Reconsideration of the historical works associated with Symeon of Durham: manuscripts, texts and influences

Abstract

Symeon of Durham's reputation as a historian, at a peak in 1882-5, when Thomas Arnold produced for the Rolls Series a two-volume edition of the Opera Omnia, rests in particular on his supposed authorship of the early twelfth-century Historic Dunelmensis Ecclesiae and Historia Regum. Symeon's responsibility for the works is not certain, as he is credited, only in late twelfth-century rubrics which should be regarded as additions not intended by the main scribes. The manuscripts containing these rubrics, CUL Ff. 1.27 and CCCC 139, originated, at least in part, in Durham and not in Sawley, as usually thought. The traditional assumption that CUL Ff. 1.27 shared a common origin with CCCC-66 must moreover now be abandoned. Liege University Library MS 369 C should also be seen as a product of Durham rather than Kirkstall, and can be dated 1124 x 1128 rather than late twelfth or early thirteenth century. The annals it contains thus, contrary to conventional opinion, predate the text of the Historia Regum found in CCCC 139. Other evidence supports the conclusion that in the twelfth century the Durham community supplied several neighbouring houses, notably Fountains, with manuscripts and exemplars.