A: Winchester Chronicle The
Winchester (or
Parker)
Chronicle is the oldest manuscript of the
Chronicle that survives. It was begun at
Old Minster, Winchester, towards the end of Alfred's reign. The manuscript begins with a genealogy of Alfred, and the first chronicle entry is for the year 60 BC. The section containing the
Chronicle takes up folios 1–32. Unlike the other manuscripts, [A] is of early enough composition to show entries dating back to the late 9th century in the hands of different scribes as the entries were made. The first scribe's hand is dateable to the late 9th or very early 10th century; his entries cease in late 891, and the following entries were made at intervals throughout the 10th century by several scribes. The eighth scribe wrote the annals for the years 925–955, and was clearly at Winchester when he wrote them since he adds some material related to events there; he also uses
ceaster, or "city", to mean Winchester. The manuscript becomes independent of the other recensions after the entry for 975. The book, which also had a copy of the
Laws of Alfred and
Ine bound in after the entry for 924, was transferred to Canterbury some time in the early 11th century, as evidenced by a list of books that Archbishop Parker gave to Corpus Christi. While at Canterbury, some interpolations were made; this required some erasures in the manuscript. The additional entries appear to have been taken from a version of the manuscript from which [E] descends. The last entry in the vernacular is for 1070. After this comes the Latin
Acta Lanfranci, which covers church events from 1070 to 1093. This is followed by a list of
popes and the Archbishops of Canterbury to whom they sent the
pallium. The manuscript was acquired by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury (1559–1575) and is in the collection of the
Parker Library, Corpus Christi College.
B: Abingdon Chronicle I The
Abingdon Chronicle I was written by a single scribe in the second half of the 10th century. The
Chronicle takes up folios 1–34. It begins with an entry for 60 BC and ends with the entry for 977. A manuscript that is now separate (British Library MS. Cotton Tiberius Aiii, f. 178) was originally the introduction to this chronicle; it contains a genealogy, as does [A], but extends it to the late 10th century. [B] was at Abingdon in the mid-11th century, because it was used in the composition of [C]. Shortly after this it went to Canterbury, where interpolations and corrections were made. As with [A], it ends with a list of popes and the archbishops of Canterbury to whom they sent the pallium.
C: Abingdon Chronicle II File:Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - C - 871.jpg|thumb|right|200px|A page from the [C] Abingdon II text of the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. This entry is for 871, a year of battles between Wessex and the Vikings.C includes additional material from local annals at Abingdon, where it was composed.> The section containing the
Chronicle (folios 115–64) is preceded by King Alfred's
Old English translation of
Orosius's world history, followed by a
menologium and some
gnomic verses of the
laws of the natural world and of humanity. Then follows a copy of the chronicle, beginning with 60 BC; the first scribe copied up to the entry for 490, and a second scribe took over up to the entry for 1048. [B] and [C] are identical between 491 and 652, but differences thereafter make it clear that the second scribe was also using another copy of the
Chronicle. This scribe also inserted, after the annal for 915, the
Mercian Register, which covers the years 902–924, and which focuses on
Æthelflæd. The manuscript continues to 1066 and stops in the middle of the description of the
Battle of Stamford Bridge. In the 12th century a few lines were added to complete the account.
D: Worcester Chronicle The
Worcester Chronicle appears to have been written in the middle of the 11th century. After 1033 it includes some records from
Worcester, so it is generally thought to have been composed there. Five different scribes can be identified for the entries up to 1054, after which it appears to have been worked on at intervals. The text includes material from Bede's
Ecclesiastical History and from a set of 8th-century
Northumbrian annals. It is thought that some of the entries may have been composed by
Archbishop Wulfstan. [D] contains more information than other manuscripts on northern and
Scottish affairs, and it has been speculated that it was a copy intended for the Anglicised Scottish court. From 972 to 1016, the
sees of
York and Worcester were both held by the same person—
Oswald from 972,
Ealdwulf from 992, and Wulfstan from 1003, and this may explain why a northern recension was to be found at Worcester. By the 16th century, parts of the manuscript were lost; eighteen pages were inserted containing substitute entries from other sources, including [A], [B], [C] and [E]. These pages were written by
John Joscelyn, who was secretary to Matthew Parker.
