Pagina:Annales monastici Vol IV.djvu/24

XVI PREFACE. Wykes, TitusA.H hand down to the end of 1233/ afterwards in various hands and evidently at different times. A fresh hand begins in 1280 (where it differs from Wykes) and goes on till the end of 1284, when, on becoming identical with Wykes, the hand again changes, that employed before 1280 coming in again, and going on till nearly the end of the year 1290 ; then different hands are employed till the end of the year 12.93. From this to the end, the whole is in the sam^e hand, and written much later. The MS. which bears Wykes's name is also in the same collection (Cotton, Titus A, 14) ; it is a quarto, on parchment, containing eighty leaves, with thirty-five lines in a page. The whole is in the same hand, of the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century, and has been written by a very ignorant scribe, who evi- dently could scarcely read and did not understand the MS. he was copying. I proceed to speak of the sources of the two chronicles. Sources of The Anuals of Osney, which (if we except an extract of Osney. respecting S. Augustine's mission and king Alfred) begin in 101 G, are taken in their earlier portion from Diceto and Florence of Worcester, there being a few additions from other sources,^ and some which are original, relating chiefly to the history of Osney itself or Oxford. The annalist follows the chronology of the chronicler he is immediately following ; thus in his opening sentence in mentioning the mission of S. Augustine, he gives its date from Diceto as 601, though Florence, whom he follows immediately afterwards, places ifc in 597. From the year 1118 Robert de Monte is used, though sparingly, the ' The beginning is a transcript of MS. Cotton. Vitellius E. xv. 1 , which now consists of two and a half leaves of parchment, almost destroyed by fire — a MS. also for- merly belonging to the abbey of Osney. 2 The mention of iEthelred's wife being " filia Thoreti " (p. 3), is taken from Aelred of Rievaulx.