MS British Library Cotton Nero D. ii.

ARTICLE: Planta's art. 5

FOLIATION: ff. 238-241 (formerly 234-237)

CONTENT:

Annals of Battle Abbey, from the Incarnation to 1206. Liebermann described the Annals as a version, with supplementation and a continuation, of the Annales Rotomagenses.

Liebermann identified five hands in all; the last, of the early 13th century, begins in 1185.

The scribe who wrote the Annals up to 1120 [recte, to part way through 1119] and entries for 1124 and 1125 also wrote the bulk of Hereford Cathedral, MS P.v.1 and Bodl., MS e Musaeo 93 (S.C. 3632), according to E.M.C. van Houts, "The Ship List of William the Conqueror", Anglo-Norman Studies, x (1988), pp. 159-83, at 165; this hand is associated with Canterbury by R.M. Thomson, Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Hereford Cathedral Library (Cambridge, 1993), p. 96; that manuscript early on went to Battle Abbey.

ORIGIN:

DATING:

PROVENANCE:

Formerly bound with Cotton MS Tiberius B. v, pt. 1, ff. 2-73 and 77-88; the whole of this volume belonged to John, Lord Lumley (d. 1609), and Nero D. ii, ff. 238-241, is identifiable with its "Chronologia, seu brevis annorum supputatio, ab incarnatione Domini, ad annum 1206" [The Lumley Library. The Catalogue of 1609, ed. S. Jayne and F.R. Johnson (London, 1956), pp. 162-3, no. 1295; cf. Warner and Gilson, Cat. Royal MSS, I, p. xlii, no. 212; M.R. James, Marvels of the East ... (Roxburghe Club, no. 191, 1929), p. 2; Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages, III, F. Saxl and H. Meier, Manuscripts in English Libraries, 2 pts. (London, 1953), pt. 1, pp. 119, 134; Ker, Cat. MSS Anglo-Saxon, pp. 255-6, no. 193] Tiberius B. v, pt. 1, f. 2, is inscribed "Robertus Cotton Bruceus 1598"; Cotton cannot, however, have owned it until after Lumley's death in 1609.

CODICOLOGY:

COPIES:

• BL, Cotton MS Claudius, C. ix, ff. 4-17 (Worcester version; 13th cent.) BL, Royal MS 4 B. VII, ff. 211- (Rochester version; 13th cent.)

ILLUSTRATED:

• Watson, Cat. of Dated and Datable Manuscripts, II, pl. 64 (detail of f. 240^v).

PRINTED:

• Ungedruckte Anglo-Normannische Geschichtsquellen, ed. F. Liebermann (Strasburg and London, 1879), pp. 35-44, 51-5. [Collates Nero D. ii, Claud. C. ix and Royal 4 B. VII, down to 999; thereafter Nero D. ii is printed separately.]

LITERATURE:

• Anglo-Normannische Geschichtsquellen, ed. Liebermann, pp. 31-5, 50.
• A.G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts, c. 700-1600, in the Department of Manuscripts, the British Library, 2 vols. (London, 1979), I, p. 104, no. 543.

EXHIBITED:

MS British Library Cotton Nero D. ii.

ARTICLE: Planta's art. 15

FOLIATION: ff. 254^v-256^v (Planta's 249^v-251^v)

CONTENT:

Les dis des philosophes, a treatise on the institution of the office of herald by Julius Caesar, with a description of the heralds' duties and privileges.

Begins: "Ce sont les dis des philosophes"

ORIGIN:

DATING:

PROVENANCE:

CODICOLOGY:

COPIES:

• BL, MS Add. 28549, ff. 54-58
• BL, MS Add. 29901, ff. 40-
• London, College of Arms, [MS] L 6, ff. 20-28
• London, College of Arms, [MS] L 10 bis, ff. 26-32
• London, College of Arms, MS Arundel 26, ff. 11^v-28
• Oxford, Bodl., MS Douce 271 (S.C. 21845), ff. 14-
• Oxford, Bodl., MS Douce 278 (S.C. 21852), ff. 107-112^v

ILLUSTRATED:

PRINTED:

LITERATURE:

EXHIBITED:

MS British Library Cotton Nero D. ii.

