|
Nearly six hundred years after it was written on parchment, in a florid hand
with illuminated letters, The Brut Chronicle, the earliest prose
account of the creation and early history of England, is available for study
and research in the Rauner
Special Collections Library. “This is a critical source in supporting
teaching and scholarship in many disciplines at Dartmouth,” says Dean of
Libraries and Librarian of the College Jeffrey Horrell. Explaining how the
acquisition of the famous Chronicle augments Dartmouth’s current
manuscript holdings, Horrell says that The Brut Chronicle offers
faculty and students an opportunity to work with a literary document, as
opposed to a religious or legal one. “It is important for students to be able
to see these traditional forms of writing and how they were transmitted before
the advent of the printing press,” he says.
Dean of Libraries and Librarian of the College Jeffrey Horrell (left) and
Special Collections Librarian Jay Satterfield examine the Brut Chronicle, a new
acquisition for Rauner Special Collections Library. This copy of the rare
manuscript was previously in a private collection and has never been studied by
scholars.
|
Exceedingly rare, there are only 181 known Brut Chronicles extant
in the world and just a handful of those are in the United States, now
including Dartmouth’s volume. “We have a strong manuscript collection,” says
Special Collections Librarian Jay Satterfield, “but we needed an example of an
English literary manuscript. The Brut Chronicle is a fascinating
document for a broad range of disciplines, including medieval history, art
history, literature, and many others.”
“This is a spectacular acquisition,” says Peter Travis, the Henry Winkley
Professor in Anglo-Saxon and English Language and Literature. “It is an
extremely important manuscript in its own right, and one that can be put to
full use in our medieval and early modern courses.” Professor of English Jonathan Crewe will be
incorporating the manuscript in his Inescapable Romance class, a course that
covers Greek antiquity through the end of the 16th century. “These days,” he
says, “courses in earlier literary periods almost always take account of the
material conditions of production and circulation, of both manuscripts and
books. This manuscript, in particular provides an outstanding opportunity for
students to experience one of these early documents firsthand.”
The Chronicle recounts the story of Brutus, a descendant of Aeneas,
who was exiled from Italy after accidentally killing his father. He eventually
made his way to the island of Albion, renamed it Britain, and became known as
its first king. The manuscript contains references to King Arthur, Merlin, King
Lear, and other legendary figures of English history. “It was one of the most
popular secular literary pieces of medieval England,” says Horrell. “The text
has served as inspiration for many authors including Shakespeare.”
An annotated page from the Brut Chronicle. (Photos by Sarah Benelli)
|
Housed in a simple leather wallet binding, indicative of the volume’s
importance at the time of its writing and for many years afterward, one of the
manuscript’s mysteries is the extensive annotation in the margins of its pages.
Penned by different hands at different times, in Middle English, its secrets
have never been studied before. While the basic text was standardized, the
annotations are all different, requiring unique study for each edition.
Dartmouth’s Brut Chronicle, once decoded, will contribute entirely new
knowledge to the world of historical scholarship.
The acquisition of The Brut Chronicle was made possible by the
newly created William L. Bryant Foundation Library Fund, established by William
J. Bryant, Class of 1925.
By LAUREL STAVIS
|
RSS/XML Feed