Manuscript Transmission and Editing in Meredith Hanmer's Chronicle of Ireland

This paper surveys the extant sources of the Chronicle of Ireland, a work written by the Church of England clergyman Meredith Hanmer between 1594 and 1604 and published posthumously in 1633 by the Irish scholar and antiquarian Sir James Ware. The author’s copy of the Chronicle is not known to survive, nor do any early manuscript versions appear to be extant; yet, the specific circumstances of the 1633 publication and the survival of Hanmer’s papers in the archives make the study of this text a particularly relevant test case for new philology. While we might not have sufficient textual evidence to assess the degree of intervention by the later editors of Hanmer’s Chronicle, manuscript evidence can significantly advance our knowledge of the development of this work and expand our understanding of the “mechanics” of early modern scholarship.