{{Short description|Medieval English chronicle}} {{hatnote|Not to be confused with the 13th-century Chronicle of the Abbey of St Edmund.}} [[File:Abbey Garden Ruins (2615188195).jpg|thumb|right|250px|The ruins of Bury St Edmunds Abbey.]] The '''Bury Chronicle''' ({{langx|la|Chronica}} or {{lang|la|Cronica Buriensis}}), '''Bury St Edmunds Chronicle''',{{sfnp|Gransden|1956}} or '''Chronicle of Bury St Edmunds''',{{sfnp|Bruce|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S6nrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 47]}} formerly also known as the '''{{lang|la|Chronica Abbreviata}}''' ("Abbreviated Chronicle"),{{sfnp|Jones|1907|loc=[https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/volume-i-english-from-the-beginnings-to-the-cycles-of-romance/bibliography-27/ Bibliography]}} 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== The first part of the Bury Chronicle was compiled by John of Taxster{{sfnp|Bruce|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S6nrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 47]}} or Tayster,{{sfnp|Luard|1859|p=[https://archive.org/details/bartholomidecot00bartgoog/page/n70/mode/2up liii]}} who claimed to have joined the monastery in 1244{{sfnp|Luard|1859|p=[https://archive.org/details/bartholomidecot00bartgoog/page/n70/mode/2up liii]}} or 1255.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA254 254]}} Galbraith makes the first date that of Taxster's vows and the second that of the first continuator's.{{sfnp|Galbraith|1943|pp=52-53}} The issue is somewhat obscured by the mistaken dual chronology introduced by Marianus Scotus{{sfnp|Thorpe|1849|pp=v–vi}} and employed by John of Worcester and Taxster.
From the year 1265, another monk continued his work{{sfnp|Bruce|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S6nrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 47]}} and, from Easter 25 March 1296, a third monk continued their work.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA172 172]}} The second author{{mdash}}often but baselessly identified as John of Everden{{sfnp|Galbraith|1943|p=53}}{{mdash}}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.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA254 254]}} The third author did not share the second's interest in financial matters, although he continued to record military and local details.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA172 172]}} Galbraith believed the poor phrasing and many mistakes of the second continuator's text resulted from a less educated monk piously appending a rough draft of the first continuator about 50 years later without much understanding of what he was transcribing.{{sfnp|Galbraith|1943|pp=51-52}}
==Contents== The Bury Chronicle generally directly copies its source texts from the Creation to the year 1212.{{sfnp|Bruce|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S6nrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 47]}} Most items up to 1131 are taken from John of Worcester,{{sfnp|Bruce|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S6nrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 47]}} probably from the copy now held as Bodleian Library MS 297, which includes substantial additions concerning the history of the abbey.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 243]}} 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 {{lang|la|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.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 243]}} From 1131 to around 1212, its main sources are Ralph de Diceto's Chronicle and the Annals of St Edmunds{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 243]}} ({{lang|la|Annales Sancti Edmundi}}, BL Harley MS 447).{{sfnp|Arnold|1892}} (The exact beginning of Taxster's original contributions is uncertain because the only surviving manuscript of the Annals is missing its final pages.){{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 243]}}
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.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA254 254]}} Although the account has been said to end in 1301,{{sfnp|Bruce|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S6nrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 47]}} its general record actually ends in 1300 with only minor entries afterwards in the years 1301, 1313, 1326, 1329, 1334, and 1335.{{sfnp|Gransden|1964}}{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA254 254]}}
