut omnes mirarentur’ is missing in MS Ottob. Lat. 909, MSS Laud Misc. 247 and Vienna, ÖNB 182 have ‘tele aranearum nigrissime’ and ‘tele aranearum nigerrime’ respectively. This suggests not only that at least one more witness should have existed between MS Ottob. Lat. 909 and them, but also that they both derive from it, not from each other. Nevertheless, the stemma codicum traced by Tischler for the text of the Vita Karoli contained in these three manuscripts shows different relationships: specifically both MSS Ottob. Lat. 909 and Laud Misc. 247 derive from a common antigraph and there must have been a third lost copy from which Vienna, ÖNB 182 descends.50 MS Laud Misc. 247 was certainly the antigraph of Oxford, Balliol College, MS 256, datable on both internal and palaeographical grounds to the second half of the twelfth century. The last folios of the manuscript (fols. 148rB– 151vB) contain two lists of popes and emperors by the same hand up to Anastasius IV (1153–4) and Conrad III († 1152) respectively; the first of these lists is continued by different hands on folio 150r.51 The initials of the popes’ and emperors’ names, in red and green alternately, are apparently drawn with the same ink used for the initials in the rest of the manuscript, where a sequence of historical texts, which I will briefly discuss at the end of this paper, is copied by at least five different hands. Their script exhibits features later than those of the first half of the century: the letters are built up by sequences of single strokes and as a result bows appear broken, 7 has been substituted for the & ligature almost everywhere and the de ligature appears regularly. The text of the HL has the same variants and mistakes of MS Laud Misc. 247, to which new ones have been added. Thus of the five manuscripts of the HL that can be associated with twelfthcentury England, one was imported from Normandy, and the others form two textual groups, and suggest the presence of further, now lost, copies.

50 Tischler,

Einhards Vita Karoli, II, 1101. to R. A. B. Mynors, Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Balliol College Oxford (Oxford, 1963), p. 278, the list of popes is by only one hand up to Celestinus III, while ‘Innocentius [III – A.D. 1198] is probably, Honorius [III – A.D. 1216] certainly, added’; ‘The last pope in the original scribe’s hand is Celestinus, 1191–8, but his pontifical years and those of his predecessor, Clemens III, December 1187–91, have been added in another hand’ according to A. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 435–1600 in Oxford Libraries, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1984), I, 124. I am convinced that all the additions on folio 150r are by different hands: one for the popes from Adrian IV to Celestine III (1191–8), and three more for the names of Innocent III (1198–1216) and Honorius III (1216–27) and for the indication of the pontifical years of Clemens III, Celestine III and Innocent III.

51 According

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Laura Pani

Fig. 3. Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 247 fol. 45r.

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Historia Langobardorum

Reading the HL in Anglo-Norman England Why were Anglo-Norman ecclesiastical institutions interested in Paul the Deacon’s HL? Was it an interest specifically directed to the history of the Lombards or to the so-called ‘barbarian’ history, or a more general interest in history? When examining the texts the HL is copied with, apart from Royal MS 13 A XXII, which is not of English origin, there are no surviving AngloNorman manuscripts containing the HL alone, although we know that such a book was kept in the twelfth-century core of the library of Christ Church, Canterbury. On the other hand, we do not know anything about the two volumes of ‘Paulus de Cassina historicus’ and ‘Historia Pauli de Casina’ seen in the sixteenth century by John Leland in the Benedictine abbeys of Colchester and Evesham respectively.52 In two cases the HL is combined with scientific or pseudo-scientific texts such as Hyginus’s De astronomia in Royal MS 12 C IV or the Latin Physiologus in Bodleian, MS Laud Misc. 247. Although these codices are both composite volumes, as I showed above, they seem to have been put together at the time of their copying in order to create codicologically and palaeographically homogeneous books. Both also carry a group of texts related to Alexander the Great such as Julius Valerius’s Epitome of De ortu, vita et obitu Alexandri, and the pseudo-Alexander’s Letters to Aristotle and Dindym, also found in most of the Anglo-Norman codices containing the HL. It must be pointed out that these texts on Alexander the Great as well as Einhard’s Vita Karoli are also contained in a number of French-Norman witnesses of the HL, as well as of manuscripts of various origin belonging to different branches or families of the tradition. I wonder why the HL is so often associated with such a group of texts concerning such different topics and ages: if the latter testifies to an interest in the East and exotic tales, can it be concluded that the Lombards were perceived as being exotic, and in some way comparable to the mirabilia Indiae described in Alexander’s Letters? Or, more persuasively, was it simply that Alexander’s texts offered an otherwise unavailable account of the ancient history of the East?53 In any case, the Alexander texts usually follow instead of preceding historical texts focused on later epochs. For example, in Royal MS 15 C VI the HL is followed by the Alexander texts, and preceded by a list of popes (testifying to an interest in chronology), as well as by Paul the Deacon’s Historia Romana, in

52 Sharpe

et al., English Benedictine Libraries, pp. 108, no. 4, 151, no. 6. According to the editors of the lists, these mentions could refer either to the HL or to the Historia Romana. They could also refer to a volume containing both Paul the Deacon’s historical works, as in British Library, Royal MS 15 C VI. 53 Z. D. Zuwiyya, ed., A Companion to Alexander Literature in the Middle Ages (Leiden, 2011), particularly chapter 1: R. Stoneman, ‘Primary Sources from the Classical and Early Medieval Periods’, pp. 1–20.

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Laura Pani what seems to be a first attempt to join two texts by this author anywhere in Europe. In Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 247, the HL (and the Alexander texts) are also combined with two more strictly historical texts: Victor of Vita’s Historia persecutionis africanae provinciae, and Einhard’s Vita Karoli. However, the pseudo-Augustinian and actually Carolingian Sententia de imagine Dei in homine, as well as the Latin romance Historia Apollonii regis Tyri are also contained in the volume (after the Bestiary and at the end of the collection respectively) once again raising questions about how the HL was perceived. It seems to me that, at least as far as the HL is concerned, at the beginning of the Anglo-Norman era English ecclesiastical institutions were eager to build up their libraries by acquiring, copying or assembling manuscripts on various topics, including some histories of Germanic peoples. The expansion of libraries appears to have been more important than the careful organization of texts into coherent collections, which they began to do only later. It might well be that such historical works had yet to find their audience, or, in other words, that the so-called barbarian history still had to find its proper place in in the Anglo-Norman view of the past.54 In this sense, only

54 As

Richard Gameson says, in the first decades of the Anglo-Norman era historical texts ‘covered a broad chronological and geographical field’, but their spread ‘can fairly be characterised as broad and thin for the most part […]. That is, the majority of works are represented by a tiny number of copies, while just a few appear in greater strength’: Gameson, Manuscripts of Early Norman England, p. 37. In my opinion this is also true for the dissemination of some historical texts, and particularly of some narrations of Germanic history, in more extensive and heterogeneous collections of texts. According to the inventory of Gameson, Manuscripts of Early Norman England, pp. 55–158, most of the works concerning Classical (Orosius, Eutropius, Justinus) and Jewish Antiquity (Josephus), Early Christian history (Eusebius of Cesarea) or contemporary history (William of Jumièges, Dudo of Saint-Quentin) are found alone or joined in plausible pairs (Josephus’s Antiquitates iudaicae and De bello iudaico, nos. 118, 215, 554; Orosius’s Historiae adversus paganos and Justinus’s Epitome Historiarum Philippicarum, no. 49), with a just a few exceptions (Orosius’s Historiae and pseudo Aethicus Ister’s Cosmographia, no. 168; Eutropius’s Breviarium and Frontinus’s Stratagemata, no. 444; these same two and Vegetius’s Epitome rei militaris, no. 785). On the contrary the histories of Germanic peoples, when present (Gregory of Tours’s Historia Francorum is missing; the only copy of Jordanes’ De origine actibusque Getarum, no. 168, does not survive anymore), and with the exception of Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica, which is not surprisingly the most copied historical work (ibid., p. 36), are parts of miscellaneous volumes, as are most of the manuscripts of HL discussed in this paper. Victor of Vita’s Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae is contained in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R. 3. 30, from Christ Church, Canterbury, together with a Passio sancti Quiriaci and an Inventio sanctae Crucis (no. 173); in Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, MS Adv. 18. 4. 3, from Durham, together with the monastic-oriented Palladius of Galatia’s Historia Lausiaca (no. 287); in London, British Library, Royal MS 15 B XVI, following the Historia Romana by Eutropius and Paul the Deacon but preceding a hagiographic text (Passio septem monachorum) and some excerpts by Gregory the Great’s Dialogi of Benedictine interest (no. 561).

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Historia Langobardorum Oxford, Balliol College, MS 256, the last witness of the group discussed in this paper, carries a chronologically and thematically coherent sequence of texts: Eusebius of Cesarea’s Historia ecclesiastica (fols. 2rA–91vB), Victor of Vita’s Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae (fols. 91vB–110vB), Paul the Deacon’s HL (fols. 110vB–148rA), with the chronological list of popes and emperors as a conclusion. Such groupings of texts would be expanded and increased in later history books. The choices made in the formation of these manuscripts, which have usually been overlooked by scholars focusing on a single text, potentially have much to tell us about the reception of works and conceptions of history.

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I  Augustine of Canterbury and Pope Gregory the Great, beginning of the line of the archbishops of Canterbury, chronicle added to Peter of Poitiers’ Compendium historiae. London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 59r.

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II  Heptarchy, Matthew Paris, Genealogy of English kings from King Alfred onwards, Chronica majora. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 26 fol. IVv.

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III  Abbot Richard, Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D I fol. 36v.

IV  Dublin, Trinity College, MS 177 fol. 52r.

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V  Dublin, Trinity College, MS 177 fol. 52v.

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7 Durham Cathedral Priory and its Library of History, c. 1090–c. 1150 Charles C. Rozier

A wide selection of surviving manuscript and book-list evidence combines to suggest that the cathedral priory of Durham built up a complex corpus of historiographical resources in the period c. 1090–1150. Durham’s AngloNorman library collection is remarkably well-attested, thanks to the high survival rate of manuscripts, and to two book-lists dateable to before 1096 and 1149, respectively.1 This evidence records the presence of over forty narrative histories, collections of annals, and accounts of local events relevant to the history of the community. The study of these books offers valuable insights into the status and potential uses of history books in one of the best-recorded monastic libraries of Anglo-Norman England. Durham’s Anglo-Norman cathedral priory traced its origins back to a monastic community that had existed at Lindisfarne from 635 until 875 before transferring first to Chester-le-Street from 882/3, and then to Durham in 995, with several years of itinerant travel in between.2 Written before 1107x15, Symeon of Durham’s Libellus de exordio atque procursu istius hoc est Dunhelmensis, ecclesie recounts this origin story of the Durham community.3 It climaxes, in Book IV, with a narration of how Bishop William of Saint-Calais implemented a Benedictine reform of the community of secular clerics in 1083, thereby reinstating the conditions believed to have been in place under the leadership of St Cuthbert, who was first prior and then later bishop of

1 The

earlier list appears in Durham, Cathedral Library, MS A.ii.4, fol. 1r. The list was edited in: A. C. Browne, ‘Bishop William of St Carilef’s Book Donations to Durham Cathedral Priory’, Scriptorium 42:2 (1988), 140–55, with facsimile at plate 15. The later list appears in Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.iv.24, fols. 1r–2r. This has been edited in: Catalogi Veteres Librorum Ecclesie Cathedralis Dunelm, ed. B. Botfield (London, 1838), pp. 1–10, hereafter Cat. Vet. 2 An overview of these events is given in W. M. Aird, St Cuthbert and the Normans: The Church of Durham, 1071–1153 (Woodbridge, 1998). 3 As described in Symeon of Durham, Libellus de exordio atque procursu istius hoc est Dunhelmensis ecclesie, ed. and trans. D. W. Rollason (Oxford, 2000), hereafter: LDE.

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Charles C. Rozier Lindisfarne.4 As will be shown below, the varied history of St Cuthbert’s community, after its departure from Lindisfarne in 875, made it essential that the community should know its origin-story. This ensured that from as far back as it is possible to know, history, and the historical texts through which it was known, were at the centre of how the community articulated its identity and its inheritances. This sense of historical awareness appears to have peaked during the later eleventh and early twelfth centuries, during which time texts of varying lengths were copied and composed by Durham authors, Symeon principal among them.5 The number and variety of historical texts collected and composed at Durham during the Anglo-Norman period has been noted by several commentators, including Hilary Offler, Alan Piper, David Rollason and David Dumville, who described medieval Durham as a ‘hot-bed of historiographic activity’.6 Examining the roles played by Durham’s numerous historical texts within the life of the community has, however, proved difficult. Rollason’s work in relation to Symeon of Durham, especially his edition of the Libellus de exordio and Historia de regibus Anglorum et Dacorum (formerly known as the Durham Historia regum), has shed important light on the complex and collaborative process of historical writing in Anglo-Norman Durham.7 However, much less is known about why Durham’s monks were motivated to acquire so many works from the genre in the period. In particular, we know almost nothing about why they collected such a wide range of existing historical narratives by Roman, early Christian and medieval authors from the mid 1090s to the 1140s. By examining the pattern of acquisitions and placing them within the broader context of book production and collection in Anglo-Norman Durham, the discussion that follows aims to provide a picture of how and why one community was able to engage with its past, during what has been regularly acknowledged as one of the most important periods in the development of English historical writing.8 4 Ibid.,

pp. 222–35. also Lawrence-Mathers in this volume, p. 61. 6 H. S. Offler, Medieval Historians of Durham (Durham, 1958); D. N. Dumville, ‘Textual Archaeology and Northumbrian History subsequent to Bede’, in Coinage in NinthCentury Northumbria: the Tenth Oxford Symposium on Coinage and Monetary History, ed. D. M. Metcalf (Oxford, 1987), pp. 43–55, (p. 45); A. J. Piper, ‘The Historical Interests of the Monks of Durham’, in Symeon: Historian of Durham and the North, ed. D. W. Rollason (Stamford, 1998), pp. 301–32; LDE, pp. lxxvii–xci. 7 D. W. Rollason, ‘Symeon’s Contribution to Historical Writing in Northern England’, in Symeon: Historian of Durham and the North, pp. 1–13 (see also other contributions in that volume); LDE; D. W. Rollason, ‘Symeon of Durham’s Historia de regibus Anglorum et Dacorum as a Product of Twelfth-Century Historical Workshops’, in The Long Twelfth-century View of the Anglo-Saxon Past, ed. M. Brett and D. A. Woodman (Aldershot, 2015), pp. 95–111; Symeon of Durham, Historia de regibus Anglorum et Dacorum…, ed. M. Lapidge and D. W. Rollason (forthcoming, see note 51). 8 R. W. Southern, ‘Aspects of the European Tradition of Historical Writing, 4: “The 5 See

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Durham Cathedral Priory’s Library The study of history books at Durham reveals three main strands in composition and collection. The earliest histories were of primarily local interest. They had been collected since before Cuthbert’s community came to Durham, and continually written throughout the Anglo-Norman period. Comprising works on the life, cult and communities of St Cuthbert, these texts helped to clarify and press the claims of the community and certain individuals who were attached to it. The second class of historical works emerges from the mid 1090s to the middle of the twelfth century, and shows Durham actively engaged in collecting numerous well-known paradigms of the genre from Classical Antiquity, and several more recent and contemporary works. These histories will be shown to have provided a considerable inventory of narrative sources and models, and material for instruction in other related subject areas. The third class of works to be discussed comprises several shorter chronicles and collections of annals. There is evidence to suggest that examples from this genre survived from the pre-Benedictine community, and multiple manuscript witnesses show that these types of histories were copied and re-drafted several times during the first third of the twelfth century, down to the probable date of Symeon of Durham’s death in c. 1129. These works reflect an apparent desire to collect and revise shorter records of the past, in what appears to have been a collaborative operation between multiple contributors. It is almost certain that the first Durham monks inherited books from the community of secular clerics in 1083. Tracing manuscript survivals, Anne Lawrence-Mathers has suggested that thirty to forty volumes were transferred to the new monastery, the majority containing books of the Bible and liturgical materials.9 Some of these appear to have been highly prized by the monastic community, including the Lindisfarne Gospels, which Symeon was able to describe in detail and noted as being ‘preserved in this church’, and also the ninth-century Liber Vitae, which was resurrected in the 1090s, kept in the cathedral church, and continually expanded by successive generations down to the end of the Middle Ages.10

Sense of the Past”’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 5th s., 23 (1973), 243–63; A. Gransden, Historical Writing in England, 2 vols. (London, 1974–82), I, 136–218; E. van Houts, ‘Historical Writing’, in A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World, ed. C. Harper-Bill and E. van Houts (Woodbridge, 2002), pp. 103–21; G. Martin and R. M. Thomson, ‘History and History Books’, in Cambridge History of the Book in Britain volume 2: 1100–1400, ed. R. M. Thomson and N. J. Morgan (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 397–415. 9 The pre-Benedictine books are explored in A. Lawrence-Mathers, Manuscripts in Northumbria in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 12–26. 10 For Symeon’s account of the Lindisfarne Gospel-book, see LDE, pp. 114–21. On the Anglo-Norman revival of the Liber Vitae, see: A. J. Piper, ‘The Early Lists and Obits of the Durham Monks’, in Symeon: Historian of Durham and the North, pp. 161–201; and Lynda Rollason’s commentary in: The Durham Liber Vitae: London, British Library

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Charles C. Rozier Some history books, all of local interest, can be suggested as having been passed down from the secular clerics in 1083. Towards the middle of the twelfth century, probably in the time of Prior Roger (1137–49), a list of books owned by the cathedral priory and some of its members was added to folios 1r-2r of Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.iv.24.11 Noting the existence of nine ‘libri Anglici’, this list gives clues to some of the books which may have passed into the hands of the first Benedictine monks. English does not feature widely in books produced by the Benedictine community, and as such, it can be suggested that any of these nine books recorded on the list of c. 1149 were owned, and even produced, by the community of secular clerics. Among them are three history books: a ‘Historia Anglorum Anglice’, which probably represents an English version of Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica, and two chronicles, labelled ‘cronica duo Anglica’. None of the three items has been associated with surviving manuscripts, meaning that their precise contents and dates of production remain unknowable. Even so, their presence on the twelfth-century list offers a tantalizing glimpse of history books within the pre-Benedictine community. Bede’s text in particular would have allowed members of the community to gain a detailed knowledge of early Anglo-Saxon history, and in particular, the establishment of Lindisfarne, the life, and the early cult of St Cuthbert. Knowing certain versions of the past, and especially the life of Cuthbert, had been key to the prosperity of St Cuthbert’s community during the preceding centuries. In particular, its itinerant existence to 882/3 followed by translations to Chester-le-Street and then Durham, made it necessary for the members of his community to know the past, in order to stress the direct line of inheritance from Lindisfarne to Durham. The opening preface of Symeon’s Libellus de exordio shows that this was one of his chief concerns in writing in the early twelfth century: Although for various reasons this church no longer stands in the place where Oswald founded it, nevertheless by virtue of the constancy of its faith, the dignity and authority of its episcopal throne, and the status of the dwelling-place of monks established there by himself and Bishop Aidan, it is still the very same church founded by God’s command.12

William Aird and Alan Piper have argued that the ownership of St Cuthbert’s relics and the successful promotion of his cult combined to ensure the

MS Cotton Domitian A.VII, ed. D. Rollason and L. Rollason with A. J. Piper, 3 vols. (London, 2007), I, 24. 11 Lawrence-Mathers, Manuscripts in Northumbria, pp. 146–51. The list was edited in Cat. Vet., pp. 1–10. 12 ‘Licet enim causis extensibus alibi quam ab ipso sit locata, nichilominus tamen stabilitate fidei, dignitate quoque et auctoritate cathedre pontificalis, statu etiam monachice habitationis que ab ipso rege et Aidano pontifice ibidem instituta est, ipsa eadem ecclesia Deo auctore fundata permanet’, LDE, pp. 16–17.

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Durham Cathedral Priory’s Library continued survival of the community during its various stages of itinerant existence and translation.13 Aird described Cuthbert’s body as a ‘corporeal title deed’ to the spiritual and financial inheritances associated with his cult, while at the same time, certain books associated with Cuthbert’s life and cult, provided written records which reiterated these claims by describing their origins.14 Bertram Colgrave suggested that the Durham community possessed an early copy of Bede’s prose Life which may have been carried with Cuthbert’s relics from Lindisfarne.15 This item may be compared to Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 183, which contains Bede’s two Lives of Cuthbert and which was given to Cuthbert’s shrine at Chester-leStreet by King Æthelstan in 935. A high quality manuscript with an elaborate depiction of Æthelstan’s gift on the opening page, it provided a monument to the prestige of Cuthbert’s cult, and its association with royal prestige. Such books may be counted alongside the Lindisfarne Gospels as tangible physical monuments to the antiquity of Cuthbert’s sanctity and the continuity of the community from Lindisfarne to Durham, which were prized not only for their historical contents, but presumably also for their obviously antique physical appearances.16 Another testament to Cuthbert’s influence can be seen in the probable inheritance in 1083 of at least one copy of a history, whose existence made a vital contribution to the claims of the religious community which had curated Cuthbert’s cult for over 300 years. The anonymous cartulary-chronicle known as the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto begins with a summary of Cuthbert’s life, before proceeding to list a total of twenty-two donations of property to the community, alongside five claims to territories which had been unfairly taken away from it.17 Although the absence of an original manuscript prevents a precise dating, internal evidence suggests that one version of the text was compiled after the visit of King Edmund to Chester-le-Street in 945, and that this version was later expanded during the reign of Cnut, to produce what the modern editor Ted South has seen as the authoritative complete redaction.18 This complete version was available to Symeon in the 1090s, when he copied it alongside Bede’s two Lives of Cuthbert, and later used it as a basis for

13 A.

J. Piper, ‘The First Generations of Durham Monks and the Cult of St Cuthbert’, in St Cuthbert, His Cult and His Community, ed. G. Bonner, D. Rollason and C. Stancliffe (Woodbridge, 1989), pp. 437–46; Aird, Cuthbert and the Normans, especially pp. 34–5. 14 Aird, Cuthbert and the Normans, pp. 34–5. 15 Two Lives of Cuthbert: a Life by an Anonymous Monk of Lindisfarne and Bede’s Prose Life, ed. and trans. B. Colgrave (Cambridge, 1940), pp. 47–50; Lawrence-Mathers, Manuscripts in Northumbria, pp. 93–4. 16 LDE, pp. 114–21. 17 Historia de Sancto Cuthberto: A History of Saint Cuthbert and a Record of His Patrimony, ed. and trans. T. J. South (Cambridge, 2002). 18 On the date, see ibid., pp. 27–36; and H. H. E. Craster, ‘The Patrimony of St Cuthbert’, EHR 69 (1954), 177–99.

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Charles C. Rozier sections of his Libellus de exordio.19 It is likely that this text had been inherited from the pre-Benedictine community, and that it may represent the ‘original’ copy of the text, which no longer survives. Shortly before the turn of the twelfth century, certain members of the monastic community at Durham appear to have commissioned a new narrative account which would supersede the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto and would describe, as Symeon would put it, the ‘origin and progress’ (‘exordio’ and ‘procursu’) of the Durham church.20 In an additional preface added to one of the two earliest manuscripts of the text, Symeon asserted that he had been ‘commanded by the authority of my elders’ (‘maiorum auctoritate iussus’), which, together with a general absence of Symeon’s own name within the work and the merely editorial nature of his additions to the two earliest manuscripts, suggests a communal account, written on behalf of the monastic community whose origins, and eventual triumph, it describes.21 The Libellus may be seen to have performed multiple functions: to justify the imposition of Benedictine rule in 1083 through past precedent, to build on the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto by offering a more detailed narrative account of the continuity between Cuthbert’s community and its various later manifestations, to commemorate the installation of Cuthbert’s relics in the new cathedral in 1104, and to communicate to a new generation of Norman monks the exact nature of the community to which they now belonged and owed allegiance. Whatever its precise purpose or purposes, it is clear that Symeon’s work represented a significant undertaking. The two earliest copies of the text, both dateable to the beginning of the twelfth century, occupy folios 6r–98r of Durham, University Library, MS Cosin V.ii.6 and folios 25r–97r of London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina A V.22 How early Symeon began work cannot be known, but his copying of Bede’s prose and verse Lives and the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto into Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 596, plus Bede’s prose and verse Lives of St Cuthbert, alongside Lives of Saints Aidan and Oswald derived from Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica into Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 175 at the end of the 1090s, may show him compiling some of the main sources through which his brief could be fulfilled. In addition, a copy of Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica, given by Bishop William before 1096, 19 Symeon’s

copy is now found on fols. 203r–206v of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 596. On Symeon’s role in producing this copy, see M. Gullick, ‘The Hand of Symeon of Durham: Further Observations on the Durham Martyrology Scribe’, in Symeon: Historian of Durham and the North, pp. 14–31 (p. 24), and on his later use of the source, see LDE, pp. lxxii–lxxiii, 128–31. 20 LDE, pp. 18–19. 21 Ibid., pp. 2–3. On Symeon’s additions to the manuscripts, see D. W. Rollason, ‘The Making of the Libellus de exordio: The Evidence of Erasures and Alterations to the Two Earliest Manuscripts’, in Symeon: Historian of Durham and the North, pp. 140–56. 22 LDE, pp. xvii–xxiii.

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Durham Cathedral Priory’s Library may also have been intended as one of Symeon’s sources, since Rollason has shown that Symeon drew on the Anglo-Norman copy associated with this gift, now Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.ii.35.23 Internal evidence suggests that the text was completed after 1104 and before 1107x15.24 Local events were not only recorded in longer works. The De iniusta uexacione Wilelmi episcopi primi provides a first-hand account of Bishop William of Saint-Calais’s trial for involvement in the failed rebellion against William Rufus in 1088.25 Composed shortly after the events in question, perhaps after Bishop William’s return from exile in 1091, the text mounts a strong defence of William’s actions. The De obsessione Dunelmi, provides an account of a siege of Durham by a Scottish army (probably that of 1006) before recounting the career of the Northumbrian Earl Uhtred and his marriage to Bishop Ealdhun’s daughter, Ecgfrida, and transfers of land related to this marriage.26 Symeon’s experience in writing the history of Cuthbert’s community allowed him to write two further texts of local historical interest: a letter to Hugh, Dean of York cathedral, which listed historical precedents relating to the archbishops of York from the time of Bishops Paulinus and Aidan down to the lifetime of Bede,27 and a longer treatise in defence of Durham’s rights over the church of Carlisle, which has been dated by Richard Sharpe as having been composed between 1107x15 and 1122.28 At some point after the death of Ranulf Flambard in 1128, and probably following Symeon’s death in 1128/9, an anonymous author added a continuation to the Libellus de exordio, which survives in the Durham Cosin V.ii.6 manuscript, on folios 98v–113r.29 This continuation narrates events during the tenures of Bishops Ranulf, Geoffrey Rufus and Robert Cumin, with particular scorn directed towards Cumin for what the monks perceived to have been his usurpation of the episcopal see in 1041. Criticism of Cumin provided the basis for Laurence of Durham’s Dialogues.30 Composed between 1143 and 1149, this lengthy poem reports a

23 Ibid.,

p. lxviii. p. xlii. 25 ‘De iniusta uexacione Willelmi episcopi primi per Willelmum regem filium Willelmi magni’, ed. H. S. Offler, rev. A. J. Piper and A. I. Doyle, in Chronology, Conquest and Conflict in Medieval England (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 49–101. The text was added to Durham, University Library, MS Cosin V.ii.6, at fols. 88r–98r. 26 Edited in Symeonis monachi opera omnia, ed. T. Arnold, 2 vols. (London, 1882–5), I, 215–20. 27 Ibid., I, pp. 222–8. For discussion, see: LDE, p. xlvii; R. Sharpe, ‘Symeon as Pamphleteer’, in Symeon: Historian of Durham and the North, pp. 214–29 (pp. 218–19, especially p. 218, n. 15). 28 Sharpe, ‘Symeon as Pamphleteer’, pp. 214–29, with an edition of this text at pp. 221–9. 29 LDE, pp. 266–323. 30 Laurence of Durham, Dialogi Laurentii Dunelmensis Monachi ac Prioris, ed. J. Raine (Durham, 1880). 24 Ibid.,

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Charles C. Rozier version of these events through an imagined debate between Laurence and two other characters. Durham’s collection of works on local history grew at a steady pace from the 1090s to the 1140s. Comprising works of varying lengths and subjects, all were copied or composed as a means of protecting the position of St Cuthbert’s community within the landscape of Northumbrian local and ecclesiastical politics. Like its predecessor, the Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, Symeon’s Libellus de exordio demonstrates the importance of history books as a means of establishing the identity and independence of the Durham community in and for which it was written. The numerous shorter tracts are united by their concern to provide their version of what appear to have been, in all cases, hotly disputed events. In this way, Durham’s local histories were written and kept as safeguards against current and future threats to the life of Cuthbert’s community. From the time of Symeon’s arrival in Durham in c. 1090, the community of monks, apparently supported by Bishop William of Saint-Calais, appears to have directed significant resources towards the acquisition and production of books of all kinds. Symeon stated that Bishop William had given ‘many books’ (‘libros plurimos’) to the monastic community after his return from exile in Normandy in 1091.31 Forty-nine of the books given by William are recorded in a list copied by Symeon into the opening folio of a Bible, now Durham, Cathedral Library, MS A.ii.4, under the heading: ‘Here are the names of the books which Lord Bishop William gave to St Cuthbert’ (Fig. 1).32 With reference to this list and the high quality of extant items featured in it, including two volumes of Augustine’s commentary on Isaiah (Durham, Cathedral Library, MSS B.ii.13 and B.ii.14), Hrabanus Maurus’s commentary on Matthew’s Gospel (Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.iii.16), and the Bible in which the list itself appears, Gameson has suggested that William sponsored an ambitious and costly programme to procure library books for the new monastery.33 Gameson identified a decline in book acquisitions after

31 LDE,

pp. 244–5. sunt nomina librorum quod dominus Wilelmus episcopus sancto Cuthberto dedit’, Durham, Cathedral Library, MS A.ii.4, fol. 1r. This is the second volume of two, with the first volume now lost. It is discussed in detail in M. Gullick, ‘The Scribe of the Carilef Bible: A New Look at some Late-Eleventh-Century Durham Cathedral Manuscripts’, in Medieval Book Production: Assessing the Evidence, ed. L. L. Brownrigg (Los Altos Hills CA, 1990), pp. 61–83. Symeon’s role in copying the list is discussed in Gullick, ‘The Hand of Symeon of Durham’, pp. 14–31 (pp. 18, 25); C. C. Rozier, ‘Symeon of Durham as Cantor and Historian at Durham Cathedral Priory, c.1090–1129’, in Medieval Cantors and their Craft: Music, Liturgy and the Shaping of History, ed. K. A.-M. Bugyis, A. B. Kraebel and M. E. Fassler (York, 2017), 190–206. 33 R. Gameson, ‘English Book Collections in the Late Eleventh and Early Twelfth Centuries: Symeon’s Durham and its Context’, in Symeon: Historian of Durham and the North, ed. D. W. Rollason (Stamford, 1998), pp. 230–53 (pp. 243–9).

32 ‘Ista

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Fig. 1. Durham, Cathedral Library, MS A.ii.4 fol. 1r.

Durham Cathedral Priory’s Library

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Charles C. Rozier Bishop William’s death in 1096, followed by a gradual revival from the first years of the twelfth century onwards.34 A second list of Durham books was added to folios 1r–2r of Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.iv.24, towards the middle of the twelfth century, probably, as argued by Lawrence-Mathers, in the time of Prior Roger (1137–49) (Fig. 2).35 By the time this list was made, the library at Durham contained over 400 books. In addition, the list records numerous other items owned by individuals, including Prior Laurence, ‘William de Nunnewic’, and ‘Magister Herebertus medicus’. Mirroring wider trends seen in the expansion of contemporary Anglo-Norman libraries, a large proportion of the books added in the 1090s and the first decade of the twelfth century contained works of patristic theology and exegesis, especially by Augustine, Jerome and Gregory the Great. This continued into the second quarter of the twelfth century, and was supplemented by works from more recent medieval authors such as Anselm of Laon, Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Lombard, and Bernard of Clairvaux. The second largest category of books, certainly by c. 1149, were those which contained various titles from Classical Antiquity, and can be interpreted as teaching materials. The twelfth-century book-list included numerous texts on the trivium, such as the eighteen volumes on Priscian, three books on rhetoric, ‘twenty-five books on dialectic’, plus a large selection of Latin poetry, by authors such as Virgil, Ovid, Juvenal, and others. The list also records books related to the quadrivium, including books on arithmetic, geometry and Boethius’s De musica, to which may be added the numerous short extracts on computus, medicine and astrology now contained in Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 85 (T.4.2) and Durham, Cathedral Library, MS Hunter 100.36 History books are known to have been included among the first new books acquired by the monastic community. The pre-1096 list records the presence of Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica, which, as noted above, almost certainly corresponds to the text now contained in Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.ii.35 and used by Symeon in writing the Libellus de exordio. Before the end of the eleventh century, and perhaps with Bishop William’s blessing, the community gained several titles on the history of the ancient world, including Suetonius’s De vita caesarum, Ausonius’s poetic Versus de duodecim imperatoribus Romanorum,37 34 Ibid.,

pp. 249–50.