ARTICLE: Planta's art. 20

FOLIATION: ff. 259-60 (Planta's 254- )

CONTENT:

Order of ceremony for the creation of Knights of the Bath.

Entitled "Cy ensuit lordonance & maniere de creer & fair nouueaulx cheualres du baing on temps de paix selon la coustume de Angleterre".

Begins: "Quant ung Escuier vient en la Court"; ends: "aux Bachillers aux autrez seigneurs."

ORIGIN:

DATING:

PROVENANCE:

CODICOLOGY:

COPIES:

• BL, Cotton MS Tiberius E. viii, art. 17, ff. 79-
• BL, Add. MS 29901, art. 10 f. 55^v (late 15th cent.)
• BL, Add. MS 21116, f. 31^v
• BL, Add. MS 34801, f. 30
• BL, Add, MS 38139, f. 69^v (c. 1604)
• BL, Add. MS 6113, f. 195
• BL, Lansd. MS 285, f. 3
• BL, Nero C. ix, art. 11, ff. 168^v (Engl. transl.)
• Bodl., MS Ashmole 764, art. 13, ff. 90-7 (mid 15th cent.)
• Bodl., MS Douce 271
• Bodl., MS Ashmole 862, art. 53, pp. 291-8 (Engl. transl.)
• Bodl., MS Ashmole 1113, sect. II, art. 1, f. 10^v (Engl. transl,
• incomplete).
• London, College of Arms, MS Arundel 26, art. 3, f. 28^v.

ILLUSTRATED:

PRINTED:

• Nicolai Vptoni, De Stvdio Militari [etc.], ed. Edward Bysshe (London, 1654), [pt. 3], In Nicholaum Uptonum Notae, pp. 21-4 (from "vetusto libro gallico MS."; evidently not Nero D. ii).
• John Anstis, Observations Introductory to an Historical Essay, upon the Knighthood of the Bath (London, 1725), appx., pp. 106-12, no. lxxxix (source unstated; probably not Nero D. ii).

LITERATURE:

EXHIBITED:

MS British Library Cotton Nero D. ii.

ARTICLE: Planta's art. 23

FOLIATION: f. 266- (Planta's 261-

CONTENT:

Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln ( ), statutes for the parish clergy of his diocese.

Entitled: "Constituciones Roberti episcopi Lincoln rectoribus ecclesiarum vicariis sacerdotibus parochialibus eiusdem diocesis directe."

Begins: "Debentes de vobis."

Written in a 15th-century charter hand.

ORIGIN:

DATING:

PROVENANCE:

CODICOLOGY:

COPIES:

• 22 other copies are listed by Cheney, English Synodalia, pp. 111-15.

ILLUSTRATED:

PRINTED:

• Fasciculus Rerum Expetendarum ... , ed. E. Brown (London, 1690), pt. 2, pp. 410- [From Nero D. ii.]

LITERATURE:

• C.R. Cheney, English Synodalia of the Thirteenth Century (London, 1941; revised impression, Oxford, 1968), chapter V, and esp. pp. 112, 116.

EXHIBITED:

MS British Library Cotton Nero D. iii.

ARTICLE:

FOLIATION:

CONTENT:

Cartulary of St Leonard's hospital, York.

ORIGIN:

DATING:

PROVENANCE:

Owned by Henry Savile of Banke (d. 1617).

Belonged to Cotton by 1619 [D.E. Greenway, Yorks. Arch. Jnl., xlii (1967-70), p. 179, citing Bodl., MSS Dodsworth 9, f. 99^v, and 129, f. 11^r].

CODICOLOGY:

COPIES:

ILLUSTRATED:

PRINTED:

LITERATURE:

EXHIBITED:

MS British Library Cotton Nero D. ii.

ARTICLE: Planta's art. 21

FOLIATION: ff. 260^v-262^r (olim 255^v-

CONTENT:

Thirteen letters addressed to Blanche, elder daughter of Henry IV. The signatories have fictitious names drawn from classical mythology or medieval romances, but the letters are actual challenges at a tournament held at the court of Henry IV at Christmas 1400.

Anglo-Norman.

ORIGIN:

DATING: The letters are undated, but the group can be dated to Christmas 1400 from internal evidence (e.g. references to the presence of the Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos).