==Legacy== Content from the Bury Chronicle was subsequently used by numerous other historians and annalists in eastern England, including John of Eversden, John of Oxnead, and Bartholomew Cotton.{{sfnp|Burton|1913}}
==Manuscripts== Taxster's section of the Bury Chronicle survives in 2 manuscripts.{{sfnp|Thorpe|1849|p=xii}}{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA253 253]}} The first, possibly Taxster's own holograph,{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA253 253]}} comprises folios 3 to 43 verso of British Library MS Cotton Julius A 1.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA253 253]}}{{sfnp|Hardy|1871|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=XPkUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA167 §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.]}}<!--who lists folios 2 to 42--> It was damaged somewhat by the 1731 Cottonian Library fire.{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA253 253]}} The other comprises folios 109 to 124 verso of Arundel MS 6, once the property of John Erghome ({{fl.|1353}}{{ndash}}1385), Edward North,{{sfnp|Young|1829|loc=[https://archive.org/details/CatalogueOfTheArundelManuscriptsIn/page/n39/mode/2up No. VI.] }} and William Howard{{sfnp|Thorpe|1849|p=xii}} and now held by the College of Arms,{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA253 253]}}{{sfnp|Young|1829|loc=[https://archive.org/details/CatalogueOfTheArundelManuscriptsIn/page/n39/mode/2up No. VI, §2: Johannis Tayster "Incipit Cronica Abbreviata a Principio Mundi" ad Annum 1287] }}{{sfnp|Hardy|1871|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=XPkUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA168 §288: Chronicon ab Orbe Condito ad A.D. 1265 per Johannem de Taxter. MS. Coll. Arm. Norf. vii. 3.]}} used as a continuation of a version of John of Worcester's {{lang|la|Chronica Chronicarum}} (''Chronicle of Chronicles'').{{sfnp|Forester|1854|p=[https://archive.org/details/chronicleofflore00flor/page/n15/mode/2up xii]}} This only contains the first continuation to Taxster's work, ending in 1295.{{sfnp|Forester|1854|p=[https://archive.org/details/chronicleofflore00flor/page/n15/mode/2up xii]}}
The revised and fully continued version of the chronicle is Arundel MS 30, held by the College of Arms.{{sfnp|Young|1829|loc=[https://archive.org/details/CatalogueOfTheArundelManuscriptsIn/page/n71/mode/2up 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...] }}{{sfnp|Gransden|1956}}{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA254 254]}} As of 2002, Antonia Gransden's 1956 dissertation providing it{{sfnp|Gransden|1956}} was the only edition of the chronicle's initial section before 1212.{{sfnp|Bruce|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S6nrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA173 173]}} She subsequently published the section from 1212 to 1301 in 1964.{{sfnp|Gransden|1964}}
John of Worcester's ''Chronicle of Chronicles'' was also appended with Taxster's notes in the Peterborough Abbey version held as Cambridge Corpus Christi College MS 92.{{sfnp|CCCC MS 92|c. 1325}}{{sfnp|Thorpe|1849|p=xii}} The '''Colchester Chronicle''' (BL Harley MS 1132) is another version of the Bury Chronicle, unusual in ending in 1193{{sfnp|Luard|1859|p=[https://archive.org/details/bartholomidecot00bartgoog/page/n70/mode/2up lii]}} and in specifically crediting William of Malmesbury for its treatment of Sceafa.{{sfnp|Bruce|2002|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S6nrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 47]}}