35 Lawrence-Mathers,

Manuscripts in Northumbria, pp. 146–51. For details on the Durham manuscript survivals, see ibid., pp. 158–76 and 263–6; R. A. B. Mynors, Durham Cathedral Manuscripts to the end of the Twelfth Century (Oxford, 1939); N. R. Ker, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain (London, 1964); N. R. Ker with A. G. Watson, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, supplement to the second edition (London, 1987); and R. Gameson, The Manuscripts of Early Norman England, (c.1066–1130) (Oxford, 1999). 36 For a more detailed outline of the growth of the library at Durham by c. 1149, see Lawrence-Mathers, Manuscripts in Northumbria, pp. 147–57. 37 Now bound together in Durham, Cathedral Library, MS C.iii.18.

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Durham Cathedral Priory’s Library

Fig. 2. Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.iv.24 fol. 1r.

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Charles C. Rozier Frontinus’s Stratagemata, and Eutropius’s Brevarium historiae Romanae.38 William himself gave the history of Pompeius Trogus; a Roman text composed in the first century BC, which narrates events in Ancient Greece, Macedonia and the Near East. This volume is now lost, but is recorded in both book-lists. At the very beginning of the twelfth century, Durham obtained an epitome of Josephus’s De bello Iudaico which was by c. 1125 supplemented by a fuller version, including his De antiquitate iudaica.39 Two didactic texts on the early history of Christian monasticism, Palladius’s Historia Lausiaca, and Victor of Vitas’s Historia persecutionis africanae prouinciae, were also added at the beginning of the twelfth century.40 By c. 1149, Durham’s collection of narrative histories included Orosius’s Historiarum Adversum Paganos, Cassiodorus’s Historia tripartita, and probably also Eusebius of Caesarea’s Historia ecclesiastica (listed without attribution to Eusebius in the twelfth-century list), none of which can be identified with surviving manuscripts. During this period of expansion in the first half of the twelfth century, the Durham library also procured copies of more recent narrative histories. William of Jumièges’s Gesta Normannorum ducum was added in the first quarter of the twelfth century, and now survives in London, British Library, Harley MS 491. Other works which are known from the twelfth-century book-list, but whose manuscripts do not survive, include a ‘Gesta pontificum Anglorum’, which probably records the work by William of Malmesbury, and the ‘vitae binae Sancti Anselmi’, which probably refers to a bipartite copy of the Vita et conversatione Anselmi and the Historia novorum in Anglia, which were written by Eadmer of Canterbury with the stipulation that they should be read as two parts of the same narrative.41 Finally, the twelfth-century list shows that by 1149 the Durham library had obtained an account of the First Crusade, the Gesta Francorum. Why did the monks of Durham acquire such a broad selection of historical narratives? David Rollason’s argument that the twelfth-century Historia de regibus Anglorum et Dacorum represents a complex historiographical project which drew on a number of the texts acquired by Durham suggests that some of the more recent medieval narratives may have been collected as sources or models for a piece of ambitious historical writing such as that preserved in the remains of the Historia de regibus.42 It may be that an author at Durham was preparing to produce the kind of lengthy narrative text such as those produced by Orderic Vitalis at Saint-Évroul in Normandy from 1113 to 1142,

38 Now

bound together in London, British Library, Harley MS 2729. Cathedral Library, MSS B.iv.8, fols. 81–98 and B.ii.1, respectively. 40 Now bound together in Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, MS Adv. 18.4.3. 41 Eadmer of Canterbury, The Life of St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, by Eadmer, ed. and trans. R. W. Southern (Oxford, 1962), p. 2. 42 Rollason, ‘Historical Workshops’. 39 Durham,

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Durham Cathedral Priory’s Library and by William of Malmesbury and Henry of Huntingdon in England.43 Rollason has shown that the compilers of the Historia de regibus, probably under Symeon’s supervision, were working in collaboration with external contacts, through which they were able to access material from the world chronicle being compiled at Worcester under John, and also, via Canterbury, the Historia novorum, probably the copy included in the twelfth-century book-list.44 It is possible that Durham also purchased or produced William of Jumièges’s Gesta Normannorum and the Gesta Francorum in similar circumstances, and towards the same aim.45 Durham’s corpus of classical histories can be seen to have performed a number of roles. Eutropius and Suetonius carried the potential to assist in the compilation of world chronicles, such as those produced at Durham and now contained in Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.iv.22 (fols. 3r–5v), Durham, Cathedral Library, MS C.iv.15, Durham, Cathedral Library, MS Hunter 100 (fols. 27v–41r), and Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 85 (T.4.2) (fols. 18r–24v). Classical sources are equally likely to have been acquired as aids to teaching parts of the trivium, which, as Lawrence-Mathers has shown, was part of a well-developed programme of studies by the middle of the twelfth century.46 However, although Laurence’s Dialogues are littered with classical references throughout, the presence of the Classics in the works of other Durham authors, most notably Symeon, is largely unknown. During the same period as they were collecting new copies of narrative histories, Durham scribes also began to produce several shorter chronicles and annals, from the first years of the twelfth century onwards. The shortest forms are represented in the two sets of Easter-table annals (now Durham, MS Hunter 100 and Glasgow, MS Hunter 85 (T.4.2)). Although much of the content shared between these two texts is identical, the Hunter 85 annals contain many more records of events from the Anglo-Saxon past, and as such, were considered original enough to have been edited by Wilhelm Levison, who

43 Orderic

Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. and trans. M. Chibnall, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1969–80); William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum, ed. and trans. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson and M. Winterbottom, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1998–9); William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum, ed. and trans. M. Winterbottom and R. M. Thomson, 2 vols. (Oxford, 2007); Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum: The History of the English People, ed. and trans. D. Greenway (Oxford, 1996). 44 Rollason, ‘Historical Workshops’, p. 110; see also Lawrence-Mathers in this volume, p. 61. 45 The Historia de regibus Anglorum et Dacorum is discussed in more detail below, p. 146. 46 Lawrence-Mathers, Manuscripts in Northumbria, pp. 152–3. On history’s role in the trivium, see B. Smalley, Historians in the Middle Ages (London, 1974), pp. 15–25; R. M. Thomson, ‘Where Were the Latin Classics in Twelfth-Century England?’, English Manuscript Studies 7 (1995), 25–40.

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Charles C. Rozier named them the Annales Lindisfarnenses et Dunelmenses.47 At least two sets of full-page annals related to imperial, Frankish and Anglo-Saxon history were also recorded during the first quarter of the twelfth century (now Durham, Cathedral Library, MSS B.iv.22 and C.iv.15). The annals in B.iv.22 were copied by Symeon, and were probably based on those based on the chronicle by Regino of Prüm, featured in C.iv.15.48 In addition, J. E. Story has suggested that the annals now contained in Liège, Bibliothèque Universitaire, MS 369C (fols. 75r–83v) were produced at Durham, c. 1124–8.49 A further work of annalistic history which lists the reigns of Anglo-Saxon kings, archbishops of Canterbury and York, bishops of Durham and earls of Northumbria and generally referred to as De primu Saxonum adventu is, given its content, also likely to have been produced at Durham and has been dated to 1124x8.50 The ‘two English chronicles’ featured in the twelfth-century book-list may have provided source material for any of these collections, and for several additional sources for English and northern history which seem to have been compiled at Durham and which are now only known through a manuscript dating to the third quarter of the twelfth century, now Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 139. The manuscript contains numerous texts, including: northern annals to 802 and a chronicle from 849 to 887, based on Byrhtferth of Ramsey’s Historia regum; a chronicle from 888 to 957; extracts from William of Malmesbury’s Gesta regum; a chronicle from 848 to 1118 taken from John of Worcester, and a chronicle from 1119 to 1129.51 In addition, Edmund Craster’s close study of a fifteenth-century Durham history by Prior Wessington persuaded him that there had existed a lost chronicle, composed prior to the Benedictine reform but after William the Conqueror’s visit to Durham in 1072, and which Craster named the Cronica monasterii Dunelmensis.52 All of this activity hints at a concerted effort to collect, edit and refine shortened forms of history books. This programme gathered significant momentum in the first quarter of the twelfth century, and has been described 47 W.

Levison and H. E. Meyer, ‘Die Annales Lindisfarnenses et Dunelmenses: kritisch untersucht und neu herausgegeben’, Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 17 (1961), 447–506. 48 J. E. Story, ‘Symeon as Annalist’, in Symeon: Historian of Durham and the North, pp. 202–13 (pp. 211–12). 49 Ibid., p. 209. 50 Edited in Symeonis monachi opera omnia, II, pp. 365–84. 51 These materials are the subject of a forthcoming edition: Symeon of Durham, Historia de regibus Anglorum et Dacorum, incorporating Byrhtferth of Ramsey, Historia regum, with John of Hexham, Historia xxv annorum, and Anonymous, De obsessione Dunelmi et de probitate Uhtredi comitis, et de comitibus qui ei successerunt, and De primo Saxonum aduentu siue de eorundem regibus, ed. M. Lapidge and D. W. Rollason (Oxford, forthcoming). See also Symeonis monachi opera, II, pp. 3–284. For discussion of the date, see LDE, pp. xlviii–xlix; Rollason, ‘Historical Workshops’, pp. 95–111. 52 H. H. E. Craster, ‘The Red Book of Durham’, EHR 40 (1925), 504–32, where he includes a proposed reconstruction at pp. 523–9.

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Durham Cathedral Priory’s Library by Story as a ‘revival of interest in the Anglo-Saxon past’.53 Levison argued that the compiler of the annals in Glasgow, MS Hunter 85 (who it has since shown was Symeon) drew his information from a number of sources, including Bede’s Historia ecclesiastica, his Historia abbatum and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,54 the last of which may in fact be attributed to one of the two English chronicles included in the twelfth-century list. Likewise, Story’s analysis of the Durham chronicles has identified numerous links between the surviving texts and other later twelfth-century collections, which may suggest that the scale of this process may be even larger than that discussed here. Despite the strength of the evidence for this revival of annals, the precise reasons why it should have taken place remain difficult to identify. Manuscript contexts suggest that the two Easter-table annals were closely related to the collection of texts on the calculation of the calendar and the discipline of computus.55 However, the close textual links between these sources and the annals of B.iv.22 suggest that they also contributed to historiographical aims.56 Other than this, we can only conclude that the Durham annals addressed a genuine concern to know and record the course of past events in shortened forms. Symeon of Durham’s role in this may have been key. He produced the annals within B.iv.22 and Glasgow, MS Hunter 85, and apparently directed the production of sources towards the surviving draft of the Historia de regibus, whose end date of 1129 corresponds to the date of Symeon’s death.57 This may suggest that Symeon had personally overseen the production of Durham annals at this time, just as he had directed the composition of the Libellus de exordio. This discussion has attempted to outline not only what histories were available in Anglo-Norman Durham, but also to suggest reasons why each text was added to the collection. In this sense, it has proven much easier to see how local histories contributed to the successes of the community, and comparatively more difficult to consider how the aims of the monastery were served through the acquisition of established Latin narratives by antique and medieval authors or the production of annals. While it is perhaps too easy to assume that medieval audiences were simply interested in reading about the past for its own sake because they found pleasure in it, it is equally dismissive to suggest that they did not. 53 Story,

‘Symeon as Annalist’, p. 202. ‘Annales Lindisfarnenses’, pp. 490–506. For Symeon’s role, see Gullick, ‘The Hand of Symeon of Durham’, p. 29. 55 C. C. Rozier, ‘Contextualising the Past: History and its Place at Durham Cathedral Priory, c.1090–c.1130: the Annals of Durham, Cathedral Library MS. Hunter 100’, Haskins Society Journal 25 (2013), 107–23; see also A. Lawrence-Mathers, ‘Computus and Chronology in Anglo–Norman England’, in this volume. 56 Story, ‘Symeon as Annalist’, pp. 207–8. 57 On Symeon’s role in these annals, see Gullick, ‘The Hand of Simeon of Durham’, pp. 29–30; Story, ‘Symeon as Annalist’. 54 Levison,

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Charles C. Rozier The collection of history books in Anglo-Norman Durham provides a valuable window onto the status of the genre within monastic centres of learning during the last decade of the eleventh century and the first half of the twelfth. The evidence reveals three interrelated sub-genres of local works, established classical and medieval narrative works, and shorter annals and chronicles. Texts from each typology provided different contributions to the life and learning of the cathedral priory. Durham authors were ready to define and defend the rights and privileges of their community through locally-focused works of varying lengths, from the inherited Historia de Sancto Cuthberto to Symeon’s Libellus de exordio, and his much shorter letter to Dean Hugh of York. The patronage of Bishop William of Saint-Calais and the successive leaders of the monastic community enabled Durham monks to access some of the best-known works of history from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, and to have engaged with these resources at various stages of their education. Finally, by 1129, the work of Symeon and his collaborators had provided a painstakingly assembled corpus of annals and chronicles, through which it was possible to chart the course of world history all the way back to the beginnings of the Christian record.

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8 King John’s Books, Master Richard Marsh, and the Interdict Proclaimed in 1208 on England and Wales* Stephen Church

On 29 March 1208, Richard Marsh, clerk of the king’s chamber, gave his authorization for a writ to be issued to the abbot of Reading in the following form: Rex Abbati de Rading’ etc. Sciatis quod Vigilia Pasch’ Florid’ apud Audingeburn anno regni nostri ix recepimus per manus Gervasii sacriste de Rading’ sex libros bibliotece in quibus continetur omne Vetus testementum. Recipimus etiam primam partem bibliotece1 et Sacramenta magistri Hugonis de Sancto Victore2 et Sententias Petri Lombardi,3 Epistolas Augustini, [Augustinus]4 de Civitate Dei, Augistinus super tertiam partem Salterii,5 Librum Valeriani de moribus,6 Tractatum Origenis super Vetus

* I have benefitted enormously from the kindness of and wisdom of both the editors and the unnamed reader of this volume. Dr Julie Barrau and Dr Felicity Hill also provided expert comments. The mistakes I own outright. 1 The texts have been identified by Richard Sharpe in R. Sharpe et al., English Benedictine Libraries: The Shorter Catalogues (London, 1996), p. 448, and I follow him here. The first two items on the booklist were presumably glossed Bibles. See also A. Coates, English Medieval Books: The Reading Abbey Collections from Foundation to Dispersal (Oxford, 1999), p. 119. 2 Hugh of Saint-Victor, ‘On the Sacraments of the Faith’: Hugonis de Sancto Victore De sacramentis Christiane fidei, ed. R. Berndt (Münster, 2008). See also Hugh of Saint Victor, On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith, trans. R. J. Deferrari (Cambridge MA, 1951). 3 Peter Lombard, ‘The Sentences’: Magistri Petri Lombardi Parisiensis episcopi Sententiae in IV libris distinctae, ed. I. C. Brady, 3rd edn, 2 vols. in 3 (Grottaferrata (Romae), 1971–81). See also Peter Lombard, Sentences, trans. G. Silano, 4 vols. (Toronto, 2007–10). 4 ‘Augustinus’ is supplied by Sharpe assuming that the name had been left out by ‘haplology’. I have followed him here. 5 Augustine’s Letters, his City of God, and his Exposition on the Psalms (for which full references to texts may be found in E. Dekkers, Clavis Patrum Latinorum, 2nd edn (Steenbrugge, 1961), numbers 262, 313, 283). 6 Valerius Maximus, Memorable Doings and Sayings: Valerius Maximus, Memorabilia,

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Stephen Church testementum,7 Librum Candidi Ariani ad Marium.8 Et ideo vobis mandamus quod vos et ipse inde sitis quieti. Teste me ipso apud Audingb’ xxix die Marc’, per R[icardum] de Marisco.9 The king to the abbot of Reading, etc. Know that on the Vigil of Palm Sunday in the ninth year of our reign at Aldingbourne (Sussex) we received by the hand of Gervase sacrist of Reading six books of the Bible which contained all the Old Testament. We have also received the first part of the Bible and The Sacraments by Master Hugh of Saint-Victor and The Sentences of Peter Lombard, the Letters of Augustine, [Augustine] The City of God, Augustine on the third part of the Psalter, the book of Valerius Memorable Doings, the tract of Origen on the Old Testament, the book of Candidus the Arian to Marius. And we therefore command you that you and he are thence quit. Witness myself at Aldingbourne on 29 day of March, per Richard Marsh.

We have known about this writ since at least the 1830s, when the Close Rolls of John’s reign were brought into print by the Record Commission,10 yet scholars, when they have referred to this list, have shied away from giving it close attention. Susan Cavanaugh writing in The Library in 1988 about royal books noticed that ‘John borrowed six books from the abbot of Reading. These were all theological texts and belonged to Reading Abbey’.11 For an article on royal books, this was a scant thing to say (there are nine books in fourteen volumes). But Cavanaugh is in good company. V. H. Galbraith thought that the books John acquired from Reading were ‘the beginnings of a royal library’, but had little else to say on the topic.12 F. M. Powicke, in his biography of Archbishop Stephen Langton, wrote of the collection of books that it was a ‘select theological library […] for what use’ is a mystery.13 Even W. L. Warren gave the list little space in his biography of King John, opining

ed. C. Kempf (Teubner, 1888); see also Marius Victorinus, Theological Treatises on the Trinity (The Fathers of the Church, Volume 69), ed. M. T. Clark (Washington DC, 1982). 7 Origen, On the Old Testament. Sharpe identifies this text as Origen’s Homilies on the Hexateuch translated by Rufinus, Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte, 29–30 (Leipzig, 1920–1); see Sharpe, et al., Benedictine Libraries, p. 437, B71: 110. 8 Candidus, On the Divine Begetting: Marius Victorinus, Traités théologiques sur la Trinité, ed. P. Henry and P. Hadot, 2 vols. (Paris, 1960), I, 106–24. 9 Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum in Turri Londonensi Asservati, ed. T. D. Hardy, 2 vols. (1833–44), I, 108. 10 P. Walne, ‘The Record Commission, 1800–1837’, Journal of the Society of Archivists 64 (1960), 8–16. 11 S. H. Cavanaugh, ‘Royal Books: King John to Richard II’, The Library, 6th ser., 10 (1988), 304–16 (at p. 304). 12 V. H. Galbraith, ‘The Literacy of the Medieval English Kings’, Proceedings of the British Academy 21 (1935), 201–38 (at p. 214). 13 F. M. Powicke, Stephen Langton (Oxford, 1928), p. 99.

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King John’s Books that it is indicative of the fact that John ‘liked books’.14 The fullest treatment of the collection is in Michael Clanchy’s From Memory to Written Record.15 Here he notices that in 1203 money was spent on providing chests and carts for carriage of the king’s books overseas; he further notes that in 1205 John had access to a Romance history of England and in 1208 he had his own text of Pliny (presumably the Elder Pliny’s Natural History).16 Of the writ at the heart of this essay, Clanchy states that John had obtained from Reading abbey ‘a copy of the Old Testament, a work by Hugh of St Victor, the Sentences of Peter Lombard, and some other scholastic texts’. These, he thought, had been ‘collected for a particular purpose’, namely his dispute with Stephen Langton over clerical privileges and give evidence that ‘King John was interested in the theological works of the “modern” schoolmen of the twelfth century’. To Rodney Thomson, the writ was evidence of a ‘quite extraordinary set of books to be associated with a layman, suggestive of both a high level of Latin literacy and of theological learning’ and therefore witness to the fact that Reading abbey ‘might have been the regular repository for the royal book collection’.17 Nicholas Vincent, the most recent scholar to look at the subject, has argued that the books that John ordered from Reading abbey should be linked with the king’s conflict with Pope Innocent III, which had broken out into a full-scale war with an interdict having been proclaimed

14 W.

L. Warren, King John (London, 1961), p. 140. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record: England 1066–1307, 3rd edn (Chichester, 2013), pp. 162–3. 16 Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum, I, 108b where the text is described as ‘librum nostrum’ by the king. Henry II was the recipient of excerpts of the Natural History made by Robert of Cricklade, and Roger Mynors would have liked the manuscript held by Eton College, MS 134, because of its quality, to have been the dedication copy (L. D. Reynolds, ‘Elder Pliny’, in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. L. D. Reynolds (Oxford, 1983), pp. 307–16, at pp. 313–14, note 33). Perhaps the manuscript owned by John had once been in his father’s possession and exists still at Eton College (M. R. James, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Eton College (Cambridge, 1895), no. 134). The Romance history is ‘likely to have been Gaimar’s L’Estoire des Engleis rather than Wace’s Roman de Brut’, according to Rodney Thomson, ‘Monastic and Cathedral Book Production’, in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, volume II: 1100–1400, ed. N. Morgan and R. M. Thomson (Cambridge, 2008), pp. 136–67 (at p. 163 n. 134). For the writ see Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum, I, 29b. It is worth noting that the writ was raised and authorized by the king’s steward, Peter of Stokes, and issued to Reginald of Cornhill, sheriff of Kent, the household’s chief purveyor of goods, at the end of a writ in which he was ordered to send wine to Northampton and Windsor for which he was to account at the Exchequer. Did Reginald of Cornhill have custody of the manuscript? If he did, it was perhaps lodged with him at Canterbury castle, the sheriff’s county castle. But perhaps Reginald had to buy a copy. For the Cornhill family as purveyors of fine luxury goods see H. Kaye, ‘The Household of King John’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of East Anglia, 2013), chapter 5. 17 Thomson, ‘Monastic and Cathedral Book Production’, pp. 163–4 15 M. T.

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Stephen Church over the kingdom a week earlier than the date on the writ and that it marks the beginning of a significant royal library.18 The use and the ownership of the books whose receipt was acknowledged by Richard Marsh is the focus of this essay.19 The context of the writ that announced the receipt of the books by the hand of the sacrist of Reading was the interdict that was laid on King John’s English and Welsh lands on Sunday 23 March 1208,20 and its cause was the obdurate stance taken up by King John concerning the appointment to the see of Canterbury. Pope Innocent III had determined that the former Parisian master and cardinal-priest of St Chrysogonus, Stephen Langton, should be elected by the monks of Christ Church to the archbishopric.21 King John rejected the pope’s candidate on the grounds that he was unknown to him. Despite repeated attempts by Pope Innocent to persuade John to allow Langton to take up his residency at Canterbury, the king steadfastly refused his consent. The pope’s next step (unusual for this pope who would normally have moved to excommunication first) was to deploy the interdict against King John’s subjects. It is easy to say what in general was meant by an interdict: it was the deprivation of spiritual consolation for both the guilty and the innocent within the lands on which the interdict was imposed. In particular, according to Innocent’s letter to the three bishops who were to pronounce ecclesiastical censure, the interdict meant that ‘no ecclesiastical office was to be celebrated except the baptism of infants and the confession of the dying’.22 Everyone, it seems, understood this to mean that therefore all other celebrations of the sacraments were to be suspended: the mass, marriage services, burial services, penance and confirmation. In theory at least, therefore, Innocent was removing from the English and Welsh the sacraments by which they were guaranteed salvation. This was the theory; the practice, however, was 18 N.

C. Vincent, ‘The Great Lost Library of English Medieval Kings? Royal Use and Ownership of Books, 1066–1272’, in 1000 Years of Royal Books and Manuscripts, ed. K. Doyle and S. McKendrick (London, 2014), pp. 73–112. 19 S. D. Church, King John: England, Magna Carta and the Making of a Tyrant (London, 2015), pp. 155–6 has a fuller treatment of this writ, discussing briefly all the texts mentioned, though it does not explore the issue of whose books they were. 20 The classic texts on the interdict of 1208–13 are in C. R. Cheney, ‘King John and the Papal Interdict’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 31 (1948), 295–317; C. R. Cheney, ‘King John’s Reaction to the Interdict in England’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th ser., 31 (1948), 129–50; P. D. Clarke, The Interdict in the Thirteenth Century: A Question of Collective Guilt (Oxford, 2007); see also Church, King John, pp. 156–64. 21 Selected Letters of Pope Innocent III concerning England (1198–1216), ed. C. R. Cheney and W. H. Semple (London, 1953), no. 29, subsequently SLI; see also N. Vincent, ‘Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury’, in Étienne Langton: prédicateur, bibliste, théologien, ed. Louis–Jacques Bataillon et al. (Turnhout, 2010), pp. 51–123. 22 SLI, no. 34, dated 9 May 1208.

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King John’s Books more complicated. After the interdict had been declared, it did not take long for prelates to begin to write to the pope asking for clarification on certain matters. There was no common law on interdicts, and so no one was entirely sure what should – or more accurately what should not – take place.23 Evidently the problem of the baptism of infants was one that needed addressing, a topic with which the pope dealt in a letter of 14 June 1208, so three months after the interdict was declared: ‘Since, on account of the interdict, new chrism could not be consecrated on Maundy Thursday, the old chrism should be used in the baptism of infants, and if need require it, to prevent a shortage of chrism, oil should be mixed with it by the hand of a bishop or even of a priest’.24 The rate of travel in the early thirteenth century meant that the journey to Rome took six weeks, so a petition took a minimum of three months to complete, not including the time spent waiting for an audience with the appropriate authorities. Six weeks from 14 June takes us back to 3 May and since Maundy Thursday fell on 3 April in 1208, it looks as though the English petitioners were allowed to wait for the best part of a month before Innocent made his decision on the chrism. We might surmise therefore that either there was no sense of urgency concerning the matter at the papal court or that some debate had to be undertaken before a decision was made. The so-called Forma Interdicti, for example, printed from a now lost manuscript belonging to Mont Saint-Michel, states that the rite of baptism during an interdict should take place at home. The Annals of Dunstable, however, record the fact that during the interdict in England ‘priests performed baptisms in churches; and so that there should not be a lack of chrism, on the authority of the pope, they mixed [more of] the oil’ needed for the rite.25 And could baptized children be confirmed? Confirmation is the rite by which the baptized are fully initiated into the community of the faithful and should, therefore, have been forbidden by the terms of the interdict. It is (and was) a rite performed exclusively by bishops and, not surprisingly, in the English context there is no indication that confirmations took place. But in 1209 in response to an inquiry by the bishop of Ferrara, Pope Innocent III declared that during interdicts confirmations could indeed be undertaken.26 The pope might well have been accused of sending mixed messages. Furthermore, when he had had the interdict published, it was to be enforced

23 Cheney,

‘King John and the Papal Interdict’, pp. 297–8. no. 36. Chrism was ‘oil and balm’. 25 Cheney, ‘King John and the Interdict’, p. 298; ‘sacerdotes in ecclesiis baptizabant; et ne chrisma deficeret, oleum de licentia papae admiscebant’, Annales Monastici, ed. H. R. Luard, 5 vols. (London, 1864–9), III, 30; E. Martène and U. Durand, Thesaurus novus anecdotorum, 4 vols. (Paris, 1717), I, 812–14; and in PL, 217, cols. 190c–192c. 26 Clarke, Interdict, pp. 147–8. 24 SLI,

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Stephen Church in all churches, both those in the secular domain and those which lived under a rule. And yet, in the summer of 1208, he admitted that those monastic orders which enjoyed the right of continuing with divine celebrations even during an interdict should have been allowed to exercise that privilege.27 Questions were also being asked about the dying. Innocent’s letter of 14 June 1208 goes on to say: ‘although the last communion seems essential to the confession of the dying, yet if it cannot be held, we believe that in this case the famous saying applies “Only believe and thou hast eaten”; for it is the contempt of religion, not the coincidence of the interdict, that debars from the sacrament’. There was, therefore, much room for doubt about the terms and reach of the interdict. It is evident that bishops, too, were unclear what rules should be followed. Herbert Poore, bishop of Salisbury, for example, looked to the chapter of St Paul’s for guidance on what should be done during Candlemas (2 February) and Ash Wednesday (in 1209 it fell on 11 February) celebrations. Candles were not to be blessed either within or without the Church of St Paul’s and the parish priests would be instructed on how they should conduct themselves. The ceremonies by which contrite penitents were to be given the consolation of absolution were also to be interrupted. By tradition, on Ash Wednesday, penitents were to be expelled from the church and then readmitted on Easter Sunday in ceremonies presided over by the bishop’s penitentiary. According to the chapter of St Paul’s, while the interdict was in operation, this sacrament, too, was to be in abeyance. But that did not mean that the truly contrite should go without priestly ministration. The dean of St Paul’s wrote that he would instruct his priests to meet outside their churches at a suitable place and there give the true penitent the ‘respite of consolation’, by which, it seems, he meant the priest should explain to the sinner that it was intention that brought salvation not the formal act of receiving the sacrament of absolution which was merely the outward sign of God’s forgiveness.28 While the sentence of interdict meant that no sacrament of absolution could be given, it did not mean that the flock were to be abandoned by their shepherd nor, indeed, that their sins would condemn them to Hell. As far as the dean of St Paul’s was concerned, there was to be no wholesale strike by the priesthood; what was being removed was the right of priests to administer the sacrament not the duty of the priests to provide solace when it was needed and sought out.29 Presumably, therefore, in the diocese of Salisbury, priests were instructed by their bishop to do likewise.30

27 Ibid.,

pp. 194–6. Later Letters of Peter of Blois, ed. E. Revell (Turnhout,1993), number 20. 29 Clarke, Interdict, p. 171. 30 English Episcopal Acta 18: Salisbury 1078–1217, ed. B. R. Kemp (Oxford, 1999), p. lii. Herbert remained in England and on good terms with the king until John’s excommunication in November 1209 when he left for Scotland. 28 The

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King John’s Books If the very leaders of the Church were unclear about the impact of the interdict (and here in this indictment we must include the pope as well as his bishops) and if there was no common law of interdict, then it is probable that John and his advisers were equally uncertain about the risks that the interdict posed to them, their subjects, and their regime. It is this context of uncertainty which, it seems to me, explains the Reading booklist. In the remainder of this essay, I shall attempt to show how the contents of the Reading booklist might have been used to explore the problem of the impact of the interdict on England and Wales. Hugh of St Victor composed his On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith around the year 1134. Very rapidly after that date, Hugh’s work became the standard textbook of the schools on the Church’s views on the sacraments, and since the interdict was to remove the sacraments from the English and Welsh people, John and his advisers needed to know exactly what that was going to mean.31 They would have discovered that Hugh’s Sacraments, rather than giving a simple cut-and-dried answer, left quite a bit of room for discussion. Hugh’s views on the sacraments began with defining them: ‘a sacrament is a corporeal or material element set before the senses without, representing by similitude and signifying by institution and containing by sanctification some invisible and spiritual grace’, and the example he chose to use in explaining what he meant was the sacrament of baptism.32 Baptism caused the Church one of its greatest theological problems for ‘Scripture says that “He cannot be saved who has not been baptised”’,33 yet it is equally true that God cannot be bound by such a simple rule. He can save whomever He wishes. It was widely acknowledged that while baptism brought the certainty of salvation, its absence did not bring the certainty of damnation because ‘God can save man without the sacraments’. To illustrate his point, Hugh used the example of John the Baptist who ‘was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb […] [yet] we do not recall that he had the [sacrament of baptism], but about his salvation we do not doubt at all’. While he acknowledged that some argued that ‘he who has not the sacraments cannot be saved’ the evidence of John the Baptist showed that ‘he who has the virtue of the sacraments cannot perish’.34 The sacraments guaranteed salvation; the lack of sacraments did not guarantee damnation because it was faith which saved man and faith was greater than sacrament. The interdict, as we have seen, allowed for baptism, albeit in ways which needed clarification. What the interdict did not allow for were any of the remaining sacraments: confirmation, for example, which Hugh saw as being 31 H.

de Lubac, ‘The Victorine School’, in Medieval Exegesis: volume 3: The Four Senses of Scripture, trans. E. M. Macierowski (Grand Rapids MI, 2009), pp. 269–326. 32 Hugonis de Sancto Victore, Liber I, Pars IX (pp. 209–11). 33 John 3:3; 3:5; 3:7. 34 Hugonis de Sancto Victore, Liber I, Pars IX (p. 217).