E: Peterborough Chronicle The
Peterborough Chronicle: In 1116, a fire at the monastery at Peterborough destroyed most of the buildings. The copy of the
Chronicle kept there may have been lost at that time or later, but in either case shortly thereafter a fresh copy was made, apparently copied from a
Kentish version—most likely to have been from Canterbury. The manuscript was written at one time and by a single scribe, down to the annal for 1121. The scribe added material relating to Peterborough Abbey which is not in other versions. The Canterbury original which he copied was similar, but not identical, to [D]: the Mercian Register does not appear, and
a poem about the
Battle of Brunanburh in 937, which appears in most of the other surviving copies of the
Chronicle, is not recorded. The same scribe then continued the annals through to 1131; these entries were made at intervals, and thus are presumably contemporary records. A second scribe, in 1154, wrote an account of the years 1132–1154, though his dating is known to be unreliable. This last entry is in Middle English, rather than Old English. [E] was once owned by
William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury 1633–1645, so is also known as the
Laud Chronicle. The manuscript contains occasional glosses in Latin, and is referred to (as "the Saxon storye of Peterborowe church") in an antiquarian book from 1566. According to Joscelyn, Nowell had a transcript of the manuscript. Previous owners include
William Camden and
William L'Isle; the latter probably passed the manuscript on to Laud.
F: Canterbury Bilingual Epitome The
Canterbury Bilingual Epitome (London, British Library, Cotton Domitian A.viii, folios 30-70): In about 1100, a copy of the
Chronicle was written at
Christ Church, Canterbury, probably by one of the scribes who made notes in [A]. This version is written in both Old English and Latin; each entry in Old English was followed by the Latin version. The version the scribe copied (on folios 30–70) is similar to the version used by the scribe in Peterborough who wrote [E], though it seems to have been abridged. It includes the same introductory material as [D] and, along with [E], is one of the two chronicles that does not include the "Battle of Brunanburh" poem. The manuscript has many annotations and interlineations, some made by the original scribe and some by later scribes, including
Robert Talbot.
A2/G: Copy of the Winchester Chronicle Copy of the
Winchester Chronicle: [A2] was copied from [A] at Winchester in the eleventh century and follows a 10th-century copy of an Old English translation of Bede's
Ecclesiastical History. The last annal copied was 1001, so the copy was made no earlier than that; an episcopal list appended to [A2] suggests that the copy was made by 1013. This manuscript was almost completely destroyed in the 1731 fire at
Ashburnham House in
Westminster, where the
Cotton Library was housed. Of the original 34 leaves, seven remain, ff. 39–47 in the manuscript. A transcript had been made by
Laurence Nowell, a 16th-century antiquary, which was used by
Abraham Wheelocke in an edition of the
Chronicle printed in 1643.> Because of this, it is also sometimes known as [W], after Wheelocke.> Nowell's transcript copied the genealogical introduction detached from [B] (the page now British Library MS. Cotton Tiberius Aiii, f. 178), rather than that originally part of this document. The original [A2] introduction was later removed prior to the fire and survives as British Library Add MS 34652, f. 2. The appellations [A], [A2] and [G] derive from Plummer, Smith and Thorpe, respectively.
H: Cottonian Fragment The
Cottonian Fragment [H] consists of a single leaf, containing annals for 1113 and 1114. In the entry for 1113 it includes the phrase "he came to Winchester"; hence it is thought likely that the manuscript was written at Winchester. There is not enough of this manuscript for reliable relationships to other manuscripts to be established. Ker notes that the entries may have been written contemporarily.
I: Easter Table Chronicle Easter Table Chronicle: A list of
Chronicle entries accompanies a table of years, found on folios 133–37 in a badly burned manuscript containing miscellaneous notes on charms, the calculation of dates for church services, and annals pertaining to Christ Church, Canterbury. Most of the
Chronicle's entries pertain to Christ Church, Canterbury. Until 1109, the death of
Anselm of Canterbury, they are in English. All but one of the following entries are in Latin. Part of [I] was written by a scribe soon after 1073, in the same hand and ink as the rest of the Caligula MS. After 1085, the annals are in various contemporary hands. The original annalist's entry for the
Norman conquest is limited to "Her forðferde eadward kyng"; a later hand added the coming of
William the Conqueror, "7 her com willelm."
Lost manuscripts Two manuscripts are recorded in an old catalogue of the library of Durham; they are described as
cronica duo Anglica. In addition, Parker included a manuscript called
Hist. Angliae Saxonica in his gifts but the manuscript that included this, now Cambridge University Library MS. Hh.1.10, has lost 52 of its leaves, including all of this copy of the chronicle. ==Use by Latin and Anglo-Norman historians==