Manuscript A: The Parker Chronicle
Physical Description of the Manuscript
Location and Identification
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge MS 173 fos. 1-32
Date
THIS INFORMATION IS YET TO BE COMPILED
Contents
A version of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
Writing Surface
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Size
- Size of the page
- 287 x 206 mm.
- Size of written area (fos 1-16)
- 245 x 145 mm.
- Size of written area (fos 17-18)
- 230 x 160 mm.
- Size of written area (fos 19-30)
- 225 x 140 mm.
Condition
THIS INFORMATION IS YET TO BE COMPILED
Collation
This collation only includes the Chronicle section of MS A. All quires in this section
consist of 8 folios.
Brief
I8 wants 1, II8 +1 after 8; 2 and 7 are half sheets, III8 +1 after 8;
3 and 6 are half sheets, IV8 wants 8.
Expanded
- I8
- wants 1 (fos 1-7)
- II8
- +1 after 8; 2 and 7 are half sheets (fos 8-16)
- III8
- +1 after 8; 3 and 6 are half sheets (fos 17-25)
- IV8
- wants 8 (fos 26-32)
Pictorial
Quires I and II were arranged such that the hair-sides of each sheet are on the outside of the quire.
Quires III and IV were arranged so that hair faces hair and flesh faces flesh.
Page Layout
Decoration and Structure Markers
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Writing material
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Paleographic Description
THIS INFORMATION IS YET TO BE COMPILED
For a fuller description of the scribes and their hands, see Bately, xxi-xlii.
A summary of these is given below:
- Hand 1
-
Responsible for the main text to end of the first part of the annal for 891.
Parkes dates hand 1 to 890-900. Dumville prefers an early 10th century date. Bately, Ker and Brown
date Hand 1 to the late 9th or early 10th century. He cannot have been writing before 891.
- Hand 1a
-
Responsible for the, now erased, material that concludes the annal 845.
- Hand 1b
-
An interpolator, responsible for material in the annal 860.
- Hand 2a
- Writing not before 894.
- Hand 2b
- Writing not before 915.
- Hand 2c
- Hand 2d
- Hand 2e
- Hand 2f
- Hand 3
-
Responsible for annals *924 to 955
and possibly for annal number 966. He also inserted annal 710. Ker dates his hand
to the mid-tenth century and, because his insertion at 710 also appears in G, he was certainly writing before
1001x1012/13.
- Hand 3a
-
Responsible for annal 951. Ker, Lutz and Dumville suggest that this
entry was entered after the annal for 955. Bately points out that, though probable, this is not definite that annal 951
was entered after 955. An alternative is that the scribes of hands 3 and 3a could have been collaborating.
- Hand 4
-
Responsible for annals 958 and
962 to 964.
- Hand 4a
-
- Hand 5
-
Responsible for annals 973 to
1001. He may also be responsible for
971 but not enough of this is still
visible following erasure to determine this.
- Hand 5a
-
- Hand 5b
-
- Hand 6
-
An interpolator, responsible for a marginal insertion to annal 688 and
probably for an insertion into annal 728. He must have been writing
before 1001x1012/13 as his added material was copied in to G.
- Hand 6a
-
An interpolator, who added material to the end of annal 902.
This scribe may have been working at Winchester and must have been writing after G was copied.
- Hand 7
-
Responsible for the first part of annal 1070, possibly the
annal numbers 1002 - 1070 (and perhaps beyond), and possibly additions to annals
*924, *942,
955, 959,
961, 988,
and erased material after annal 946.
- Hand 7a
-
An interpolator responsible for additions in annals 870,
890 and possibly 993.
- Hand 8
-
The F-scribe. Baker dates the production of "F" to 1100x1107, and Dumville conjectures that the F-scribe abandoned his interventions
in "A" when he started "F". Responsible for many interventions in the text to 616:
- Hand 8a
-
Responsible for annal 11. Baker considers this hand to be the work of the F-scribe.
- Hand 8b
-
Responsible for annal 519.
- Hand 8c
-
Responsible for annals 640, 725 and
748.
Baker considers this hand to be the work of the F-scribe.
- Hand 8d
-
Responsible for annals 760 and 768.
Baker considers this hand to be the work of the F-scribe.
- Hand 8e
-
Responsible for annal 784.
Baker considers this hand to be the work of the F-scribe.
- Hand 8f
-
Responsible for annal 924.
Baker considers this hand to be the work of the F-scribe.
- Hand 8g
-
Responsible for annal 940.
Baker considers this hand to be the work of the F-scribe.
- Hand 9
-
A Christ Church hand of 1100x1150, writing not before 1115. Responsible for the
annals 1005 to 1066.
- Hand 9a
-
An interpolator, responsible for the addition of Plegemund's obit. to annal *919.
- Hand 10
-
Responsible for annals 1031, 1036,
1038 and the second part of 1070.
- Hand 11
-
Responsible for the last seven words of annal 1066 and the
alterations of annal numbers 1067 and 1068.
- Hand 12
-
An annotator, possibly writing in the second quarter of the 11th century. Responsible
for the addition of annals 200, 250,
and 300
- Hand 13
-
Responsible for the Acts of Lanfranc.
Medieval Hands
For a fuller description of the medieval hands, see Bately, xliii-xlvi.
A summary of these is given below:
- The Frithestan Annotator
-
This scribe was responsible for the annotations to the entry for 909,
which records the accession of Frithestan to the see of Winchester.
He was also responsible for the annotation to 853.
- The Circle and Cross Annotator
-
Annotated a number of entries with a distinctive cross with a superimposed circle.
Five of these annotations appear close to references to King Alfred
(868, 871 (twice),
878, 887,
900). The other is close to a reference
to the death of Eahlswith, his wife (904).
Early Modern Hands
For a fuller description of the early modern hands, see Bately, xliii-xlvi.
A summary of these is given below:
- John Joscelyn
-
John Joscelyn (1529-1603), was Archbishop Parker's secretary, and was responsible
for entering a number of alternative readings and corrections:
381, 409,
423, 430,
443, 565,
604, 606,
610, 616.
- Archbishop Parker
-
- The Talbot Annotator
-
A 16th century annotator responsible for the marginal annotation in annal
892. He has been identified as the author of a similar comment in Manuscript
E, a number of other comments in MS E, and notes in two other Parkerian manuscripts.
See Bately, xlv.
- William L'isle
-
L'isle may have been responsible for the annal number .dccccxxxviii.
inserted before the blank annal for 939. He may also have
been responsible for the interlined se in the
annal for 905.
- Abraham Wheloc
-
Lutz identified Abraham Wheloc (1593-1653) as responsible for the word geferum> inserted on the first line of folio 10v
in annal 755.
Origin
THIS INFORMATION IS YET TO BE COMPILED
Provenance
Acquired in the mid-sixteenth century by Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury,
from Nicholas Wutton. It was bequeathed by Parker to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
in 1575 and has remained there since.
Binding
THIS INFORMATION IS YET TO BE COMPILED
Bibliography
THIS INFORMATION IS YET TO BE COMPILED
Copyright © 1996-2006, Tony Jebson <tony@jebbo.co.uk>,
all rights reserved. Last modified 11th August 2007.