Chronicles and stories of England and France
Ile de France, early thirteenth century

University Library, MS Ii.6.24, f. 19r
Normandy, second half of the thirteenth century
Vellum, 185 x 140 mm (114 x 67 mm), IV + 141 + II ff.

This manuscript contains a collection of historiographical French works, probably produced in the Ile de France at the beginning of the thirteenth century. It provides a semi-historical account of the French dynasties from the legendary Trojan origins of the Franks, followed by a survey of Charlemagne’s exemplary deeds and an account of the ancestry of the Normans before the conquest of England in 1066. These works derive from monastic sources held at the abbeys of St Denis and St Germain-des-Prés, the most learned and reliable historical tradition available at that time in Northern France. These sources were later integrated into the Grandes chroniques de France, the official history of the French monarchy. This manuscript, formerly in the library of John Moore, entered the University Library collection in 1715.