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Stephen Church ‘so joined [with baptism] in the operation of salvation, that unless death intervenes, they should in no way be separated’.35 Equally, the ‘mass was one upon which salvation principally depends’.36 Other sacraments, too, were considered by Hugh, but all shared the same principle: that although they were key to salvation, men could still be saved should they have been denied them through no fault of their own. There was comfort, therefore, to be had in Hugh’s words if one were minded to find it. Those priests of St Paul’s, for example, who were to offer solace to the penitents who presented themselves on Ash Wednesday 1209 were presumably explaining the centrality of faith to salvation. Peter Lombard composed his Sentences in the mid 1150s and his work quickly became the key theological textbook in the new schoolrooms of the twelfth century. Peter belonged to that class of master who came to be seen, by 1200, as themselves providing ‘the binding authorities’ on whom the ‘elaboration of the Christian Faith’ was based. These masters ‘claimed to be able to identify from among the enormous mass of material produced by the wise and holy men of old’ the parts that were crucial in the development of ‘Christian self understanding’. Peter Lombard came to be the greatest of these authorities. It was a laborious activity, to collect the sentences of ancient works and subject them to scrutiny, but it was one done in the schools of Paris before the very eyes of the students who were being taught. It was in the classrooms of twelfth-century Paris that theological norms were established which were to last into the twentieth century.37 In 1208, Peter’s was, therefore, a key authority on the impact of the interdict, perhaps even the key authority. There are four books of Sentences: one on the mysteries of the Trinity, a second on the Creation, a third on the Incarnation of the Word, and a fourth book on the Doctrine of Signs (that is, the sacraments). It seems likely that John and his advisers were consulting Book Four. Peter Lombard began his examination of the sacraments by asking what they were; of course, like Hugh, Peter began his analysis by asking how one might define a sacrament. ‘A sacrament is a sign of a sacred thing’, he stated, while also noting that ‘a sacrament is also called a “sacred secret” […] [and] also a sacrament is a visible form of an invisible grace’, using wording that is reminiscent of phrases used by Augustine.38 Peter first dispensed with the problem of differentiating between signs and sacraments, then examined the reasons for the institution of the sacraments, before explaining the origins of

35 Ibid.,

Liber II, Pars VII (pp. 398–9). Liber II, Pars VIII (pp. 400–1). 37 Peter Lombard, Sentences, I, xxiii–xxv. 38 ‘Augustinus in libro X De civitate Dei [cap 5]: “sacramentum est sacrae rei signum”’, Petri Lombardi, Sententiae, ii, Liber IV, Dist. I, Cap. II, p. 232; Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, 103, 3 n. 14; Augustine, Quaestiones in Heptateuchum, book 3, q. 84. 36 Ibid.,

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King John’s Books circumcision and why it was replaced by baptism.39 Peter then delved into the sacraments themselves, like Hugh, looking to the sacrament of baptism to provide the starting point of his analysis.40 Peter’s work is much more detailed than Hugh’s and therefore has further nuance, but like Hugh, Peter accepted the principle that it was possible to receive the benefit of the sacraments (the res) without partaking of the ceremony by which the sacrament was to be imparted. According to Peter, even baptism is not required for salvation and that ‘faith and contrition fills the role of baptism’ where the rite itself is absent.41 The conclusion that the benefit of the sacrament was in faith and not in the action of taking the sacrament was extended to all the other sacraments, adding further weight to the view that the removal of the sacraments from the English and the Welsh was not as catastrophic as perhaps the untutored mind might think.42 Like any good scholar, having consulted the leading modern authorities on the problem that was being faced, those at the centre of the impact-assessment exercise being undertaken in March 1208 searched out the key sources on which the modern authorities had relied. The works of the Church Father Augustine of Hippo were consulted because these were the works which had informed both Hugh of St Victor and Peter Lombard. The twelfth century has been described as an age in which the whole intellectual ‘atmosphere’ was Augustinian, with Augustine’s works ‘the era’s omnipresent fount of knowledge’ and therefore the person who provided the definitive answer on all matters of religious importance.43 Both Hugh of St Victor and Peter Lombard used Augustine to substantiate their claim that a good believer could obtain a ‘spiritual sacrament’ and therefore he or she could receive the res of the sacrament without actually taking the sacrament.44 Indeed, Augustine is almost the sole authority whom Peter Lombard cites throughout his exploration of the ‘doctrine of signs’. Although John and his advisers did not return to all the works that Peter cited, they had enough to hand to show that they understood the root of Peter Lombard’s reasoning. Origen, too, had a status in the Middle Ages which made him an important source of authority inspiring twelfth-century scholars in their symbolist mentality. Origen was a crucial part of the thought-world that medieval 39 Petri

Lombardi, Sententiae, ii, Liber IV, Dist. I, Caps 4–10, pp. 233–9. ii, Liber IV, Dist. II, Caps 2–6, pp. 240–3; Dist. III, Caps 1–9, pp. 243–51. 41 ‘De illis qui suscipiunt rem et non sacramentum. Sunt et alii, ut supra posuimus, qui suscipiunt rem et non sacrementum’, and later ‘quod non modo passio, sed fides et contritio, implet vicem baptismi’, Ibid., ii, Liber IV, Dist. IV, Cap 4, p. 255. 42 G. Macy, ‘Sacramental Theology’, in The Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine, ed. K. Pollmann and W. Otten, 3 vols. (Oxford, 2013), III, 1682–3. 43 W. Otten, ‘The Reception of Augustine in the Early Middle Ages (700–1200)’, in The Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine, I, 23–38 (at p. 30). 44 The Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine, III, 1683; see also H. de Lubac, ‘Hugh of St Victor’, in Medieval Exegesis: volume 3, p. 256. 40 Ibid.,

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Stephen Church scholars occupied;45 and he was often paired with Augustine as one of the key Fathers of the Church on who theologians relied.46 Together, Origen and Augustine did more to shape theological study than any other pairing during the first thousand years of Christian thinking.47 But it was not simply the fact that Hugh and Peter used Augustine and Origen as their base texts; it was that in Augustine and in Origen John and his advisers sought further confirmation of their view that the interdict, while disconcerting, was not necessarily disastrous for the souls of him and his people. In Origen, for example, they would have found an approach to the person and the work of Christ which further substantiated the view that the sacraments were not the sine qua non of salvation; his Christological approach saw salvation as coming through faith with Christ as incarnate word and saviour to all. At the end of time, therefore, God ‘will reconcile himself to the world […] evil will come to an end […] Christ will destroy all forces hostile to God, and all creation will be saved’.48 Origen had written important works on the Eucharist with a commentary on St Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians. St Paul had stated the centrality of worthiness in those who stepped forward to receive the body and blood of Christ.49 Origen explored this statement to argue that ‘a prior examination of one’s own conscience is necessary before one receives the Eucharist’.50 It may well have been that John’s conscience was clear and that no amount of chastisement from the bishop of Rome could persuade him otherwise. Augustine, like Origen, argued that those who would be saved were those who had faith: the sacraments ‘nourished the faithful and grace strengthened the faithful in their resolve, but it was faith itself which insured salvation’.51 The power of faith to save even in the absence of the sacraments was reaffirmed for King John and his advisers in the texts of Augustine’s and Origen’s work. We do not have to linger over the presence of the Bible in the list of books sent from Reading to John since the Bible was at the heart of theological study 45 Origen

wrote in Greek and was mediated to the Latin world through the translation of Rufinus. H. de Lubac, Exégèse médiévale: les Quatre sens de L’Écriture, 3 vols. in 4 (1959–64), I, 198–207 (at p. 199). 46 M.-D. Chenu, Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century: Essays on New Theological Perspectives in the Latin West, trans. E. Gilson (Chicago, 1968), pp. 36, 122–3; B. E. Daley, ‘Word, Soul, and Flesh: Origen and Augustine on the Person of Christ’, Augustinian Studies 36, 2 (2005), 299–326. 47 de Lubac, ‘Lecture d’Origène au Moyen Age’, in his Exégèse Médiévale, pp. 229–57. 48 Daley, ‘Word, Soul, and Flesh’, pp. 323–5; de Lubac, ‘Subjectivism and Spiritual Understanding’, in Medieval Exegesis: volume 3, pp. 73–146. 49 1 Cor. 11:27. 50 A. Le Boulluec, ‘L’accueil du corps du Seigneur et les conditions requises selon Origène’, in Pratiques de l’eucharistie dans les églises d’orient et d’occident (Antiquité et Moyen Âge), ed. N. Bériou, B. Caseau and D. Rigaux, 2 vols. (Paris, 2009), I: L’institution, pp. 359–70. 51 Daley, ‘Word, Soul, and Flesh’, pp. 323–5.

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King John’s Books and so the starting point for all matters of religious observance.52 The presence of Candidus’s De generatione divina and Valerius Maximus’s Memorabilia are more difficult to explain. According to the booklist dating to about 1192 that comes from Reading abbey, the abbey held no copies of either text, though it should be noted that the extant lists did not claim to be exhaustive. All the other texts mentioned in the writ of March 1208 were certainly in the Reading library by 1192.53 The first of the enigmatic texts is a letter from Candidus (likely to have been a fictional character created to make a point) to Marius Victorinus, the late Roman educator and part-time theologian.54 Victorinus was the originator of the scholastic approach to the study of texts, harmonizing reason and faith in a way which informed thinkers throughout the Middle Ages. He was the first writer in Latin to write systematically on the Trinity explaining why Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are consubstantial: the substance of the Father is the same as the substance of the Son is the same as the substance of the Holy Spirit.55 Although there is nothing obvious in the text of Victorinus’s work that deals with the sacraments, his argument that action is not to be denied to the Father no matter what the source must have been an important point in any counter-argument concerning the power of the pope to threaten to take salvation from the king’s subjects by the imposition of interdict. In Victorinus’s construction, therefore, the Father’s power to save us through his Son and through the power of the Holy Spirit was not to be impeded by a mere pope, and that salvation was to be had through true knowledge of God in the consubstantiality of the Trinity.56 It was a widely-held view, moreover, that Victorinus had translated from Greek into Latin the works of Origen and perhaps it was this misconception, too, which drew John and his advisers to Victorinus’s works.57 Valerius Maximus’s Memorable Doings and Sayings stands out as the only text listed in the writ of March 1208 which does not fit into any obvious sacramental scheme in the context of interdict. Written in about AD 31, Valerius gives the reader a fascinating conspectus of Roman and non-Roman history designed to inspire its readers with tales of derring-do by the good and the great of the Republican past.58 One can access a lot of Roman history quickly

52 J.

I. Catto, ‘Theology and Theologians, 1220–1320’, in The History of the University of Oxford: vol. 1, the Early Oxford Schools, ed. J. I. Catto (Oxford, 1984), pp. 471–517 (at 471). 53 Sharpe et al., English Benedictine Libraries, p. 448. 54 Marius Victorinus, Theological Treatises. 55 Ibid., pp. 5, 12–14. 56 Ibid., pp. 33–4. 57 P. Monceaux, Histoire littéraire de l’Afrique chrétienne, 7 vols. (Paris, 1859–1941), III, 373–422; F. F. Bruce, ‘Marius Victorinus and His Works’, The Evangelical Quarterly 18 (1946), 132–53. 58 See M. Kempshall, Rhetoric and the Writing of History, 400–1500 (Manchester, 2011), pp. 36–7.

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Stephen Church this way, but mostly we are given stories of bravery, stoicism in the face of difficulty, leadership, success against the odds. As an inspirational text, therefore, in the face of the coming struggle, Valerius’s work perhaps has a place in the collection of books summoned from Reading abbey even if does not directly inform the reader about the sacraments. In this book we might have an insight into John’s own preference for reading. As we have seen, in 1208 John also owned a copy of Pliny’s Natural History, suggesting that he did indeed like Roman authors.59 Were these books John’s or did they belong to Reading abbey and were borrowed for the occasion? The language of the writ gives us no clue as to their ownership, but most have been wont to assume that John owned the books that the sacrist brought to the king at Aldingbourne. Thomson and Vincent have both opined that the writ was evidence ‘that kings maintained libraries of indeterminate though perhaps impressive extent’ and Thomson has even suggested that Reading was the home of the royal book collection.60 In 1993 Clanchy, too, discussing the writ of 1203 cited above by which John of Kempsey was allowed 43 shillings 10 pence against the expenses he incurred ‘for chests and carriages for carrying the king’s books overseas’,61 supposed that the evidence ‘suggested that John had a library as large as any monastic house’.62 A twelfth-century catalogue from Reading abbey lists 204 separate items which seems to represent a large collection in the context of other monastic holdings, Cistercian and Benedictine alike.63 Would 43 shillings and 10 pence paid for the chests and carts buy carts to carry a library of this size on the king’s daily itinerary?64 The king’s chapel, jewels and books 59 See

above p. 151. ‘Monastic and Cathedral Book Production’, pp. 163–4; Vincent, ‘The Great Lost Library of England’s Medieval Kings?’, p. 84. 61 ‘Et Johanni de Kemesie xliii s. et x d. ad cistas et carettas ad ducendos libros R. ultra mare’, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the fifth year of the reign of King John: Michaelmas 1203, ed. D. M. Stenton (London, 1938), p. 139 (subsequently Pipe Roll 5 John). 62 Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record, 2nd edn (1993), p. 161; by the third edition of 2013 Clanchy had conceded the point that the books ‘probably belonged to Reading Abbey rather than the king himself’, though he had not expunged the point about the size of John’s library, pp. 162–3; F. Wormald, ‘The Monastic Library’, in The English Library before 1700, ed. F. Wormald and C. E. Wright (London, 1958), pp. 15–31. 63 Sharpe et al., English Benedictine Libraries, pp. xxiv, 421–47. 64 For the Angevin itinerary see S. D. Church, ‘Aspects of the Royal Itinerary in Twelfth-Century England’, Thirteenth Century England 11 (2007), 31–45. The cost of buying a cart to carry the king’s venison was 18 s. 5 d. A cart for the king’s buttery together with a saddle for a packhorse was 23 s. 1 d. and the equipment for two packhorses along with a pair of panniers bought for the transportation of king’s chapel was 45 s. 5 d., The Great Roll of the Pipe for the Sixth Year of the Reign of King John: Michaelmas 1204, ed. D. M. Stenton (London, 1940) (subsequently Pipe Roll 6 John), pp. 88–9, 93. The carts that were bought were likely either one-horse or two-horse carts, invariably of the two-wheeled variety. See J. Langdon, ‘Horse 60 Thomson,

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King John’s Books were grouped together in a payment of 40 shillings made to the constable of Winchester in 1204 for the cost of their carriage.65 In these contexts, 43 shillings and 10 pence for carts to carry two hundred or so volumes does not seem like a sufficient sum to buy the quantity of chests and carts needed, though it does, of course, suggest a decent book collection.66 His successors certainly had smaller collections than the one posited for John. They, moreover, seem to have seen books as private property to be willed on death rather than kept intact for their successors. Henry V, for example, gave his books to Oxford University, some monastic communities and to his unborn son, the future Henry VI. That son left something in the region of one hundred manuscript books (none of which were those left by his father since they had been given away during his life time) to the King’s Hall, Cambridge, and All Souls’ College, Oxford.67 In the light of this evidence, John’s collection of books (two carts-worth, perhaps) would have amounted to a satisfactory personal library, but perhaps not the research library needed for the king to undertake an analysis of the potential impact of the interdict that had just been laid on his kingdom. We are on much surer ground if we wish to argue that the books contained in the writ of quittance belonged to Reading abbey (a royal foundation and therefore one with a special relationship with the king) because it is an argument that has some basis in the evidence.68 We have long known about the Reading abbey catalogue that dates from the last years of the twelfth century in which are listed some of the works that the abbey owned.69 Apart from two works (those by Valerius Maximus and Candidus), the catalogue shows that Reading owned all the books listed in the writ.70 On 4 April 1208, moreover, when John received another book from Reading abbey ‘by the hand of Simon our chamberlain’, the king most

Hauling: A Revolution in Wheeled Transport in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century England’, Past and Present 103 (1984), 37–66. A ‘long cart of the wardrobe’ is attested by the mise roll: Documents Illustrative of English History in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, ed. H. Cole (London, 1844), pp. 235, 242. 65 ‘Et constabulario Wint’ ad acquietandem cariagium jocalium et librorum et cupparum suarum R’ xl s. per breve G(alfridi) f(ilius) Petri’, Pipe Roll 6 John, p. 131. 66 John of Kempsey seems to have been a factotum of the justiciar, Geoffrey fitz Peter. See Pipe Roll 5 John, pp. 23, 136, 195. 67 https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/TourRoyalBegin.asp (accessed 12 May 2017). 68 Cavanagh, ‘Royal Books’, pp. 304–5, also sees these as a loan. 69 The modern authorities are Reading Abbey Cartularies, ed. B. Kemp, 2 vols. (London, 1986–7), who dated the catalogue to 1190x1195; Sharpe et al., English Benedictine Libraries, to 1192; Coates, English Medieval Books, p. 20 to 1180x1191. 70 Two of the three volumes of Augustine’s Super Psalterium in tribus voluminibus exist still and are held in the Bodleian Library (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 257 (vol. 1) and MS Bodley 241 (vol. 3)). It seems that volume 2 was kept in the dormitory for reading in the refectory and has since been lost (Coates, English Medieval Books, p. 20).

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Stephen Church specifically described the book as ‘our book […] which was in the custody’ of the abbot and convent of Reading.71 Such a bold statement of ownership by King John concerning Pliny which is blatantly lacking in the writ concerning the theological works delivered to John on 29 March adds further weight to the view that the books brought to John on that day belonged to Reading and not to the king. If John was not gathering his own books together to understand the potential impact of the interdict, who advised him which books needed to be consulted? The obvious candidate is Richard Marsh, clerk of the chamber and the man who raised the writ of quittance for the sacrist of Reading. We know little of his origins, but the fact that he was styled magister in his lifetime almost certainly means that he had been school educated.72 We do not know which great school he attended, but we can be confident that Richard studied a subject which gave him a thorough grounding in the theological and canon law texts of his age. He was connected with Durham from his earliest appearance in the record evidence and it was there that he eventually became bishop as reward for his long-standing and loyal service to King John – he remained at John’s side throughout the interdict. In August 1213, moreover, he visited the papal court in person to defend himself against the charges laid against him by Stephen Langton. While at Rome, Richard also negotiated the end of the interdict, returning to his king in March 1214 to join him in Poitou where John was conducting a campaign. In March 1208, Richard was a chamber clerk, and was widely regarded as one of John’s most influential counsellors. The chamber was the most private room of the king, where he slept and where he kept safe his valuables: his clothes; his jewels and ornaments; coinage and bullion; plates; records and, indeed, his books. And it was here that he would converse with his most intimate friends and advisers. As clerk of the chamber, Richard Marsh would have held a central place in John’s counsel, indeed the chronicler Roger of Wendover named Marsh as among the select band of John’s ‘most evil counsellors’ responsible for encouraging the king to rule arbitrarily.73 He was also named as one of those who advised the king to exact from the Cistercians an unjust tax. Richard was at the very heart of John’s regime and evidently highly educated and erudite.74 Richard Marsh’s undoubted school education,

71 Rotuli

Litterarum Clausarum, I, 108b. W. Baldwin, ‘Studium et Regnum: The Penetration of University Personnel into French and English Administration at the Turn of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries’, Revue des études islamiques 44 (1976), 199–215. 73 N. Vincent, ‘King John’s Evil Counsellors (act. 1208–1214)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/ theme/95591 (accessed 10 February 2017). 74 R. C. Stacey, ‘Marsh, Richard (d. 1226)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 72 J.

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King John’s Books knowledge and abilities, and the fact that he raised the writ by which the sacrist of Reading abbey was made quit of his responsibilities towards the books loaned to King John make it likely that he had a central role to play in the assessment process of March 1208. He provided the reading for the meeting (or meetings) and perhaps he even led the discussions by which the king and his counsellors appraised themselves of the potential impact of the interdict on England and Wales. No analysis of the list of John’s books acquired from Reading can be complete without asking the question: are there any obvious works which the king and his counsellors ought to have consulted but which are missing from the collection? The answer to that question is yes. What is missing from John’s list of books is any canon law collections (including collections of Decretals by which new law was added to the corpus of old canon law); most notably, there is no Gratian. The Concordantia discordantium canonum of the semimythical canon lawyer we call Gratian was, according to Thomas Izbicki, the ‘most important’ book of the twelfth century in the development of the idea of seven sacraments, and so it has much to say on the key issue of the moment.75 Yet it is not one of the books on the Reading abbey list. Perhaps the Decretum was omitted because John and his advisers were unaware of the text, but although knowledge of Gratian’s work was not widespread in twelfth-century England, it would be rash to assume that those advising the king on such important matters would have been ignorant of the work. Abbot Samson of Bury St Edmunds, for example, when he was appointed a papal judge delegate in the 1180s, thought it wise ‘to make a study of the Decretum and the decretal letters’.76 If Abbot Samson knew of the text, John’s advisers must have known of it, too. In any event, if John had wanted to see it, by 1192, Reading had a copy of the Decretum.77 It may have been that the version of the Decretum that was available to John and his advisers did not give clear guidance on matters of the sacraments. Although the Decretum as it exists in the printed editions to which historians usually refer has a tract on sacramental law, the Tractatus de consecratione ecclesiae, it may be that this part of the Decretum was added too late in the day for it to have been a significant text for John and his advisers in 1208. Anders Winroth has concluded that the Decretum is not one work, but two, having two ‘original’ versions (a Gratian 1 and a Gratian 2) in which

Oxford University Press, 2004, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/18061 (accessed 3 January 2017). 75 T. Izbicki, The Eucharist in Medieval Canon Law (Cambridge, 2015), pp. 1–2. 76 R. H. Helmholz, The Oxford History of the Laws of England I: The Canon Law (Oxford, 2004), p. 128 citing The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond, ed. H. E. Butler (London, 1949), pp. 33–4. 77 Sharpe et al., English Benedictine Libraries, p. 422 (the Reading booklist B71 number 14).

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Stephen Church Gratian 1 certainly had no copy of the de consecratione.78 There appears to be a third ‘original’ version, also. Jacqueline Rambaud-Buhot has shown that the de consecratione was added to the original two books of the Decretum in the thirteenth century.79 Perhaps, then, no copy of the Decretum in English collections had, as it were, a ‘Gratian 3’, the Tractatus de consecratione ecclesiae, as part of its composition. Yet the Decretum is the ‘central text of western ecclesiastical law and law-making’,80 and so the fact that it was not included in the Reading abbey booklist delivered to John does deserve comment, since the Decretum was certainly known in England from the 1150s at the latest.81 Perhaps the fact that the Decretum was unequivocal in its argument that prelates were within their rights to use coercion to protect the body of the Church was enough to dissuade John from searching out Gratian’s views on the sacraments. Excommunication (the fate that awaited John in 1209) was the ultimate sanction by which a person was separated from the society of the faithful and the effect of this separation did have a place in the early versions of the Decretum.82 A hard-line approach by Gratian to both papal power and the effect of ecclesiastical censure may have been well known to John and his advisers. Moreover, Gratian’s focus on the performer of the rites by which sacraments were conferred rather than on the recipient of the rite may, too, have dissuaded John and his advisers from using the Decretum to understand the impact of interdict on the society of the faithful in England and Wales. They were, after all, concerned not with the legality of the interdict (that would have to be appealed elsewhere), but with the spiritual effect of the interdict. It is the absence from the list of books of Gratian’s Decretum and the absence, too, of any collections of Decretals, by which the jurists

78 A.

Winroth, The Making of Gratian’s Decretum (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 7, 128, 193. Rambaud-Buhot, ‘L’Étude des manuscrits du Décret de Gratien’, Bibliothéque de la Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 32 (1959), 25–63 (at p. 33); G. le Bas, C. Lefebvre and J. Rambaud, Historie du droit et des institutions de l’eglise en occident, tome VII: L’Age classique, 1140–1378: Sources et théorie du droit (Paris, 1965), pp. 90–9. 80 Gratian: The Treatise on Laws (Decretum DD.1–20), trans. A. Thompson, J. Gordley and K. Christensen (Washington DC, 1993), p. ix. 81 Helmholz, Oxford History of the Laws I: The Canon Law, p. 79; Izbicki, The Eucharist, pp. 9–10 offers some specific examples of its use, in, for example, the 1175 Council of Westminster on intinction, and in 1200 by Archbishop Hubert Walter on the use of a legible missal for the Mass and the right to re-administer the baptismal sacrament if it was thought to have been undertaken incorrectly; S. Kuttner and E. Rathbone, ‘Anglo-Norman Canonists of the Twelfth Century: An Introductory Study’, Traditio 7 (1949–51), 279–358, reprinted in his Gratian and the Schools of Law, 1140–1234, (London, 1983), VIII, 279–358 (at. p. 293). 82 Winroth, Making of Gratian’s Decretum, pp. 77–121 (esp. at pp. 77, 85); S. Chodorow, Christian Political Theory and Church Politics in the Mid-Twelfth Century. The Ecclesiology of Gratian’s Decretum (Berkeley CA, 1972), pp. 87–95, 175–86. The Decretum has nothing to say about interdict (see Clarke, Interdict, p. 4). 79 J.

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King John’s Books who came after Gratian built on his work,83 which points us further in the direction of concluding that John and his advisers were seeking to inform themselves about the spiritual impact of the interdict on the king’s unfortunate subjects who were languishing under the impact of the interdict’s imposition of collective punishment for the transgressions of their wayward monarch.

83 C.

Duggan, ‘Decretal Collections from Gratian’s Decretum to the Compilationes antiquae: The Making of New Case Law’, in The History of Medieval Canon Law in the Classical Period, 1140–1234, ed. W. Hartman and K. Pennington (Washington DC, 2008), pp. 246–92.

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9 Artistic Patronage and the Early Anglo-Norman Abbots of St Albans* Kathryn Gerry

As elected leaders of monastic institutions, abbots and abbesses had to walk a fine line between a monastic lifestyle, in which spiritual devotion and retreat from the world was of paramount importance, and the obligations and priorities of a CEO, with a clear need to engage with the world of politics, finances and other concerns outside of the spiritual realm. Given these sometimes competing responsibilities, the roles played by abbots in the production of art and architecture are not always clear. We would expect that abbots, as institutional leaders, were often responsible for the organization of major architectural projects within the monastery and involved with the creation of at least the more prominent items associated with liturgical performance, but the surviving documentation of artistic and architectural works from the Middle Ages does not offer a clear or consistent picture of how such projects would have been initiated and completed. The extant documentary record raises many questions about how patronage might be used to advance the interests of the entire monastic community, certain individual members of that community, or parties external to the monastery.1 An investigation of * I am grateful to Laura Cleaver, Andrea Worm and the anonymous reader for many helpful suggestions and comments; Laura Cleaver’s help with references while I was out of reach of a research library was above and beyond the call of editorial duty. Material included in this paper was presented at the 33rd Annual Haskins Society Conference (November 2014) and the History Books in the Anglo-Norman World conference (May 2015), and I am indebted to participants at both of those venues for their comments, and to the Memphis College of Art Panton Fund for assisting with costs. I would also like to thank the many curators, librarians and other staff who have assisted me in the research necessary for this paper, especially those at the Bodleian Library, the British Library, the Hildesheim Dombibliothek, the Morgan Library and the Walters Art Museum. Many colleagues have generously shared their expertise and their help has been indispensable; any errors or oversights in this paper are entirely my own. 1 I am here limiting my use of the term ‘patronage’ to refer to commissioning, paying for or in some other meaningful way instigating the production of works of visual art or significant architectural components, or the dedications of chapels or altars.

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Kathryn Gerry the actions of abbots as patrons can flesh out our understanding of how the visual arts were valued during this period, whether or not the production of certain types of objects should be considered as representative of the culture of the monastery, and the ways in which works of art and architecture could be put to use as political tools. In the case of St Albans, the thirteenth-century writings of Matthew Paris offer important insights into the life of the abbey and patronage of the abbots in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. In this essay, I will explore how Matthew’s Gesta abbatum monasterii Sancti Albani might enable us to gain a fuller appreciation of the roles that abbots played in constructing the material richness of a monastery.2 Although almost none of the works of art commissioned during the abbacies of Paul and Richard survive, Matthew’s text, coupled with our knowledge of extant works of art from other locations, can be used to visualise and better understand the material contributions of these two early Anglo-Norman abbots of St Albans.

Sources and scope The main textual source for artistic and architectural production at St Albans is the Gesta abbatum, a text rife with many of the usual difficulties of medieval documents. The earliest surviving copy of this document (London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D I) is in the hand of the St Albans monk Matthew Paris, who compiled the text in the middle of the thirteenth century, although he claimed to be using a twelfth-century document.3 Richard Vaughan has presented a case for largely accepting Matthew’s claim regarding source material, but the reference to an earlier, now lost, authority is of course suspect, and Vaughan has identified points in the text where Matthew has inserted new material, his own mid thirteenth-century interests taking priority over any twelfth-century historical documents that might have been at his disposal.4 Even if we do take Matthew at his word, and the Gesta abbatum at face value, Matthew’s own statements make it clear that we must be cautious in attributing certain items to certain patrons: in describing how the tower of the church was restored and heightened through the efforts of the lay brother Richard of Tittenhanger, he notes that ‘out of respect, these

2 Hereafter

referred to as Gesta abbatum; an edition of this text was produced in the Rolls Series: Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, ed. H. T. Riley, 3 vols. (London, 1867); all references herein are to vol. I. 3 An account authored by either Adam the Cellarer or Adam’s clerk Bartholomew. 4 R. Vaughan, Matthew Paris (Cambridge, 1958), pp. 182–9; Vaughan comments on the change in emphasis that occurs between the accounts of Robert’s abbacy and Simon’s, when Matthew likely takes up the narrative as its main author: Matthew Paris, pp. 183–4, 187–8.

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Artistic Patronage of Abbots of St Albans works are ascribed to the abbot, for the person on whose authority a thing is known to have been done, may be taken to have done it’.5 This statement suggests that the abbot would always receive credit even when another member of the community was primarily responsible. Brian Golding has noted that the didactic nature of Matthew’s Gesta abbatum, a text intended for internal consumption at St Albans, placed a strong emphasis on the roles of individual abbots as models for the brethren, which has perhaps skewed more recent historical analyses of the text.6 I agree with Golding that a wider viewpoint can lead to a fuller and clearer picture, but given the details available for St Albans and other monasteries in this period, it is reasonable to conclude that abbots during the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries often played a determining role in the production of many individual works of art. Although not its major theme, the Gesta abbatum reveals Matthew Paris’ attempts both to engage with an existing historical document and to make sense of the material remains inherited by the monks of St Albans in the mid thirteenth century. As I will argue, much can be gleaned from this complex and layered text about the activities of at least two abbots of St Albans in relation to the patronage and creation of works of art and other artefacts of material culture. While later medieval monastic patronage in England has been treated in some depth, notably by Julian Luxford, there is room to explore the situation in England during the central Middle Ages.7 At St Albans, the role of certain abbots has been much discussed, and Geoffrey (r. 1119–46), Simon (r. 1167–83), John (r. 1195–1214) and William (r. 1214–35) have been noted by modern researchers as important patrons of architecture and the visual arts.8 For the 5 ‘quae tamen abbati ob reuerenciam sunt ascribenda. Ille enim facit, cuius auctoritate

quippiam fieri dinoscitur’, translated by Vaughan in: Chronicles of Matthew Paris; Monastic Life in the Thirteenth Century, ed. and trans. R. Vaughan (Gloucester, 1984), p. 48; cited in B. Kjølby-Biddle, ‘The Alban Cross’, in Alban and St Albans: Roman and Medieval Architecture, Art, and Archaeology, ed. M. Henig and P. Lindley (Leeds, 2001), pp. 85–110, (p. 98). 6 B. Golding, ‘Wealth and Artistic Patronage at Twelfth–Century St. Albans’, in Art and Patronage in the English Romanesque, ed. S. Macready and F. H. Thompson (London, 1986), pp. 107–17; Golding contends that a consideration of other, often external, factors which led to the abundant resources available to St Albans offers a more complete understanding of patronage at this period. 7 J. Luxford, The Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries (Woodbridge, 2012). 8 Geoffrey’s patronage has most often been treated in relation to the St Albans Psalter: J. Geddes, The St Albans Psalter, a Book for Christina of Markyate (London, 2005); R. M. Thomson, ‘The St Albans Psalter: Abbot Geoffrey’s Book?’, in Der Albani Psalter: Stand und Perspektiven der Forschung, ed. J. Bepler and C. Heitzmann (Hildesheim, 2013), pp. 57–68; P. Stirnemann, ‘The St Albans Psalter: One Man’s Spiritual Journey’, in Der Albani Psalter, pp. 96–128. For Simon: W. Cahn, ‘St. Albans and the Channel Style in England’, in The Year 1200: A Symposium (New York, 1975), pp. 187–230. For John and William: N. Coldstream, ‘Cui Bono? The Saint, the Clergy

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Kathryn Gerry most part, these figures have been acknowledged as what we might refer to as organizational or logistical patrons, playing a supporting role in relation to the artists or recipients. The motivations of these abbots have not been considered in much depth, although in the case of Geoffrey and, to a lesser extent, William, their artistic patronage has been considered in reference to their relationships with other members of the community.9 In this essay, I will examine the roles of Paul (r. 1077–93) and Richard (r. 1097–1119), two early and understudied abbots, in the artistic and architectural patronage of the abbey, especially as it relates to the cult of saints. As the first two Norman-appointed abbots of St Albans, Paul and Richard led the monastery through the transitional period of the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, as many Anglo-Saxon traditions made room for the interests and priorities of Norman rulers, political and ecclesiastical. This relatively tight historical focus allows for a nuanced understanding of how the monastery developed in the generations immediately after the Norman Conquest, mediated through a mid thirteenth-century perspective. These are also the first abbots for whom reasonably reliable records exist, and although it is clear that St Albans was an institution of some size and importance before this period, the history of the monastery before Paul’s abbacy is obscured by dubious texts and scholarly controversy, while the period of the late eleventh and early twelfth century is one for which our records can, to a certain extent, be taken as accurate historical documents.10 The Gesta abbatum is a major

and the New Work at St Albans’, in Medieval Architecture and Its Intellectual Context; Studies in Honour of Peter Kidson, ed. E. Fernie and P. Crossley (London, 1990), pp. 143–9; Kjølby-Biddle, ‘The Alban Cross’, pp. 85–110; F. McCulloch, ‘Saints Alban and Amphibalus in the Works of Matthew Paris: Dublin, Trinity College MS 177’, Speculum 56 (1981), 761–85. For the abbots’ role in manuscript production, see R. M. Thomson, Manuscripts from St Albans Abbey 1066–1235, 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1985), I, 11–77 (all subsequent references are to vol. I). 9 See for example Geddes, St Albans Psalter; and McCulloch, ‘Saints Albans and Amphibalus’. 10 Aside from brief mentions in other texts, the Gesta abbatum is the only source I know of that offers significant information on Paul and Richard; for abbots of the mid twelfth century, source material is somewhat expanded with, for example, the The Life of Christina of Markyate, trans. C. H. Talbot, rev. S. Fanous and H. Leyser (Oxford, 2008), or a series of letters relating to life at the monastery, for which see M. L. Colker, ed., Analecta Dublinensia: Three Medieval Latin Texts in the Library of Trinity College Dublin (Cambridge, 1975), pp. 91–160. Vaughan argues that the accounts of Richard and Paul in the Gesta abbatum are likely to be reliant on Matthew Paris’s source material, with little interpolation from Paris (Matthew Paris, pp. 183, 184). On the pre-Conquest history of the abbey, see J. Crick, ‘Offa, Aelfric, and the Refoundation of St Albans’, in Alban and St Albans, pp. 78–84; J. Crick, ‘St Albans, Westminster and Some Twelfth-Century Views of the Anglo-Saxon Past’, ANS 25 (2002), 65–84; P. Taylor, ‘The Early St Albans Endowment and its Chroniclers’, Historical Research 68 (1995), 119–42. For Matthew Paris as historian: Vaughan, Matthew Paris; B. Weiler, ‘Matthew Paris on the Writing of History’, JMH 35 (2009),

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Artistic Patronage of Abbots of St Albans source for the activities of both abbots, and includes representations of them at the start of the accounts of their respective deeds (Plate III). Although these representations cannot be taken as portraiture in the modern sense, by embodying the historical account, these images would have helped to make past abbots more real and more relevant for readers of the mid thirteenth century. Both Paul and Richard have largely escaped the scrutiny of art historians, probably because so little material evidence survives from their tenures.11 Any investigation of the medieval history of St Albans must take into account the inherent – and typical – difficulties posed by the material and textual remnants of the monastery. Although we have records of many works of art and phases of architectural construction at St Albans, only a small number of individual works from the period survives, and the majority of the monastic complex was destroyed after the Reformation and subsequent dissolution of English monasteries in the mid sixteenth century.12 The main church building survives, and portions of twelfth-century construction can be seen within the fabric of this church, but much of the building dates from the later Middle Ages.13 Many manuscripts survive from this period, but no extant reliquaries, textiles, or liturgical implements from the late eleventh or early twelfth century have been identified. The main goal of this essay is to use the text of the Gesta abbatum to envision some of the lost works of art created under these two abbots, and to see what can be surmised of their motivations. The textual account provides only brief information about their patronage of art and architecture, and this scanty evidence admittedly does not offer much to work with. But the available evidence is suggestive of the ways in which art and architecture could be used to further political and personal agendas, and re-examining the actions of these abbots through the lens of artistic patronage will help us to better understand some of the less obvious factors that contributed to the 254–78. Vaughan has demonstrated that we are more likely to see twelfth-century concerns in the portion of the Gesta abbatum covering the first half of the twelfth century rather than the thirteenth-century sensibilities that come across in Matthew Paris’s interpolations: Vaughan, Matthew Paris, pp. 182–9. Although it should be noted that the material in the account of Geoffrey’s abbacy related to Roger the Hermit, Sigar the Hermit and Christina of Markyate is structurally out of character for the Gesta abbatum and might well have been added later (Gesta abbatum, pp. 97–106). 11 But see C. Brooke, ‘St. Albans: the Great Abbey’, in Cathedral and City: St Albans Ancient and Modern, ed. R. Runcie (London, 1977), pp. 43–70 (pp. 44–59); and D. Matthew, ‘The Incongruities of the St Albans Psalter’, JMH 34 (2008), 396–416 (pp. 408–10). 12 In 1550 the buildings, except for the church and chapel, were systematically dismantled for building material. 13 See Coldstream, ‘Cui Bono?’ for a summary of the architectural layout of the AngloNorman building and subsequent medieval changes, especially in the east end.

