Barbour’s Bruce and its Cultural Contexts

John Barbour’s epic work about the period of the First Scottish War of Independence (1296–1328) and its prominent figures is a source about which a great deal has been written. Nevertheless, the focus of this edited collection usefully dwells on those elements that have received less attention, and the volume provides a suitable platform to showcase some of those under-studied themes. Regarding the extant manuscript copies of the work, Emily Wingfield focuses on the textual history of Barbour’s work. In a fascinating discussion, she counters previous assertions that The Bruce was less popular than Blind Harry’s Wallace; instead, she argues that the surviving manuscripts of Barbour’s epic are representative of a wider dissemination of The Bruce in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in manuscript and later in printed form, centred on notable Fife families and the scribes and printers associated with them. Michael H. Brown takes this examination of the Fife link to the fifteenth-century manuscripts further, tying them to various families in the region who were prominent at the time of the works’ compositions. Brown further contextualises the production of these manuscripts in the later fifteenth century, as Steve Boardman does with the fourteenth century. In this way, he considers the potential motivations for the manuscripts’ production and why Fife individuals and families continued to see relevance in Barbour’s Bruce during this time of political upheaval that witnessed the overthrow of James III and the coronation of James IV

Archaeology · Chivalry · Political science · Politics · Classics · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Scottish History and National Identity