==Editions== The full chronicle has not been published. Benjamin Thorpe published a certain number of years from the Peterborough copy in 1849, from 1152 to 1294{{sfnp|Thorpe|1849|pp=136–276}} according to Gransden{{sfnp|Gransden|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA244 244]}} but from 1152 to 1295{{sfnp|Thorpe|1849|pp=136–279}} according to Thorpe himself,{{sfnp|Thorpe|1849|pp=vii, x, & xii}} from 1173 to 1265{{sfnp|Thorpe|1849|pp=153–196}} according to Luard,{{sfnp|Luard|1859|p=[https://archive.org/details/bartholomidecot00bartgoog/page/n70/mode/2up liii]}} and from only 1258 to 1265{{sfnp|Thorpe|1849|pp=187–196}} per Jones.{{sfnp|Jones|1907|loc=[https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/volume-i-english-from-the-beginnings-to-the-cycles-of-romance/20-minor-chroniclers/ §20: Minor Chroniclers]}} Henry Richards Luard published the years 1258{{ndash}}1263 collated from several manuscripts in 1859 as part of the Rolls Series.{{sfnp|Luard|1859|pp=[https://archive.org/details/bartholomidecot00bartgoog/page/n70/mode/2up lii{{ndash}}liv] & [https://archive.org/details/bartholomidecot00bartgoog/page/136/mode/2up 137{{ndash}}140]}} Felix Liebermann published excerpts concerning Germany from several manuscripts for the {{lang|la|Monumenta Germaniae Historica}} in 1888.{{sfnp|Liebermann|1888}} Vivian Hunter Galbraith published the years from 1296{{ndash}}1301 from Coll. Arm. Arundel MS 30 in 1943.{{sfnp|Galbraith|1943}} Antonia Gransden published the years 1212{{ndash}}1301 in 1964.{{sfnp|Gransden|1964}}
==References== ===Citations=== {{reflist|30em}}
===Bibliography=== {{refbegin}} * {{citation |author=John of Worcester |author2=John of Taxster |display-authors=0 |contribution-url=https://parker.stanford.edu/parker/catalog/wz774ws7198 |contribution=Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 092: John of Worcester OSB ('Florence of Worcester'), Chronica Chronicarum |title=Parker Library on the Web |date=c. 1325 |location=Peterborough |publisher=St Peter's Abbey |ref={{harvid|CCCC MS 92|c. 1325}} }}. * {{citation |editor-last=Arnold |editor-first=Thomas |editor-link=Tom Arnold (literary scholar) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5oI1AQAAMAAJ |title=Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey |series=Vol. II |location=London |publisher=Eyre & Spottiswoode |date=1892 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5oI1AQAAMAAJ&pg=PR7 vii–viii] & [https://books.google.com/books?id=5oI1AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA3 1–25] |contribution=Annales Sancti Edmundi (Harl. 447.) |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5oI1AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA3 }}. * {{citation |editor-last=Arnold |editor-first=Thomas |editor-link=Tom Arnold (literary scholar) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J2AEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR1 |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J2AEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 |title=Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey |series=Vol. III |location=London |publisher=Eyre & Spottiswoode |date=1896 |contribution=Cronica Buriensis. A.D. 1020{{ndash}}1346. (Publ. Libr. Cambridge, Add. MS. 850.) |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=J2AEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR7 vii–xv] & [https://books.google.com/books?id=J2AEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 1–73] }}. * {{citation |last=Bruce |first=Alexander M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S6nrAgAAQBAJ |title=Scyld & Scef: Expanding the Analogues |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |date=2002 |isbn=0-8153-3904-6 }}. * {{catholic|wstitle=John de Taxster |prescript= |noicon=1 |display-editors=0 |last=Burton |first=Edwin Hubert }} * {{citation |editor-last=Forester |editor-first=Thomas |editor-link=Thomas Forester |title=The Chronicle of Florence of Worcester with the Two Continuations Comprising Annals of English History from the Departure of the Romans to the Reign of Edward I. |url=https://archive.org/details/chronicleofflore00flor/page/n5/mode/2up |location=London |publisher=Henry G. Bohn |date=1854 |ref={{harvid|Forester|1854}} |series=''Bohn's Antiquarian Library'' }}. * {{citation |last=Galbraith |first=Vivian Hunter |author-link=Vivian Hunter Galbraith |jstor=553809 |contribution=The St. Edmundsbury Chronicle, 1296{{ndash}}1301 |title=The English Historical Review |volume=58 |issue=229 |date=January 1943 |pages=51–78 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press }}. * {{citation |last=Gransden |first=Antonia Morland |author-link=Antonia Gransden |title=A Critical Edition of the Bury St Edmunds Chronicle in Arundel MS 30 (College