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Kathryn Gerry artistic legacy of this important abbey.14 Relying solely on textual evidence, as must be done with several of the works discussed below, is problematic for an art historian, but in light of the sparse material survival from St Albans in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, we must in some cases depend on textual documents not only for context but for direct evidence of works of art.15 Much of the material discussed in this essay was produced in relation to the cult of saints. For Matthew Paris, writing in the thirteenth century, and for these two abbots acting in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and indeed for all members of the community of St Albans, the cult of saints allowed for the long and at times obscured history of the monastery to be amalgamated into a relevant and consistent experience. Alban, like other saints, was perceived to be continually active in the affairs of the monastery long after his death. The conflation of past and present activated by these holy figures is made clear in many textual and artistic works from the period, notably in a manuscript now in Dublin (Trinity College, MS 177). Partially an autograph of Matthew Paris, this volume includes several accounts of Saints Alban and Amphibalus from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In addition to the differing dates of the texts, the lives and martyrdoms of these two saints, along with material related to later cult activity, are presented in a range of modes: prose and verse, Latin and vernacular, textual and pictorial.16 Even the representations of historical figures serve to bridge temporal distance, with figures from the distant past presented in thirteenth-century dress.17 14 Medieval historians, including Matthew Paris, felt that the material legacies of insti-

tutions and individuals were worthy of record and could be taken to signify values and priorities; see for example Matthew Paris’ drawings of gemstones owned by the abbey of St Albans in the Liber Additamentorum, London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D 1, fol. 146v (for which, see Matthew Paris: ‘De anulis et gemmis et pallis quae sunt de thesauro hujus ecclesiae’, Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, ed. H. R. Luard, 7 vols. (London, 1872–83), VI, 383–92; S. Lewis, Art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica Majora (Berkeley, 1987), pp. 45–8; J. Berenbeim, Art of Documentation: Documents and Visual Culture in Medieval England (Toronto, 2015), p. 93), and Orderic Vitalis’ comments on the churches built by William the Conqueror (see Orderic Vitalis, The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. and trans. M. Chibnall, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1969–80), II, 190–1); for historians’ interest in objects see also A. Gransden, ‘Realistic Observation in Twelfth-Century England’, Speculum, 47 (1972), 29–51. In my focus on the patronage of Paul and Richard, I do not mean to imply that these abbots were solely responsible for the art and architecture created during this period; see Golding, ‘Wealth and Artistic Patronage’. 15 See for example F. Wormald, ‘A Medieval Description of Two Illuminated Psalters’, Scriptorium 6 (1952), 18–25. 16 See McCulloch, ‘Saints Alban and Amphibalus’ for discussion of the contents of this work in relation to Matthew Paris’s agenda. 17 This is a common strategy in manuscripts of the central Middle Ages. For further discussion of the ways in which illustrated manuscripts of saints’ lives accomplish

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Artistic Patronage of Abbots of St Albans In considering abbots as patrons, several attendant issues are raised. One is the degree to which an act of patronage should be viewed as a political manoeuvre, as the abbot sought to strengthen his position of power and to ensure his legacy as an effective leader. Another issue is the degree to which an abbot’s personal interests, as opposed to those of the larger monastic community, can be brought to bear on art created for – and often paid for by the resources of – that community. In the cases discussed here, I will argue that the motivations, both personal and political, of individual abbots can be inferred from the text of the Gesta abbatum, if we are willing to give it at least some room as a historical record of the period it purports to document. If our view of the patron is limited strictly to the donation of funds, then attribution to the abbot might be misleading, but art historians have often described artistic patronage in this period as an activity that could include a strong role in the design of the work in question, as well as in acquiring and organizing financial resources and materials necessary for artistic production. In discussing the patronage of reliquaries, Cynthia Hahn has argued that in many cases we should perhaps consider the roles of certain abbots to be akin to that of quasi-artists, with a clear and strong influence on the final appearance of the objects they commissioned.18 In the abbot’s role as administrator and head of the monastery, we might reasonably suppose that any major projects would indeed require his approval and oversight, and probably a great deal of his input. Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis must serve as a model here. In the case of the mid twelfth century work at Saint-Denis, while the possible involvement of Hugh of St Victor in developing the theoretical underpinnings of Suger’s work suggests that a certain degree of nuanced collaboration was required for large scale projects, the ultimate responsibility, if not the intellectual direction, rested with the abbot.19

Abbot Paul In the account of Abbot Paul in the Gesta abbatum, we can see the will of the new Norman hierarchy within the territory of Anglo-Saxon monasticism.20 such temporal compression, see C. Hahn, ‘Picturing the Text: Narrative in the Life of the Saints’, Art History 13 (1990), 1–32. 18 C. Hahn, ‘The Spectacle of the Charismatic Body: Patrons, Artists, and Body-Part Reliquaries’, in Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe, ed. M. Bagnoli et al. (Baltimore, 2010), pp. 163–71. 19 Suger, On the Abbey Church of St.–Denis and its Art Treasures, ed. and trans. E. Panofsky (Princeton, 1946); C. Rudolph, Artistic Change at St. Denis: Abbot Suger’s Program and the Early Twelfth-Century Controversy over Art (Princeton, 1990). 20 Vaughan finds the account of Paul in the Gesta abbatum to be largely based on Matthew Paris’s earlier source material – the roll of Adam the Cellarer or Bartholomew – with little interpolation from Matthew Paris himself (Matthew Paris,

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Kathryn Gerry Paul, a relation and close associate of Archbishop Lanfranc, was abbot of St Albans from 1077 to 1093, and was responsible for increasing the monastic library, for undertaking a major reconstruction of the abbey church, for donating sumptuous liturgical implements both for the high altar and for use on St Alban’s feast, and for destroying monuments of former abbots and neglecting the remains of the monastery’s perhaps legendary founder, the eighth-century King Offa (r. 757–96).21 Paul’s responsibility for reconstructing the church building, and to some extent for developing the monastic library, are probably best understood as actions that represent the priorities of the Norman take-over and reform of Anglo-Saxon monasteries, and he seems to have worked in close concert with Lanfranc as these projects came to fruition. The Gesta abbatum draws attention to their relationship, and in several places explicitly states that many of the customs established by Paul originated with Lanfranc.22 In the production of books, some of which were almost certainly illuminated, we can see Paul’s own personal interests. Although manuscripts for the liturgy and for the library were necessary to a monastic institution, the Gesta abbatum describes Paul as a lover of scripture and recounts that certain donated funds were assigned, according to Paul’s wishes, to the production of books.23 Not only did he commission a large number of volumes, but he endowed a scriptorium, and brought in professional scribes who would continue to produce books for St Albans.24 We do not know how common such a situation was in this period, and Rodney Thomson has cautioned pp. 183–4), although Brooke attributes the account to Matthew Paris and notes that it is difficult to differentiate between truth and ‘embroidery’ in Matthew’s text (‘St. Albans’, p. 45). Paul is briefly referred to by William of Malmesbury: William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum: The History of the English Bishops, ed. and trans. M. Winterbottom with R. M. Thomson, 2 vols. (Oxford, 2007), II, 107, 481. Paul is often referred to as the first Norman abbot of St Albans; Brooke has pointed out that Paul’s name and relationship to Lanfranc point to an origin in the Italian peninsula: Brooke, ‘St. Albans’, p. 45; but Paul arrived in England as a result of the Norman Conquest and his actions as prelate are probably best understood in relation to Anglo-Norman political and religious concerns. 21 Gesta abbatum, for the library, pp. 57–8; for the rebuilding of the church, pp. 53–4; for the gifts to the altar and St Alban, p. 59; for the destruction of the tombs of former abbots, p. 62. 22 For example, see Gesta abbatum, pp. 58–9; Crick goes so far as to refer to Lanfranc and Paul as a ‘duumvirate’: Crick, ‘Offa, Aelfric’, p. 82. For Paul’s efforts to reform St Albans see Gesta abbatum, p. 52. Thomson notes that the balance of motivation for reform must be credited indeterminately to both Lanfranc and Paul and suggests that it might be wrong to see Paul as ‘Lanfranc’s man’: Thomson, Manuscripts, pp. 11–12. 23 Gesta abbatum, p. 57, notes that a donation to the abbey by a certain Norman noble was designated for the production of books according to the wishes of Paul, described as ‘scripturarum amatore’. 24 Gesta abbatum, pp. 57–8; Thomson, Manuscripts, p. 13.

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Artistic Patronage of Abbots of St Albans against seeing this case as exceptional, but we have very little evidence of anything done on such a scale elsewhere, and the statements about Paul’s own desires and his love of books are not merely formulaic – similar statements are unusual in the Gesta abbatum.25 Paul’s actions in this area also reflect his investment in reforming the Anglo-Saxon Church. Significant portions of the medieval library of St Albans have survived, but most of the extant manuscripts were produced after the Conquest, and indeed most of what survives was likely made after Paul’s tenure as abbot.26 Without being able to reconstruct the abbey’s pre-Conquest library, we cannot be sure what sources were on hand, but it is likely that part of Paul’s motivation in adding to the library was to provide the liturgical texts and works of commentary required for what he considered a more orthodox Christian practice. The Gesta abbatum describes the books produced under Paul’s direction as ‘essential’ or ‘necessary’ and notes that they were copied from exemplars provided by Lanfranc.27 Lanfranc’s role in supplying St Albans with these necessary texts, some copies of which might have originated in Normandy, implies that the books copied at the behest of Abbot Paul would have been seen as authoritative in the context of the ongoing Norman reform of Anglo-Saxon religious practice.28 Some of the texts copied during Paul’s tenure might now be included in a small composite volume held at the Morgan Library in New York (M.926).29 The book in its present form might not have been bound together until the thirteenth or early fourteenth century, but contains a number of individual texts which appear to have been copied in the late eleventh or early twelfth century. Most of the texts in the book are related to saints, including St Alban and a handful of Anglo-Saxon and continental saints. Although there is some disagreement about the dates when these texts were copied, a late eleventh century date seems likely for most of them, which in turn means it is likely 25 R.

M. Thomson, ‘Monastic and cathedral book production’, in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain volume II: 1100–1400, ed. N. Morgan and R. M. Thomson (Cambridge, 2008), pp. 136–67 (pp.138–41); Thomson, Manuscripts, p. 13. 26 See Thomson, Manuscripts, and R. W. Hunt, ‘The Library of the Abbey of St Albans’, in Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts & Libraries; Essays Presented to N. R. Ker, ed. M. B. Parkes and A. G. Watson (London, 1978), pp. 251–77. 27 The edited text as cited above has ‘volumina ecclesiae facienda’, but this is volumina ecclesiae necessaria facienda in London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D. I; Thomson translates the passage as ‘the manufacture of essential books for the church’; for the entire passage, Gesta abbatum, pp. 57–8. 28 There is evidence that Lanfranc imported manuscripts from Normandy, for example, Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B.16.44 (for which, see M. Gibson, Lanfranc of Bec (Oxford, 1978), p. 180; C. R. Dodwell, Canterbury School of Illumination, 1066–1200 (Cambridge, 1954), p. 7); I am grateful to Laura Cleaver for referring me to this manuscript. 29 Thomson, Manuscripts, pp. 115–16; K. D. Hartzell, ‘A St Albans Miscellany in New York’, Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 10 (1975), 20–61.

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Kathryn Gerry that they were copied during Paul’s abbacy, possibly as part of his campaign to supply the abbey with texts he considered necessary.30 The reasons for copying material related to the feast of St Alban are obvious, but the other saints represented in M.926 do not have such clear ties to St Albans. K. D. Hartzell has demonstrated some plausible links between St Albans and Saints Dunstan and Birinus, and at the very least, the inclusion of these two demonstrates that Paul was not entirely hostile to Anglo-Saxon saints.31 The other saints included, however, suggest that Paul – if indeed these manuscript copies date from his abbacy – might have had an agenda to reinforce the universal rather than the local at the abbey. Included in M.926 is a sermon on St Benedict authored by the ninth-century Benedictine reformer Odo of Cluny, bringing a continental viewpoint on the founding father of Benedictine monasticism and stocking the abbey’s library with material rooted in the ideas of a supposedly universal reform, rather than the idiosyncratic local history of the Anglo-Saxon church. Also copied was a Life of St Alexis, a saint little known in England at this time, but particularly popular with Norman reformers. It is worth noting that the longest of the texts in M.926 is a Life of St John the Almoner, a Cypriot who became Patriarch of Alexandria in the early seventh century. If these texts were indeed copied at Paul’s behest, we have strong evidence of an interest in promoting saints who might have been seen as universal, or at least from a wider milieu than Anglo-Saxon England. Paul did not simply promote saints other than those of the Anglo-Saxon tradition, but actively worked to erase the memory of the Anglo-Saxon past, aiming perhaps to replace fully the Anglo-Saxon tradition with the priorities and concerns of the Normans. In this context, Paul’s iconoclastic actions regarding his predecessors’ tombs deserve consideration as an act of patronage, or perhaps what we might call ‘anti-patronage’.32 The destruction of the tombs of former abbots and the decision not to reinter the body of Offa, the reputed Anglo-Saxon founder of the monastery, in the new church, reflect a desire to purge the community of its pre-Norman history, described

30 Thomson, Gameson and Hartzell (citing F. Wormald’s unpublished comments) each

give slightly different dates for the various portions of the manuscript: Thomson, Manuscripts, pp. 115–16; R. Gameson, The Manuscripts of Early Norman England, c. 1066–1130 (Oxford, 1999), p. 125; Hartzell, ‘St Albans Miscellany’, pp. 21–2. 31 Hartzell, ‘St Albans Miscellany’, pp. 41–3. 32 I use the term ‘iconoclastic’ loosely here, as it is not clear that the tombs of the abbots in question bore any images, but in so far as Paul’s actions destroyed the material and visual links that these tombs provided to the abbey’s past or to any potential future cult related to the abbots, his actions achieved similar results to those of many iconoclastic campaigns. See discussion of damnatio memoriae below, and B. Latour, ‘What is Iconoclash? Or Is there a World Beyond the Image Wars’, in Iconoclash: Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion, and Art, ed. B. Latour and P. Wiebel (Karlsruhe, 2002), pp. 14–37, esp. his definition of image (p. 14) and the discussion of people opposed to the images of their opponents (pp. 27, 28).

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Artistic Patronage of Abbots of St Albans by Thomson as ‘the effective extinction of the abbey’s Anglo-Saxon past’, and these actions appear to represent Paul’s own personal interpretation of reform.33 A shift away from Anglo-Saxon saints in the early Anglo-Norman period is often assumed, but Sandy Heslop, Richard Pfaff and S. J. Ridyard have demonstrated that we cannot so simply characterize the prevalent attitude in this period as one that sought to obliterate the Anglo-Saxon past.34 The more nuanced view that has developed in recent years offers instead a picture of many Norman reformers, including Lanfranc, judiciously selecting those Anglo-Saxon saints and practices that seemed, to their minds at least, worthy of continuation, and only seeking to jettison the more suspect traditions. According to the Gesta abbatum, Paul’s iconoclasm was hardly selective, but instead represents a wholesale removal of the physical traces of the monastery’s past. This raises suspicion that Paul’s actions in this case largely represent his own desires, and his own interpretation of reform.35 The Gesta abbatum makes clear that Paul’s destruction of these tombs was not met with favour by the monastic community, and suggests that he was motivated by contempt for Anglo-Saxon history, or by jealousy of abbots who had been born of royal or noble stock, as the Gesta abbatum puts it.36 The resulting discord at the monastery (at least if the tone of the Gesta abbatum can be taken as an accurate measure) must surely have been anticipated, and it is hard 33 Thomson,

Manuscripts, p. 78. Heslop, ‘The Canterbury Calendars and the Norman Conquest’, in Canterbury and the Norman Conquest: Churches, Saints, and Scholars, 1066–1109, ed. R. Eales and R. Sharpe (Rio Grande OH, 1995), pp. 53–85; R. W. Pfaff, ‘Lanfranc’s Supposed Purge of the Anglo-Saxon Calendar’, in Warriors and Churchmen in the High Middle Ages: Essays Presented to Karl Leyser, ed, T. Reuter (London, 1992), pp. 95–108; S. J. Ridyard, ‘Condigna Veneratio: Post-Conquest Attitudes to the Saints of the AngloSaxons’, ANS 9 (1987), 179–206. 35 The Gesta abbatum does not draw any connection between these events and the reforms instituted by Paul. In a letter to Paul, Anselm does appear to refer to non-Normans as ‘barbarians’, but the overlap between Paul and Anselm is quite brief, and Paul’s actions cannot have been instigated by Anselm; I am not aware of any similar statements made by Lanfranc. For Anselm’s letter, see Anselm, S. Anselmi Opera Omnia, ed. F. S. Schmitt, 2 vols., 2nd edn (Stuttgart, 1968), II, letter 80, p. 203. 36 ‘Quod vero nullo modo potest excusari, tumbas venerabilium antecessorum suorum, Abbatum nobilium, – quos rudes et idiotas consuevit appellare, – delevit, vel contemnendo eos quia Anglicos, vel invidendo, quia fere omnes stirpe regali, vel magnatum praeclaro sanguine, fuerant procreati’, Gesta abbatum, p. 62. It has been suspected that Paul might have been a natural son of Lanfranc so reference to the ancestry of other abbots might be intended as a critique of Paul’s own questionable birth. The resentment towards Paul expressed here might well have been heightened by the fact that he was the first abbot appointed by the conquering Normans, and the Gesta abbatum does suggest that there were lingering tensions in general between Norman and Anglo-Saxon monks at the abbey (Gesta abbatum, p. 66), however the structural format of the Gesta abbatum documents failings for all the abbots, including those that were clearly held in high regard. 34 T. A.

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Kathryn Gerry to imagine that Paul simply saw this as just another aspect of the Norman reforms. In fact, in other areas of reform, the Gesta abbatum reports that Paul took a gradual approach, so as to avoid upset.37 His destruction of these monuments appears to be more pointed and hostile than his other reforming measures, with little consideration for the feelings of the community. As an act of iconoclasm, the demolition of the tombs might be understood in relation to the Roman practice often described as damnatio memoriae, in which the destruction itself makes a strong statement – it is not simply that no one will know that there were previous abbots, but that everyone will know that those abbots should be considered disgraceful and unworthy of commemoration.38 I think it must also lead us to wonder whether Paul was concerned that these earlier leaders of the monastery might provide fodder for future saints’ cults. Anglo-Saxons had often derived saints from their stock of monastic leaders, and if Paul was seeking to promote saints with a wider appeal or a stronger historical claim to sanctity (as seems to be the case with the collection of texts in M.926, discussed above), then his destruction, his anti-patronage of the tombs of the abbey’s founder and past leaders might be understood as a prudent, if drastic, step to ensure that one of the necessary materials for a cult – the body, or at least the tomb – was not present.39

Abbot Richard Richard, from a wealthy Norman family, was appointed after a four-year vacancy and served as abbot from 1097 to 1119. According to the Gesta abbatum, he found favour with kings William II and Henry I and with Pope Urban II.40 The account of his abbacy provided by the Gesta abbatum is

37 ‘Iste

quoque Paulus Abbas, vir religiosus et eleganter litteratus, et in observantia ordinis regularis rigidus et prudens, totius monasticae normam, (quam jam olim, tam praelatorum quam subditorum, remissioris vitae illecebrosa voluptas eliminaverat,) caute et paulatim, ne repentina mutatio tumultum generaret, reformavit; […]’, Gesta abbatum, p. 52; translated by Thomson, Manuscripts, p. 12: ‘Abbot Paul, a devout and highly educated man, strict and upright in his observance of the Rule, reformed the standard of monastic life (obliterated by the unbridled lust and remiss conduct of our forebears, both monks and abbots), cautiously and gradually, lest sudden change should create an uproar’; see also Gesta abbatum, p. 59. 38 Jaś Elsner has discussed the adaptation of Roman modes of iconoclasm in the Byzantine empire, suspecting that Byzantine practices ultimately influenced those of western Europe: J. Elsner, ‘Iconoclasm as Discourse: From Antiquity to Byzantium’, Art Bulletin 94 (2012), 368–94 (pp. 369–71). 39 For a prominent example, A. Thacker, ‘Lindisfarne and the Origins of the Cult of Cuthbert’, in St Cuthbert, His Cult and His Community to AD 1200, ed. G. Bonner, D. Rollason and C. Stancliffe (Woodbridge, 1989), pp. 103–22; I am grateful to Bernard Gowers for this reference. 40 Gesta abbatum, p. 66.

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Artistic Patronage of Abbots of St Albans notably shorter than that of his predecessor Paul, or that of his successor Geoffrey.41 Despite this brevity, the Gesta abbatum offers useful information about Richard’s actions as a patron of the arts and of the cult of saints. An interest in luxurious vessels and vestments for the church is hardly unusual in a medieval abbot, nor is a concern for the spiritually and financially profitable cult of saints. However, in Richard’s actions as a patron, we find a marked difference from the attitude of Paul, and, as I will argue, a shrewd ability to use art and architecture as a means to resolve conflicts and to build relationships with other monasteries. Unlike Paul, Richard did not seek to rid the monastery of its Anglo-Saxon past, but instead to leverage England’s history in his efforts to position St Albans as a leading institution in the new Anglo-Norman world. Paul had been a Norman prelate attempting to reform an Anglo-Saxon community, but by the time Richard was at the helm, many of the major, if not entirely welcome, reforms had been enacted, and many of the monks were from Norman families. Things seem to have settled down at the monastery, and the period of Richard’s abbacy might be described as ‘post-transitional’, with the new church building largely completed and at least some of the wrinkles of the Norman take-over and reform ironed out.42 Not much material evidence survives from Richard’s time as abbot, but we do have substantial textual evidence of his patronage. The account in the Gesta abbatum suggests that he might have been interested in relics and reliquaries to a greater extent than some of the other abbots of St Albans, giving to the church, among other items, reliquaries of precious metals and ivory, a textile figured with scenes of the Passion of St Alban, and illuminated manuscripts, at least one of which might have been connected with a saint’s cult.43 Richard also presided over the dedication of the newly rebuilt abbey church, and the Gesta abbatum specifies that Richard himself was responsible for a chapel of St Cuthbert. It is possible that at least one of the manuscripts he commissioned has survived, but let us turn first to those items for which we have only textual evidence. The Gesta abbatum relates that Richard gave the abbey two reliquaries, both of which contained multiple relics, not an unusual circumstance. The first

41 Vaughan

finds that the account of Richard in the Gesta abbatum is likely to be reliant on Matthew Paris’s source material, with little interpolation from Paris (Matthew Paris, pp. 183, 184); to my knowledge, Richard does not receive significant notice in other medieval sources; for his role in the consecration of the abbey church in 1115, see Regesta regum Anglo-Normannorum, II. Regesta Henrici Primi 1100–1135, ed. C. Johnson and H. A. Cronne (Oxford, 1965), p. 127 (a copy of the relevant charter can also be found in Cotton MS Nero D I, f. 154v, edited in Chronica Majora, ed. Luard, VI, 36; see also D. Matthew, ‘The Incongruities’, pp. 408–10 for discussion of Richard’s origins. 42 The Gesta abbatum, p. 66, describes his election as putting to rest a dispute that had arisen between Norman and Anglo-Saxon monks after Paul died. 43 Gesta abbatum, pp. 69–70.

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Kathryn Gerry of these is described as a feretrum with the bones of the twelve apostles and other martyrs, relics associated with St Germanus of Auxerre.44 According to the fifth-century Life of St Germanus and the sixth- or seventh-century Passion of St Alban, Germanus had visited St Alban’s grave when he was in England working to eradicate the Pelagian heresy in about 429. While there, the bishop had left relics of the apostles and other martyrs in exchange for some of St Alban’s relics.45 Though universally important, the apostles were not of any particular significance to St Albans, but, as relics associated with the earliest known reference to a cult of St Alban, and the acknowledgement of such a cult by an important prelate and saint like Germanus, these particular relics would have been a powerful testament to the long history and importance of St Alban’s cult at this particular site. No such reliquary is now known, but the object is recorded as being covered in gold, with images. The term feretrum is often used to describe reliquaries with a chest-like, quasi-architectural shape, and this format had an enduring popularity across Europe, with a number of extant examples available for comparison. Extant reliquaries from early twelfth-century England are scarce, though images of at least one have survived. The depiction of the reliquary of St Cuthbert in a manuscript of his life and miracles, probably made at Durham in the early twelfth century (Oxford, University College, MS 165), offers an idea of what an English feretrum from this period might have looked like (Fig. 1).46 The illustrations in the manuscript show events from St Cuthbert’s life and the development of his cult after his death. These include several depictions of the shrine, for example on page 163, where an attempted theft from the shrine is depicted.47 The architectural shape of the St Cuthbert reliquary depicted in the manuscript, mimicking a church building, with a prominent crest along the top and microarchitectural arcades on the long sides, has close analogues in a number of 44 ‘Porro,

iste Abbas Ricardus fecit thecam unam, quam “feretrum” appellamus, aureis imaginibus redimitam; in qua recondidit Duodecim Apostolorum reliquias, et Martyrum plurimorum, quas Sanctus Germanus, Antissiodorensis Praesul, in sepulcro Sancti Albani reverenter collocavit’, Gesta abbatum, pp. 69–70. 45 Constantius, ‘Vita Germani’, III, 16, ed. R. Borius, Constance de Lyon, Vie de saint Germain d’Auxerre (Paris, 1965); the text is c. 480 with later interpolations. For the Passion of Alban, see R. Sharpe, ‘The Late Antique Passion of St Alban’, in Alban and St Albans, pp. 30–7; for comments on the origin of Alban’s story and Germanus’s anti-Pelagian, activities, see I. Wood, ‘Germanus, Alban and Auxerre’, Bulletin du Centre d’études médiévales d’Auxerre 13 (2009), 123–9. 46 See M. Baker, ‘Medieval Illustrations of Bede’s Life of St. Cuthbert’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 41 (1978), 16–49; K. Gerry, ‘Picturing Narrative and Promoting Cult: Hagiographic Illumination at Three English Cult Centres’, in Matter of Faith: An Interdisciplinary Study of Relics and Relic Veneration in the Medieval Period, ed. J. Robinson, L. de Beer and A. Harnden (London, 2014), pp. 47–55. 47 Other examples can be seen on pages 130 and 159 of the manuscript, which has been paginated rather than foliated.

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Artistic Patronage of Abbots of St Albans

Fig. 1. Theft from the Tomb of St Cuthbert, Oxford, University College, MS 165, p. 163.

roughly contemporary and later continental reliquaries, including the St Godehard reliquary in Hildesheim and the St Amandus reliquary now in Baltimore.48 Richard’s feretrum might well have looked similar to any of these, at least in its broad outlines, but these examples were created for the relics of a patron saint, and Richard’s reliquary of the twelve apostles might have been somewhat less in size or decorative grandeur. Although the St Albans Apostles reliquary is described as holding the relics of more than twelve saints, such relics usually amounted not to large bones, but very small fragments, often wrapped in cloth to form bundles of only an inch or two in 48 Godehard

shrine: Hildesheim, c. 1140. A research volume based on recent restoration work is expected in 2018. For images, see Medieval Treasures from Hildesheim, ed. P. Barnet, M. Brandt and G. Lutz (New York, 2013), p. 17; Saint Amandus reliquary shrine: Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, acc. no. 53.9, Flemish, early thirteenth century with later additions, wood, gilt copper, silver, brass, enamel, semi–precious stones, 48.9 x 64.1 x 30.3cm; K. Gerry, ‘The Shrine of St. Amandus’, in Treasures of Heaven, p. 129.

