Other editions of the Chronicle of Melrose
The Chronicle of Melrose has been the subject of much previous editorial work, summarised below in chronological order (for a fuller discussion of this editorial history, see Broun, The Chronicle of Melrose Abbey, chapter 3).
[Fulman, William] (ed.), Rerum Anglicarum Scriptorum Veterum , i (Oxford, 1684).
Available online: https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_iAA-oERWO5AC/page/133/mode/2up
This is a print edition of a manuscript which was a copy of Faustina B IX. The manuscript copy is Oxford, Corpus Christi College MS 208, ff. 1–66. It was compiled by a professional copyist in the mid-17th century. The professional copyist (Raph Jennyngs) and editor (William Fulman) made decisions which have caused confusions about the text (see Broun, The Chronicle of Melrose Abbey, p. 32).
Joseph Stevenson (ed.), Chronica de Mailros, e codice unico in Bibliotheca Cottoniana servato, (Edinburgh, 1835).
Available online: https://archive.org/details/chronicademailro00bann/mode/2up
This edition for the Bannatyne Club is typical of its era. It is an original piece of work which presents a ‘clean’ text with a few footnotes and not much detail on the scribes or codicology. It is based on Faustina B IX only. Stevenson (p. xv) noticed that Julius B XIII, ff.41–47 was the same scribe as in the opening of Faustina B IX, but he did not consider it part of the Chronicle of Melrose.
Joseph Stevenson (trans.), ‘Chronicle of Melrose’, in The Church Historians of England , iv, part i (London, 1856), pp. 79–241; annals for AD 1136–1270 reprinted as A Mediaeval Chronicle of Scotland: The Chronicle of Melrose (Lampeter, 1991).
Available online: https://archive.org/details/thechurchhistor104fiskuoft/mode/2up
A translation by Stevenson of his 1835 edition.
Alan Orr Anderson and Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson (facs. eds), with an index by William Croft Dickinson, The Chronicle of Melrose from the Cottonian Manuscript, Faustina B. IX in the British Museum (London, 1936).
An important work comprising black and white ‘collotype’ images of Faustina B IX, plus a detailed introductory discussion by the Andersons (including analysis of the ‘hands’) and an extensive ‘index’ of its contents by Croft Dickinson. There is no edited text as such: it is a ‘facsimile edition’.
Dauvit Broun, Julian Harrison and John Reuben Davies (eds), The Chronicle of Melrose Abbey: A Stratigraphic Edition, 3 vols (vol. 1 Woodbridge 2007).
A new study with fresh analysis of the codicology (following the disbinding of the manuscripts in 2005), the scribes (including a new numbering system), the history of the manuscript itself (including its afterlife beyond Melrose Abbey), and the text (with a new approach to editing the text as a series of ‘strata’ in the order in which they were added to the manuscript). New digital images were also provided on an accompanying DVD. Volume 1 was published in 2007 by Broun and Harrison, setting out the framework for the stratigraphic edition. Volumes 2 and 3 were set to publish the text of the strata (both Latin transcription and English translation). The text had largely been prepared: volume 2 by Dauvit Broun, volume 3 by John Reuben Davies. However, it was decided (in consultation with Broun and Davies during 2021) to instead create a digital edition, based on the draft texts of the two volumes and with a new approach to the manuscript’s growth. This would take advantage of the digital context to present the text, including integrating digital images in an innovative way. Volume 1 still acts as an essential guide to the manuscript. The digital edition will not present the text as ‘strata’ but instead in the order it appears in the manuscript to better complement the accompanying digital images.
Author: Jo Tucker
Last updated: 07/06/2026