This Latin genealogical roll shows the descent of Henry VI from Adam and Eve. At the centre is the lineage of English Kings, whose roundels are marked by golden crowns. On the left is the descent from Adam to Christ and the succession of popes to Calixtus III (d. 1458). On the right is the descent of consuls and emperors of Rome, and the Holy Roman Emperors to Albert II (d. 1439). Like other manuscripts of this type, the chronicle promoted the validity of Henry VI’s claim to the throne.

The roll belongs to a group of genealogies copied by the same scribe, probably in London, but sent to different workshops for their decoration. The text of this type of genealogy is the most common and has been attributed to Roger Alban, a Carmelite friar born in St Albans, Herefordshire, who later joined the Carmelites in London. Other examples of this genealogical type include Oxford, All Souls College MS 40 (which also shares the same illuminator); British Library, Royal MS 14 B VIII, Harley roll T. 12, and Add. MS 24342; Oxford, Bodleian Rolls 7; Oxford, Magdalene College Lat. 248; Lambeth Palace MS 1171; and University College London, Angl. 3.

Although written by the same scribe as Winchester’s other roll (MS13A), the content and decoration differs. The genealogy itself contains two images: a roundel at the top with an image of the Fall, and further down a small T-O map (showing the world divided into Asia, Africa and Europe). The top of the roll contains elaborate, though faded, border decoration, in which intertwining floral rings contain human busts and a lion’s face alongside mythical creatures, including a satyr and a winged horse.

Throughout are extensive annotations in a 16^th-century hand. At the end of the roll is a long addition in the same hand that discusses the foundation of St Bernard’s College, Oxford, in the time of Henry VI, and its later conversion to St John’s College (1555).

 

Literature: Neil R. Ker and Alan J. Piper, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, Volume IV: Paisley–York (Oxford, 1969), p. 611; Albinia C. de la Mare, Catalogue of the Collection of Medieval Manuscripts Bequeathed to the Bodleian Library Oxford by James P. R. Lyell (Oxford, 1971), p. 85; Paul Yeats-Edwards, Winchester College (Warden and Fellows’ Library) Medieval Manuscript Collection: Brief History and Catalogue (London, 1978), p. 13; Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, volume 2 (London, 1996), p. 316; Andrew G. Watson, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts of All Souls College Oxford (Oxford, 1997), p. 80; Rosemarie McGerr, A Lancastrian mirror for princes: the Yale Law School New statues of England (Bloomington, 2011), p. 165, n.10.

Provenance: Unknown, at Winchester College by 1616.

Location: Fellows’ Library