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Kathryn Gerry length.49 Smaller reliquaries with the same architectonic form might provide closer comparisons, such as the many enamelled reliquaries made at Limoges, or the twelfth-century reliquary of Saints Adrian and Natalia, produced in Spain and now in Chicago.50 Whether Richard’s Apostles reliquary was decorated with narrative scenes like the reliquary of Adrian and Natalia or isolated figures like the Amandus reliquary is unclear from the description, but the format of a series of standing saints, each under its own arcade, is more common.51 Whatever this reliquary did look like, it is significant that Richard created a luxurious, figured reliquary to contain these particular relics. While Paul had sought to destroy material evidence of the monastery’s history, Richard appears to have embraced the physical traces of the abbey’s venerability. The relics of the apostles and their associations with Germanus of Auxerre look beyond the monastery’s Anglo-Saxon past to an even earlier period. The record of Germanus’ visit in 429 is the first extant reference to any cult activity at the site of St Albans and has been taken as an indication, or at least an implication, that Germanus’ acts served as a foundation for the cult.52 By honouring the relics that Germanus had left, Richard was in effect reaffirming this foundation, providing a firm date and an important historical figure from which to mark the beginning of the cult. The new reliquary served as witness to an ancient and reputable origin for the shrine of the saint and associated St Alban with a hero of orthodoxy and reform.53 Paul had tried to undermine the abbey’s association with King Offa, but Richard’s translation of these particular relics filled the need for an ancient foundation with a saintly founder who had no questionable Anglo-Saxon associations. Richard gave a second reliquary as well, made of gold and ivory, and holding the relics of many martyrs and other saints.54 Whether or not this

49 Examples

are numerous, including two reliquaries from the shrine of St Oda: London, British Museum, ac. no. PE 1978, 0502.7, and Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, ac. no. 57.519, for which see P. Verdier, ‘The Twelfth-Century Chasse of St. Ode from Amay’, Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch 42 (1981), 7–94. 50 Reliquary of Saints Adrian and Natalia, Art Institute of Chicago, ac. no. 1943.65, wood, silver, 15.9 x 25.4 x 14.5cm, early twelfth century, C. Neilsen, ‘Reliquary Casket of Sts Adrian and Natalia’, in Treasures of Heaven, p. 125; for several Limoges examples: Treasures of Heaven, pp. 183–5. 51 ‘[…] aureis imaginibus redimitam […]’, Gesta abbatum, p. 69. 52 Wood, ‘Germanus, Alban’. 53 For discussions of objects working in a related fashion at other institutions, see P. Buc, ‘Conversion of Objects’, Viator 28 (1997), 99–143; C. Hahn, ‘Relics and Reliquaries: The Construction of Imperial Memory and Meaning with Particular Attention to Treasuries at Conques, Aachen, and Quedlinburg’, in Representing History, 900–1300; Art, Music, History, ed. R. Maxwell (University Park PA, 2010), pp. 133–47, 235–8; A. Remensnyder, ‘Legendary Treasure at Conques: Reliquaries and Imaginative Memory’, Speculum 71 (1996), 884–906. 54 ‘Fecitque aliam thecam, ex una parte deauratam, ex alia vero, ebore coopertam, in

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Artistic Patronage of Abbots of St Albans work had images is not clear, and the reference to ivory could mean either new or reused elephant ivory, walrus ivory, or even bone. The Gesta abbatum does not specify that any older components were reused in this work, but this should not be ruled out, especially considering Richard’s interest in the relics associated with St Germanus and the abbey’s supposedly long-standing history. The refurbishment of an important older reliquary, or reuse of material from some object associated with the abbey’s past, might well have served a similar purpose, reminding viewers that the abbey, and the cult of St Alban, had deep roots. If an older piece was indeed reused or refitted, the eighth-century Franks casket and Gandersheim casket might offer points of reference.55 In addition to these reliquaries, the Gesta abbatum notes that Richard gave the abbey a textile, probably an altar dossal, with images of the passion of St Alban.56 Textiles are often recorded in church inventories and other documentation, but rarely preserved.57 Fragments of several embroidered altar frontals or dossals depicting scenes from the lives of saints or standing saints survive from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and a woven pictorial textile cycle of the Life of Edward was displayed at Westminster abbey from the thirteenth century until the seventeenth, but is now, like Richard’s St Alban textile, lost.58 It is also likely that the makers and patrons of such a work in the early twelfth century would have been familiar with embroidered works like the Bayeux Tapestry, the Byrhtnoth Tapestry, or the textiles found in the shrine of St Cuthbert.59 As will be discussed in greater detail below, Richard was present at the translation of St Cuthbert’s relics qua posuit reliquias plurimorum Martyrum et aliorum Sanctorum’, Gesta abbatum, p. 70. 55 Franks casket: London, British Museum, mus. no. 1867, 0120.1, whale bone, early eighth century, 22.9 x 19.0 x 10.9cm; see L. Webster, The Franks Casket (London, 2010). Gandersheim casket (possibly a chrismatory): Braunschweig, inv. MA 58, whalebone, bronze, late eighth century, 12.6 x 12.6 x 6.8cm; see Das Gandersheimer Runenkästchen: internationals Kolloquium, Bracuschweig, 24.–26. März 1999, ed. R. Marth (Braunschweig, 2000). 56 ‘Dedit […] dossale unum, sive tapecium, in quo Passio Sancti Albani figuratur’, Gesta abbatum, p. 70. 57 See N. Morgan, ‘Embroidered Textiles in the Service of the Church’, in English Medieval Embroidery: Opus Anglicanum, ed. C. Brown, G. Davies, M. A. Michael, with M. Zöschg (New Haven and London, 2016), pp. 25–39. 58 Ibid., pp. 35–7; P. Binski, ‘Abbot Berkyng’s Tapestries and Matthew Paris’s Life of St Edward the Confessor’, Archeologia 109 (1991), 89–95. 59 Scholarship on the Bayeux Tapestry is extensive: see, for example, The Bayeux Tapestry: New Interpretations, ed. M. K. Foys, K. E. Overbey and D. Terkla (Woodbridge, 2009). For the Byrhtnoth Tapestry: M. Budny, ‘The Byrhtnoth Tapestry or Embroidery’, in The Battle of Maldon, 991, ed. D. G. Scragg (Oxford, 1991), pp. 263–79. For the Cuthbert textiles: E. Plenderleith, C. Hohler and R. Freyhan, ‘The Stole and Maniples’, in The Relics of Saint Cuthbert, ed. C. F. Battiscombe (Oxford, 1956), pp. 375–432, plates XXIV–XXXII; The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art; 966–1066, ed. J. Backhouse, D. H. Turner and L. Webster (London, 1984), p. 19, and plate III.

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Kathryn Gerry in 1104, so he might well have seen the textiles associated with Cuthbert, although the non-narrative imagery on the Cuthbert textiles does not suggest that they could have served as a direct model.60 Better candidates for comparison might be the thirteenth-century Thomas Becket panels made in England and now at the Abegg-Stiftung, or fragments of English altar hangings depicting saints. Many of the altar hangings appear to have been arranged in two registers, and examples with standing saints under arches as well as narrative depictions of the life of Christ and the Virgin are known.61 The Becket panels, which might have been part of an altar frontal or perhaps panels covering a reliquary, depict scenes from the life of the saint under simple rounded arches, each scene containing two or three figures against a plain background.62 According to the account in the Gesta abbatum, Richard gave manuscripts to the abbey as well. A missal with some figural illumination is specified, but nothing specific to the cult of saints is mentioned in the text. However, I think it is plausible that Richard, as patron, was responsible for producing the pictorial Life of St Alexis which has since been bound with other materials to create the St Albans Psalter (Fig. 2). I have argued this more extensively elsewhere, as has Donald Matthew, but I want to return to this issue here to consider what it might mean in terms of Richard’s interests in particular saints and in the art associated with them.63 The date of the Alexis Quire is hotly contested, but between the style and the script, a date in the second decade of the twelfth century – during Richard’s abbacy – is certainly possible.64 This would fit in terms of historical circumstances, as well, since we know that Richard dedicated a chapel to St Alexis, a saint popular with Norman reformers, but otherwise virtually unknown in England.65 It is only

‘Tapecium’ is used to describe the St Alban textile in the Gesta abbatum, which could indicate any hanging rather than specifying a tapestry woven cloth. 60 Gesta abbatum, p. 70. 61 Morgan, ‘Embroidered Textiles’, pp. 35–7. 62 M. A. Michael, ‘The Artistic Context of Opus Anglicanum’, in English Medieval Embroidery, pp. 61–75 (p. 62). 63 Matthew, ‘The Incongruities’, pp. 408–10; K. Gerry, ‘The Alexis Quire and the Cult of Saints at St Albans’, Historical Research 82 (2009), 593–612; K. Gerry, ‘Cult and Codex: Alexis, Christina and the Saint Albans Psalter’, in Der Albani Psalter, pp. 61–87. 64 For several opinions, see F. Wormald in The St Albans Psalter, pp. 275–80; Matthew, ‘The Incongruities’, 396–416; U. Mölk, ‘Der Lateinishe Albani–Psalter und sein französisches Alexiuslied’, in Der Albani Psalter, pp. 45–56 (p. 50). 65 For the chapel dedication: Gesta abbatum, pp. 70–1, 148; this dedication most likely took place at the 1115 consecration of the abbey church. In the twelfth century St Werburgh’s, Chester, an English dependency of Bec, owned a copy of the Life of St Alexis in an early twelfth-century collection of saints’ lives (London, Gray’s Inn, MS 3, fol. 128r and ff); see N. R. Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, 5 vols. (Oxford, 1969–2002), I, 52–5. Another English dependency of Bec, St Neot’s

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Artistic Patronage of Abbots of St Albans

Fig. 2. The Life of St Alexis, St Albans Psalter, Hildesheim, Dombibliothek MS St Godehard 1, p. 57.

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Kathryn Gerry at St Albans that St Alexis appears to play any noteworthy role in England: in addition to the chapel, several copies of his Life in Latin and Anglo-Norman were produced in the first half of the twelfth century.66 Aside from the dating of the manuscript and the chapel, there are other reasons for thinking that this particular copy of St Alexis’ Life should be associated with Richard, and these reasons open up questions about how works of visual art could pay a role in negotiating relations between institutions. According to the Gesta abbatum, Richard attended the translation of St Cuthbert in Durham in 1104. While there, Richard’s withered arm was miraculously healed, leading the abbot to dedicate a chapel to St Cuthbert in the new church at St Albans.67 In light of these events, we should give serious consideration to the strong visual and technical similarities between the earliest known illustrated Life of St Cuthbert, probably available at Durham when Richard was there, and the illustrated Life of St Alexis produced at St Albans (Figs. 30 and 31).68 The most notable similarities are the technique of tinted line drawing, somewhat old-fashioned by the first half of the twelfth century, and the arrangement of a band of narrative scenes placed at the start of a chapter of text – not a unique arrangement, but not common in saints’ lives in this period.69 If the illustrated Life of St Alexis is the product of (Huntingdonshire) included an entry for Alexis in a thirteenth-century calendar (Oxford, Brasenose College, MS 21, fols. 2r–7v), based on that of Bec; F. Wormald, English Benedictine Kalendars after 1100 A.D., 2 vols. (London, 1939), II, 105–18. Hartzell makes a very strong case for the cult of Alexis arriving at St Albans via Canterbury, possibly before Richard’s abbacy: Hartzell, ‘St Albans Miscellany’, pp. 44–7. 66 The Anglo-Norman Vie de saint Alexis is found in the St Albans Psalter (Hildesheim, Dombibliothek, MS St Godehard 1); for an edition, translation and commentary, see C. J. Odenkirchen, Life of St. Alexius (Brookline, 1978). For a recent historiographical summary of the Alexis tradition: T. Hunt, ‘The Life of St Alexis, 475–1125’, in Christina of Markyate; A Twelfth-Century Holy Woman, ed. S. Fanous and H. Leyser (London, 2005), pp. 217–28. A copy of the Roman Latin Vita was produced at St Albans c. 1100: New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.926 fols. 69–73; see Thomson, Manuscripts, pp. 115–16; Hartzell, ‘St Albans Miscellany’, pp. 20–61. Two manuscripts of the Montecassino version of the text come from cells of St Albans: one from Wymondham (Oxford, Magdalen College, MS 53), and one from Tynemouth (Cambridge, Pembroke College, MS 82); see Thomson, Manuscripts from St Albans, pp. 116–17, 129. 67 Gesta abbatum, p. 70. 68 K. Gerry, ‘Picturing Narrative’, pp. 47–55; for this Life of St Cuthbert, Oxford, University College, MS 165, see Baker, ‘Medieval Illustrations’, pp. 16–49; on the availability of the manuscript at the translation ceremony, see B. Abou-el-Haj, ‘The Audiences for the Medieval Cult of Saints’, Gesta 30 (1991), 3–15 (pp. 4–7). 69 Although this arrangement is similar to later medieval saints’ lives, including those associated with St Albans, the earliest illustrated saints’ lives, including those from the twelfth century, do not present a clear pattern of design or layout; see F. Wormald, ‘Some Illustrated Manuscripts of the Lives of the Saints’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 35 (1952), 248–66, and C. Hahn, Portrayed on the Heart: Narrative

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Artistic Patronage of Abbots of St Albans Richard’s patronage, along with the St Cuthbert Chapel, then it would seem that Richard’s personal experiences were a driving force in his patronage. Aside from Richard’s personal gratitude to St Cuthbert, it is possible that he intended these works to forge or strengthen relationships between Durham and St Albans. The suggestion that this was the case can be found in the Gesta abbatum, both in what is stated and what is omitted. According to the text, Richard dedicated chapels in the new church to saints Cuthbert and Alexis; these dedications would likely have taken place when the new church, begun by Abbot Paul and completed by Richard, was consecrated in 1115. A number of notable prelates attended the 1115 consecration ceremony at St Albans, including Ranulf Flambard, the bishop of Durham, and it was Flambard who consecrated the chapel of St Alexis.70 This is significant in light of a dispute between St Albans and Durham over the priory of Tynemouth beginning in the 1090s. When the priory was re-founded, the patron Robert de Mowbray placed it under the jurisdiction of St Albans. Although Durham was certainly the closer major monastery and had ties to Tynemouth through Jarrow, Mowbray was not on good terms with the bishop of Durham at the time, William of St Calais. Tynemouth would remain subject to St Albans well into the twelfth century, despite the efforts of Durham to regain control of the priory.71 The St Albans Gesta abbatum glosses over this dispute, merely noting that St Albans was granted Tynemouth with the blessings of the king and Lanfranc, and later referring to various ordinances and events relating to the priory through the twelfth century, none of which have to do with Durham’s claim or any dispute.72 Is it possible that in the records of Richard’s artistic and chapel patronage we are seeing an effort to heal the divide between these two important institutions? The text at least testifies to the good relations between the prelates of St Albans and Durham within a couple of decades of the initial quarrel over Tynemouth. Perhaps not only in Richard’s attendance at the translation of St Cuthbert but in the works commissioned in relationship to this visit, the abbot was making amends with the community, or at least

Effect in Pictorial Lives of the Saints from the Tenth through the Thirteenth Century (Berkeley and London, 2001). 70 Gesta abbatum, pp. 70–1, 148. 71 W. M. Aird, St Cuthbert and the Normans: the Church of Durham, 1071–1153 (Woodbridge, 1998), pp. 176–7. Aird notes that it was under Bishop Ranulf (r. 1099–1128) that a concerted effort was made to recover Tynemouth. If the presence of Richard at St Cuthbert’s translation and the presence of Ranulf at the consecration of St Albans were indications that the two foundations were on good terms, this did not last much past Richard’s death as the monks of Durham brought an action in court against St Albans in 1021. Aird indicates that the cell returned to the control of Durham in the 1170s, but the Gesta abbatum indicates that it was a cell of St Albans as late as the abbacy of John (1195–1214). 72 Gesta abbatum, pp. 57, 68–9, 120, 222–3.

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Kathryn Gerry the leaders, of Durham, honouring their patron saint with a chapel and, in a more subtle way, forging a link between saints Cuthbert and Alexis, a newly introduced member of the St Albans saintly community. Although we have only a brief written account of the patronage of Richard, comparative examples allow us to speculate with some confidence as to what the reliquaries given by the abbot might have looked like, and perhaps get some idea of the Alban textile. More importantly, I think, we have the suggestion that Richard was not only thinking of the general importance of various saints and the potential for glorifying St Albans through an accrual of saintly patrons, but that he was seeking to construct a presentation of the abbey of St Albans as both a venerable foundation and one that was working in concert, rather than conflict, with other important institutions. Richard presented the relics reputedly given to St Albans seven centuries earlier by the sainted Germanus in a reliquary of rich fabric and pictorial work. By using art and architecture to promote Alexis and give Cuthbert a place at St Albans, Richard was not only increasing the ranks of saints at the abbey, but perhaps forging closer bonds with Durham and helping to move beyond the dispute between the two monasteries over Tynemouth. Paul and Richard, as examples of abbatial patrons of art and architecture, take us from the immediate aftermath of the Conquest into a more settled moment in the early twelfth century, and present us with several models of patronage. Paul, primarily concerned with reform, does seem to have been driven in part by his personal interests in setting up a scriptorium and commissioning numerous volumes for the abbey, although these projects were supported by a Norman donor and the archbishop of Canterbury. The Gesta abbatum describes his choice of texts as those necessary for the operation of a monastic church, but beyond the service books we find that Paul might have overseen the copying of hagiographical material that emphasized connections with the wider Church, rather than parochial concerns. If we stretch the notion of patronage to include what we might call ‘anti-patronage’ in his destruction and neglect of historical monuments, we might suspect that we are seeing his own personal prejudices taking precedence over the larger interests of the monastery. With Richard, on the other hand, we find a leader adept at using the material paraphernalia of the cult of saints to strengthen ties with other institutions and reinforce the venerability of his own abbey, certainly building on his own experiences, but working to situate St Albans favourably within the larger network of Anglo-Norman religious institutions.

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10 Matthew Paris, Cecilia de Sanford and the Early Readership of the Vie de Seint Auban* Laura Slater

The English monk, historian and artist Matthew Paris composed and illustrated his Vie de Seint Auban (Dublin, Trinity College, MS 177) between 1230 and 1250.1 On folios 29v–50r, thirty tinted outline drawings with a colour wash in Matthew’s own hand accompany his Anglo-Norman French verse account of the conversion and martyrdom of St Alban. A supposed fourthcentury Romano-British patrician, Alban was the patron saint of Matthew’s Benedictine abbey in Hertfordshire.2 Preceded by two unillustrated Latin vitae of St Alban, Matthew’s Vie is followed by a further series of Latin texts. These consist of liturgical lessons for the feast of the invention and translation of St Alban’s relics; a treatise on the invention and translation of St Alban’s relics; copies of a series of spurious foundation charters purportedly issued to St Albans abbey by King Offa of Mercia and his son; and a series of treatises primarily concerned with the invention and miracles of the relics of Amphibalus, the Welsh missionary responsible for Alban’s conversion.3 Matthew enlivened these texts with

* This paper is a result of my participation in the ‘History Books in the Anglo-Norman World c.1100–1300’ research project, funded by the Marie Curie Programme (FP7). I thank Laura Cleaver for her aid throughout, both in relation to this paper and other project activities. 1 The date of the manuscript’s text and illustrations has been much debated and will not be the subject of discussion here: see T. S. Fenster and J. Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, in The Life of Saint Alban by Matthew Paris, trans. T. S. Fenster and J. Wogan-Browne (Tempe AZ, 2010), pp. 1–65 (pp. 19–20); C. Baswell, ‘The Manuscript Context’, in The Life of Saint Alban by Matthew Paris, trans. T. S. Fenster and J. WoganBrowne (Tempe AZ, 2010), pp. 169–94 (pp. 171–3); S. Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica Majora (Aldershot, 1987), pp. 384–5, 387; N. Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 1: 1190–1250 (London, 1982), no. 85, pp. 130–3; F. McCulloch, ‘Saints Alban and Amphibalus in the Works of Matthew Paris: Dublin, Trinity College MS 177’, Speculum 56 (1981), 761–85 (pp. 778–9, 785). 2 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, p. 5; McCulloch, ‘Saints’, p. 765. He was classed by Bede as the proto-martyr of the English. 3 The full contents of the manuscript are given in Fenster and Wogan-Browne,

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Laura Slater another twenty-four images, placed in the upper section of each folio and unfolding in the manner of a strip cartoon. All are accompanied by AngloNorman verse rubrics at the head of each page. These later illustrations depict the journey to Britain made by the sixthcentury bishops St Lupus of Troye and St Germanus of Auxerre. The bishops are shown holding a council at Verulamium (the Roman town from which medieval and modern St Albans evolved), as part of their fight against the Pelagian heresy, and declaring their great respect and honour for Alban (fols. 51r–55r).4 This section includes a pictorial interpolation from the life of St Genevieve (fols. 52r–52v).5 In keeping with the textual contents below, it is followed by a visual account of the invention of Alban’s relics, and the foundation and patronage of the abbey by King Offa of Mercia in the eighth century (fols. 55v–63r).6 Across the manuscript, the illustrations thus range from the era of apostolic and missionary early Christianity to an imagined ‘golden age’ of Anglo-Saxon Christian kingship. The ‘multimedia’ mix of French and Latin texts, verse captions and illustrations found in MS 177 enabled Matthew’s updated account of the life, death and cult of Alban to answer to the needs of both monastic and lay readers.7 Encompassing pagan Roman, barbarian German, Islamic and heretical threats to Christendom, Matthew’s palimpsest of texts, images and temporal eras wove together dangers at once ‘past’ and very ‘present’. As a dossier of historical accounts, liturgical records, legal privileges and miracle testimony, the manuscript brought together divine, historical, ceremonial and legal claims to the abbey’s authority in a textual and visual summa of monastic status and identity.8 Later known as the ‘Book of St Albans’, it was shown to visitors in the abbot’s study, including King Henry VI, and was sometimes placed on the high altar for general veneration alongside the Book of Benefactors.9 Yet despite the quality of its autograph illustrations and its institutional importance, MS 177 is small in size and contains numerous poor-quality or composite vellum pages. There are many signs of improvization: miscellaneous notes on the flyleaves, unfinished pictures, mistakes and interruptions in the text, and additional pasted-in fragments of lost illustrations.10 This has long suggested to scholars that MS ‘Introduction’, pp. 16–17; P. Quinn, ‘Alban Disbound: Codicological Remarks on Matthew Paris’s Life of St Alban’, in The Life of Saint Alban by Matthew Paris, pp. 195–212 (p. 196). 4 McCulloch, ‘Saints’, pp. 762–70; Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, p. 4. 5 McCulloch, ‘Saints’, p. 770. 6 Ibid. p. 771. 7 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, p. 17. 8 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, p. 15; Baswell, ‘The Manuscript Context’, pp. 182–4; McCulloch, ‘Saints’, pp. 761, 769. 9 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, p. 17. 10 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, p. 15, note the loss of eight illustrations

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Vie de Seint Auban 177 is a prototype or maquette, designed to be used for making much higherquality presentation copies.11 Some of the potential readers of such finished copies are suggested by a famous note on the flyleaf of folio 2r in Matthew’s own hand, asking for a message to be sent to ‘the lady Countess of Arundel, Isabel, that she is to send you the book about St. Thomas the Martyr and St. Edward, which I copied and designed, and which the lady Countess of Cornwall [Sanchia of Provence] may keep until Whitsuntide’.12 Female readers were a key audience for all Matthew’s hagiographic compositions.13 Engaging the devotions of influential aristocratic women to the cult of St Alban was especially important for safeguarding the future of Matthew’s monastery.14 Institutional service and pastoral care of the laity converged in his production of MS 177. This essay examines how elements of the Vie de Seint Auban and its illustrated addenda engage directly with the life choices, devotional actions, interests and activities of Cecilia de Sanford. During her widowhood, she was chosen (‘electa est’) as ‘mistress and teacher of manners’ (‘magistra et morum informatrix’) to Eleanor Plantagenet, Henry III’s sister, and Joan de Munchensi, married in 1247 to William de Valence, one of the king’s controversial Lusignan kin.15 Matthew was skilled in tailoring his material to the concerns of real or potential patrons. I argue that Matthew may have been writing with the perceived spiritual and instructional needs of Cecilia, and the royal women placed in her care, directly in mind. Matthew knew Cecilia personally and held her in high regard. Her confessor and members of her natal family regularly provided him with material for the Chronica Majora. Her importance to Matthew as a local friend and benefactor of the abbey, and the access she offered to powerful future patrons of St Albans, through her role as ‘governess’ to the king’s young female kin, gave Matthew good reason to craft a resonant and responsive hagiography. I am not suggesting that Matthew’s audience was in any way limited to Cecilia de Sanford: simply that she may have been an important intended early reader, and may have influenced Matthew’s organisation and presentation of his historical material.

from Matthew’s series; Baswell, ‘The Manuscript Context’, pp. 173–81. ‘The Manuscript Context’, pp. 181–2; Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, pp. 18–20. 12 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, p. 16. Sanchia was the wife of Richard of Cornwall, the younger brother of Henry III, and the sister of Henry’s queen, Eleanor of Provence. 13 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, pp. 32–3. 14 Ibid., p. 33. 15 Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, ed. H. R. Luard, 7 vols. (London, 1872–83), V, 235; H. W. Ridgeway, ‘Valence, William de, earl of Pembroke (d. 1296)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29481 (accessed 5 June 2016). 11 Baswell,

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Laura Slater

Cecilia de Sanford and her family Matthew’s obituary of Cecilia in the Chronica Majora, marking her death on 23 July 1251, is written on folio 252r of Cambridge, Corpus Christ College, MS 16 II.16 There are no vignettes on the page; the only ornamentation comes from pen-work flourishes in blue and red ink marking the text divisions. The page is laid out with two columns of text. Matthew’s obituary takes up the full left-hand column and a further ten lines of the column on the right-hand side of the page. Unusually, he introduces this ‘most saintly’ (‘sanctissima’) noblewoman by her maiden name, praising her for her noble blood, but more noble manners, or morals (‘sanguine nobilis, sed moribus nobilior’). Matthew then records her worldly status as the widow of William de Gorham, knight, and mother to his heir. He narrates how after many years as a widow (‘pluribus annis’), she was chosen as ‘mistress and teacher of manners’ (‘magistra et morum informatrix’) to the king’s sister Eleanor, widow of William Marshal II (d. 1231), and afterwards to Joan de Munchensi.17 This is credited to her great learning, wisdom and eloquence (she was ‘docta valde et faceta et eloquens’). In the company of Eleanor and in the presence of the archbishop of Canterbury, St Edmund of Abingdon, Cecilia made a solemn vow of chastity to God, marked by a ring of betrothal.18 Matthew notes that, in contrast to Eleanor’s later marriage to Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester (in 1238), and her release from her vow by papal indulgence, Cecilia observed her vow in mind and body (‘mente et habitu’) until her death. He then records her exemplary ‘good death’. Having summoned her confessor, a Dominican, Walter of St Martin, again commended by Matthew for his learning and character (he was ‘virum eleganter moribus […] et scientia’), Cecilia made a full confession and received the last rites. As she awaited death, Brother Walter noticed that she still wore the gold ring of betrothal on her finger and ordered her servants to remove it. Cecilia refused, stating almost with her last breath her intention to produce the ring before the judgment of God

16 Matthew

Paris, Chronica Majora, V, 235–6 and for all subsequent quotations. text mistakenly refers to Eleanor as Joanna, but his meaning is clear: ‘Johannae sororis domini regis, relictae Willelmi Marescalli junioris, et postea uxoris Willelmi de Valentia Johannae’. This could be translated literally as ‘Joan, widow of William Marshal and afterwards the wife of William de Valence’, but as an intended meaning, is most unlikely. Matthew goes on to discuss Eleanor’s marriage to Simon de Montfort, and Joanna de Valence was the daughter of Warin de Munchensi, a prominent donor of St Albans commemorated fulsomely elsewhere (Paris, Chronica Majora, V, 504). It is more probable that Matthew wrote ‘Joanna’ rather than ‘Eleanor’ twice by mistake, and the clause is translated here as: ‘and afterwards [Cecilia was governess to] Joan the wife of William de Valence’. 18 This event is also recorded in Chronicon de Lanercost 1201–1346. E Codice Cottoniano Nunc Primum Typis Mandatum, ed. J. Stevenson (Edinburgh, 1839), p. 39; J. R. Maddicott, Simon de Montfort (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 22, 40. 17 Matthew’s

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Vie de Seint Auban her spouse (‘tribunal Dei sponsi’) as a token of the inviolate chastity she had promised him. On account of her heavenly spouse, she had refused the embraces of nobles and offers of rich dowries (‘nobilium amplexus […] cum opimis dotibus’). Keeping possession of her ring to the end, she then expired. Matthew records how Brother Walter (again praised as a ‘vir discretus’), commending her devout words and pious purpose, related these events to him and other arguments for her sanctity (‘alia sanctitatis argumenta’). Still wearing her ring, Cecilia’s body was brought to St Albans. On account of her vow of chastity and the nobility of her family, she was buried in a stone sarcophagus within the abbey church, before the altar dedicated to St Andrew.19 The abbot and convent were present at the obsequies, alongside a multitude of knights and nobles of her family, including her brother, Nicholas de Sanford. Unable to recover from his great grief at the death of his sister, this acme of knightly elegance and bravery died the following January.20 Matthew records his passing a second time further on in the Chronica Majora, and again ascribes it to his grief and sorrow at the loss of his sister.21 Found on folio 258r of Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 16 II, his entry here includes a reversed shield of the Sanford arms.22 Elsewhere in the Chronica Majora, a 1258 record of the hangings donated to the abbey church includes notice of the gift of one hanging by ‘Cecilia de Gorham’.23 Little is known of the Sanford family. Although a fictitious barony was later assumed by the de Vere earls of Oxford, as a result of the marriage of Robert de Vere (c. 1240–96) to Alice de Sanford (d. 1317) before 1252, the family were never formally raised to the peerage, and a broader investigation of their history and property is beyond the scope of this paper.24 Cecilia was probably the daughter of John de Sanford (d. c. 1234) of Great Hormead, Hertfordshire, and had at least two brothers, Nicholas (d. 1252) and Gilbert (d. c. 1248).25 Gilbert de Sanford claimed the office of chamberlain to the queen at the coronation of Eleanor of Provence in 1236, by right of his lordship over the

19 Matthew

Paris, Chronica Majora, V, 236. ‘Erat nempe aetate juvenili, corpore elegans, nullique in Anglia in strenuitate militari secundus’. 21 Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, V, 273–4. 22 Ibid., VI, 476. 23 Ibid., VI, 390. 24 G. E. C. Cokayne, Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct or dormant, 8 vols. (London, 1887–97), VI, 163–4; VII, 48; F. Madden, B. Bandinel and J. Gough Nichols, Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, 8 vols. (London, 1834–43), V, 192, n. G: ‘Little seems to be known of the extinct family of Sanford’. 25 A 1243 grant in Calendar of Close Rolls Henry III, ed. M. C. M. Lyte and A. E. Stamp, 14 vols. (London, 1902–38), V, 27, refers to Nicholas de Sanford and ‘Gilbert de Sanford fratris suis’. 20 Ibid.,

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Laura Slater manor of Fingreth in Essex.26 The marriage of his daughter Alice marks the apparent extinction of the Sanford line. Possibly descended from the Robert de Sanford, knight, holding the manor of Sandford upon Thames in Oxfordshire from Abingdon Abbey in 1111, this branch of the family had a concentration of property and interests in Essex and Hertfordshire.27 They founded the Augustinian priory of Blackmore, Essex, in the late twelfth century.28 A 1221x30 charter of the priory records John de Sanford as Blackmore’s patron, and the burial of his father Alan de Sanford in the priory ‘next to his ancestors’ (‘juxta progenitores suos elegisset sepulturam’). From the twelfth century onwards, the Sanfords were closely connected to the Basset family of royal servants. The Blackmore priory charter grants Gilbert Basset (d. 1241) the right of presentation over one canon to conduct services in memory of Alan de Sanford, who is referred to as his (Gilbert’s) ‘nephew’.29 Extant thirteenth-century Basset charters are frequently witnessed by Sanford men, including Alan de Sanford in 1223, John de Sanford, Gilbert de Sanford and in a 1233x41 charter, ‘Thoma et Nicholas de Sanford fratribus’.30 There were also property transactions between the families.31 The Blackmore priory charter further records 26 English

Coronation Records, ed. L. G. Wickham Legg (Westminster, 1901), pp. lxviii, lxxix, 61, 64; M. Howell, Eleanor of Provence. Queenship in Thirteenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), p. 20, n. 85. 27 M. D. Lobel, ed., A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 5, Bullingdon Hundred (London, 1957), pp. 267–75. British History Online, http://www.british-history. ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol5/pp267-275 (accessed 20 May 2016). Robert was succeeded by his son, Jordon. In 1240, one Thomas de Sanford, son of Thomas, gave all his lands to the Templars. 28 W. Page and J. Horace Round, ed., A History of the County of Essex: Volume 2 (London, 1907), pp. 146–8. British History Online, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/ essex/vol2/pp146-148 (accessed 14 May 2016). The church at Great Hormead was one of several appropriated to the priory. 29 The charter is published in Basset Charters c.1120 to 1250, ed. W. T. Reedy (London, 1995), no. 248, pp. 167–8; A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds in the Public Records Office, 6 vols. (London, 1890–1915), I, 59, A501 (subsequently Ancient Deeds). It is witnessed by ‘lord John de Sanford’ and ‘Gilbert de Sanford clerico’. See also ‘Houses of Austin Canons’, pp. 146–8. 30 Basset Charters, no. 246, p. 166; no. 248, pp. 167–8; no. 250, p. 169; no. 253, pp. 171–2; no. 268, p. 182; no. 255, p. 173. Ancient Deeds I: A199, A405, A501, A514, A729, A806, A807, A923, A1076, A1358, B28. Witnesses include Laurence de Sanford, Peter de Sanford, Thomas de Sanford and Fulk de Sanford, treasurer of St Paul’s, London. Fulk held the treasurership from 1252, before his appointment as archbishop of Dublin in 1256: M. Murphy, ‘Sandford, Fulk of (d. 1271)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/24635 (accessed 3 June 2016). 31 W. Farrer, Honors and Knights Fees, 3 vols. (Manchester, 1923–5), III, p. 232, notes that in 1259 Alan Basset gave land to the canons of Bicester which he held by the gift of Roger de Sampford, who granted to Philip Basset holdings in Deddington, Oxfordshire.

