Start of Gildas (note the red capital G in the left column) on p. 129
The Courtenay Compendium (now Copenhagen, Royal Danish Library, Acc. 2011/5) is a medieval English manuscript containing a miscellany of historical texts. It contains three blocks of texts. The first concerns British and English history. The second has an oriental focus and contains accounts of Europeans in China, the Crusades, Islam and the rise of the Mongols. The third contains prophecies.
The compendium consists of 230 parchment leaves bound as a codex and measuring 272 by 190 millimetres (10.7 in × 7.5 in). Its contents are written entirely in the same hand, in cursive Anglicana script. The main text is dark brown, but there are initials and paragraph markers in red ink by a different scribe.[1] The manuscript was paginated in the early modern period, by which time some pages were out of order. Catchwords allow the proper order to be established. In the 18th century, the compendium was rebound. The cover is decorated with the Courtenay arms and the spine labelled VARIÆ TRACTATI MSS.[3]
Contents
The contents of the manuscript are grouped into three sections, with three blank pages separating the first two and a single blank page between the second and third. The first section concerns the history of Troy and Britain, the second concerns the Orient and the third is prophecies. The contents are:[4]
26 prophetic texts in prose and verse all associated with and probably written in England
The compendium contains the only extant copy of the recension of the Encomium Emmae Reginae prepared for Edward the Confessor.[5]
Notes
^ a b cBolton 2009, p. 205.
^ a bJackson 2016, p. 66.
^Bolton 2009, p. 208.
^Bolton 2009, pp. 209–211.
^Bolton 2009, p. 211.
Bibliography
Bolton, Timothy (2009). "A Newly Emergent Mediaeval Manuscript Containing Encomium Emmae reginae with the Only Known Complete Text of the Recension Prepared for King Edward the Confessor". Mediaeval Scandinavia. 19: 205–221.
Jackson, Peter (2016). "The Testimony of the Russian 'Archbishop' Peter Concerning the Mongols (1244/5): Precious Intelligence or Timely Disinformation?". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. 26 (1–2): 65–77. doi:10.1017/s135618631500084x.