Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 40.djvu/225

 menta Historica Britannica.’ The ‘Prologus Major’ (which is also found in no ancient manuscript but Ff. 1, 27) gives the date of writing as 858, and is clearly a later compilation based on the older but shorter preface which follows, and on passages that have been interpolated in the original work. Of the other parts the ‘Historia’ and ‘Civitates’ alone are found in all the manuscripts. This circumstance has led some critics to reject all else as spurious, and, owing to the fact that the number of cities is variously given as twenty-eight and thirty-three, some would reject the ‘Civitates’ also. Schoell even rejects the account of St. Patrick in §§ 50–5 (, p. 35;, pp. 16, 28; but cf. , p. 6). Such criticism, however, appears to be too sweeping, and is against the evidence afforded by Giolla Coemgin's version. Zimmer is accordingly prepared to accept the work, with the exception of the undoubtedly spurious ‘Prologus Major,’ as substantially the compilation of Nennius. The ‘Historia Britonum,’ as completed by Nennius in 796, did not, however, include the whole of §§ 3–76 as they now stand. Sections 16 and 18 are interpolations of later date; neither is found in the Irish version, and the former is in part and the latter is entirely wanting in some Latin manuscripts (ib. pp. 163–5;, pp. 14 n. 14, 16 n. 9); the earlier part of § 16 clearly dates from 820, and it therefore follows that the ‘Historia’ was originally compiled before that time. The ‘Mirabilia,’ while in the main (§§ 67–73) the work of Nennius, contain an interpolation in § 74, and an addition on the ‘Wonders of Anglesey,’ made by a North Welsh copyist in §§ 75–6. It also appears probable that there were some considerable variations in the order of §§ 10–30, while the ‘Civitates’ preceded instead of following the ‘Mirabilia’ (, pp. 32–6, 59, 110–16, 154–162).

Nennius in his preface says that he had used the Roman annals (Jerome, Eusebius, Isidore, and Prosper), together with the ‘Annales Scottorum Saxonumque,’ and ‘Traditio veterum nostrorum.’ In point of fact the treatise of Gildas, ‘De Excidio Brittanniæ’ appears to have formed the groundwork of Nennius's compilation as far as A.D. 540; in conjunction therewith he used Jerome's version of the history of Eusebius, together with the continuation of Prosper Tiro. For the period from A.D. 540–758 he had a North-British treatise dating from the seventh century, but with subsequent additions, which is incorporated in the ‘Genealogiæ;’ in the ‘Mirabilia’ also a North-British source was used. In the ‘Sex Ætates’ an Irish source was used, with some reference to Isidore. Other Irish authorities were the ‘Leabhar Gabala,’ or ‘Liber Occupationis,’ for various passages in the earlier part of the history; and for the account of St. Patrick (§§ 50–55), the ‘Vita Patricii’ of Muirchu Maccu Machteni, and the ‘Collectanea’ of Tirechan (cf., Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, cxviii. Rolls Ser.) Finally with some minor authorities, Nennius had a south Kymric ‘Liber beati Germani,’ which was the basis of §§ 32–48, and to which special reference is made in § 47. Nennius himself does not seem to have had any acquaintance with Bede, but his North-Welsh editor had some indirect knowledge (, pp. 69, 207–75, and especially pp. 264–9; with this may be compared, pp. 36–7).

With regard to the history of the ‘Historia Britonum,’ it would seem probable that Nennius, after the completion of his original work in 796, wrote the dedicatory epistle, which now forms the ‘Prologus Minor,’ and sent it, with a copy of the ‘Historia,’ to Elbodug. After 809, but before 820, a writer, who gives himself the name of Samuel, and describes himself as the pupil of Beulan the priest, and who would appear to have been a native of Anglesey, made a copy, or rather an edition, of Nennius's history at his master's bidding. By the direction of Beulan he omitted the genealogies ‘cum inutiles visæ sunt,’ but, on the other hand, he inserted the four ‘Mirabilia’ of Anglesey, together with some minor passages (, pp. 50–2, 275). It is easy to see why, in the manuscripts founded on this version, the ‘Prologus Minor’ should have been retained, while in the versions of South-Wales origin it was omitted, no doubt through the jealousy, which survived in that quarter, for the Roman use, of which Elbodug had been the champion. It would appear that in South Wales a version was composed in 820, to which the reference in § 16 to the fourth year of Mermin belongs. Another South-Welsh version was made in 831 (cf. § 5), and a third in 859 (cf. latter part of § 16; as to these dates see, pp. 165–7). Finally, from a copy of the second South-Welsh version, probably obtained in the north during the wars of Edmund, 943–5, there was derived an English version, the date of which can be fixed at 946 from references interpolated in the Vatican MS. in §§ 5 and 31 (, p. 5, n. 7, and p. 24, n. 18). From a copy of the North-Welsh version an edition of less importance, now represented by Burney MS. 310, was made about 910; from another and earlier copy of the same version Giolla Coemgin must have