Bury Chronicle

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Not to be confused with the 13th-century Chronicle of the Abbey of St Edmund.
The ruins of Bury St Edmunds Abbey.

The Bury Chronicle (Latin: Chronica or Cronica Buriensis), Bury St Edmunds Chronicle,[1] or Chronicle of Bury St Edmunds[2] is a medieval English chronicle compiled by John of Taxster and two other unknown Benedictine monks of Bury St Edmunds Abbey in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Authorship[edit]

The first part of the Bury Chronicle was compiled by John of Taxster,[2] who claimed to have joined the monastery in 1255.[3] From the year 1265, another monk continued his work[2] and, from Easter 25 March 1296, a third monk continued their work.[4] The second author also revised Taxster's account, including some additional information on the monastery's finances and adding several passages from a few classical authors and medieval historians.[3] The third author did not share the second's interest in financial matters, although he continued to record military and local details.[4]

Contents[edit]

The Bury Chronicle generally directly copies its source texts from the Creation to the year 1212.[2] Most items up to 1131 are taken from John of Worcester,[2] probably from the copy now held as Bodleian Library MS 297, which includes substantial additions concerning the history of the abbey.[5] Other items are taken either directly or via secondary sources from Apuleius's Golden Ass, Aulus Gellius's Attic Nights, Justin's summary of Trogus's Philippic History, Eutropius's Summary of Roman History, Jerome's translation of Eusebius's Onomasticon, Augustine's Confessions and City of God, Boethius's Consolations of Philosophy, Gildas's On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain, Bede's Ecclesiastical History, Herman of Bury's On the Miracles of St Edmund, John of Salisbury's Policraticus, William of Malmesbury's Deeds of the Kings of the English and Deeds of the Bishops of the English, Freculf's 12 Books of History, Peter the Devourer's Scholastic History, and Sigebert of Gembloux's Chronicle.[5] From 1131 to around 1212, its main sources are Ralph de Diceto's Chronicle and the Annals of St Edmunds[5] (Annales Sancti Edmundi, BL Harley MS 447).[6] (The exact beginning of Taxster's original contributions is uncertain because the only surviving manuscript of the Annals is missing its final pages.)[5]

Marginalia in the revised and continued version note its additions to Taxster's account came from Apuleius, Orosius, Eutropius, Boethius, Freculf, Marianus Scotus, and John of Worcester.[3] Although the account has been said to end in 1301,[2] its general record actually ends in 1300 with only minor entries afterwards in the years 1301, 1313, 1326, 1329, 1334, and 1335.[7][3]

The full chronicle has not been published. Benjamin Thorpe published the years 1152–1294 from the Peterborough copy in 1849.[8][9] Antonia Gransden published the years 1212–1301 in 1964.[7]

Manuscripts[edit]

Taxster's section of the Bury Chronicle survives in 2 manuscripts.[10][11] The first, possibly Taxster's own holograph,[11] comprises folios 3 to 43 verso of British Library MS Cotton Julius A 1.[11][12] It was damaged somewhat by the 1731 Cottonian Library fire.[11] The other comprises folios 109 to 124 verso of Arundel MS 6, once the property of John Erghome (fl. 1353–1385), Edward North,[13] and William Howard[10] and now held by the College of Arms,[11][14][15] used as a continuation of a version of John of Worcester's Chronica Chronicarum (Chronicle of Chronicles).[16] This only contains the first continuation to Taxster's work, ending in 1295.[16]

The revised and fully continued version of the chronicle is Arundel MS 30, held by the College of Arms.[17][1][3] As of 2002, Antonia Gransden's 1956 dissertation providing it[1] was the only edition of the chronicle's initial section before 1212.[18] She subsequently published the section from 1212 to 1301 in 1964.[7]

John of Worcester's Chronicle of Chronicles was also appended with Taxster's notes in the version held as Cambridge Corpus Christi College MS 92.[19][10] The Colchester Chronicle (BL Harley MS 1132) is another version of the Bury Chronicle, unusual in specifically crediting William of Malmesbury for its treatment of Sceafa.[2]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Gransden (1956).
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Bruce (2002), p. 47.
  3. ^ a b c d e Gransden (2015), p. 254.
  4. ^ a b Gransden (2015), p. 172.
  5. ^ a b c d Gransden (2015), p. 243.
  6. ^ Arnold (1892).
  7. ^ a b c Gransden (1964).
  8. ^ Thorpe (1849).
  9. ^ Gransden (2015), p. 244.
  10. ^ a b c Thorpe (1849), p. xii.
  11. ^ a b c d e Gransden (2015), p. 253.
  12. ^ Hardy (1871), §287: Chronicon ab Orbe Condito ad Edwardum I., Angliae Regem, Inclusive; Scriptum a Johanne de Taxter, Monacho de Bury, post Annum 1267, quo Habitum Monachalem Susceperat, ut Patet ex Ejusdem Hac de Re Inserta Adnotatione, Fol. 37 b. MS. Cott. Jul. A. I..
  13. ^ Young (1829), No. VI..
  14. ^ Young (1829), No. VI, §2: Johannis Tayster "Incipit Cronica Abbreviata a Principio Mundi" ad Annum 1287.
  15. ^ Hardy (1871), §288: Chronicon ab Orbe Condito ad A.D. 1265 per Johannem de Taxter. MS. Coll. Arm. Norf. vii. 3..
  16. ^ a b Forester (1854), p. xii.
  17. ^ Young (1829), No. XXX, §54: A Chronicle in Two Parts, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Fifth Age and from the Christian Aera to the Year 1335....
  18. ^ Bruce (2002), p. 173.
  19. ^ CCCC MS 92 (c. 1325).

Bibliography[edit]

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