of Arms) |location=London |publisher=University of London |date=1956 }}. * {{citation |last=Gransden |first=Antonia Morland |author-link=Antonia Gransden |title=The Chronicle of Bury St. Edmunds, 1212{{ndash}}1301 |location=London |publisher=Thomas Nelson & Sons |date=1964 }}. * {{citation |last=Gransden |first=Antonia Morland |author-link=Antonia Gransden |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELAyCgAAQBAJ |title=A History of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, 1257{{ndash}}1301: Simon of Luton and John of Northwold |publisher=Boydell Press |date=2015 |location=Woodbridge |isbn=978-1-78327-026-2 }}. * {{citation |last=Hardy |first=Thomas Duffus |author-link=Thomas Duffus Hardy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XPkUAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR3 |title=Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the End of the Reign of Henry VII. |series=Vol. III: ''From A.D. 1200 to A.D. 1327'' |location=London |publisher=Longman & Co. |date=1871 }} * {{citation |last=Jones |first=William Lewis |editor-last=Ward |editor-first=Adolphus William |editor2=Alfred Rayney Waller |display-editors=0 |url=https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/cambridge/ |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |title=The Cambridge History of English and American Literature |series=Vol. I: ''From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance'' |contribution=Latin Chroniclers from the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Centuries |contribution-url=https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/volume-i-english-from-the-beginnings-to-the-cycles-of-romance/#9 |date=1907 }}. * {{citation |editor-last=Liebermann |editor-first=Felix |editor-link=Felix Liebermann |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_monumenta-germaniae-historica_1888_28/mode/2up |title=Monumenta Germaniae Historica... |language=la |trans-title=Historical Monuments of Germany... |series=''Scriptorum'', Vol. XXVIII: ''Ex Rerum Anglicarum Scriptoribus Saeculi XIII.'' [''Authors'', Vol. XXVIII: ''Excerpts from English Authors of the 13th Century''] |date=1888 |location=Hanover |publisher=Hahn |contribution-url=https://archive.org/details/sim_monumenta-germaniae-historica_1888_28/page/584/mode/2up |contribution=Ex Iohannis de Tayster Annalibus |trans-contribution=From the Annals of John of Tayster |pages=[https://archive.org/details/sim_monumenta-germaniae-historica_1888_28/page/584/mode/2up 584–598] }}. * {{citation |editor-last=Luard |editor-first=Henry Richards |editor-link=Henry Richards Luard |url=https://archive.org/details/bartholomidecot00bartgoog/page/n70/mode/2up |author-last=Cotton |author-first=Bartholomew |author-link=Bartholomew Cotton |display-authors=0 |title=Bartholomaei de Cotton Monachi Norwicensis Historia Anglicana (A.D. 449{{ndash}}1298.) necnon Ejusdem Liber de Archiepiscopis et Episcopis Angliae |language=Latin |trans-title=The English History (AD 449{{ndash}}1298) of Bartholomew Cotton Monk of Norwich along with The Book of the Archbishops and Bishops of England |location=London |date=1859 |publisher=Longman, Green, Longman, & Roberts |ref={{harvid|Luard|1859}} }}. * {{citation |editor-last=Thorpe |editor-first=Benjamin |url=https://ia801409.us.archive.org/4/items/florentiiwigorni02flor/florentiiwigorni02flor.pdf |title=Florentii Wigorniensis Monachi Chronicon ex Chronicis... |series=Vol. II |language=la |trans-title=The Monk Florence of Worcester's Chronicle from Chronicles... |location=London |publisher=English Historical Society |date=1849 |author=Florence of Worcester |display-authors=0 |ref={{harvid|Thorpe|1849}} }}. * {{citation |last=Young |first=Charles George |author-link=Charles Young (officer of arms) |url=https://archive.org/details/CatalogueOfTheArundelManuscriptsIn/page/n13/mode/2up |title=Catalogue of the Arundel Manuscripts in the Library of the College of Arms |date=1829 |location=London |publisher=S. & R. Bentley }}. {{refend}}
Category:Chronicles about England in Latin Category:Medieval Latin literature Category:Medieval English historians Category:Cotton Library Category:History of Catholic monasticism Category:1260s works Category:1290s works Category:1330s works Category:Bury St Edmunds