The ‘Chronicon Ex Chronicis of ‘Florence' of Worcester and its use of Sources for English History Before 1066

Summary

The death of Florence of Worcester is thus described under the annal for 1118 of the chronicon ex chronicis: ‘ oblit Domnus Florentius Wigornensis monachus. Huius subtili scientia et studiosi laboris industria, preeminet cunctis haec chronicarum chronica'. As there is no break in style and approach in the chronicon after 1118, and as its annals from 1102 include passages from Eadmer which could not have been inserted before 1123, Florence's part in its compilation has long been uncertain. Orderic VitaIis on his visit to Worcester reported seeing the monk John at work on a world chronicle, and a John identifies himself as author ('corrigat ista iegens offendit siqua Iohannes“) under the annal for 1138 in the chief manuscript of the chronicon. This manuscript, Corpus Christi, Oxford 157, is the ancestor of the other four surviving chronicon manuscripts, and was written by two main scribes to 1131. Sometime after 1131, the annals for 1128 to 1131 were erased and rewritten by a distinctive hand which continued the chronicon to 1140. This hand, which has been plausibiy identified as John's, and which can be seen at work in other Worcester manuscripts with a historical content, also corrected and annotated, or caused to have corrected or annotated, the annals before 1128. It is reasonable, therefore, to regard the Corpus manuscript to 11 28 (originally to 1 131) as a fair copy prepared for John, and corrected and annotated by him, and to assign John a major role in the chronicon's compilation. This paper will consider a narrow aspect of the chronicon: its use of sources for English history before 1066 as revealed in the prerevised stage of the Corpus manuscript, in the original fair copy. (For the purposes of this paper, this stage will be referred to as Florence, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as Chronicle.) As a postscript, the use of sources in two further stages of Worcester annalistic writing will be considered: first, the corrections and revisions in the Corpus manuscript, some of which are by John; second, the abbreviated chronicon or self-styled chronicula, Trinity College, Dublin MS. 503, which is based on the chronicon, and which was written by John for the period before 1123.'

Under the year 450, which has the first entry dealing with the Anglo-Saxons, Florence quotes Bede extensively and identifies him as his authority.