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Vie de Seint Auban the name of John de Sanford’s wife, Alice.32 She was the sister of Gilbert Basset.33 Another brother of Gilbert Basset was Fulk (d. 1259), bishop of London. In summer 1249, the wardship and marriage of Gilbert de Sanford’s daughter Alice was granted by Henry III to Hugh de Vere, earl of Oxford, via Fulk Basset.34 His actions here attest to continuing closeness between the two families.35 The suggestion in the Blackmore priory charter of repeated intermarriages between the Sanfords and Bassets also helps account for the confused patronyms of Fulk de Sanford (d. 1271) and his probable brother John de Sanford (d. 1294), both archbishops of Dublin. As the nephew of Sir Philip Basset (d. 1271), Fulk has been assumed to be the son of either Fulk Basset, bishop of London, or Gilbert Basset himself.36 Alternatively, they may have been illegitimate sons of John de Sanford. Matthew Paris records the 1257 presence in Ireland of Cecilia’s own son, classing him as the seneschal to his kinsman (‘consanguineus’), Fulk de Sanford, archbishop of Dublin.37 When narrating the 1251 accusations made against the justice Henry of Bath, Matthew notices another Basset-Sanford alliance; Henry’s wife Alina sought the help of her natal kin (‘Bassatensibus et Sanfordensibus originem duxerat’), and Cecilia’s brother Nicholas spoke up in his defence.38 A 1227x43 grant by Hubert de Burgh, earl of Kent, to Philip Basset was witnessed by Gilbert and Nicholas de Sanford, and one William de Gorham, perhaps Cecilia’s husband.39 We see here a close network of baronial associates, bound by mutually reinforcing ties of kinship, property and royal service. The Hertfordshire knight William de Gorham was part of a local noble family with longstanding connections to St Albans abbey. William possessed 32 Basset

Charters, no. 248, pp. 167–8. p. xxxix, VI Genealogical Table (3). 34 Cockayne, Complete Peerage, VI, 164; Collectanea, V, 199; W. Page ed., A History of the County of Buckingham: Volume 4 (London, 1927), pp. 8–9. British History Online, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/bucks/vol4/pp8-9 (accessed 15 May 2016). On 13 July 1249, the fine rolls (33/332) record ‘that the king has granted to the bishop of London that Hugh de Vere, earl of Oxford, may answer for him at the Exchequer for the 1000 m. by which the same bishop made fine with the king for having the custody of the land and heir of Gilbert de Saunford’: see http:// www.finerollshenry3.org.uk/content/calendar/roll_046.html#it332_005 (accessed 10 June 2016). For his career see R. M. Franklin, ‘Basset, Fulk (d. 1259)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1638 (accessed 10 July 2016). 35 S. L. Waugh, The Lordship of England. Royal Wardships and Marriages in English Society and Politics 1217–1327 (Princeton, 1988), pp. 202–3 for the role of family friends and allies in overseeing the granting of royal wardships. 36 Murphy, ‘Sandford, Fulk of’. 37 ‘William de Gorham milite tunc existente in Hibernia, qui cum archiepiscopo Dublinensi morabatur, ejus senescallus et consanguineus’; Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, VI, 375. 38 Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, V, 213–15 (213). 39 Catalogue of Ancient Deeds, II, p. 98, A2595. 33 Ibid.,

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Laura Slater the manor of Westwick (also called Gorehambury) on the fringes of the town itself. Granted to St Albans abbey in 996, the manor had been alienated to members of the Gorham family during the abbacy of Geoffrey de Gorham (1119–46).40 William de Gorham seems to have taken possession of it sometime between 1220 and his own death c. 1230.41 A mid thirteenth-century cartulary of the Benedictine nunnery and leper hospital of St Mary de Pré, founded in 1194 by Abbot Warin of St Albans, preserves copies of six charters mainly of the Gorham family.42 Brief attention is also given in the Chronica Majora to the activities of Cecilia’s son and heir, also William de Gorham (d. 1275): a trespass on the abbey’s lands prosecuted in 1240, his 1257 absence in Ireland, details of his landholdings and the 1259 witnessing of a charter providing for lights in St Albans abbey church, around its altar dedicated to the Virgin Mary.43

St Genevieve in the Vie de Seint Auban Matthew’s lengthy account of the vows of chastity made by Cecilia de Sanford and Eleanor Plantagenet provides an obvious context in which the pictorial interlude on folio 52r–v concerned with the life of St Genevieve can be read. Giving female vows of chastity a secure place in his epic sacred history of events in France, England and St Albans, Matthew may have intended his image to promote a less than well-established custom for secular widows, affirm the spiritual heroism of Cecilia’s actions, and strengthen and support her in the keeping of her vow ‘ad mortem mente et habitu’.44 The patron saint of the city of Paris, St Genevieve’s death is recorded in the Chronica Majora under AD 512.45 Matthew records her as ‘Genovefa Parisiensis’, and it is possible that the choice of this exemplary consecrated virgin by ‘Matthaei Parisiensis’ was in part a deliberate authorial allusion. Thought to have averted an attack on Paris by Attila the Hun through prayer and fasting, Genevieve also played an active role when the city was besieged by Childeric I, personally making a sortie with armed men to obtain provisions from Arcis and Troyes.46 Thelma S. Fenster and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne 40 W.

Page ed., A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 2 (London, 1908), pp. 392–405. British History Online, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/ vol2/pp392-405 (accessed 10 June 2016). 41 Collectanea Topographica, V, 189–93 (p. 192). 42 TNA, E40/1452: G. R. C. Davies, C. Breay, J. Harrison and D. M. Smith, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain and Ireland (London, 2010), p. 172. 43 Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, IV, 50–4, VI, 233, 375, 417, 436–7. 44 Ibid., V, 235. 45 ‘Eodem anno virgo Sancta Genovefa Parisiensis octogenaria transiit ad Dominum’, Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, I, 234. 46 D. H. Farmer, Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Oxford, 1992), pp. 164–5.

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Vie de Seint Auban suggest that the incident ‘asserts the antiquity and standing of Christianity and its protomartyr in England’, with the patron saint of Paris cast as a minor figure in the visual narrative of travelling bishops and church councils.47 Florence McCulloch interpreted the inclusion of an episode only indirectly linked to Alban’s cult as a mark of Matthew’s attentiveness to his female audiences.48 St Genevieve was certainly culted in Anglo-Norman England: her feast was celebrated in five English abbeys and there are two surviving church dedications to her, both in Suffolk.49 On folio 52r (Plate IV), the saint is shown making her vow of chastity to St Germanus of Auxerre. According to Matthew’s rubrics, Lupus and Germanus, on their way to England to teach ‘people who have gone astray to love God and truly believe in him’, have arrived in Paris.50 A maiden born in Paris, Genevieve, ‘has heard talk about these holy men who intend to cross the sea. She has come to St. Germanus; she vows chastity before him’.51 The viewer sees Germanus enthroned in episcopal state and placed in an almost profile view in the centre of the image, wearing a mitre and with a closed book resting in his lap. The slight suggestion of grasping fingers at the top of the book, confused by rolling folds of drapery, suggests rethinking on Matthew’s part of the bishop’s gestures, for both of Germanus’s arms are outstretched towards Genevieve, index fingers upraised as if teaching or even blessing the maiden kneeling directly before him. St Lupus is seated behind Germanus, mitre on head and staff in hand. His right hand points to the scroll or charter in the crook of his left arm. Three scholarly advisers stand behind the bishops. On the far left of the miniature is a bearded scholar in a Phrygian cap, mouth open and right hand upraised. Another elderly, white-bearded man stands next to him, and a younger adult wearing a soft red cap stands on the far right, directly behind the figure of Germanus. Genevieve kneels before Germanus with her palms open, figure poised upright and a veil placed over her curling blonde hair. Her mouth is closed: despite Matthew’s use of the present tense in his rubric, she is not actually speaking. The red cloak over her robe has particular prominence. In Matthew’s image, it covers both shoulders and spills down in generous, gently curving 47 The

Life of Saint Alban by Matthew Paris, trans. T. S. Fenster and J. Wogan-Browne (Tempe AZ, 2010), p. 125 (subsequently Alban). 48 McCulloch, ‘Saints’, p. 770. 49 F. Arnold Forster, Studies in Church Dedications, or, England’s Patrons Saints, 3 vols. (Skeffington, 1899), II, p. 487. 50 Alban, p. 104; ‘La gent assenser demaleire/De Deu amer e a droit creire’, La Vie de Seint Auban: An Anglo-Norman Poem of the Thirteenth Century, ed. A. R. Harden (Oxford, 1968), p. 60, ll. 265–6. 51 Ibid. p. 104; ‘Une pucele i unt truvee,/Genovefe de Paris [nee.]/Ele ot de ces seinz parler/K’en purpose sunt de mer passer./A seint Germein est venue;/Chasteté devant lui [vue]’, Vie de Seint Auban, p. 60, lines 269–74.

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Laura Slater folds to her ankles, effectively covering Genevieve from the waist down. This detail connects directly with contemporary ceremonies of vows of chastity, for Matthew’s obituary of Cecilia explicitly records that along with the ring of betrothal to God, Cecilia accepted a russet robe or cloak.52 On the far right of the scene, Genevieve’s parents stand behind her. Left hand upraised, but lost in folds in drapery, her father displays his right palm outwards to the viewer, as if pushing curious spectators away. His act appears to acknowledge the viewer’s place in the scene. The viewer of the manuscript becomes a direct and living presence at this event, another authenticating witness to Genevieve’s vows and ultimate sanctity.53 The power of Genevieve’s father’s gesture is enhanced by the communal modes of devotional reading practised in the thirteenth century.54 An eager contemporary ‘crowd’ might well have been gathered before the manuscript, following its visual imagery while listening to a cleric read the text aloud, or even gloss its visual content extempore. The immersive and cinematic quality of Matthew’s narrative is also apparent in the figure of Genevieve’s mother.55 She stands on the far right of the scene, partly obscured by the picture frame. Suggestive of unseen action, movement and presences beyond the view of the audience, Matthew’s page layout presents the briefest of windows into a demonstrably ‘living’ past, its characters apparently walking and moving autonomously beyond the picture frames. Cynthia Hahn has explored how Matthew’s hagiography contrasts with earlier medieval depictions of saints in a timeless, iconic void.56 Instead, throughout MS 177, the viewer is caught up in a complex, action-packed and emotionally engaging narrative, which simultaneously sustains sophisticated moral, allegorical and typological visual commentaries on the events depicted.57 Also designed to be emotionally moving, folio 52r presents a touching image of parental affection and concern. While Genevieve’s father seeks to keep potential crowds at bay and stands protectively over his daughter, her mother moves forward from behind, her robes entangled with Genevieve’s feet.

52 ‘[…]

cumque anulo sponsali vestem accepit de russet, quibus in testimonium perpetui coelibatus uteretur [...]’, Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, V, 235. 53 C. Hahn, Portrayed on the Heart: Narrative Effect in Pictorial Lives of the Saints of the Tenth through the Thirteenth Century (Berkeley and London, 2001), pp. 308–10, discusses the importance of public acts of witness in Matthew’s hagiography. 54 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, pp. 17–18. See also A. Taylor, ‘Into his secret chamber: Reading and Privacy in Late Medieval England’, in The Practice and Representation of Reading in England, ed. J. Raven, H. Small and N. Tadmor (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 41–61; J. Bryan, Looking Inward: Devotional Reading and the Private Self in Late Medieval England (Philadelphia PA, 2008), p. 12. 55 Hahn, Portrayed on the Heart, pp. 308–12, 326. 56 Ibid., p. 326. 57 Explored ibid., pp. 285–303.

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Vie de Seint Auban The physical and emotional closeness in this family group contrasts with the formal rites of Genevieve’s vow of chastity, and the ordered hierarchy behind the enthroned bishops. All the churchmen on the left of the scene have their gazes and gestures focussed on Genevieve, but the expanses of vellum dividing the virgin and her family from the institutional church give an arena of spacious order and calm in the composition. Whatever the imagined crowds present at Genevieve’s vow of chastity, however many might be gathered before and behind the picture frame of folio 52r to witness it, the space and moment in which Genevieve makes that commitment remains guarded and sacred, with all spectators kept at a distance. The lifted hands of Germanus and Genevieve form a fixed point on folio 52r, a gesture to which the viewer’s eyes are constantly drawn. Forcing ever-renewed visual focus on Genevieve’s vow, a viewer is continually reminded of the meaning and importance of her actions. For Cecilia de Sanford or even Eleanor Plantagenet, this forcible visual recollection of the moment of their sacred vow(s) may have been designed to reaffirm their spiritual vocation, and strengthen their avoidance of any temptation to break it. The second scene on folio 52v (Plate V) shows the response of Germanus to Genevieve’s vow. To quote Matthew’s rubric: ‘He takes her gently by the hand: he approves her intention. He hangs a brightly shining metal penny around her neck. “Take care that you do not become pregnant or make any vow that you break. So as to remain steady of purpose, carry this sign from me.”’58 Here, a distinction can be drawn between the betrothal ring received by Cecilia and the medal given to Genevieve. The latter token can be given greater visual prominence than a small finger ring, however, and this may account for its inclusion by Matthew. Kneeling on one knee before the standing bishop, Genevieve now carries the bound book previously on Germanus’s lap. Having made a binding vow or covenant with God, one assumes that Genevieve swore an oath on the Bible as part of the ceremony. A standard para-liturgical element of all forms of English legal procedure, any form of sworn oath or contract was enacted via ritualized contact with the textus.59 This was the Gospel book specifically used for ritual purposes in the Mass.60 The vowee placed their hand on the textus, recited their commitment 58 Alban,

p. 104; ‘[La mein li prent] ducement;/Sun purpois prise ke ele enprent./Un dener au col li pent/De metal ki cler resplent./[‘Garde ben ke] ne enpreinnes,/Ne vu facez ke tu enfreinnes;/Ke tuz jurs en cest purpose meinnes,/De moi portez ces[tes enseingnes]’, Vie de Seint Auban, p. 60, ll. 275–82. 59 M. T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record: England 1066–1307, 3rd edn (Chichester, 2013), p. 141; E. Poleg, Approaching the Bible in Medieval England (Manchester, 2013), pp. 59–91. 60 Poleg, Approaching the Bible, p. 62. Although these could be loaned out or more usually, used within the church for secular purposes, legal courts also owned specific customary books for the swearing of oaths, sometimes referred to as ‘jurybooks’, 85. Poleg also notes the secondary status of the contents of the textus,

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Laura Slater in the correct form and then kissed the book, here echoing the ritual kissing of the textus after the reading of the Gospel lesson during Mass.61 Legal oaths were invalid if any of these three elements were omitted or done incorrectly. Yet this key element of the vowing ritual has not been depicted for ‘public consumption’. Genevieve remains a silent figure throughout the manuscript, looking and gesturing with eloquence, but never actually speaking. Once again, Genevieve’s parents stand close at her side. Her father places one steadying hand on her shoulder, in another gesture of support and affection. He makes direct eye contact with Germanus, left hand raised. Her vow may have transformed Genevieve into a bride of Christ, and transferred her to episcopal care and authority, but a continuing parental concern for her welfare is apparent as physical and spiritual father face each other head on. On the right of the scene, the bishop’s party is ready to depart. Mary Erler has examined how formal vows of chastity were made by Anglo-Norman widows in the thirteenth century as an alternative to remarriage, but notes that the custom was not yet a well-established one.62 In his obituary of Cecilia, Matthew’s stress on her as a ‘mulier […] sanctissima’ and her confessor’s many ‘argumenta’ for her sanctity may suggest how unusual her choice was in 1231, and still worthy of extended comment in 1251. Such formal settlement of a woman’s status, exempting her from future potential child-bearing, also weighed on wider dynastic interests.63 The certainty provided by vowed chastity could be a useful aid to a woman’s kin, for example when forming marital alliances or arranging for the transfer of estates and property.64 In showing St Genevieve’s parents prominently at her side, supporting their virtuous daughter, Matthew’s image stresses the official, collective and publicly- as well as divinely-sanctioned nature of female vows of chastity. This was not a decision to be entered into lightly, and was best undertaken with the full support of family members. The scene also underscores that these vows did not force a woman into an enclosed religious life. St Genevieve’s future career saving Paris, mediating with kings and being chaste and active in the secular world, made her a relevant model for Cecilia, in her role as courtly ‘informatrix’. St Genevieve was also an attractive saintly example to put before a woman as engaged in public life as the countess of Arundel, referred to in Matthew’s note on folio 2r. Widowed in 1243 when possibly still in her teens, Isabel of Arundel remained single

with its talismanic and ritual importance founded on the splendour of its bindings, 69. 61 Ibid., p. 65, 77. 62 J. Wogan-Browne, Saints’ Lives and Women’s Literary Culture c.1150–1300. Virginity and its Authorizations (Oxford, 2001), pp. 152–3, n. 3; M. Erler, ‘English Vowed Women at the End of the Middle Ages’, Mediaeval Studies 57 (1995), 155–203. 63 Wogan-Browne, Saints’ Lives, p. 152. 64 Ibid., pp. 152–3.

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Vie de Seint Auban until her death. She became a significant monastic benefactress and important literary patron.65 While widely respected for her piety, and praised for her voluntary chastity by the Dominican Ralph Bocking, she never seems to have taken a formal vow.66 Matthew’s depiction of St Genevieve may have been intended to promote the custom of formal vows of chastity by pious secular widows across his network of female readers. Matthew’s imagery of St Genevieve in MS 177 certainly affirms the spiritual heroism of Cecilia’s actions: how far it inspired or resulted from them is open to question. The suggested dating of the Vie de Seint Auban ranges from c. 1230 to 1250. Cecilia made her vow of chastity in company with Eleanor Plantagenet in 1231.67 If composing MS 177 after this event took place, the visual prominence that Matthew gives to Genevieve’s concerned but supportive parents may echo the possible presence of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence at the ceremony. It is also possible that the unfortunate conclusion of Eleanor Plantagenet’s vow of chastity in 1238 may have discredited the choice to become a noble vowess. If so, Matthew’s portrayal of St Genevieve could have been an attempt to shore up the status and prestige of a custom he hoped to see more widely established. Presenting St Genevieve as part of his larger history of the early Church gives female vows of chastity a secure and prestigious place in Matthew’s heroic drama of martyrdom and sacrifice. Apart from the St Genevieve episode, women are barely present in the Vie de Seint Auban: seen only at the burial of Alban on folio 39r, and among the lamenting citizens of Verulamium on folio 45v.68 Vowed virginity as exemplified by St Genevieve becomes in this context the ‘female’ equivalent to the ‘male’ martyrdom detailed by Matthew at such length in the Vie. Genevieve’s sacrifice was ‘white’ (ascesis), rather than ‘red’, and so forms a stark contrast to the bloody passions of Alban, Amphibalus and Aracle. Yet it is depicted as equally deserving of historical remembrance, and moral or spiritual emulation, by contemporary viewers of the manuscript.

Giving and teaching in the Vie de Seint Auban Cecilia is recorded gifting one hanging to St Albans under her married name, although her eventual burial before the altar of St Andrew suggests she and

65 Ibid.,

pp. 151–61, 164–71; L. L. Gee, Women, Art and Patronage from Henry III to Edward III, 1216–1377 (Woodbridge, 2002), pp. 14, 26, 35, 77, 157. 66 Wogan-Browne, Saints’ Lives, p. 169, n. 44. 67 Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, V, 235; for the death of William Marshal: Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, III, 201 and Eleanor’s release from her vow: Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, III, 487. 68 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, p. 32.

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Laura Slater her wider family (both natal and conjugal) were more significant benefactors to the abbey.69 When viewing MS 177, Cecilia would be encouraged to view her own patronage as an echo and continuation of Offa of Mercia’s support for St Albans. Shown across sixteen scenes, it concludes on folio 63r with the laying of a charter of privileges before the abbot on a dressed altar. For any of Cecilia’s royal students, the actions of King Offa would also have provided an important precedent and model. Identifying exactly when Cecilia performed her role as ‘informatrix’ is difficult. Matthew states that it was after ‘many years’ as a widow that Cecilia was appointed as governess to the royal kin, but this can be questioned. Eleanor Plantagenet was married to William Marshal II in 1224 when she was nine years old.70 Elizabeth Hallam suggests that she remained in Cecilia’s care at court until consummation of the marriage in 1229.71 Even if she returned to Cecilia’s stewardship in some form after her widowhood at the age of sixteen, Cecilia cannot have been a widow ‘for many years’ in 1231.72 It is therefore more likely that her care for Eleanor dated back to the 1220s, and it may also be the case that Cecilia was widowed earlier than has been assumed. Similar difficulties surround the possible chronology of Cecilia’s care for Joan de Munchensi (d. 1307), who married William de Valence in 1247.73 She had become an heiress to a fifth of the Marshal estates that year, on the death of her brother John.74 Born between 1219 and 1234, the dates of her father’s first and second marriage respectively, Joan de Munchensi may have been a rough contemporary of Eleanor Plantagenet. As Warin de Munchensi served the crown loyally from 1217, it is not impossible that Joan de Munchensi was educated alongside Eleanor Plantagenet.75 Yet there is a plausible case for a later birth date, in the late 1220s or even early 1230s. Joan’s marriage

69 Matthew

Paris, Chronica Majora, VI, p. 390. Hallam, ‘Eleanor, Countess of Pembroke and Leicester (1215?–1275)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/46703 (accessed 6 June 2016). 71 Ibid.; R. V. Turner, ‘Eleanor of Aquitaine and Her Children: An Inquiry into Medieval Family Attachment’, JMH 14 (1988), 321–35, notes that royal and aristocratic children could be given masters from an extremely young age, with the teacher usually ‘one of the familiares regis, charged with general supervision of his upbringing’. Henry the Young King had a magister as early as his first year, in 1156 (p. 326). 72 ‘Haec cum pluribus annis vidua esset, docta valde et faceta et eloquens, electa est, ut esset magistra et morum informatrix’, Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, V, 235. 73 Ibid., IV, 628–9. Her father Warin de Munchensi died in 1255. Matthew records that William de Valence was granted custody of Warin’s heir, William, Joan’s brother: Ibid., V, 504. 74 Passed down via her father’s first marriage to Joan de Marshal: H. W. Ridgeway, ‘Munchensi, Warin de (c.1195–1255)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography http:// www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19529 (accessed 8 June 2016). 75 Ibid. 70 E.

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Vie de Seint Auban to William de Valence produced three sons and four daughters, including two who died in childhood in the 1270s. The son and heir Aymer de Valence was born c. 1270x5, and another daughter, Agnes, made her first marriage in 1266.76 If Joan’s prime child-bearing years extended from the 1250s to the 1270s, Cecilia may have returned to her role as ‘informatrix’ after 1231, with responsibility for instructing and guiding both a teenaged widow and a younger female child. In this context, the Vie de Seint Auban’s utility as instructional reading in the household and schoolroom may have been especially valuable. Alban’s dream of the Passion is shown on folio 30v. Matthew’s crucifixion scene in the upper level includes additional identifying rubrics, while Amphibalus’s teachings to Alban on folio 29v cover the topics of Adam and Eve, the Annunciation, the life and ministry of Christ, the role of the Jews (‘wretched serfs’) in his betrayal, his resurrection and ascension.77 When teaching Alban on folio 31v, Matthew notes that Amphibalus showed him ‘ancient writings’ about the Expulsion from Eden, Cain and Abel, Noah’s Ark, Abraham and Moses, the sacraments of the Church, and the Last Judgement.78 Matthew does not go into detail here, merely summarizing the issues covered by Amphibalus when making sure that ‘Alban was well taught and instructed in many points of doctrine through which a man may be saved’.79 The contents of the Vie de Seint Auban at these points form a useful memorandum of the essentials of Christian history and doctrine to be taught to aristocratic children. MS 177 offers a helpful ‘curriculum’ of potential relevance to Cecilia’s role as ‘magistra’. I do not suggest that the extant manuscript was intended for physical use in the schoolroom by Cecilia. MS 177 would have been the prototype for a copy made for the personal use of Cecilia or her royal charges, just as Matthew’s c. 1236 hagiographic composition La Estoire de Seint Aedward le Rei now survives only in the form of a single later, illustrated copy (Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee. 3 59), possibly made c. 1255 for Eleanor of Castile.80 Formal religious instruction was usually carried out by household clerics or confessors. Yet MS 177 offers further prompts to Cecilia’s famed wisdom and eloquence, not least when shaping the chivalric and aristocratic mores of the women in her care. In his role as teacher and counsellor, Amphibalus encourages Alban to ‘give allegiance’ to the Lord, a ceremony he states is

76 Ridgeway,

‘Valence, William de’. pp. 68–74 (p. 70). 78 Ibid. p. 74. 79 Ibid. 80 P. Binski, ‘Reflections on La estoire de Seint Aedward le rei: Hagiography and Kingship in Thirteenth-Century England’, JMH 16 (1990), 333–50. For the maquette status of MS 177: Baswell, ‘The Manuscript Context’, pp. 181–2; Fenster and Wogan–Browne, ‘Introduction’, pp. 18–20. 77 Alban,

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Laura Slater ‘as sacred and binding as baptism and marriage […] you will die a martyr in vassalage to him and you will reign with him forever among the celestial baronage’. This is a notably seigneurial vision of Christianity.81 Throughout the Vie de Seint Auban, Amphibalus is also an exemplary teacher, converting and guiding Alban with grace, gentleness, patience and understanding. Cecilia and any other reader with educational responsibilities could seek to model their didactic role on his. Aside from her probable influence on Eleanor Plantagenet’s unfortunate vow of chastity, there is a further indication of the respect and affection Cecilia inspired in her charges. In August 1256, the patent rolls record the grant ‘at the instance of the king’s sister Joan de Valencia, to Thomas de Sanford, her yeoman’ of the wardship and marriage of ‘the land and heirs of Robert de Sanford’.82 Thomas de Sanford may well have owed his place in the household of Joan de Valence to his kinswoman Cecilia.83

The Vie de Seint Auban and the crusade The lordly and chivalric sensibilities of Matthew’s text and imagery are pronounced.84 Matthew promotes the identification of any aristocratic lay reader with Alban, ‘a noble citizen in magnificent attire’ who provides hospitality to Amphibalus in his ‘marble palace’.85 But above all, he is concerned for the crusade. One of the most striking revisions Matthew made to his source material, a twelfth-century vita written by the monk William of St Albans, was to change the pagan enemies of William’s vita into Saracens.86 By the thirteenth century, canon law, epic and romance literature alike assumed that Islamic culture was a continuation of pagan Greece or Rome.87 Matthew’s ‘refreshment’ of Alban’s enemies sharpened their potency as a threatening Other for his audience. William of St Albans claimed to be translating into Latin an Old English narrative, sourced by its original Anglo-Saxon narrator from engravings found on the now-crumbling Roman walls of St Albans.88 Again concerned for the greater immediacy of the Vie de Seint Auban,

81 Alban,

p. 72. T. S. Fenster and J. Wogan-Browne have explored Matthew’s concern with ‘the military and affective basis of lordship’: ‘Introduction’, pp. 29–32, (quotation p. 29). 82 Calendar of the Patent Rolls Henry III, 6 vols. (London, 1901–13), IV, 493. 83 If identifiable with the Thomas de Sanford mentioned in the 1232–41 charter discussed above, he may even have been her brother. 84 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, pp. 29–30 85 Alban, p. 67 86 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, pp. 8, 27–8 87 M. Camille, Gothic Idol: Ideology and Image-Making in Medieval Art (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 128, 139–40. 88 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, p. 27; William of St Albans, trans. T.

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Vie de Seint Auban Matthew’s narrator declares himself to be the ‘mescreant Sarrazin’ who first witnessed and reported Alban’s conversion and baptism.89 When Alban is imprisoned, ‘a heat that knew no tempering flared from the sun’ and his martyrdom takes place in a drought-ridden, sun-scorched landscape, strongly reminiscent of the heat and deserts of medieval Palestine, Syria and Egypt.90 Alban’s prayers dry up the city’s river to allow the townspeople to cross it and witness his death.91 At his execution site, the crowd scream with thirst, tormented by a ‘sun hotter than fire’ until Alban appeals to Jesus to grant them a stream.92 Matthew also significantly enlarges the role of the formerly anonymous Roman knight who converts to Christianity as Alban is led to his death.93 He is named as Aracle (Heraclius), a name resonant of crusading heroics and the recovery of the True Cross.94 Given his own ‘passiun seint Aracle’ within the Vie and emphatic visual attention on folios 37r–38v, 46r and 47r–v, Cynthia Hahn has explored how Matthew ‘significantly advances the idea of lay sanctity’ through his visual and textual presentation of Aracle as a ‘gentil chevaler’.95 On folio 38v, when he recovers Alban’s head, Aracle is shown as a model of knightly elegance: a blond, beardless youth whose calm beauty contrasts with the grimacing crowd of pagan knights and wicked advisers on the left of the scene (Fig. 1).96 Two wear the pointed cornua associated with the Jews.97 All have oversized noses, and at least two have notably dark skin. Visually, Matthew’s ‘Sarrazins’ combine medieval depictions of the Jews and black Africans to denote their status as a threatening Other.98 Beaten and tormented by persecuting Saracens before dying in a ‘desert’, Alban and Aracle’s torments and ultimate Christian triumph echo contemporary anxieties and myth-making surrounding the fate of Christian crusaders, whether imprisoned for long periods in Egypt or martyred in the deserts of Palestine.99 The conflation of

O’Donnell and M. Lamont, ‘The Passion of Saint Alban’, in The Life of Saint Alban by Matthew Paris, pp. 139–65 (pp. 139–40). 89 McCulloch, ‘Saints’, pp. 775–7. He is depicted in MS 177 on fol. 32r. 90 Alban, p. 80. 91 Ibid., p. 82. 92 Ibid., p. 83. 93 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, pp. 29–30; Baswell, ‘The Manuscript Context’, pp. 189–90. 94 Alban, p. 29. 95 Hahn, Portrayed on the Heart, pp. 302–6; Baswell, ‘The Manuscript Context’, p. 189; Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, pp. 29–30, n. 72. 96 Hahn, Portrayed on the Heart, pp. 303–4. 97 They are not wearing the piece of white cloth that English Jews were ordered to display on their outer garments, designed to indicate the tabula that carried the Ten Commandments: Camille, Gothic Idol, p. 181. 98 D. Higgs Strickland, Saracens, Demons and Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art (Princeton, 2003), pp. 59, 95–111, 122. 99 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, pp. 39–40 suggest the concern in the Vie

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Laura Slater

Fig. 1. Dublin, Trinity College MS 177 fol. 38v.

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Vie de Seint Auban contemporary crusading enemies with the persecutors of the apostolic church allowed Matthew’s viewers to relive sacred history in the present day, placing their own actions within the context of a continuing struggle against ancient adversaries. Matthew’s imagery reassures that just as Christianity defeated paganism in Europe, so too will the struggles of the crusaders in the Holy Land eventually find success. There are grounds for assuming that Cecilia de Sanford came from a family strongly committed to the crusade. The provincial head of the Knights Templar in England from 1229 to 1248 was one Robert or Roger de Sanford.100 Frequently given royal gifts of oak and deer,101 he was evidently in close and regular contact with Henry III and his family. Matthew Paris records an ambassadorial role, as one of the envoys sent by Henry III to bring Eleanor of Provence to England in 1236.102 In the government records, there is a notification from May 1244 that Robert delivered money to the seneschal of Gascony, ‘out of the 2000 marks which the king caused to be delivered to him for secret affairs’.103 In 1250, he was ordered to pass his French book containing ‘gesta Antiochie et regum etc. aliorum’ for use in the painting of the queen’s low room at Westminster, a room later referred to as the Antioch Chamber.104 Underlining the importance of the Templars as trusted royal servants, another Templar, one William de Sanford, appears as a receiver of the thirtieth in January 1238.105 Benjamin Disraeli’s famous dictum that ‘the East is a career’ can easily be applied to the Sanford family in the thirteenth century, even if physical travel to Palestine is not in evidence.106 for the proper burial of the dead might have had special meaning for aristocratic women responsible for the honourable burial or recovery of the remains of crusader kin killed in the Holy Land. 100 E. Lord, The Knights Templar in Britain (Harlow, 2002), p. 21, gives his tenure as 1229–48. Robert de Sanford first appears in a 1229 legal dispute with the master of the hospital of St Peter’s in York: Calendar of Close Rolls Henry III, I, 222; VI, 432 records a 1251 gift to ‘fratri Roberto de Saunford, quondam magistro milicie Templi in Anglia, septem damas et tres damos, de dono regis’ making his retired status explicit. 101 Calendar of Close Rolls Henry III, III, 45, 88, 262, 272, for example. 102 Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, III, 335. 103 Calendar of the Patent Rolls Henry III, III, 424. 104 Calendar of Close Rolls Henry III, VI, 283; T. Borenius, ‘The Cycle of Images in the Palaces and Castles of Henry III’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 6 (1943), 40–50 (p. 45). 105 Calendar of Close Rolls Henry III, IV, 119; H. J. Nicholson, ‘At the Heart of Medieval London: the New Temple in the Middle Ages’, in The Temple Church in London. History, Architecture, Art, ed. R. Griffith-Jones and D. Park (Woodbridge, 2010), pp. 1–18. 106 B. Disraeli, Tancred; or, The New Crusade, 3 vols. (London, 1847), II, p. xiv; S. Lloyd, English Society and the Crusade, 1216–1307 (Oxford, 1988), p. 174, n. 99, notes that before going on crusade in 1227, William Paynel appointed one Hugh de Sanford to pay off his debts to the king in his absence.

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Laura Slater Letters received by Robert de Sanford from the grand masters of the Templars describing events in the Holy Land in 1240, 1244 and 1249 were copied into Matthew’s Chronica Majora.107 These bulletins were intended for wider circulation, yet one wonders if the letters reached Matthew via Cecilia’s personal agency. Her confessor, Walter of St Martin, was another of Matthew’s informants, passing on for transcription in the Chronica Majora two letters from the master of the Hospitallers in 1251, and a third from the treasurer of the Hospitallers at Acre in 1252.108 Simon Lloyd suggests Master Walter can be identified with the Master Walter, Dominican (‘vir religiosus, providus, ac discretus, et in divina pagina eleganter eruditus, Anglicus natione’) appointed as preacher to the crusading army by the pope (‘in quo [officium] singulariter floruit’) and accompanying Frederick II into Jerusalem in 1229.109 In addition to such lavish praise of his talents, Roger Wendover, or more likely Matthew in his revisions to his predecessor’s work, records how he performed divine service in the suburban churches of Jerusalem, greatly stimulating the devotions of the faithful.110 Walter is later credited with the excommunication of the emperor and all his followers in 1229.111 Simon Lloyd suggests that Walter may have been engaged in ‘the business of the cross in England’ in a professional capacity, and further identifies him with the Walter of St Martin, ‘minister Crucis Christi’ left property by Hubert de Burgh c. 1240, in redemption of the latter’s crusading vow.112 A Dominican named Walter is identified as Hubert de Burgh’s executor in 1244.113 Crusading preacher and papal agent in Jerusalem in 1229; possibly acting in the same capacity in England in the 1240s and making useful connections at court; and finally in the 1250s, confessor to courtly ‘informatrix’ Cecilia de Sanford and still receiving regular bulletins from the Holy Land: I think it highly likely that Walter’s position in Cecilia’s household may have been mediated by her kinsman, Robert de Sanford. As master of the English Templars, he would have played a key role in the organized ‘financial institution’ that the crusade was becoming in thirteenth-century England.114 Between his crusading and royal service, he would surely have come across Master Walter, and may have been instrumental in organising a possible ‘retirement’ position for him in the household of his kin. When 107 Matthew

Paris, Chronica Majora, IV, 64, 288–91; VI, 162.

