The Polychronicon was begun by Ranulf Higden (d. 1364), a Benedictine monk from Chester. His text became a staple compendium of world history framed within a biblical reference, but recounting secular events, specifically concerning the history of England. Higden’s work survives in many copies from the 14^th and 15^th centuries, often with additions that bring the narrative up to date.

The book begins with an index, at the end of which is a note in a different hand stating that the manuscript was written in 1478 (‘Scriptus erat iste liber Anno domini 1478’). The text consists of seven books, though a large part of the final book is missing. The start of each is marked by a large illuminated initial, from which sprouts decorative foliage with gilded details that extend into the margins (fols 47r, 72r, 111r, 139r, 173r, and 198r). These have been attributed by Kathleen Doyle to the owl illuminator, named after the owls that frequently appear in their work, though none appear in this manuscript. Near the beginning of book two (on fol. 51r) is a large gap in the text. A later hand has written next to it: ‘This space lacks a figure of the Ark’ (‘In iste spacio deficit figura arche’). The earlier copy of the Polychronicon in the Fellows’ Library, MS15, includes a diagram of Noah’s Ark at the same point in the text, further indicating that the scribe intended an image of the Ark to be drawn there.

 

Literature: Walter Oakeshott, ‘Winchester College Library Before 1750’, The Library, vol. IX. no. 1 (1954), pp. 1–16, 15, n.1; John Taylor, The Universal Chronicle of Ranulf Higden (Oxford, 1966), p. 158; Neil R. Ker and Alan J. Piper, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, Volume IV: Paisley–York (Oxford, 1969), pp. 621–22; Paul Yeats-Edwards, Winchester College (Warden and Fellows’ Library) Medieval Manuscript Collection: Brief History and Catalogue (London, 1978), p. 7; Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts, 1390–1490, vol. 2 (London, 1996), p. 354; Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, monachi Cestrensis, Together with the English Translations of John Trevisa and of an Unknown Writer of the Fifteenth Century, Vol. 1, ed. by Churchill Babington (Cambridge, 2012), p. liii, 49; James Freeman, The Manuscript Dissemination and Readership of the ‘Polychronicon’ of Ranulph Higden, c. 1330 – c. 1500 (unpublished doctoral thesis, Cambridge University, 2013), pp. 72, 142 (n.8), 146, 158, 213, 323–24; James M. W. Willoughby, The Libraries of Collegiate Churches, Vol. 2 (London, 2013), pp. 599, 815.

Provenance:  Gift of George Greswold to Winchester College, 1558.

Location: Fellows’ Library