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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2013
On pages 75–80 of the Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, Vol. XX (1938), is an article (with facsimiles) by Mr. J. Milton French entitled ‘Milton's Annotated Copy of Gildas’. It deals with a copy, in the Widener Library (shelf number Br. 98.319 F), of H. Commelinus' Rerum Britannicarum … Scriptores Vetustiores ac Praecipui, Heidelberg (1587), given to the library about 1765 by Thomas Hollis. This book contains on pages 113–146 the ‘De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae Epistola' of Gildas. A former owner has inserted thirteen brief marginal notes on pages 114–123, i.e. explanatory comments on various matters in Ch. 1–33 of the ‘De Excidio’ (numbered according to Mommsen's edition; Mon. Germ. Hist., Auct. Ant., XIII, Chron. Min. iii, Berlin 1894–8). The remainder of the book, containing Geoffrey's ‘Historiae Regum Britanniae’ (pp. 1–92), the ‘Historia Britannica’ in six books of Ponticus Virunnius (pp. 93–112), Bede's ‘Ecclesiastical History’ (pp. 147–280), a ‘De Gestis Anglorum Libri Tres’ (pp. 281–348), William of Newburgh's ‘Rerum Anglicarum Libri Quinque’ (pp. 353–496) and Froissart’s ‘Historiarum Epitome’ (pp. 497–568), has no marginalia.
1 For Nos. 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 vide Josseline, pp. 12b, 16b, 16b, 20a, 21a, 25a respectively.
2 English translation, ‘printed by T. Cotes for W. Cooke’ on the title-page, with a portrait (!) by Marshall: London 1638. The translator follows the text of Polydore Vergil in many places; hence some of the translations quoted by Mr. French are defective.
3 It may be remarked that many of Josseline's marginalia are omitted entirely by ‘Milton’.
4 Cf. for Milton, , ‘John Milton 1608–1674: Facsimiles of Autographs and Documents in the British Museum’ (Brit. Mus. 1908)Google Scholar; Sotheby, S. L., Ramblingsin the Elucidation of the Autograph of Milton, London 1861Google Scholar; and especially Greg, W. W., English Literary Autographs, 3 parts, Oxford 1925–1932Google Scholar (in a description of nos. LII–LIII in part 2 it is stated that some of the ‘numerous marginalia’—genuine, according to Sotheby, who is ‘radier uncritical’—are doubtful). The Pindar notes (Harvard Univ. Lib., Sum. 123) have the same general appearance as the Gildasian marginalia, but the individual letters show many divergences. The J-form of I occurs only once in our notes (Cf. an article in Modern Philology, Vol. XIX no. 3, Feb. 1922Google Scholar, by E. K. Rand, on ‘J and I in Milton's Latin Script’). For a general study, cf. Tannenbaum, S. A., The Handwriting of the Renaissance, New York, 1930 (containing an excellent bibliography)Google Scholar
5 The distinctive Anglo-Saxon script of ‘nest’ in marg. note 10 is also found in Josseline's marginalia.
6 Vide Oxford English Dictionary under ‘curach’. Cf. Welsh ‘corwg’ = coracle. Probably ‘carroghes’ is a misprint for ‘curroghes’ (ibid.). On the question of Milton's sources for the History of Britain, vide H. Glicksman in the University of Wisconsin Studies in Language and Literature, No. 11, 1920, pp. 105–144 (and the references there given). It is noted that Milton made great use of Gildas, but no full details are given. Milton's extensive use of original authorities is also indicated.
7 Vide preceding note.