108 Lloyd, English Society, p. 27, n. 83; Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, V, 202, 211, 305–6;

printed in full in VII, 203–7 (Addimenta). Paris, Chronica Majora, III, 176–7; Lloyd, English Society, p. 27. 110 Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, III, 177. 111 Ibid., III, 185. As a preacher by papal appointment, he may also have been one of the preachers dragged by force from the pulpit, cruelly treated and imprisoned by imperial forces on Palm Sunday in the holy city. 112 Lloyd, English Society, p. 27. 113 Calendar Liberate Rolls Henry III 1240–1245 (London, 1930), p. 242. 114 Lloyd, English Society, p. 23. 109 Matthew

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Vie de Seint Auban guiding Cecilia’s reading of the Vie, Walter could draw on his personal experiences to enlarge Matthew’s descriptions of Christian persecution by Saracen enemies in a sweltering desert. The crusading background of her confessor also indicates Cecilia’s personal interest in the struggle for the Holy Land, separate to the involvement of her natal family in crusading institutions. Any personal and emotional investment in the crusades by Cecilia will have given Matthew’s conflating in MS 177 of the ‘local’ passion of St Alban with the ‘distant’ crusading heroics of Heraclius and his ilk a greater meaning and importance. The crusading ethos of the Vie and its illustrations might seem to speak to universal aristocratic concerns. Yet in her assessment of twelfth- and early thirteenth-century English crusading romances, Emma Mason has argued that: ‘it is probable that support for crusading ideals whether on a practical or a propagandist basis or both, was confined to a limited proportion of baronial families, whose sympathies, shared by their feudal dependents, extended over several generations’.115 Simon Lloyd has also examined how crusading became a dynastic tradition in specific families, such as the Montforts, Joinvilles and Mowbrays.116 Mason further speculates that the ‘demonstrable correlation between crusading in fact and fiction’ found in the literary patronage of the Beaumont earls of Warwick and their kinsmen, and the activities of the fitzGerold and Glanville households, ‘perhaps existed on a wider scale’.117 Cecilia de Sanford cannot be considered a ‘literary patron’ of Matthew Paris, and for all its crossovers with secular literature, the Vie de Seint Auban remains a hagiographic passion intended for spiritual use.118 Yet if crusading enthusiasms were relatively restricted within English society, this has further value for assessing the intended early readership of MS 177. The crusading themes of the Vie de Seint Auban spoke to concerns shared by the Sanfords, Marshals, Plantagenets and Lusignans. The Plantagenets had a strong crusading tradition: Henry II was the grandson of King Fulk of Jerusalem and he and his three sons all took the cross, although only Richard I fulfilled his vows.119 Henry III first took the cross as a matter of political expediency in 1216, at the age of nine, and Stephen Langton preached the cross at Henry’s second coronation in 1220.120 The king’s Lusignan kin were related directly to Kings Guy and Amaric of

115 E.

Mason, ‘Fact and Fiction in the English Crusading Tradition: The Earls of Warwick in the Twelfth Century’, JMH 14 (1988), 81–95 (p. 88). 116 Lloyd, English Society, pp. 101–7. 117 Mason, ‘Fact and Fiction’, p. 88. 118 Fenster and Wogan-Browne, ‘Introduction’, pp. 3, 27–8, 41–2; Baswell, ‘The Manuscript Context’, pp. 189–90. 119 Lloyd, English Society, pp. 32–3. 120 Ibid., pp. 58, 207–32; N. Vincent, The Holy Blood: Henry III and the Westminster Blood Relic (Cambridge, 2001), pp. 14–23.

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Laura Slater Jerusalem.121 Henry was also surrounded by crusaders in his childhood circle. The regent William Marshal I (grandfather of Joan de Munchensi) fulfilled by proxy the crusading vow made by Henry the Young King after the latter’s death in 1183. He was buried in the New Temple Church in London, as was Eleanor’s husband, William Marshal II.122 Between 1231 and 1246, Henry III also intended to be buried in the New Temple. Henry’s personal tutor Philip de Albini went on crusade in 1221–2, prepared to depart again in 1228 and travelled a second time in 1235, dying in the Holy Land in 1236.123 Another childhood guardian, Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester and later a controversial adviser to the king in the early years of his majority, went on crusade in 1227–31.124 Henry took the cross again himself in 1250 and 1252. At the 1250 ceremony, he was joined by Joan’s husband William de Valence, who took the cross a second time in 1268.125 William finally fulfilled his vows when he accompanied Edward I on crusade in 1269–73. Henry’s brother, Richard of Cornwall, went on crusade in 1240, and of course Matthew refers explicitly to his wife on folio 2r of MS 177. Eleanor Plantagenet’s second husband, Simon de Montfort, also went on crusade 1240–1. Within the court circle, it is clear that the crusades were a key concern, and Matthew may have hoped for his manuscript to find an enthusiastic readership in this context.126 Advertising the sanctity of the crusading knight, and reassuring female readers of the ultimate triumph of their crusading kin, whether they survived the Holy

121 Lloyd,

English Society, p. 33. great-uncle, William d’Aubigny, earl of Arundel, joined the Fifth Crusade: R. V. Turner, ‘Aubigny, William d’, third earl of Arundel (c.1174–1221)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/283 (accessed 16 June 2016). 123 There is again a family tradition of crusading here, as Philip’s father Ralph died on the Third Crusade: C. Tyerman, England and the Crusades 1095–1588 (Chicago, 1988), p. 435. He was buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem: N. Vincent, ‘Aubigny, Philip d’ (d. 1236)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6331 (accessed 24 May 2010); D. A. Carpenter, The Minority of Henry III (London, 1990), p. 243; Lloyd, English Society, p. 100. One wonders if the crusading interests of the Sanfords encouraged Cecilia’s appointment as tutor to Henry’s female kin. Turner, ‘Eleanor of Aquitaine’, p. 327, notes that after 1170 William Marshal I was charged with Henry the Young King’s education and appointed as the chief of his household knights. John spent time in his brother’s household before joining the household of the justiciar, Ralph de Glanvill. This was again a family with a strong tradition of crusading: Mason, ‘Fact and Fiction’, p. 88. The appointment of Philip de Albini as tutor to Henry III might indicate an Angevin tradition of royal tutors with crusading connections that even extended to women. 124 Lloyd, English Society, p. 75. 125 Ibid., p. 212. 126 See T. Guard, Chivalry, Kingship and Crusade. The English Experience in the Fourteenth Century (Woodbridge, 2013), pp. 164–95, for the continued importance of crusading at court, and the late medieval power of the rex crucesignatus as a monarchical ideal. 122 Joan’s

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Vie de Seint Auban Land or not, this theme of MS 177 catered to the devotional interests and familial concerns of Cecilia and both of her students. Matthew sought to connect the secular audiences of the Vie de Seint Auban and its illustrated addenda to a past of continued relevance and importance. He aimed to inform and enhance their religious devotions, and to excite their emotional responses. He also engaged with the concerns of their daily lives, and wider family traditions of religious patronage and crusading fervour. His history of ancient times was thus intended as a supportive map for navigating the struggles and spiritual anxieties of contemporary England. I have argued in this essay that the contents of MS 177 intersect with the interests of one important potential early reader. Matthew’s depiction of St Genevieve swearing her vow of chastity; portrayal of Offa as a great patron; his presentation of Alban’s conversion and instruction by Amphibalus, the model teacher; and his representation of Aracle, the exemplary crusading miles Christi all link directly to the career, interests, activities and family concerns of a highly respected widow and benefactor of St Albans, Cecilia de Sanford. I have also suggested that Matthew intended his work to be relevant to the two young women to whom Cecilia acted as ‘magistra’ at court, Eleanor Plantagenet and Joan de Munchensi. Assessing the Vie de Seint Auban from the perspective of specific lay readers demonstrates the depth of Matthew’s attentiveness to his secular audiences. For a select group of early female readers, he produced a highly personalized, even ‘bespoke’ interpretation and depiction of past historical events.

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11 New Readers, Old History: Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland Caoimhe Whelan

Arguably the most influential, and indeed controversial, history written about medieval Ireland was the Expugnatio Hibernica (Invasion of Ireland, c. 1189), by the scholar and churchman Gerald de Barry (c. 1145–1223), otherwise known as Gerald of Wales or Giraldus Cambrensis.1 As Colin Veach writes in a recent study, ‘So prominent is Giraldus’s work in the historical record that one simply cannot investigate the first two decades of the conquest without encountering his opinions.’2 This essay extends the focus beyond these initial decades and explores the underexamined ‘afterlife’ of the Plantagenet-era history which continued to generate interest and controversy for those exploring the origins of English-Ireland in the late medieval and early modern periods. The enduring impact of this work from its composition in the twelfth century well into the early modern period stands as a testament to the potential significance of Anglo-Norman historiography. Gerald’s ancestry was both Anglo-Norman and Welsh, and he travelled to Ireland on two occasions to gather material for his two literary works, the Topographia Hibernica (Topography of Ireland, c. 1188) and the Expugnatio Hibernica.3 The Topographia was an account of the marvels of Ireland while the Expugnatio was a more serious work on the history of the island.4 The history was a work of propaganda par excellence. It served, in part, as a vehicle through which he could laud the actions of his extended family, the Geraldines, in their military

1 For

a study of the author, see R. Bartlett, Gerald of Wales: 1145–1223 (Oxford, 1982). Veach, ‘The Geraldines and the Conquest of Ireland’, in The Geraldines and Medieval Ireland: The Making of a Myth, ed. P. Crooks and S. Duffy (Dublin, 2016), pp. 69–92 (p. 69). 3 For a recent in-depth examination of his family, see S. Duffy, ‘Gerald of Windsor and the Origins of the Geraldines’, in The Geraldines and Medieval Ireland: The Making of a Myth, ed. P. Crooks and S. Duffy (Dublin, 2016), pp. 21–68. 4 The modern scholarly edition and translation is: Gerald of Wales, Expugnatio Hibernica: The Conquest of Ireland, ed. and trans. A. B. Scott and F. X. Martin (Dublin, 1978) (subsequently Expugnatio). Subsequent quotations from this work will be drawn from this edition. 2 C.

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Caoimhe Whelan endeavours in Ireland on behalf of the king of England in the late 1160s, and he used the work to argue that such heroics deserved greater reward than that which they had received to date.5 Furthermore, it claimed that the military invasion of Ireland was the fulfilment of prophecy: a civilizing mission with a religious agenda ratified by the papacy, and it placed the invaders – and the Geraldines in particular – at the centre of this formative stage in Ireland’s history.6 As Seán Duffy writes, ‘[I]t is the defence produced by an agent of an invading and conquering army to justify its actions in dispossessing the native peoples, seizing and colonizing their lands, and, if necessary, bringing their way of life to an end.’7 Sometime in the fifteenth century, Gerald’s history was translated by an unknown scribe into Hiberno-Middle English, the dialect of English spoken in English territory in Ireland in the Late Middle Ages.8 This translation 5 For

Gerald’s discussion of the Geraldines being overlooked, see Expugnatio, pp. 168–73 (particularly pp. 167–8, 15.33–40) and his chapter on the praise of the Geraldines, ‘Generis Commendacio’, pp. 156–7. For an examination of the presentation of his family in his Welsh works, see H. Pryce, ‘Giraldus and the Geraldines’, in The Geraldines and Medieval Ireland, pp. 53–68. 6 Gerald uses the term ‘Normans’ only twice in the Expugnatio, generally referring to the garrison force as Angli; therefore it seems sensible – as Michael Richter and John Gillingham have argued – to refer to the forces in Ireland as ‘English’ rather than ‘Normans’, or ‘Anglo-Normans’ as historians frequently describe them. For a scholarly explanation of why the term Norman was applied to the invaders, see J. Gillingham, ‘Normanizing the English Invaders of Ireland’, in Power and Identity in the Middle Ages: Essays in Memory of Rees Davis, ed. H. Pryce and J. Watts (Oxford, 2007), pp. 85–97. The issue of what to call the invaders was addressed by M. Richter, ‘The Interpretation of Medieval Irish History’, Irish Historical Studies 24, no. 95 (1985), 289–98 (pp. 292–4). For a convincing articulation of the case to return to the term ‘English’ to describe the invaders since that was what they called themselves, see J. Gillingham, ‘The English Conquest of Ireland’, in Representing Ireland: Literature and the Origins of Conflict, 1534–1660, ed. B. Bradshaw, A. Hadfield and W. Maley (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 24–42 (pp. 29–36), and for reasons for preferring ‘English’ to ‘Normans’ to describe the invaders, see also, ‘Normans’ in The Oxford Companion to Irish History, ed. S. J. Connolly (Oxford, 1998), pp. 389–90; and M. Richter, ‘Giraldiana’, Irish Historical Studies 22, no. 84 (1979), 422–37 (p. 429). 7 S. Duffy, Ireland in the Middle Ages (Dublin, 1997), p. 7. 8 Manuscripts containing texts of the Conquest range from the fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Those from the fifteenth century are: Dublin, Trinity College, MS 592; London, British Library, Add. MS 40674; London, Lambeth Palace, MS 598; Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. MS 526 (containing only the short chapter explaining the rights of the English king over Ireland) and Rawlinson MS B 490. Sixteenth-century copies of Gerald’s work are found in: ‘the Book of Howth’, Lambeth Palace, MS 623 (which includes the Conquest along with other historical sources), Dublin, Trinity College, MS 593, and National Library of Ireland, MS 1416. A parallel edition of two of the manuscripts from this corpus (Trinity College Dublin MS 592 and Rawlinson MS B 490) is found in The English Conquest of Ireland, ed. F. J. Furnivall (London, 1896), subsequently Conquest. All quotations from the work will be drawn from this edition.

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Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland – which I am going to call the Conquest to distinguish it from the Latin Expugnatio – stands as an important step in the transmission of the history of the English colony in Ireland, and an examination of its circulation, reception and readership is key to understanding how the late medieval English colony in Ireland understood their past and how they accessed their history.9 The continued circulation of the Expugnatio and its translation, the Conquest, in the late medieval and early modern periods underlines the continued importance of Gerald’s account, demonstrating a keen interest in the past, focusing in particular on the history of Ireland as an English colony. As John Gillingham explained, the conquest can be seen as ‘one of the most fundamental ideological shifts in the history of the British isles’.10 Examining the Expugnatio and its vernacular translation can thus be used to understand how this transformative event could be interpreted in late medieval and early modern Ireland, a colonial sphere situated at the periphery of the AngloNorman empire.

Gerald of Wales’s material on Ireland Gerald’s literary output is impressive, and the nineteenth-century editions of his various works in the Giraldi Cambrensis Opera run into eight volumes.11 His extant manuscript corpus is similarly notable. Michael Richter has pointed out that ‘constant revision of his texts is one of the basic features of Giraldus’s working method’.12 Gerald’s continual revision, circulation and promotion of his material likely aided the works’ survival during his lifetime. But his status as an authority on the subject matter of his works on Ireland similarly aided their longevity. Gerald was the first foreigner to write an eye-witness account of Ireland, and his Topographia (which he revised and substantially redeveloped through at least five versions)13 and Expugnatio 9 For

scholarship on the corpus, see C. T. Whelan, ‘Translating Cambrensis: The History of the Late Medieval English Conquest of Ireland’ (unpublished PhD thesis, Trinity College, University of Dublin, 2015); A. Byrne, ‘Family, Locality and Nationality: Vernacular Adaptations of the Expugnatio Hibernica in Late Medieval Ireland’, Medium Aevum 82 (2013), 101–18; J. Thompson, ‘Books beyond England’, in The Production of Books in England, 1330–1500, ed. A. Gillespie and D. Wakelin (Cambridge, 2011), pp. 267–71. 10 Gillingham, ‘The English Conquest of Ireland’, p. 24. 11 For his works on Ireland, see ‘Topographia Hibernica, et Expugnatio Hibernica’, in Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, ed. J. S. Brewer, J. F. Dimock, and G. F. Warner, 8 vols. (London, 1861–91), V. 12 Giraldus Cambrensis: Speculum Duorum or, A Mirror of Two Men, ed. Y. Lefevre and R. B. C. Huygens, trans. B. Dawson, gen. ed. M. Richter (Cardiff, 1974), p. xxii. 13 For a detailed analysis of the dates of the five redactions, see A. Sargent, ‘Gerald of Wales’s Topographia Hibernica: Dates, Versions, Readers’, Viator 43, 1 (2012), 241–62. On the revision and circulation of the Topographia Hibernica, see N. Ní Bheaglaoi,

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Caoimhe Whelan (which had two ‘editions’ and a later ‘intermediate’ recension) generated huge interest in the island lying to the west of Britain.14 This circulation and adaptation of material continued into the Late Middle Ages. Gerald’s works on Ireland became the go-to works for audiences in Britain and Ireland to learn about the island and the foundation of the colony in Ireland, and his history became indispensable. In the Late Middle Ages, Gerald’s material on Ireland remained a valuable source which now attained the weight of historical authority.15 A large number of late medieval copies of the Topographia were produced. Of the thirty extant manuscripts which contain copies of this work, eight were produced in the fourteenth century and four in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries respectively.16 Significant portions of the Topographia were also incorporated into many historical compilations and works of other genres.17 One of the most popular works into which the Topographia was incorporated was the Polychronicon – a world history from Creation – produced by Chester monk Ralph Higden in the mid fourteenth century.18 Higden’s base text was subsequently continued, adapted and mined by other historians such as Adam Usk. The work remained hugely popular well into the fifteenth century, and it became one of the first histories printed by John Caxton, who published John Trevisa’s Middle English translation as a full edition in 1482.19 In short, Gerald’s Topographia, buried within various popular medieval narratives, had a good chance of survival in some form. Gerald’s more straightforward history was less suited to incorporation in world histories (although it was useful in histories of Ireland). It lacked ‘Libri Corrigendi: Revising the Topographia Hibernica’, in Text and Transmission in the European Middle Ages, 1000–1500, ed. C. Griffin and E. Purcell (forthcoming). I would like to thank Nóirín for allowing me access to a pre-publication copy of this work. 14 The Expugnatio does not appear to have been subject to such extensive emendation as the Topographia. The editors of the Expugnatio understood the development of the text differently; Dimock identified two distinct versions (believing the revisions which comprise the second version were the work of a later editor); see Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, V, xliii; while Scott and Martin suggest the presence of an authorial third transitional stage between the two distinctions; Expugnatio, pp. lii–lxxiv. 15 For the extant Topographia and Expugnatio manuscripts, see C. M. Rooney, ‘The Manuscripts of the Works of Gerald of Wales’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Cambridge, 2005), pp. 162–5. 16 Ní Bheaglaoi, ‘Libri Corrigendi’. 17 For an exploration of the use of the Topographia in other works, see S. J. David, ‘Looking East and West: The Reception and Dissemination of the Topographia Hibernica and the Itinerarium ad Partes Orientales in England: 1185–c.1500’ (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of St Andrews, 2008), pp. 109–132, 134–7. 18 Ibid., pp. 118–22. 19 L. M. Matheson, ‘Printer and Scribe: Caxton, the Polychronicon, and the Brut’, Speculum 60, 3 (1985), 593–614.

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Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland the vivid, pithy vignettes Gerald included in the Topographia in describing the barbaric Irish and their strange remote land. Post-medieval reception of Gerald’s Expugnatio has been well documented; angry diatribes were produced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that rallied against this Anglo-Norman apologist and what they claimed were his lies about Ireland’s past. But before this vitriol against Gerald’s history became common currency, his work retained a value, and was appreciated as an authoritative source. The later reception of the Topographia has been given some attention by scholars, but surprisingly the later medieval and early modern circulation of Gerald’s history after his lifetime remains relatively underexplored.20 Of course, Gerald’s arguments about the rights of the English to hold Ireland were not accepted in Gaelic Ireland. The best medieval articulation of opposition to this has been well noted by scholars, and is found in the 1317 Remonstrance of the Irish Princes.21 This document demonstrates a vigorous engagement with and rejection of English claims to Ireland (propagated by Gerald) by those writing on behalf of Domhnall Ua Néill, who they claimed was the rightful heir to all of Ireland. But what is less frequently noted is that Gerald’s history was translated into Gaelic in the Late Middle Ages.22 This translation was mediated through the English-language Conquest, and was destined for an English, rather than Gaelic, readership in Ireland. Aisling Byrne has identified a connection between this work and the minor FitzGerald family of Allen which places it in this context.23 English anxiety about control over Ireland served to prioritize cultural attributes as a significant element in determining political allegiance. At a time when the Lancastrian dynasty’s own concerns over their extensive territories and their power at home led them to encourage the connection between language and nation, English colonists in Ireland were happy to produce complementary rhetoric articulating their connection to England using the English language but also using the Gaelic language. The evidence of the reading habits of some of the most powerful magnates in medieval Ireland points to significant linguistic flexibility.

20 See

David, ‘Looking East and West’. Historical Documents 1172–1922, ed. E. Curtis and R. B. McDowell (London, 1943), pp. 38–46. For some scholarship on the document, see J. Muldoon, ‘The Remonstrance of the Irish Princes and the Canon Law Tradition of the Just War’, The American Journal of Legal History 22, 4 (1978), 309–25; J. R. S. Philips ‘The Irish Remonstrance of 1317: An International Perspective’, Irish Historical Studies 27, no. 106 (1990), 112–29; J. R. S. Philips, ‘The Remonstrance Revisited: England and Ireland in the Early Fourteenth century’, in Men, Women and War: Papers read before the XXth Irish Conference of Historians, held at Magee College, University of Ulster, 6–8 June 1991, ed. T. G. Fraser and K. Jeffery (Dublin, 1993), pp. 13–27. 22 W. Stokes, ed., ‘The Irish Abridgement of the “Expugnatio Hibernica”’, EHR 20 (1905), 79–117. 23 Byrne, ‘Family, Locality and Nationality’, pp. 112–13. 21 Irish

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Caoimhe Whelan The 1531 catalogue of the library of the ninth earl of Kildare, Garret Óg FitzGerald, compiled prior to Lord Leonard Grey’s acquisition of the castle at Maynooth, shows a large collection; the library contained thirty-six French books, thirty-four Latin, twenty-two English books and twenty in Gaelic.24 The Kildare earls were the leading Geraldine family in late medieval Ireland; one would expect Gerald’s works on Ireland to figure prominently among their collection and the records prove that the FitzGerald earls of Kildare indeed possessed a number of Gerald’s works. A ‘Cambrec’ de topogralfia’ (i.e. a topography by Cambrensis) can be identified among their Latin books, and is probably a Topographia Hibernica. They also held an English ‘Camberens’ (most likely the medieval English-language Conquest) and a Gaelic ‘Camb’ens’ (a Gaelic-language translation of the Conquest). There is no evidence that the Topographia was ever translated into English or Gaelic. Since the fourteenth century, the Gaelic and English languages had been competing for supremacy in Ireland and through them we can glimpse something of the complexities of understanding the English presence in Ireland and the issues surrounding cultural and political identity.25 Part of the use of the vernacular was to facilitate the reception of a ‘lay history’, to be read by those of the English nation in Ireland. Furthermore, the status of English as the language of England adds a further cultural dimension to the practical use of the vernacular given that the work in question is a narrative concerned with the original conquest of a territory whose intended audience are the current inhabitants of that same colony. But it is clear that such a ‘national’ reading of the use of vernaculars is complicated by the realities of colonial life. The clash of social and political identity to be found in Ireland right up until the early modern period had its roots in the twelfth-century invasion and settlement of Ireland by subjects of the English king. Gerald’s work delineates the early days of this fragmented society of medieval Ireland, where English subjects engaged with and frequently clashed with the Gaelic world, and indeed, the English in England. Many of these complaints, such

24 For

the most recent examination of the list, see A. Byrne, ‘The Geraldines and the Culture of the Wider World’, in The Geraldines and Medieval Ireland, pp. 278–291 (pp. 283–91); A. Byrne, ‘The Earls of Kildare and their Books at the end of the Middle Ages’, The Library: Transactions of the Bibliographical Society 14, 2 (2013), 129–53. See also H. Hore, ed., ‘The Rental Book of Gerald Fitzgerald, Ninth Earl of Kildare. Begun in the year 1518’, Journal of the Kilkenny and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society n.s. 2, no. 2 (1859), 266–80, 301–10. 25 See E. Curtis, ‘The Spoken Languages of Medieval Ireland’, An Irish Quarterly Review 8:30 (1919), 234–54; A. Bliss, ‘Language and Literature’, in The English in Medieval Ireland, ed. J. Lydon (Dublin, 1982), pp. 27–45; A. Bliss and J. Long, ‘Literature in Norman French and English to 1534’, in A New History of Ireland. II Medieval Ireland 1169–1534, ed. A. Cosgrove (Oxford, 1993), pp. 708–35. For a recent study of literature in medieval Ireland, see Thompson, ‘Books beyond England’, pp. 259–62.

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Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland as the frequent dismissal of efforts by the English-of-Ireland to hold territory and maintain control in Ireland, and external interference in Ireland by Englishmen based in England, prefigured late medieval and early modern clashes.26 The late medieval English colonists could perhaps see in Gerald’s partisan history a narrative with which they were too familiar. The Libelle of Englyshe Polycye, a work produced in England in the 1430s, commented that the English held a ‘lytell corner’ of Ireland, and the small Englishcontrolled area of Ireland which faced Gaelic territory was a militarized zone. A fifteenth- and sixteenth-century audience was familiar with the realities of warfare to hold their own lands, and this military history reminded them that this struggle was an ongoing battle.27 It also offered them a justification for their presence in Ireland. The narrative of events which led to the invasion (on the invitation of Diarmait Mac Murchada) and Gerald’s detailed five-point defence of English presence in Ireland perhaps offered English readers some solace and a heroic foundation myth for an embattled colonial environment.

The vernacular translation Since much of the Expugnatio was still as applicable to Ireland in the sixteenth century as it had been in the twelfth, the translator who produced the Conquest did not attempt to offer a ‘new’ history. The translation keeps faith with its Latin source, and simply offers a more accessible version of Gerald’s history, making it shorter and rendering it in vernacular English, which made it available to a wider non-Latinate audience. Although the exact Latin manuscript source is unknown, it can be established that the translation of the Conquest was drawn from the intermediate recension of the Latin Expugnatio.28 The original translation does not survive, however, there are eight extant English texts from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries which offered its readers an opportunity to learn about the history of the colony in the vernacular. The extant early versions of the Conquest appear to be quite similar, and the ordinatio (or layout) of the manuscripts presents an easily navigable text allowing readers to locate certain passages by means of Latin marginal notes. The manuscripts of this group are not particularly impressive 26 For

seminal discussions of the English colonists’ defining of their identity in medieval Ireland, see J. Lydon, ‘The Middle Nation’, in The English in Medieval Ireland, pp. 1–26; R. Frame, ‘Les Engleys Nées en Irlande’: The Political Identity in Medieval Ireland’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 6th s., 3 (1993), 83–103. 27 For a perspective on the military nature of medieval Ireland, see R. Frame, ‘The Defence of the English Lordship, 1250–1450’, pp. 76–98; K. Simms, ‘Gaelic Warfare in the Middle Ages’, pp. 99–115, both in A Military History of Ireland, ed. T. Bartlett and K. Jefferty (Cambridge, 1996). 28 For a discussion, see Expugnatio, pp. lii–lxxiv; for the transitional manuscripts see pp. xlvii–xlix. Also see note 14 above.

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Caoimhe Whelan display copies; the script is generally neat and ordered (particularly for the early manuscripts), written in one column, and for the most part it utilizes a simple unadorned structure, suggesting a sense of formality and a desire for clarity. As a group, the manuscripts’ lack of elaborate illumination or illustration suggests that the text was to be prized not so much as a symbol of wealth and status, but instead their form perhaps underlines the value of this corpus as a functional historical source-book which provides readers with easy access to the history of the colony in their vernacular. The Conquest follows Gerald’s lead in most matters, and only on rare occasions does the translator’s voice stray into proceedings. Most of the late medieval translations follow this pattern, although this changes with the sixteenth-century versions, in the Book of Howth in particular, as will be explored towards the end of this study. The general uniformity and stability of each Conquest text does not mean that changes are not evident in individual manuscript witnesses, but for the most part the core of the narrative remains the same. This may be partly on account of the work being a translation of what was perceived to be an authoritative history. Maintaining fidelity to the source, however, does not mean that the English translation of the Expugnatio does not alter the material it finds in its Latin source. The translation is aimed at an audience based in Ireland, and this appears to be reflected in the opening of the Latin and English versions of the work. Gerald’s dedications and prefatory material, including the table of contents, do not appear in the English translation, and the vernacular work opens directly at Chapter 1, describing the events leading up to the invasion of Ireland.29 The Latin begins by describing Mac Murchada, prince of Lenister, and Ireland’s geographic situation, but the translation (perhaps seeing the geography as a fact known to its audience) sets the narrative in its historical context, giving the name of the twelfth-century king of England: Dermitius itaque Maurchardi filius Lageniensium princeps, et quinte illius porcionis Hibernie rector, orientalia insule maritima maiori Britannie mari tantum interfluente contermina, nostris temporibus possidebat.30 YN the tym that the kynge henry, þat was the kynges fadyr Richard & the kynges fadyr Iohn, regned in englaund well, & heighe man in Irland, þat het dermod Macmorgh, princes of leynyster, that is I-told þe fifte parte of Irland […].31

29 For

a discussion of the process of translation, see C. Whelan, ‘Translating the Expugnatio Hibernica: A Vernacular English History in Late Medieval Ireland’, in Text and Transmission in the European Middle Ages (forthcoming). 30 ‘Diarmait Mac Murchada, prince of Leinster and ruler of that fifth part of Ireland, held in our time the eastern seaboard of the island adjacent to Great Britain, with only the sea separating the two’, Expugnatio, pp. 24–5. 31 Conquest, p. 4.

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Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland Gerald was charting a work of recent events (the invasion began in 1167 and Expugnatio was written c. 1189), however, the translation uses the reign of the English king to situate the narrative in its time, linking the work to England, its history and its kings. The translation often entails some quiet reworking, presenting the work to its audience in a different manner than it appears in the Latin. The internal structure of the narrative is frequently altered. Chapter order is changed, passages are abbreviated and elided while episodes are dropped or moved to other sections. Some material present in the Latin is absent from the English translation: for instance, the chapters relating to the crusades and the chapters on how to govern Ireland are missing in the Conquest. The absence of certain chapters may be due to their omission from the lost source Expugnatio manuscript, rather than any deliberate decision on the part of the translator. What can be established is that the resulting work is much more focused on Ireland. For instance, the description of the Irish leader Diarmait Mac Murchada is included directly after the reference to his death in the English translation: Whan the wentyr was I-passed, Dermot Macmorgh deyed, þe begynenyng of may, & was bured at ffernes. A man grett of body; hardy yn fyght amonge hys folke; of lange & lome cryynge yn fyght, hys voys was somdel hors; leuer hym was that man hym dredet that loued; þe noble & þe ryche he wold brynge to noght; the mek & the pouer he wold rere; al men ayeyns hym, & he ayeyns al.32

In the Latin, this appears at Book 1, Chapter 6, but in the Conquest it is moved to Chapter 18.33 Switching it to this later location is a calculated decision which allows it to complement and expand the single sentence referring to the death of Mac Murchada, and presents it as an appropriate epitaph for the Gaelic leader. An interesting exception to the exclusion of material not related to Ireland is found in the discussion of Thomas Becket, a passage which contains the most significant additional material in the whole work. Gerald had included a detailed description of Thomas Becket’s murder in 1170 in the Expugnatio (Book 1, Chapter 20).34 The translator both adapts the original Latin passage, and greatly extends the Expugnatio’s segment on the martyrdom of Becket. While there are isolated instances of elaboration in other sections of the translation, nothing else compares to the length and complexity of this addition, which extends over two folios. The only other two substantial additional passages inserted into the translation can be described as ‘cross-references’ to

32 Conquest,

pp. 40–6. pp. 72–3. 34 Ibid., pp. 73–5. 33 Expugnatio,

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Caoimhe Whelan other discussions by Gerald which were originally found in the Topographia Hibernica. Both of these passages are mentioned briefly in the text of the Expugnatio, and readers are directed to the Topographia which communicates the episodes in greater detail. The first story is that of the priest’s encounter with a talking wolf in Meath, complete with a strident warning to repent for one’s sins, and the second recalls the miracle of how a holy cross in Dublin forced a sergeant who had robbed the archbishop’s palace to repent.35 The Conquest presents the full versions of both of these stories, dropping their reference to the Topographia, which is no longer necessary, and instead providing the stories for readers. Unlike the passages drawn from the Topographia, however, the extra Becket material was not drawn from one of Gerald’s works. The source of this passage is unclear, and it may have been copied from another text or created by the translator himself.36 This vastly altered section is then indicated with a scribal marginal note – as is common in the Conquest manuscripts at key passages – but there is no indication that this segment has veered away from the Latin Expugnatio which forms the primary source for the work.37 Some of the alterations made to the passage are minor; for instance, ‘in leccione et oracione continua’ (‘constantly reading and praying’) becomes in the medieval translation: ‘Nyght and day, in holy prayeris and redynge in holy writte’.38 Other passages reflect what could be called a ‘creative translation’ of the Latin original. In a few cases, however, the Conquest deviates from its source. At the point when Becket’s kinsmen determine to show the exiled archbishop the misery they suffered on his account and how he should ‘turnen his hert’ and concede to the king’s wishes, the translator inserts a relatively lengthy passage which is not derived from Gerald’s work. Becket, of course, refused to do so, and the description of his martyrdom is a new addition to the text: And al they that weryn of elde, that thay myght othys swere, Swaryn on the maseboke, that ‘as Sone as thay come ouer the See, thay shold go to the archebyschope, and Shew hym the mesury that thay Sufferid for his Sake;’ For he shold, for Pite of ham, turnen his hert, and graunt the Kynge his wyll of that, that he desyrid. Aftyr Such martirdomes, and many othyr that he sufferid yn hys lyfe, – the whych in no mannes hert may be thoght to ful 35 The

wolf passage is found in: Conquest, p. 131, corresponding to the episode from: Topographia, Book 2 Chapter 19. The story relating to the holy cross appears in Conquest, pp. 37–9, and is originally found in: Topographia, Book 2 Chapter 47. 36 Conquest, pp. 40–7. 37 Only one (Latin) Expugnatio text, London, British Library, Harley MS 177, shortens this chapter. The wording of the note accompanying this passage in the Conquest texts varies between the manuscripts, producing readings such as: ‘no[ta] de scancto Thomas’, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS B 490, fol. 9r; ‘Thomas a Beket is martyrd’, Dublin, Trinity College, MS 592, fol. 8v. 38 Expugnatio, pp. 72–3; Conquest, p. 43.

