Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 43.djvu/217

 point the C.C.C.C. MS. ends. This part also received the author's revision, passages being erased or altered to soften anything that he judged to be too severe, as in the first part; but as Cotton. MS. Nero. D. 5 ends with 1250, we have not any means of knowing what he at first wrote. He then evidently turned to the abridgment of his work, apparently begun earlier, called the ‘Historia Minor,’ or ‘Historia Anglorum’ (see below); and, after bringing it to its close with the year 1253, wrote the last part, or third volume, as it is called in the manuscript (Chronica Majora, vol. v. Preface, p. viii, with references to pages), of his great chronicle, extending from 1254 to 1259. This is found only in one manuscript, called the Arundel manuscript, now in the British Museum, Reg. MS. 14, C. 7, where it immediately follows the ‘Historia Minor.’ Paris could not have finally revised this part of his work; while it is certainly his composition, and exhibits the characteristics of the previous parts, it is not so carefully written, and contains repetitions and faulty sentences (ib. p. xv). The manuscript could not have been written by Paris's own hand (so Dr. Luard, ib. p. xvi, in correction of Sir F. Madden). The greater chronicle ends with the picture of Matthew Paris on his death-bed, described above, and with a note that so far was his work, though in various handwritings, and that what follows was the work of another brother. The rest of the volume is occupied with the continuation ascribed to Rishanger (ib. p. 748).

The ‘Chronica Majora’ was first printed by Archbishop Parker, who, having printed the first part of the chronicle under the title of ‘Flores Historiarum per Mattheum Westmonasteriensem collecti,’ and finding a manuscript belonging to Sir William Cecil beginning at 1066, published ‘Mathæi Paris. monachi Albanensis Angli Historia Maior a Gulielmo Conquæstore ad ultimum annum Henrici tercii,’ printed by Reginald Wolfe, fol., London, 1571; reprinted, fol., Zürich, 1589 and 1606. For his text he used the Cecil manuscript ending 1208, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, MS. 6048 B.—in which the texts of the ‘Chronica Majora’ and the ‘Historia Anglorum’ are mixed together—with some help from the present C.C.C.C. MS. 26, then Sir Edward Aglionby's; and for the next part, to the end of 1253, from the C.C.C.C. MS. 16, then Sir Henry Sidney's; while for the remainder of Paris's work, and the continuation to 1272 ascribed to Rishanger, he used Reg. MS. 14 C. 7, then the property of Henry, earl of Arundel. Some account of the extraordinary number and character of the errors in this edition will be found in Dr. Luard's Preface to his edition of the ‘Chronica Majora,’ vol. ii., and Sir F. Madden's Preface to ‘Historia Anglorum,’ vol. i. Probably never has the text of any historical author been served so ill. Another edition, with a similar title, was published by Dr. William Wats, fol., London, 1640, 1644, 1648. Wats found the text to 1189 already in type when he undertook his work. He made a distinct advance on what Parker had done, correcting many errors, and using the Cottonian manuscript to improve the text, but he appears to have relied on others for collation with the C.C.C.C. MSS., and his work is far from satisfactory. His edition also extends from 1067 to 1272, and he has added to it other matters written by or attributed to Paris (see below). It was translated into French, with the title ‘Grande Chronique de Mathieu Paris, traduite par A. Huillard-Bréholles,’ 4to, Paris, 1840–1, 9 vols., and an English translation by Dr. Giles is in Bohn's ‘Antiquarian Library,’ 8vo, 1847, 5 vols. The task of editing the ‘Chronica Majora’ in its proper extent (Creation—1259) was entrusted by the then master of the rolls to the late Dr. H. R. Luard in 1869, and was completed by him in 1883, in seven volumes of the Rolls Series of ‘Chronicles and Memorials,’ including the ‘Additamenta’ (see below) and a remarkably fine index, each of which, with prefaces and other apparatus, occupies a volume. No more thoroughly satisfactory edition of a great historical work has probably ever appeared.

Paris also wrote an abridgment of his greater chronicle, which was for a long period called (2) ‘Historia Minor,’ beginning at 1067 and ending with 1253. It exists in Reg. MS. 14, C. 7, believed by Sir F. Madden, though on insufficient grounds, to have been written and illustrated by the author's own hand. It was certainly revised by Paris, and many severe sentences have been softened. These changes are generally made on slips of vellum pasted over the passages that are altered (Historia Anglorum, iii. 35, 51, 89). Although this work is distinctly an abridgment, it contains a few matters not to be found in the ‘Chronica Majora,’ as some particulars concerning John's last illness, the apostate deacon (under 1223), and the idea entertained by Henry III of banishing the Jews (under 1251). Of this work there are two transcripts in the British Museum—one by William Lambarde [q. v.], and the other by Laurence Nowell [q. v.] The Arundel, or Royal, Codex that contains it begins with several plans and other matters, as a ‘Plan of the Winds,’ an ‘Itinerary from London to