Scotichronicon: Volume 9

It is not easy to review a work which its own editor describes as 'one of Scot-land's great national treasures' (p. xv). What is certain is that current and future generations of Scottish historians will treasure the new edition of the Scotichronicon which has been published under the general editorship of the late Professor D.E.R. Watt. The publication of Volume 9 of this new edition in 1998 marked the completion of a project which has proved remarkable in its scale and achievement. As the editor relates here, the idea of a new edition of the Scotichronicon was first mooted in 1958 and the project was set in progress seriously in 1976. It has involved the collaboration of nearly a score of scholars and, since the appearance of the first volume (actually Volume 8) in 1987, this team has produced a volume on a nearly annual basis. For sheer organisation, persistence and unity of purpose Professor Watt and his team have managed something remarkable. Their achievement is not likely to be repeated in an age when competition rather than collaboration is encouraged between universities and when deadlines for scholarly production are measured in months and years--not the decades required for a work of this magnitude.

In Volume 9 Watt makes it clear that the production of a full edition of the text of Scotichronicon in the preceding eight volumes has not been without problems. Publishing the volumes as they were ready, rather than in order or all at once, has created difficulties in cross-referencing between volumes and some inconsistencies and limits in the identification of Bower's source material which has drawn criticism from some reviewers. The inclusion here of an index for the whole work does go some way towards solving the former difficulty. Similarly an extensive list of addenda and corrigenda is testament to the problems of running such a large collaborative effort. In his introduction to this final volume, Watt modestly states that 'what is presented here should be regarded as 'work-in-progress' (p. xv). But while this may be true, the work already done and the progress made has been prodigious. These new volumes replace the eigh-teenth-century edition of the Scotichronicon by Walter Goodall whose own achievement was considerable, not least because he was 'perpetually intoxicated' (p. 220). Goodall's text was based on only one of the manuscripts and lacked critical apparatus, notes and translation. With the completion of the Watt edition, using all six surviving manuscripts of the full text and four abbreviated versions of the chronicle, it is perhaps no exaggeration to talk in terms of the restoration of a national treasure. As Watt says in the introduction to Volume 9, 'without study of the Scotichronicon, one's study of Scotland and its history cannot get very far' (p. xv). During the years since 1987, as successive volumes have appeared, Scottish historians and mediaevalists in general have been able to recognise what has been previously obscured, and appreciate the achievement of Abbot Bower as the author of the greatest work of mediaeval Scottish historical writing, as well as of Professor Watt and his team for making it accessible as never before.

Volume 9 actually contains a wide variety of material collected together to conclude and complete the edition. The opening section consists of a selection of additional items which are not considered to be part of Bower's main text but are associated with the Scotichronicon in a number of its manuscripts. These items include the prologue, preface and preliminary writings in Bower's working copy of the chronicle (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 171), the Liber Extravagans, a short collection attached to the chronicle, a short continuation of the work to 1460 and two more epitaphs for James I. The interest of these short pieces is testament to the central position of the Scotichronicon in Scottish historical writing. The prologues contain virtually the only information we have on Bower's model and forerunner, John of Fordun, while amidst the additional items there is a reference to (and partial rebuttal of) John Barbour's lost work on the Stewart family. These references to the great historians of the previous generation are paralleled by the additions of a later literary figure, Gilbert Hay, to Bower's copy of his chronicle, giving the impression of a continuing tradition of study and writing in late fourteenth-and fifteenth-century Scotland.

The content of these pieces also provides tantalising information. The Liber Extravagans comprises three genealogical poems, one Scottish, one English and one on the Norman Conquest. The Scottish verse is a unique survival. Written between 1298 and 1305, it champions the rights of King John (not King Robert) and Scotland against the 'alien head', the rule of Edward I. The English verses reveal a less defensive element in Scottish claims. They promote the claims of St Margaret and her heirs as the rightful rulers of England and make clear that this claim resides in the Scottish royal dynasty. Similar claims are found in the Buke of the Howlat and elsewhere, and point to an assertive tradition that directly countered English claims to British empire. The epitaphs for James I and the short continuation of the Scotichronicon shed light on internal political attitudes. The opaque language of the epitaphs lifts rarely, but references to Methven and Perth standing as witnesses to James's murder and to the 'barons of Stirling' and 'the valley of Edinburgh' granting 'a dowry of strife' hint at the disturbed events of February and March 1437. That these short poems echo Bower's own horrified reaction to James's death is hardly surprising given that they originate in the manuscript owned by the Carthusians of Perth, where the dead king was buried. The strong royalist sentiments expressed in the short continuation of the Scotichronicon through James II's reign and which lead to a distortion of events are testament to a prevailing royalist perspective on the preceding decades by the early 1470s.

As with the Scotichronicon itself, there is much in these additions for today's historians to debate and examine. The full exposure of buried historical material for the scrutiny of new generations has been the chief achievement of the editorial team. The second part of Volume 9 consists of some opening shots in this process. Some of these studies give necessary, and often fascinating, information about the manuscripts and editorial process. These are supplemented by a series of short articles on a wider series of topics by the general editor and a number of other scholars. Short biographical pieces on Bower and his 'patron', David Stewart of Rosyth, and on the sources, themes and attitudes that characterise the chronicle, are included. It is perhaps inevitable that, alongside the edited text of the Scotichronicon, these articles seem less than authoritative. Several stress that they are starting-points for discussion and, as such, all the essays are useful. However, the efforts to put Bower and his writing in the context of his life and times are less successful. Bower's view was not detached. His criticism of ecclesiastical ambition, referred to in Chapter 23, may have stemmed from the failure of his own; his hostility towards Murdoch duke of Albany in Book 15 was, perhaps, influenced by the latter's role in blocking Bower's advancement; and the abbot's despair over the state of Scotland in the 1440s was probably linked to his and his friends' defeat in the civil war of 1444-45. Just as Watt urges his readers not to give his edition 'a false magisterial quality' (p. xv), neither should Bower be revered as a lofty and impartial spokesman of a 'patriotic, conservative' community. Mapstone's article on Bower and kingship does illustrate the tensions between Bower's portrait of James I and the reality of the latter's reign effectively, while Borthwick's study of David Stewart of Rosyth contains much new information. However, both are inclined to be respectful of attitudes and activities that may have been more partisan and self-interested than they admit.

It may, indeed, have seemed hard for contributors to be too critical of chronicle or patron within the pages of the edition itself, and this, perhaps, emphasises the gap between original material and argumentative studies. Bower felt the same tensions. In his prologue he distinguished between himself, the mere writer, and another, the author. It is testament to all those involved in the Scotichronicon project, but especially to Professor Watt, that this authority has so quickly become attached to this edition. The study of mediaeval Scotland has been altered permanently for the better.