PROVENANCE:

CODICOLOGY:

COPIES:

• Oxford, Bodl., MS Douce 271 (S.C. 21845)

ILLUSTRATED:

• f. 260^v: Stadion, xvi, p. 222.

PRINTED:

• H. Gillmeister, "Challenge Letters from a Medieval Tournament and the Ball-Game of Gotland", Stadion, xvi (1990), pp. 184-222, at 199-206. [From Nero D. ii, collated with Bodl., MS Douce 271.]

LITERATURE:

EXHIBITED:

MS British Library Cotton Nero D. vi.

ARTICLE: Planta's art. 17

FOLIATION: ff. 91^v-92

CONTENT:

Battle ordinances for the invasion of Scotland, August 1385.

Begins: "Ceux sont les ordonnances de les trois batailles et des deux elles de la bataille du Roy a son premier voyage en Escoce l'an de son reigne neufeme."

Anglo-Norman.

Armitage-Smith regarded Nero D. vi as the "most authoritative text" of these battle ordinances.

ORIGIN:

DATING:

PROVENANCE:

CODICOLOGY:

COPIES:

• BL, Cotton MS Julius B. i, ff. 95^v-96 (Anglo-Norman)
• BL, Cotton MS Domitian A. xviii, ff. 32-33 (French; 16th century)
• BL, Harl. MS 369, ff. 92-93 (English; 16th century)
• BL, Harl. MS 1309, ff. 39-40 (English; 18th century)
• BL, Stowe MS 140, f. 150^v (Anglo-Norman; 16th century)
• BL, Stowe MS 531, f. 296^v (Anglo-Norman; 17th century)
• BL, Add. MS 5758, f. 226 (English; 17th century)
• BL, Add. MS 29901, ff. 36-37 (Anglo-Norman; 15th century)
• Paris, Bib. Nat. MS lat. 6049, f. 30 (Anglo-Norman; early 15th century)

ILLUSTRATED:

PRINTED:

• N. H. Nicolas, "An Account of the Army with which King Richard the Second invaded Scotland, in the Ninth Year of his Reign, A.D. 1385", Archaeologia, xxii (1829), pp. 13-19, at 16-19. [From Harl. MS 1309 and 369, and Bodl., MS Ashmole 865.]
• Chronicque de la Traïson et Mort de Richart Deux Roy Dengleterre, ed. Benjamin Williams (English Historical Soc., 1846), p. 239(-40) n. 1. [From Bibl. Nat., MS lat. 6049.]
• S. Armitage-Smith, John of Gaunt... (London, 1904), pp. 437-9, appx. ii. [From Nero D. vi.]

LITERATURE:

• Armitage-Smith, John of Gaunt, p. 295.

EXHIBITED:

MS British Library Cotton Nero D. vi.

ARTICLE: Planta's art. 18

FOLIATION: f. 93^v

CONTENT:

Account of Edward I's invasion of Scotland, describing his movements day by day, 28 March - 22 August 1296.

Anglo-Norman.

ORIGIN:

DATING: End of the 14th century or beginning of the 15th century.

PROVENANCE:

CODICOLOGY:

COPIES:

• BL, Cotton MS Domitian A. xviii, f. 33 (Anglo-Norman)
• BL, Cotton MS Vespasian C. xvi, f. 90 (English transln.; early 16th century)
• BL, Harl. MS 1309, art. 27 (English transln.; transcribed, perhaps from the same MS as Ashmole 865, probably for Robert Harley, 1st earl of Oxford).
• BL, Add. MS 5758, ff. 216- (English transln.;
• Bodl., MS Ashmole 865, pp. 254-7 (English transln.; transcribed from a MS belonging to Sir John Maynard, 1660).
• Bodl., MS Ashmole 1105, ff. 97-98^v (Anglo-Norman; transcribed for E. Ashmole).
• Bodl., MS Rawl. B. 131, f. 11^v- (English transln.)
• Bodl., MS Rawl. B. 491, in art. 11 (English transln.; "The originall in Sir John Cotton's Library")
• Paris, Bibl. Nat., MS lat. 6049, f. 30^v (Anglo-Norman; late 14th cent.)

