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• 1 2025-01-26T15:29:01-08:00 Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS 309 9 Annals of Vendome plain 2025-01-26T15:58:35-08:00

  The Annals of Vendôme appear chronicle historical events from 152 BCE to 1421 CE.  These annals are a copy of an exemplar text that probably originated from the cathedral of St. Maurice Angers. The chronicles were written in a single hand from the beginning to 1075. These entries don’t relate to La Trinité specifically, as they are faithful to the exemplar.  However, the entries after 1075 are written in various hands, and include events specifically related to La Trinité.  As Geoffrey of Vendôme was a student in the cathedral school of St.-Maurice, he may have requested the exemplar to have copied at La Trinité.
  

  The annals appear on folios 111r-131v of Bodl. 309.
  
  
  Here, the annals record two events from the Angers chronicles that relate to La Trinité in Vendome. First we read of a conflict between Fulk Nerra and his son, Geoffrey Martel, the founder of La Trinité. Second, the chronicles document the foundation of the abbey of La Trinité in 1040.

  MXXXVII Dedicatio sanctae matris Ecclesiae Carnotensis facta est. XVI. Kalendas Novembres, et eodem ipso anno exortum est bellum plusquam civile inter Fulconem Comitem Hierosolymitanum et filium suum Goffredum, qui cognominatus estMartellus et frere per annos quinque protractum est.

  1037 The dedication of the holy mother of the Church of Carnotensis took place on 16 on the Kalends of November, and in the same year, a  civil war broke out between Fulk, Count of Jerusalem, and his son Geoffrey, who was surnamed Martel, and lasted for five years.

  MXL Dedication sanctae Trinitatis Monasterii Vindocinensis facta est pridie Kalandas Iunii. Hoc ipso anno obiit Fulco Comes  XI. Kal. Julii.

  1040 The dedication of the Holy Trinity Monastery of Vendôme took place on the first day of June. In this same year Fulco Count XI died. Cal. July.
  
  In this entry notes the birth and baptism of the future Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV.  Henry's mother was Agnes of Poitiers, daughter of La Trinité founder, Agnes of Burgundy.
   

  ML [xviiii] Henrico Imperatori filius natus est, et a domno Papa Leone Nono baptizatus.
  
  1060 Henry IV son of the [Holy Roman] Emperor [Henry III] was born and baptized by Pope Leo IX.
  
  The entries in the annals after 1075 indicate events that are not copies of the exemplar from Saint-Maurice.  They are instrumental in documenting the political landscape surrounding La Trinité during the abbacy of Geoffrey of Vendôme.

  1095 This year, on the ninth of April, in a stormy night, the fiery stars fell in a long line across the whole world. In the same year, on the fourth day of March, Pope Urbanus consecrated the Crucifix of the monks’ Holy Trinity of Vendôme, and forgave the seventh part of their sins to all who celebrated the anniversary of the same consecration there every year.

  MC Hoc anno fuit discordia inter Domnum Abbatem Goffridum, et goffridum istius villae Comitem, eodemque anno reconciliati sunt ipso Comite, Deo et domno Abbati nudis pedibus satisfaciente.

  1100 In this year there was a discord between Lord Abbot Geoffrey and the Lord Geoffrey (de Preuilly), Count of that town, and in the same year they were reconciled by the Count himself, satisfying God and Lord Abbot with bare feet.

  MCVI.  In hoc anno apparuit stella, quae modica quidem videbatur, sed magnum et prolixum post se trahere candoris vestigium ab omnibus admirabatur. Quae plurimis diebus ac noctibus, tractum suum in occidentem tendere visa plurimam desolationem portendebat; nam in ipso anno Goffridus Martellus iuuenis Comes Andecauorum, debellator et expugnator tyrannorum, protector et defensor Ecclesiarum, in quadam obsidione occisus est. Eodem quoque anno Buatmundus vir magnae opinionis, et famae, Dux Antiochiae, accepta ab Apostolico licentia venit in Europae partes, castella et civitates submonendo, ut festinarent ire Ierusalem, liberare videlicet eos, qui in captivitate tenebantur, et illos adjuvare, qui Tureorum oppugnationibus vexabantur.

   1106  In this year there appeared a star, which indeed seemed small, but drew a great and protracted trail of whiteness behind it, admired by all. Which, during many days and nights, was seen to stretch its course towards the west, and it meant the greatest desolation; for in the same year Geoffrey Martel, the young Count of the Andes, conqueror and conqueror of tyrants, protector and defender of the Churches, was slain in a kind of siege. In the same year, Buatmund, a man of great opinion and fame, Duke of Antioch, having received leave from the Apostolic, came to the parts of Europe, exhorting the castles and states to hasten to go to Jerusalem, that is to say, to deliver those who were held in captivity, and to help those who were harassed by the attacks of the Turks.

  
  Other sections of Bodl. 309 include a calendar from La Trinité and the calculations for Easter.