Background
Walter Bower was born about 1385 at Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland.
(At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, ...)
At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, Walter Bower wrote this epic history of the Scots. He took over materials ascribed to an earlier historian, John of Fordun, and continued the history down to his own day. Among the famous stories he covers is the myth that the Scots took their name originally from Scota, Pharaoh's daughter. Scotichronicon has become one of the most important medieval accounts of early Scottish history. It provides a strong expression of national identity and offers a window into the world view of medieval commentators.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1873644647/?tag=2022091-20
(At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, ...)
At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, Walter Bower wrote this epic history of the Scots. He took over materials ascribed to an earlier historian, John of Fordun, and continued the history down to his own day. Among the famous stories he covers is the myth that the Scots took their name originally from Scota, Pharaoh's daughter. Scotichronicon has become one of the most important medieval accounts of early Scottish history. It provides a strong expression of national identity and offers a window into the world view of medieval commentators.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1873644353/?tag=2022091-20
(At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, ...)
At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, Walter Bower wrote this epic history of the Scots. He took over materials ascribed to an earlier historian, John of Fordun, and continued the history down to his own day. Among the famous stories he covers is the myth that the Scots took their name originally from Scota, Pharaoh's daughter. Scotichronicon has become one of the most important medieval accounts of early Scottish history. It provides a strong expression of national identity and offers a window into the world view of medieval commentators.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0080345271/?tag=2022091-20
(At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, ...)
At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, Walter Bower wrote this epic history of the Scots. He took over materials ascribed to an earlier historian, John of Fordun, and continued the history down to his own day. Among the famous stories he covers is the myth that the Scots took their name originally from Scota, Pharaoh's daughter. Scotichronicon has become one of the most important medieval accounts of early Scottish history. It provides a strong expression of national identity and offers a window into the world view of medieval commentators.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0080364101/?tag=2022091-20
(Writing on a small island in the Firth of Forth in the 14...)
Writing on a small island in the Firth of Forth in the 1440s, Walter Bower set out to tell the whole story of the Scottish nation in a single huge book, the Scotichronicon'a history book for Scots'. It begins with the mythical voyage of Scota, the Pharaoh's daughter, from Egypt with the Stone of Destiny. The land that her sons discovered in the Western Ocean was named after her: Scotland. It goes on to describe the turbulent events that followed, among them the wars of the Scots and the Picts (begun by a quarrel over a dog); the poisoning of King Fergus by his wife; Macbeth's usurpation and uneasy reign; the good deeds of Margaret, queen and saint; Bruce's murder of the Red Comyn; the founding of Scotland's first university at St Andrews; the 'Burnt Candlemas'; and the endless troubles between Scotland and England. Weaving in and out of the events of Bower's factual history, like a wonderful pageant, are other subjects that fascinated him: harrowing visions of hell and purgatory, extraordinary miracles; the exploits of knights and beggars, merchants and monks; the ravages of flood and fire; the terrors of the plague; and the answers to such puzzling questions as what makes a good king, and why Englishmen have tails. In 1998 Donald Watt and his team of scholars completed the first modern edition and translation of Scotichronicon in nine volumes. It has been described as 'a massive achievement for Scottish cultural history' (Sally Mapstone) and 'an open invitation to join a voyage of discovery' (Books in Scotland). This selection from the whole of Scotichronicon puts Bower's epic of Scotland into the hands of the general reader. It is a marvellous and unforgettable story. Perhaps its importance is best summed up by Bower himself, who wrote at the end of it: Non Scotus est Christe cui liber non placet isteChrist! He is not a Scot who is not pleased with this book! A History Book for Scots is selected from the complete edition of Scotichronicon by Walther Bower, edited by D.E.R. Watt and a team of scholars, in nine volumes.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1873644841/?tag=2022091-20
(At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, ...)
At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, Walter Bower wrote this epic history of the Scots. He took over materials ascribed to an earlier historian, John of Fordun, and continued the history down to his own day. Among the famous stories he covers is the myth that the Scots took their name originally from Scota, Pharaoh's daughter. Scotichronicon has become one of the most important medieval accounts of early Scottish history. It provides a strong expression of national identity and offers a window into the world view of medieval commentators.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/008041222X/?tag=2022091-20
Walter Bower was born about 1385 at Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland.
Bower was trained at the University of St Andrews.
Bower was abbot of Inchcolm (in the Firth of Forth) from 1418, was one of the commissioners for the collection of the ransom of James I. , king of Scots, in 1423 and 1424, and in 1433 one of the embassy to Paris on the business of the marriage of the king's daughter to the dauphin. He played an important part at the council of Perth (1432) in the defence of Scottish rights. His work "Scotichronicon", undertaken in 1440 by desire of a neighbour, Sir David Stewart of Rosyth, was a continuation of the Chronica Gentis Scotorum of Fordun. The completed work, in its original form, consisted of sixteen books, of which the first five and a portion of the sixth (to 1163) are Fordun's—or mainly his, for Bower added to them at places. In the later books, down to the reign of Robert I. (1371), he was aided by Fordun's Gesta Annalia, but from that point to the close the work is original and of contemporary importance, especially for James I. , with whose death it ends. The task was finished in 1447. In the two remaining years of his life he was engaged on a reduction or “abridgment” of this work, which is known as the Book of Cupar, and is preserved in the Advocates' library, Edinburgh (MS. 35. 1. 7). Other abridgments, not by Bower, were made about the same time, one about 1450 (perhaps by Patrick Russell, a Carthusian of Perth) preserved in the Advocates' library (MS. 35. 6. 7) and another in 1461 by an unknown writer, also preserved in the same collection (MS. 35. 5. 2). Copies of the full text of the Scotichronicon, by different scribes, are extant. There are two in the British Museum, in The Black Book of Paisley, and in Harl. MS. 712; one in the Advocates' library, from which Walter Goodall printed his edition (Edin. , 1759), and one in the library of Corpus Christi, Cambridge.
His reputation chiefly rests on his work the Scotichronicon.
(Writing on a small island in the Firth of Forth in the 14...)
(At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, ...)
(At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, ...)
(At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, ...)
(At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, ...)
(At the request of David Stewart of Rosyth, a Fife laird, ...)
