Editing Asser (section)

==Manuscripts of ''The Life of King Alfred''==
[[Image:asser facsimile.png|thumb|300px|A facsimile of the first page of the Cotton ms. of Asser's "The Life of King Alfred". This copy was made in 1722 by James Hill, an antiquary who had been employed by [[Francis Wise]] to examine the manuscript.<ref name=Abels319>Abels, ''Alfred the Great'', p. 319.</ref>]]

The early manuscript of the ''Life'' does not appear to have been widely known in medieval times. Only one copy is known to have survived into modern times. It is known as Cotton MS Otho A xii, and was part of the [[Cotton library]]. It was written about 1000 and was destroyed in a fire in 1731. The lack of distribution may be because Asser had not finished the manuscript and so did not have it copied. However, the material in the ''Life'' is recognizable in other works. There is some evidence from early writers of access to versions of Asser's work, as follows:<ref name=KL3>Keynes and Lapidge, ''Alfred the Great'', pp. 223–227.</ref>
* [[Byrhtferth]] of [[Ramsey Abbey|Ramsey]] included large sections of it into ''[[Historia Regum]]'', a historical work he wrote in the late tenth or early 11th century. He may have used the Cotton manuscript. (The ''Historia Regum'' was until recently attributed to [[Symeon of Durham]].)
* The anonymous author of the ''[[Encomium Emmae Reginae]]'' (written in the early 1040s) was apparently acquainted with the ''Life'', though it is not known how he knew of it. The author was a monk of [[Saint Bertin|St Bertin's]] in [[Flanders]], but may have learned of the work in England.
* The chronicler known as [[Florence of Worcester]] incorporated parts of Asser's ''Life'' into his chronicle, in the early 12th century; again, he may have also used the Cotton manuscript.
* An anonymous chronicler at [[Bury St Edmunds]], working in the second quarter of the 12th century, produced a compilation now known as ''The [[Annals of St Neots]]''. He used material from a version of Asser's work which differs in some places from the Cotton manuscript and in some places appears to be more accurate, so it is possible that the copy used was not the Cotton manuscript.
* [[Giraldus Cambrensis]] wrote a ''Life of St Æthelberht'', probably at Hereford during the 1190s. He quotes an incident from Asser that occurred during the reign of [[Offa]] of [[Mercia]], who died in 796. This incident is not in the surviving copies of the manuscript. It is possible that Giraldus had access to a different copy of Asser's work. It is also possible that he is quoting a different work by Asser, which is otherwise unknown, or even that Giraldus is making up the reference to Asser to support his story. The latter is at least plausible, since Giraldus is not always regarded as a trustworthy writer.

The history of the Cotton manuscript itself is quite complex. The list of early writers above mentions that it may have been in the possession of at least two of them. It was owned by [[John Leland (antiquary)|John Leland]], the antiquary, in the 1540s. It probably became available after the [[dissolution of the monasteries]], in which the property of many religious houses was confiscated and sold. Leland died in 1552 and it is known to have been in the possession of [[Matthew Parker]] from some time after that until his own death in 1575. Although Parker bequeathed most of his library to [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]], the Cotton manuscript was not included. By 1600, it was in the library of [[John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley|Lord Lumley]] and by 1621 the manuscript was in the possession of [[Robert Bruce Cotton|Robert Cotton]]. The Cotton library was moved in 1712 from Cotton House in [[Westminster]] to Essex House in the [[Strand, London|Strand]] and then moved again in 1730 to [[Ashburnham House]] in Westminster. On the morning of Saturday, 23 October 1731, a fire broke out and the Cotton manuscript was destroyed.<ref name=KL3 />

As a result, the text of Asser's ''Life'' is known from a multitude of different sources. Various transcripts had been made of the Cotton manuscript and a facsimile of the first page of the manuscript had been made and published, giving more direct evidence for the hand of the scribe. In addition to these transcripts, the extracts mentioned above made by other early writers have been used to help assemble and assess the text. Because of the lack of the manuscript itself and because Parker's annotations had been copied by some transcribers as if they were part of the text, scholarly editions have had a difficult burden. There have been multiple editions of ''The Life'' published, both in Latin and in translation.<ref name=KL3 /> The 1904 critical edition (with 130 pages of introduction) by [[W. H. Stevenson]], ''Asser's Life of King Alfred, together with the Annals of Saint Neots erroneously ascribed to Asser'', still provides the standard Latin text:<ref>{{cite book |last=Stevenson |first=William Henry |author-link=W. H. Stevenson |title=Asser's Life of King Alfred: together with the Annals of Saint Neots erroneously ascribed to Asser |language=la, en |place=Oxford |publisher=The Clarendon Press |year=1904 |url=https://archive.org/details/asserslifekinga00stevgoog}}</ref> this was translated into English in 1905 by Albert S. Cook.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cook |first=Albert S. |title=Asser's Life of King Alfred, translated from the text of Stevenson's edition |place=Boston |publisher=Ginn and Company |year=1905 |page=1 |url=https://archive.org/details/asserslifeofking00asseiala}}</ref><ref name=Abels328A>Abels, ''Alfred the Great'', p. 328.</ref> An important recent translation, with thorough notes on the scholarly problems and issues, is ''Alfred the Great: Asser's Life of King Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources'' by [[Simon Keynes]] and [[Michael Lapidge]].<ref name=Abels328B>Richard Abels (''Alfred the Great'', p. 328) describes Keynes and Lapidge's book as "The best collection of primary sources in translation", and "an indispensable guide to the scholarly problems and issues surrounding these works".</ref>