ILLUSTRATED:

PRINTED:

• N.H. Nicolas, "A Narrative of the Progress of King Edward the First in his Invasion of Scotland in the year 1296", Archaeologia, xxi (1827), pp. 478-98, at 493-8. [Based on Harl. MS 1309; with variants from Domit. A. xviii.]
• Bannatyne Miscellany, I (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, no. 19, 1827), pp. 271-82. [From Nero D. vi; with Engl. transln. from Vesp. C. xvi.]
• Instrumenta Publica, ed. T. Thomson (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, no. 47, 1834), pp. 177-80. [From Domit. A. xviii, with a few corrections from Nero D. vi.]
• Documents Illustrative of the History of Scotland ..., ed. J. Stevenson, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1870), II, pp. 25-32. [From Bibl. Nat, MS lat. 6049; with Engl. transln.]
• Itinerary of King Edward the First ..., ed. Henry Gough, 2 vols. (Paisley, 1900), II, pp. 279-83. [Both the French and the English versions, based on Bibl. Nat., MS lat. 6049, and Harl. MS 1309, noting some variants in Domitian A. xviii.]

LITERATURE:

• Instrumenta Publica, ed. Thomson, pp. 181-3. E.L.G. Stones, "English Chroniclers and the Affairs of Scotland, 1286-1296", in The Writing of History in the Middle Ages. Essays Presented to Richard William Southern, ed. R.H.C. Davis and others (Oxford, 1981), pp. 323-48, at 338.

EXHIBITED:

MS British Library Cotton Nero D. viii.

ARTICLE:

FOLIATION: f. 183

CONTENT:

Disputatio inter clericum et militem.

Begins: "Primo proponit clericus."

ORIGIN:

DATING:

PROVENANCE:

CODICOLOGY:

COPIES:

• BL, Royal MS 6 E. iii, f. 130

ILLUSTRATED:

PRINTED:

LITERATURE:

EXHIBITED:

MS British Library Cotton Nero D. viii.

ARTICLE: Planta's art. 11

FOLIATION: ff. 186^v-187

CONTENT:

De origine gigantum in insula Albion olim habitantium. The story of Albina and her sisters, who consorted with Incubi and produced a race of giants who held the island of Albion until the coming of Brutus.

Begins: "Anglia modo dicta olim Albyon dicebatur."

This tract seems to be the original of the legend that is found in French as the metrical prologue to the Brut chronicle (e.g., College of Arms, Arundel MS 31) and in Middle English translations (e.g., College of Arms, Arundel MS 58, f. 5) [W. H. Black, Catalogue of Arundel MSS, p. 105; reprinted by Hardy, Descriptive Cat., III, p. 183].

ORIGIN:

DATING:

PROVENANCE:

CODICOLOGY:

COPIES:

• BL, Cotton MS Cleopatra D. viii, ff. 3^v-5
• BL, Cotton MS Vespasian E. x, ff. 390^v-392
• BL, Cotton MS Titus A. xix, f. 103
• BL, Cotton MS Cleopatra D. ix, ff. 67-68 (Planta's art. 4) (Norman- French version).

ILLUSTRATED:

PRINTED:

LITERATURE:

• Ward, Cat. of Romances, I, pp. 198-203, at 199-200.

EXHIBITED:

MS British Library Cotton Nero D. viii.

ARTICLE: Planta's art. 14

FOLIATION: ff. 345-347^r

CONTENT:

Chronicle of the foundation of the Benedictine abbey of St John the Baptist, Colchester, by Eudo Dapifer, son of Hubert de Rye, in the 1090s. Eudo d. 28 Feb. "1120" [1119/20; cf. J.H. Round, Eng. Hist. Rev., xvi (1901), pp. 725-9]. To judge from the heading, the text in Nero D. viii has been copied from a version of the chronicle of Marianus Scotus.

Headed: "Marianus Libro Tertio De Monasterio Colecestrensi & eius fundatore".

Begins: "Rex Willelmus Iunior ciuitatem Colecestrie cum suis pertinentijs tradidit seruandam Evdoni"

Ends: "quam tamen postea occupauerunt richardenses."

On f. 345 is a drawing of the abbey church as it stood before the Dissolution, which looks as if it has been copied from some other drawing, and also the arms (shield set within a roundel) of "Eudo filius Huberti de Rya fundator Monasterij Colecestrensis"; both of these drawings are of pen-and-ink with wash colouring. Roundels down the margins of ff. 345^r, 345^v and 346^r contain the names of the abbots of St John's, in most cases with a note of their number of years in office, from Hugh of York, the first abbot, to Thomas Marshal (executed 1539); the numbers of years are apparently not accurate [cf. V.C.H., Essex, II, p. 101 n. 2].