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Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland end; – The hey martirdome, that broght his Soule to the blysse of hewyn, and his body to vyrchipe in Erth, […].39

This addition, if not based on a written source, may be explained as the imaginative work of an enthusiastic Becket supporter, or a pious, diligent scribe conscious of the demands of providing contemplative exemplars and hagiography. The passage, more so than the Latin original, appears to stress that – against the odds and the advice of weak-minded associates – he succeeded in gaining glory in heaven and on earth. Becket was one of the most popular saints in late medieval Ireland, and it appears that the additions in the translation to the section on the archbishop were crafted with some care. There was a thriving cult of Becket. As the patron saint of all clergy in Ireland he was a hugely significant figure and many churches and monasteries were dedicated to him.40 It is possible that the patron, scribe or scriptorium responsible for the translation of the Expugnatio into English held a particular devotion to the saint which resulted in such additions to the translation. It is worth briefly noting the aforementioned wolf passage addition to the Conquest, which supports the religious agenda of the translator and the work as a whole. Gerald’s religious underpinning of the invasion is echoed in the late medieval translation, and augmented with a passage originally found in the Topographia which relates to the arrival of the invaders on account of the sins of the Gaelic people. This passage recalls ‘a wonder aduentur yn a wodde of Myth’ (i.e. County Meath).41 This passage, one of those most reworked by Gerald, details how a priest encountered a wolf requesting the sacraments.42 As outlined elsewhere, this passage appears to demonstrate a focus on sin and indicates that the English in Ireland must remain pious and avoid sin in order to retain their hold on Ireland.43 This reading of the passage, taken in connection with the lengthy Becket insertion, suggests that the translator was concerned with individuals’ behaviour, and keen to demonstrate how misbehaviour can affect their contemporary circumstances and have a substantial impact. English colonists in Ireland are challenged to demonstrate correct behaviour in order to secure control over the colony in Ireland.

39 Conquest,

p. 43. Ó. Clabaigh and M. Staunton, ‘Thomas Becket and Ireland’, in Listen, O Isles, unto me: Studies in Medieval Word and Image in Honour of Jennifer O’Reilly, ed. E. Mullins and D. Scully (Cork, 2011), pp. 87–101 (pp. 92–4). 41 Conquest, p. 131. 42 For a discussion of the revisions to this passage, see Sargent, ‘Gerald of Wales’s Topographia Hibernica’, pp. 253, 257, 260. 43 For an examination of this passage and what it suggests for the religious agenda of the Conquest, see C. T. Whelan, ‘The Transmission of the Expugnatio Hibernica in Fifteenth-Century Ireland’, in Gerald of Wales: New Perspectives on a Medieval Writer and Critic, ed. G. Henley and J. McMullen (Cardiff, 2018), pp. 243–58 (pp. 247–50). 40 C.

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Caoimhe Whelan

Reading the Conquest The Conquest is not a stable unchanging entity, and it could serve different purposes and agendas for different readerships. Readers do not always leave traces on medieval manuscripts, but it is possible to reconstruct some of the people who encountered the Conquest and there are occasional moments where we can glimpse some of the readers interacting with the work. One example relates to a passage discussing the original author of the work. At the point where Gerald’s arrival in Ireland is recounted, some of the vernacular manuscripts have marginal reader pen marks drawing attention to the event which makes Gerald an eye-witness to the events he is narrating.44 One of these texts, that which appears in London, British Library, Additional MS 40674, has a cross-crosslet alongside this passage in a non-scribal hand (Fig. 1). This manuscript was in the ownership of the Darcy family of Platten, in County Westmeath, in the Late Middle Ages, and this cross-crosslet symbol is also present within the family coat-of-arms on a later folio (Fig. 2). The use of this symbol suggests that the cross-crosslet was added by a Darcy reader, and it also indicates that the history was read and at least some passages deemed of particular interest. The translator appears eager not to offer a new work, but a vernacular copy of the existing material and this points towards the recognition of the history and Gerald as an authority.45 This concern to aid circulation and to make a work accessible is a move which echoes Gerald’s own reworking of his literary material. This foundational narrative then could be used as a community-building text, reminding English colonists where they had come from, and suggesting for them a pantheon of heroes to celebrate and perhaps attempt to emulate as they did their part to secure, protect and run the English colony in the centuries after the initial invasion. In this regard, it also provided a range of knightly portraits – positive and negative – and could be understood as a sort of mirror (in the popular how-to-act genre) providing exemplars for an audience looking at the origins of their colony. History itself was often envisioned as a mirror both reflecting the past and projecting an idealized vision or guide to the future; Gerald subscribed to this Ciceronian view of history, describing it in the introduction to the public reading of the Expugnatio as ‘the warrant for antiquity, the eye-witness of times past, the shining light of truth, the life-line of our memory, life’s instructor, the messenger of former times to us’.46 For descendants of those involved in the invasion, Gerald’s work could attest to 44 Conquest,

p. 126. this type of translation style, see C. Thijs, ‘Close and Clumsy or Frantically Faithful: Medieval Translators on Literal Translation’, in Transmission and Transformation in the Middle Ages: Texts and Contexts, ed. K. Cawsey and J. Harris (Dublin, 2007), pp. 15–39. 46 Expugnatio, p. 11. Gerald erroneously credits Seneca with the quoted phrase. 45 For

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Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland

Fig. 1. London, British Library, Additional MS 40674 fol. 98r.

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Caoimhe Whelan

Fig. 2. London, British Library, Additional MS 40674 fol. 106r.

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Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland the long-standing importance of their families in the invasion, but for most people it provided an important record of the foundation of the English colony in Ireland. The most recent efforts to assess the textual corpus of the Conquest do just that, and Aisling Byrne, placing the composition of the Conquest in the Kildare Ascendancy (c. 1470–1534), suggests that this is the ‘primary context in which to locate interest in the Expugnatio’.47 Pointing out that two of the identified readers of the Conquest have links to the earls of Kildare (Darcy of Platten and the Prestons of Gormanston), she suggests that the manuscripts should be considered in relation to the earls. As outlined earlier, the evidence of the Kildare earls’ library lists confirms their possession of a copy of the work, and it is possible to imagine a loose reading circle pivoting around these Geraldine magnates in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Encountering this narrative during the Kildare Ascendancy – when the work was presumably ensconced in their library at Maynooth – could have generated certain impressions for a pro-Kildare audience. Its celebration of their Geraldine ancestors ‘made it a particularly attractive text for a dynasty at the height of its power’, and Byrne suggests that this makes it ‘not so much an assertion of the English right to rule Ireland as a vindication of the Fitzgerald right to do so’.48 This narrative has the potential to generate debate over personal and royal rule during this period. Circulation of the manuscripts at this time in the social and political circles of the Kildare Geraldines would appear to provide justification for such a reading. It is not, however, the only reading of the work. The original text of the Conquest does not appear to suggest that such a partisan reading was the impetus behind the work’s creation. Furthermore, although there are scribal marginal references to the Geraldines collectively and individually across the corpus, the scribal annotations are simply following the narrative which is keen to direct attention to the gens, and they are not the exclusive focus.49 Additional non-scribal marginalia pointing out the heroic deeds of the Geraldines appear in one manuscript only, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS B 490, folio 21r, which might suggest a Geraldine interest for that manuscript. The narrative’s potential to reinforce a Geraldine superiority complex is clear, but, particularly given the extensive positive emendations made to the presentation of the king in the Conquest and his leadership and personal support for the invasion (along with God’s approval), it is hard to argue that the translation is suggesting the Geraldines are more important and thus entitled to rule. Indeed, Gerald’s narrative recalls how the Geraldines

47 Byrne,

‘Family, Locality, and Nationality’, p. 101. pp. 113–14. 49 For one of these scribal notes referring to the Geraldines – ‘note the goodness of the Geraldines’ – see for instance: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS B 490 fol. 20v; London, Lambeth Palace, MSS 598 fol. 22v, 623 fol. 22v; Dublin, Trinity College, MS 592 fol. 21r. 48 Ibid.,

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Caoimhe Whelan have historically not been rewarded for their efforts and not entrusted with the ruling of the territory. This makes the argument more about articulating grievances than reaffirming their right to rule. Certainly Geraldine readers may have interpreted the work in this way at various points, but it does not appear to form part of the original message of the translation. Thus the work can be seen to articulate Geraldine importance as well as simultaneously stressing the importance and power of the English king, not to mention the duty he owed to his dominion. Seeing this work as a Geraldine ‘family history’ can certainly be justified with regard to various FitzGerald branches vying for power and influence, but its potential to provide such material should not be limited to the Geraldine gens. Other non-Geraldine families could engage with the narrative without focusing solely on Gerald’s familial bias. Indeed, the version of the Conquest contained in the Book of Howth (London, Lambeth Palace, MS 623), commissioned in the 1570s by the seventh Baron Howth, Christopher St Lawrence, shows that the work could be useful in offering the framework for a non-Geraldine family history. This survey of the legacy of the vernacular translation of the Expugnatio will thus close with an examination of one use of the work as a historical source in the sixteenth century. Gerald’s history and authority in this complex composition was not so easily digested.50 The reason for this is clear: the St Lawrence family claimed that their ancestor, Amore Tristram, was a brother-in-arms and brother-in-law to one of Gerald’s main ‘pillars’ of the invasion in Ulster, John de Courcy, who is little mentioned in the Conquest.51 The Book of Howth opens with a wide-ranging encyclopaedic work examining Ireland’s land, people and early history before the invasion narrative which, as Hiram Morgan describes it, acts as ‘the centrepiece of the whole manuscript’.52 The Conquest serves as the main source for this invasion history. The invasion was not only a pivotal historical moment but also a key event in the St Lawrence family’s history. For the St Lawrences, charting the history of the twelfth-century invasion provided an opportunity to illustrate their heroic ancestral involvement in the invasion and explain how they acquired their land in Howth, County Dublin. The compilation of the Book of Howth offered an unmissable opportunity to memorialize the family link to de Courcy, and it is proudly recorded 50 V.

McGowan-Doyle, The Book of Howth: Elizabethan Conquest and the Old English (Cork, 2011); V. McGowan-Doyle, ‘Representations of Sir Henry Sidney: Authority and the Rhetoric of Virtue’, in Sir Henry Sidney in Ireland and Wales. Special Issue of Sidney Journal 29, ed. T. Herron and W. Maley (2011), pp. 27–44. 51 See Book 2, Chapter 18 for Gerald’s list of the human ‘pillars’ of the invasion: Expugnatio, pp. 180–1. For an edition of the Book of Howth, see ‘Book of Howth’, in Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts Preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, ed. J. S. Brewer and W. Bullen, 6 vols. (London 1867–73), VI, 91. 52 H. Morgan, ‘Giraldus Cambrensis and the Tudor Conquest of Ireland’, in Political Ideology in Ireland, ed. H. Morgan (Dublin, 1999), pp. 22–44 (p. 33).

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Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland that ‘Sir John Courcy was in friendship with a worthy knight, Sir Amore Tristerame, now called Saint Larans, by reason the said Sir Amore married his sister’.53 The Book of Howth presents both de Courcy and Sir Amore as heroic knights engaged in worthy battles. Although the name Amore Tristram sounds suspiciously unhistorical, Duffy has suggested that there may be a historical ‘Amore’. He points out that de Courcy’s charter to the priory of the Holy Trinity in Dublin is witnessed by an Amaurius de Obda, and de Courcy witnessed a grant to Downpatrick cathedral by an Amauricus de Hanehhe.54 These documents, along with other references Duffy finds in Dublin charters to an Amaurius de Oueue and an Amurius de Houeth, suggest that the Book of Howth’s alleged connection between Amore and de Courcy may not be wholly spurious.55 St Lawrence and his team of scribes were probably disappointed with the paucity of references to the conqueror of Ulster found in the Conquest which – probably unbeknown to them – offered a trimmed version of the Expugnatio Hibernica with much of the elaborate praise lavished on Gerald’s heroes dramatically reduced. This perceived lack of respect for de Courcy does not go unremarked in the Book of Howth. After a detailed description of a battle in which both de Courcy and Sir Amore play prominent roles, the scribe remarks cuttingly: This story, and divers others of the thrice noble and worthy conqueror, that none his peer was in all Europe for the manliness and stalworthness with his own hand, I mean Sir John de Coursy, Earl of Ulster, was left out of the book written by Geraldus Cameranse, Archdeacon of Landaffe in England, and yet he was sent by the King with his son John to Ireland for the declaration of the truth.56

For St Lawrence, this omission is not an isolated incident of selective amnesia, but a symptom of a wider concern with a misrepresentation of history. Valerie McGowan-Doyle has suggested that the baron believed the inhabitants of the English colony had been deprived of their rightful place in the history of the island at the expense of new arrivals from England, and it is possible to view this addition in the same light.57 But it is basically evidence of an attempt to use history to tell the heroic story of the family. The compilers of the Book of Howth clearly wanted their part in the invasion to be heralded, and they

53 Calendar

of the Carew Manuscripts, p. 91. Duffy, ‘The First Ulster Plantation: John de Courcy and the Men of Cumbria’, in Colony and Frontier in Medieval Ireland, ed. T. B. Barry, R. Frame and K. Simms (London, 1995), pp. 1–27 (p. 13). 55 Ibid., p. 13, n. 62. 56 Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts, p. 84. 57 McGowan-Doyle, The Book of Howth, pp. 94, 96. 54 S.

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Caoimhe Whelan felt that Gerald’s account did not do them justice. At another point the text remarks: You may see wat the world is, that vanity draweth truth aside, as it shall appear hereafter of other thing which the said Camerus did for displeasure.58

It is not quite the stinging barb of Geoffrey Keating’s seventeenth-century Foras Feasa which compared a range of ‘false historians’ – such as Gerald – to dung beetles, but it is hardly complimentary. This is because the Book of Howth needs Gerald’s account. It is happy, however, to augment it with other authorities, and adds passages from a Latin chronicle it claims was translated by Primate George Doudall (1487–1558) in 1551: This much Cameransse left out in his book aforesaid with other things, more for displeasure than any truth to tell, the cause afore doth testify. God forgive them all. This much that is in this book more than Camerans did write of was translated by the Primate Dudall in the year of our Lord 1551 out of a Latin book into English, which was found with O’Nell in Armaghe. God have mercy upon them all. Amen, good L[ord].59

This passage has been taken to mean this entire section of the Book of Howth is a translation of a Latin chronicle from Armagh, which is not the case: it is a version of the Conquest with sections of another chronicle inserted accompanied by criticisms of Gerald. Recourse to another Latin authority and its translation by a near contemporary authoritative Church figure purports to give gravity and authority to the additional passages included in the Book of Howth and not found in the widely known account of Gerald. This implies that his account was not the only version of the invasion and, indeed, stresses his biased and prejudiced view of some of the history which it transmits, while offering an alternative version of the invasion where new heroes are praised for their feats of bravery. Or rather, as Christopher St Lawrence might put it, correctly lauded for their actions. It underlines the potential for Gerald’s history and the history of the invasion more generally to act as a repository of family history, linking late medieval or, in this case, early modern colonists to the twelfth-century invaders and grounding them in the history of the English colony in Ireland. Clearly, there is a rich reception history of the late medieval work as well as the twelfth-century narrative. But it also stands as testimony to the richness of history and the variety of perspectives and ‘facts’ which can be recorded for posterity. Questions still remain about the medieval translation of Gerald’s Expugnatio Hibernica. It is unclear who was responsible for its execution or commissioning, 58 Calendar 59 Ibid.,

of the Carew Manuscripts, p. 91. p. 117.

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Gerald of Wales and the Anglo-Norman Invasion of Ireland and we have to guess at its approximate date. Where in Ireland the translation was completed is also unknown. What is clear, however, is that the work which was produced provided the most detailed (and presumably accepted, given its continued use) account of the history of the invasion and the foundation of the English colony in Ireland. The Expugnatio, in spite of its faults, was the history of the invasion. The only other comparable source for this period is the fragment of the Hiberno-French poem ‘Dermot and the Earl’, which does not appear to have circulated widely.60 The continued circulation of Gerald’s history in the late medieval colony attests to the importance of retaining control over the narrative of English history in Ireland. Gerald’s history offered the foundational story of the English colony, and justified the presence of the English settlement in Ireland. The continued use of this twelfth-century source in late medieval Ireland as the authoritative account of the English invasion (partly the result of a lack of alternatives) also attests to the importance and continued relevance of twelfth-century scholarship. In some ways, we are as much indebted to Gerald for our understanding of this period of Irish history as were the late medieval historians. While Gerald’s biased account may cause modern commentators to question the veracity of the received narrative, the Expugnatio remained relevant and useful to a late medieval and early modern colonial translator and audience because, in many ways, their outlook was similar to that of their historical predecessors. Gerald’s justification for the colonial presence in Ireland, for the invasion, and for their historic loyalty to the English king, were elements of the history which could be readily understood and highlighted by Englishmen in Ireland. The strains of demarcating identity in late medieval Ireland add further impetus to the circulation of such a pro-English foundational narrative: it stresses the colony’s connection to England against a denunciation of the Gaelicization of Englishmen in Ireland. In a society which had to reiterate its English nature and stress its loyalty to the crown, recourse to an old authority on the historical ‘Englishness’ of the colony had much to recommend itself to a late medieval and early modern audience.

60 The

Deeds of the Normans in Ireland: La Geste des Engleis en Yrlande, ed. and trans. E. Mullally (Dublin, 2002).

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Index of Manuscripts

Alençon, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 11  99 Alençon, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 18  119 Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 58  119 Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 88  115 Avranches, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 94  115 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 16 II  49, 192–3 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 26  49 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 139  146 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 183  137 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 276  119 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 371  106 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 452  105 Cambridge, Pembroke College, MS 82  186 Cambridge, St John’s College, MS I.15  61, 71 Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O. 7. 41  71 Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R. 3. 30  130 Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee. 3 59  203 Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk. IV 6  82 Dublin, Trinity College, MS 177  5, 172, 189 Dublin, Trinity College, MS 503  2, 102, 104 Dublin, Trinity College, MS 592  214, 222, 227 Durham, Cathedral Library, MS A.ii.4  133, 140–1 Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.ii.1  144 Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.ii.13  140 Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.ii.14  140 Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.ii.35  139, 142 Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.iii.16  140 Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.iv.8  144 Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.iv.22  145–7 Durham, Cathedral Library, MS B.iv.24  133, 136, 142–3 Durham, Cathedral Library, MS C.iii.18  142 Durham, Cathedral Library, MS C.iv.15  145–6 Durham, Cathedral Library, MS Hunter 100  61, 71, 76, 81, 142, 145, 147 Durham, University Library, MS Cosin V.ii.6  138–9 Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, MS Adv. 18.4.3  130, 144 Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 85  61, 71, 76–7, 81, 142, 145, 147 Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 94  115 263

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Index of Manuscripts Hildesheim, Dombibliothek, MS Godehard 1  185–6 Leiden, University Library, MS BPL 20  95–6, 109 Leiden, University Library, MS BPL 71  119 Liège, Bibliothèque Universitaire, MS 369C  146 London, British Library, Additional MS 40674  214, 224–6 London, British Library, Cotton MS Claudius D VI  50–1 London, British Library, Cotton MS Domitian A VIII  103 London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina A V  138 London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII  4, 29–52 London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero C V  60, 78, 91, 100 London, British Library, Cotton MS Nero D I  5, 168, 172, 175, 179 London, British Library, Cotton MS Otho A X  115 London, British Library, Cotton MS Tiberius E IV  60, 71, 76, 81 London, British Library, Egerton MS 3088  71, 76 London, British Library, Harley MS 177  222 London, British Library, Harley MS 491  144 London, British Library, Harley MS 2729  144 London, British Library, Harley MS 6302  109 London, British Library, Royal MS 12 C IV  117, 120–4, 129 London, British Library, Royal MS 13 A XXII  117–20, 123, 129 London, British Library, Royal MS 13 A XXIII  120 London, British Library, Royal MS 14 C II  107–9 London, British Library, Royal MS 15 B XVI  130 London, British Library, Royal MS 15 C VI  117, 123–5, 129 London, Lambeth Palace, MS 598  214, 227 London, Lambeth Palace, MS 623  214, 228 New York, Morgan Library, M.926  175, 186 Oxford, Balliol College, MS 256  117, 127, 131 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 1 9  60, 63, 71, 76–7, 80–1 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 3 14  61–3, 70–1, 76, 78, 81–4, 86, 88–9 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Auct. F 5 19  71, 76, 78, 81, 83, 85, 87–8 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 596  138 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 175  71, 138 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 247  117, 125–30 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 582  109–10 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 490  214, 222, 227 Oxford, Brasenose College, MS 21  186 Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 157  62, 100–2 Oxford, Magdalen College, MS Lat. 14  115 Oxford, Magdalen College, MS 53  186 Oxford, Magdalen College, MS 172  105 Oxford, University College, MS 165  180–1, 186 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Lat. 5506  97–8 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Lat. 14693  115 264

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Index of Manuscripts Princeton, University Library, MS 57  50 Rouen, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 1174  99 Rouen, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 1343  97 Saint Petersburg, National Library of Russia, MS Lat. O. IV 1  71–6, 83, 88–90 Salisbury, Cathedral Library, MS 80  115 Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Ottob. Lat. 909  126 Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. Lat. 597  115 Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. Lat. 801  115 Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS 182  126–7

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General Index

Abbo of Fleury  59 Adam Usk  216 Adelard of Bath  80 Aelred of Rievaulx  7, 21 Aethelstan, king  137 Alain of Lille  109 Alban, saint  5, 172, 179, 183, 189–91, 201, 203–5, 211 Alexander the Great  125, 129–30 Alexis, saint  176, 184–8 Alfred the Great, king  43, 47, 49–51 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle  103, 147 Annales Laurissenses 75 Annales Mosellani   73, 75–6 Annals of Dunstable  153 Anselm of Canterbury  19, 142 Aratus 120 Asser 116 Augustine  12, 17, 66, 140, 142, 149–50, 157–8 Augustine of Canterbury  41 Ausonius 142 Battle Abbey  20 Bec 64 Bede  1, 17, 48–9, 53, 56–9, 64, 66–7, 73, 75–6, 89, 91, 97, 102, 116, 136–9, 142, 147 Benoît de Sainte-Maure  22 Bernard of Clairvaux  17, 142 Book of Howth 228–30 Brutus 54 Bury St Edmunds  124–5 Byrhtferth of Ramsey  116, 146 Candidus  150, 159, 161 Canterbury  18–19, 119–20, 123, 126, 129, 145, 152 Cassiodorus  13, 66, 144 Cecilia de Sanford  5, 191–6, 198–204, 207–9, 211 Cicero  10, 12 Cistercians  14–15, 17, 20, 34–5, 160, 162 Cotton, Sir Robert  2, 33, 35

Crusades  9, 17, 26, 144, 204–11, 221 Cuthbert, saint  5, 133–40, 179–81, 183–4, 186–8 Cyprian 12 Darcy family  224–6 Dares Phrygius  56 David of Scotland, king  21 Diarmait Mac Murchada  219–21 Dionysius Exiguus  53, 57–60, 62–4, 66, 69 Domesday Survey  76–81, 83 Dudo of Saint-Quentin  12, 120 Durham (see also Symeon of Durham)  5, 61, 133–48, 162, 187–8 Eadmer of Canterbury  4, 7, 9, 19–20, 94, 105–6, 111, 144 Easter Tables  53, 58–9, 61–2, 75, 88, 145 Edward the Confessor, king  21 Einhard  125, 129–30 Eleanor Plantgenet  191–2, 196, 201–2, 210–11 Ely 20 Eusebius  12, 54–8, 60, 64, 66–7, 131, 144 Eutropius 144–5 FitzGerald, earls of Kildare  218, 227–8 Florence of Worcester  19, 62, 100 Freculf of Lisieux  117 Frontinus 144 Genevieve, saint  196–201 Geoffrey, archbishop of York  26 Geoffrey Gaimar  7 Geoffrey of Anjou  22 Geoffrey of Monmouth  7, 9, 16, 54, 64, 109 Gerald of Wales  1, 5, 7, 9, 26–7, 213–31 Germanus of Auxerre, saint  180, 182–3, 188, 190, 197, 199–200 Gervase of Canterbury  7, 9, 18–20 Gilbert Basset  194–5 Godfrey de Luci  20 Gratian 163–5

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General Index Gregory the Great, pope  12, 41, 142 Grimbald, royal physician  62

Matthew Paris  1, 5, 49–50, 168–211 Mont Saint-Michel  64, 119–20, 123, 153

Harold Godwinson  43 Henry II, king  7, 9, 20–27, 209 Henry III, king   209–10 Henry V, king  161 Henry VI, king  161, 190 Henry of Huntingdon  7, 9–10, 12–13, 48–9, 64, 145 Henry the Young King  15–16, 25, 210 Herbert Poore, bishop of Salisbury  154 Hereford (see also Robert of Hereford)  60, 78, 80, 91 Hermannus Contractus  56 Heptarchy diagrams  4, 43, 47–52 Howard, William  2 Hrabanus Maurus  140 Hugh of St Victor  13, 31, 149–51, 155–8, 173 Hyginus  120, 129

Odo of Cluny  176 Offa, king  174, 176, 189, 202, 211 Orderic Vitalis  1, 4, 12, 53–6, 60–1, 64, 66–8, 91–5, 97–100, 111 Origen  149–50, 157–8 Orosius  56, 67, 130, 144

Innocent III, pope  5, 35, 41, 43, 151–4 Ireland  5, 27, 213–31 Isabel, countess of Arundel  191, 200–1 Isidore of Seville  67 Jerome  12, 54–5, 57, 64, 66–7, 73, 142 Jerusalem  15, 17, 32, 36, 208–10 Joan de Munchensi  191–2, 202–3, 211 John, king  13, 20, 35, 107, 111, 149–65 John de Courcy  228–9 John of Marmoutier  22 John of Reims  99 John of Salisbury  11 John of Worcester  1, 4, 19, 53, 55, 62, 71, 80, 82, 92, 94, 100–4, 111, 145–6 Jordan Fantosme  7 Josephus  117, 130, 144 Julius Caesar  36, 54 Juvenal 14 Laurence of Durham  139–40, 145 Lindisfarne 133–7 Livy 10 Lucius, king  34, 36, 41, 43 Macrobius 120 Malmesbury 61 Marianus Scottus  12, 53–6, 60–6, 69–70, 77, 80, 88, 91, 100 Matilda, empress  10

Palladius 144 Parker, Matthew  2 Paul, abbot of St Albans   5, 168, 170, 173–9, 187–8 Paul the Deacon  5, 56, 67, 113–31 Peter, saint  17, 36, 38, 43 Peter Comestor  31 Peter Lombard  142, 149–51, 156–8 Peter of Poitiers  4, 30–6, 52 Peter Riga  32, 34, 36 Peterborough 20 Pliny  151, 160, 162 Pompeius Trogus  56, 144 Prudentius  73, 75–6 Ralph Higden  216 Ralph of Diceto  1, 9, 13, 23–5 Ralph of Coggeshall  9, 14, 20 Ramsey  20, 59 Reading abbey  149–52, 158–64 Regino of Prüm  146 Reliquaries 179–83 Rievaulx 16 Richard, abbot of St Albans  5, 168, 170, 178–88 Richard I, king  7, 9, 17, 26, 109, 111, 209 Richard Marsh  149–50, 152, 162 Richard of Cornwall  210 Richard of Devizes  7, 9, 13, 20 Rigord of St Denis  20 Robert, bishop of Hereford  53, 60–4, 66, 69–83, 88–92 Robert of Torigni  11–13, 16, 21, 64, 66, 68, 94–5, 99 Rochester 120 Roger of Howden  1, 4, 7, 9, 13–14, 23–4, 94, 106–11 Roger of Wendover  208 Rollo, duke of Normandy  41 Saint Albans abbey  5, 167–211 Saint-Bertin abbey  119

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General Index St Lawrence, Christopher  228–30 Sanchia of Provence  191 Sanford family  192–6, 204, 207–8 Seneca 12 Sigebert of Gembloux  12, 55–6, 64–8 Stephen, king  16, 20 Stephen Langton  35, 150–2, 162, 209 Suetonius  142, 145 Suger, abbot of Saint-Denis  173 Symeon of Durham  1, 7, 19, 61, 71, 133–5, 137–40, 142, 145–8 Thomas Becket  7, 13, 18–19, 22, 24–5, 184, 191, 221 Tynemouth 187–8 Valerius Maximus  149–50, 159–61 Vernacular history  5, 7, 172, 186, 190, 214–31 Victor of Vita  130–1, 144 Victorius of Aquitaine  66 Wace  7, 22, 94 Walcher of Great Malvern  80 Walter Map  9, 14–15 Walter of Coutances  24

Walter of St Martin  192–3, 208–9 Warin of Worcester  82 William Longchamp  24, 26 William de Gorham  192, 195 William de Valence  191, 202–3 William of Jumièges  64, 95, 99, 144, 145 William of Malmesbury  1, 4, 7, 9–10, 12–13, 19–20, 48–9, 60–3, 68, 70–1, 81–23, 88, 90–1, 94, 105–6, 111, 117, 144–6 William of Newburgh  7, 9, 13, 15–18, 20 William of Poitiers  12 William of Saint Albans  204 William of Saint-Calais, bishop of Durham  133, 138, 140–2, 144, 148, 187 William the Breton  20 William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy and king of England  1, 34, 43, 53, 99 Winchester 20 Worcester (see also Florence of Worcester, John of Worcester)  4, 55, 60–4, 66, 80–2, 91, 100–1, 112, 145 Worcester Chronicula  2, 103–4 Wulfstan II, bishop of Worcester  55, 60, 100

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Writing History in the Middle Ages 1  Dudo of Saint-Quentin’s Historia Normannorum: Tradition, Innovation and Memory, Benjamin Pohl (2015) 2  The Classicist Writings of Thomas Walsingham: ‘Worldly Cares’ at St Albans Abbey in the Fourteenth Century, Sylvia Federico (2016) 3  Medieval Cantors and their Craft: Music, Liturgy and the Shaping of History, 800–1500, edited by Katie Ann-Marie Bugyis, A. B. Kraebel and Margot E. Fassler (2017) 4  Universal Chronicles in the High Middle Ages, edited by Michele Campopiano and Henry Bainton (2017) 5  The Construction of Vernacular History in the Anglo-Norman Prose Brut Chronicle: The Manuscript Culture of Late Medieval England, Julia Marvin (2017)

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H

LAURA CLEAVER is the Ussher Lecturer in Medieval Art, Trinity College Dublin. ANDREA WORM is an Assistant Professor at the Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Karl-Franzens-Universität, Graz. CONTRIBUTORS: Stephen Church, Laura Cleaver, Kathryn Gerry, Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Laura Pani, Charles C. Rozier, Gleb Schmidt, Laura Slater, Michael Staunton, Caoimhe Whelan, Andrea Worm Cover image: William the Conqueror, London, British Library, Cotton MS Faustina B VII fol. 67r © The British Library Board.

YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS

LAURA CLEAVER, ANDREA WORM (eds)

istory was a subject popular with authors and readers in the Anglo-Norman world. The volume and richness of historical writing in the lands controlled by the kings of England, particularly from the twelfth century, has long attracted the attention of historians and literary scholars, whilst editions of works by such writers as Orderic Vitalis, John of Worcester, Symeon of Durham, William of Malmesbury, Gerald of Wales, Roger of Howden, and Matthew Paris has made them well known. Yet the easy availability of modern editions obscures both the creation and circulation of histories in the Middle Ages. This collection of essays returns to the processes involved in writing history, and in particular to the medieval manuscript sources in which the works of such historians survive. It explores the motivations of those writing about the past in the Middle Ages, and the evidence provided by manuscripts for the circumstances in which copies were made. It also addresses the selection of material for copying, combinations of text and imagery, and the demand for copies of particular works, shedding new light on how and why history was being read, reproduced, discussed, adapted, and written.

WRITING HISTORY IN THE ANGLO-NORMAN WORLD

WRITING HISTORY IN THE MIDDLE AGES

WRITING HISTORY IN THE ANGLO-NORMAN WORLD Manuscripts, Makers and Readers, c.1066–1250

An imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd PO Box 9, Woodbridge IP12 3DF (GB) and 668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620–2731 (US)

YORK MEDIEVAL PRESS

Edited by L A U R A C L E A V E R and A N D R E A W O R M