William of Waddington, Manuel de péchés
England, 1220–1240

Prose Brut
England, post 1307

University Library, MS Ee.1.20, f. 1r
England, fourteenth century
Vellum, 205 x 135 mm (178 x 105 mm), I + 142 + I ff.

MS Ee.1.20 contains two Anglo-Norman texts: a moral treatise and a chronicle. The first is William of Waddington’s Manuel de péchés (ff. 1ra–79ra), in which we read in the incipit, at column l, line 9, that ‘tous pechez ne poums conter’ (‘it is impossible to give an account of all sins’). The rhyming couplets have been highlighted by a sign similar to > on ff. 1ra–12vb and elsewhere in the MS. The second text is the Prose Brut (ff. 79v–142r) in the ‘intermediate version’ (for which this manuscript is at present the only known witness), a general chronicle that runs from the mythical discovery of Britain to one of Merlin’s prophecies referring to King Edward I († 1307). Paul Meyer was the first to focus on this peculiar version in a groundbreaking article on the rich and intricate tradition of the Roman de Brut published in 1878 in the journal Bulletin de la Société des anciens textes français.