Another drawing, in red crayon or chalk and pencil, has been pasted onto f. 347; this appears to date from about the early to mid 18th century. Its subject is unknown, but it is headed "Colchester" in an 18th-century hand.

ORIGIN:

DATING: In an archaising or facsimile script of about the 1620s or 1630s; presumably not later than 1631, since the chronicle is included in the "Elenchus contentorum" (f. 1) which is in the hand of Richard James, librarian to Sir Robert Cotton from c. 1625 until the latter's death in 1631.

PROVENANCE:

CODICOLOGY:

COPIES:

ILLUSTRATED:

• Dugdale, Monasticon, 1st edn., II, opp. p. 890. [Engraved by W. Hollar after the drawing on f. 345.]
• Dukinfield Astley, Trans., Essex Archaeological Soc., n.s. viii (1903), Figs. 2 and 3, opp. p. 120. [Drawings on ff. 345, 347.]

PRINTED:

• Dugdale, Monasticon, 1st edn., II, pp. 889-92; new edn., IV, pp. 607-9, no. i. [From Nero D. viii.]
• Henry Jenkins, The History of Eudo Dapifer, Founder of St. John's Abbey, Colchester (priv. printed, London, 1860). [Engl. transln., from Dugdales' edn.]
• H.J. Dukinfield Astley, "Mediæval Colchester - Town, Castle and Abbey - from MSS. in the British Museum", Trans., Essex Archaeological Soc., n.s. viii (1903), pp. 117- 37, at 122-8. [From Nero D. viii; with Engl. transln., pp. 129-35.]

LITERATURE:

• R.C. Fowler, "The Abbey of Colchester", in V.C.H., Essex, II (1907), pp. 93- 102, at 93, 101.

EXHIBITED:

MS British Library Cotton Nero D. x.

ARTICLE: Planta's art. 7

FOLIATION: ff. 143-

CONTENT:

Survey of the churches in the archdeaconry of Leicester, made for Hugh of Wells, bishop of Lincoln (d. 1235), in 1220.

Headed: "Incipit Matriculus Domini H. Episcopi Lincoln de omnibus Ecclesiis in Archidiaconatu Leycestrie, anno Domini M^o CC^mo XX^mo."

ORIGIN:

DATING:

PROVENANCE:

Owned by Sir Robert Cotton by 1622 [Burton, Leicester Shire, p. 9].

CODICOLOGY:

COPIES:

• [Untraced: transcript from Nero D. x, sent by John Selden to William Burton]

ILLUSTRATED:

PRINTED:

• William Burton, The Description of Leicester Shire (London, [1622]), pp. 10, 12, 15, 17, 22, 24, 25, 26, 29, etc. [Excerpts, from a transcript of Nero D. x.]
• John Nichols, History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, 4 vols. in 8 parts (London, 1795-1811), I, part 1, pp. lv-lxii. [From Nero D. x.]

LITERATURE:

EXHIBITED:

MS British Library Cotton Nero D. x.

ARTICLE: in Planta's art. 7, and artt. 8-11

FOLIATION: ff. 154-192

CONTENT:

Taxation valuation of spiritualities and temporalities in the diocese of Lincoln, for the ecclesiastical taxation that was assessed from 1291 to 1293; commonly called the Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV.

ORIGIN:

DATING:

PROVENANCE:

CODICOLOGY:

COPIES:

• See Lunt, Financial Relations ... to 1327, pp. 666-75, at 670.

ILLUSTRATED:

PRINTED:

• John Nichols, History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, 4 vols. in 8 parts (London, 1795-1811), I, pt. 1, pp. lxx-lxxvi. [From a MS at Lichfield Cathedral.]
• Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliæ et Walliæ, Auctoritate P. Nicholai IV., circa A.D. 1291, ed. J. Caley (Record Commn., 1802). [Based on a 15th-century transcript in the P.R.O.]

LITERATURE:

• W.E. Lunt, Financial Relations of the Papacy with England to 1327 (Cambridge, Mass., 1939).

EXHIBITED: