Evidence of the abbots of Dundrennan borrowing the Chronicle
Dundrennan Abbey was a Cistercian house in Dumfriesshire, founded in 1142 probably by Fergus, lord of Galloway. There are two references in the manuscript which note that sections of the Chronicle were borrowed by the abbot of Dundrennan, presumably for consultation or to make a local copy for their own uses.
1. Seven folios borrowed in the second half of the 13th century
Faustina B IX, f. 46v (Scribal profile 99):
Abbas de Dundranian mutuo accepit reliquam partem cronicorum istorum. Vide.
‘The abbot of Dundrennan received on loan the rest of these chronicles. See’.
It follows that a section from f. 47 onwards was borrowed, which cuts an annal for 1243 in half. The text then incorporates under AD 1244 a series of letters on imperial-papal relations. It is likely therefore that the abbot was interested in these letters.
How many folios were borrowed? The letters continue to f. 49r, then there is an annal for 1245 (f. 49v), followed by another series of letters (ff. 50r–53v). This broadly maps to a series of singletons (Gathering VI, ff. 47–54). Another clue is that there are no medieval signpost rubrics from f. 47r; they resume on f. 55r. Since f. 54 was a later insertion, it was unlikely to be part of the borrowing. It is therefore likely that the abbot borrowed ff. 47–53, essentially a collection of singletons with copies of various letters. The ‘rest of these chronicles’ may refer to the fact that the annal for AD 1243 was now unfinished on f. 46v. Broun notes (The Chronicle of Melrose Abbey, p. 82 n. 41): ‘There is no indication that they [the borrowed folios] were bound or tacked on that occasion: they could simply have been transported in a wrapper or tied as a parcel.’
The date of the borrowing must have been after Scribal profile 96 (ff. 44r–49r) and Scribal profile 100 (ff. 49v–53v) had finished their stints. Both are datable to after 2 November 1246. Scribal profile 100 was also probably working before 27 October 1264 (see the Scribal profiles for details). The borrowing could have happened any time after 2 November 1246 or after 27 October 1264. Scribal profile 99, which added the note of the borrowing, cannot be dated much more closely on palaeographical grounds than second half of the 13th century. We can therefore only say that these seven folios were borrowed some time in the second half of the 13th century. They must have been returned before the manuscript travelled to England (by the mid-14th century).
2. Borrowing of the Chronicle in the late 13th century
Faustina B IX, f. 11v (Scribal profile 39):
Memorandum quod abbas d[e] Dundraynand mutuauit cronica de Melros, in quibus fuerunt xiiii quaterni, folia vxx et xix.
‘Let it be remembered that the abbot of Dundrennan borrowed the chronicle of Melrose in which were 14 quires, 119 folios.’
The assumption is that when this note was written, the abbot had borrowed (or was about to borrow) from f. 12 onwards. This coincides neatly with the annals from AD 1017. The other assumption is that the tally of quires and folios describes the entire manuscript as it was regarded at that point (i.e., it was not describing how much had been borrowed by the abbot).
Broun has discussed the scholarly confusion surrounding this statement and proposed a likely deduction (The Chronicle of Melrose Abbey, pp. 40–6). Significantly, he is able to add Julius B XIII ff. 2–47 to the tally, which had not been recognised before. Along with Faustina B IX ff. 2–75, that yields 120 folios according to the current formulation of gatherings. The number of quires, Broun notes, is too difficult to establish given that the gatherings in the 13th century had many potential configurations (they are currently arranged into 16 gatherings, so not far off 14). For the 119 folios, Broun makes some suggestions: (i) there was probably at least one leaf after f. 75 (which he calls ‘75*’) since this ends mid-sentence; and (ii) ff. 14 and 54 were perhaps not yet associated with the Chronicle (though f. 38 probably was as the flyleaf, and ff. 61–62 presumably were as well). This results in a figure of 119 as the extent of the Chronicle when it was borrowed (reaffirming that, if there were annals for AD 250–730, they had already disappeared).
How much was borrowed? The reference to ‘the chronicle of Melrose’ suggests a substantial portion of the manuscript from f. 12 onwards was taken. The memorandum on f. 11v (Scribal profile 39) must have been written after the manuscript had assumed most of its current shape in order to be calculated at 119 folios. If the abbot of Dundrennan borrowed all of what was available from f. 12 onwards, this would have equated to at least 61 folios (i.e., everything from f. 12 onwards, minus ff. 14 and 54). Again, the folios need not have been bound at this point.
When was it borrowed? It must have been after Scribal profile 39 added the memorandum, which is datable after 14 April 1286 (because of the reference to Thomas Stonegrave as abbot of Rievaulx on f. 69r). Palaeographically, Scribal profile 39 could be late 13th or early 14th century. The portion borrowed was then returned before the whole manuscript was transported south by the mid-14th century.
It is conceivable that while at Dundrennan items may have been added to the manuscript. A possible example is on f. 18v (Scribal profile 54), a note regarding the foundation Dundrennan in AD 1142, and perhaps also the accompanying manicula in the margin.
It is possible, perhaps even likely, that the abbot requested to see the Chronicle so that portions of it could be copied. This might be the context for the notes in the margins attributed to Scribal profile 62 which instruct someone to ‘copy’ the adjacent text, usually scriba[tur]. None appear in Julius B XIII or before Faustina B IX, f. 12 (they can be found on Faustina B IX, ff. 21v, 23r, 23v, 28v, 29v, 30v, 31r, 31v, 32v, 37v, 39r, 43v, 44r, 44v, 45r, 46v, 56r, 59r and 64r). The palaeography of this profile points to the early or mid-14th century, so they could equally be from after the manuscript’s trip to Dundrennan, either while back at Melrose or in England.
Faustina B IX’s title
Another source of confusion regarding Dundrennan has been the title on the early modern contents page for Faustina B IX (f. 1r):
Cronica de Mailros inchoata per abbatem de Dundrainand ab anno 735 continuata per varios ad anno Domini 1270.
‘The Chronicle of Melrose, begun by the abbot of Dundrennan from the year 735, continued variously to the year of the Lord 1270.’
This was written by Richard James (d. 1638), Sir Robert Cotton’s librarian. The ‘5’ was later corrected to ‘1’. It is not clear why he associated the text with the abbot of Dundrennan.