Note 329 — APPENDIX A SOURCES (continued 2)

The literature which I have used in working through the Nennian problem is as follows:—Zimmer, Nennius Vindicatus, a brilliant and indispensable book, but too ingenious, and full of wiredrawn arguments; many of the conclusions have been upset by the Chartres text (Mommsen’s Z) which Zimmer left out of consideration. This text was published by Duchesne, Nennius retractatus, in Revue celtique, xv. 173 sqq.; and was used by Mommsen for his authoritative edition of the work in Chronica Minora, vol. iii. (it is much to be regretted that he did not devote a separate column to printing the text of Z in full). New light was then thrown on the problem by Thurneysen, Ztsch. f. deutsche Philologie, xxviii. 80 sqq. His interpretation of exberta in the title in the Chartres MS. as a mistake for excerpta (Incipiunt excerpta filii Urbagen) seems probable (Dr. Traube’s emendation experta has not convinced me); his identification of this son of Urbagen with Run map Urbgen, who baptized the Northumbrians in 627 (Hist. Britt. c. 63), though plausible, cannot be considered certain. Duchesne, in a judicious and instructive criticism with reference to Mommsen’s edition and Thurneysen’s article, has summed up the conclusions which may safely be drawn from the data: Revue celtique, xvii. 1 sqq. Mr. E. W. B. Nicholson, who had reached several of Professor Thurneysen’s conclusions independently, published his views in Ztsch. f. celtische Philologie, iii. 104 sqq. The most important point in this paper is that the true reading of the important words in the title of the Chartres MS. is: exberta fili vrba gen. See also L. Traube in Neues Archiv, xxiv. 721 sqq.