PREFACE. XI Cave, and on the strength of it Polycarp Leyser inserts liis name among the " Poetjie medii sevi " (p. 2003). ^ There is a letter of Adam de Marisco, written to Wil- Notices of liam of Nottingham, provincial minister of the Francis- ^Vykeg^ cans in England, on behalf of a certain Thomas de Wyke, a priest, who wished to be admitted a Minorite (Brewer's Monumenta Franciscana, p. 350), Now as William of Nottingham was deposed from his office in 12^9 (BreAver, p. 373), this letter must have been written before that year. If then this Thomas de Wyke is identical with our author, he must have been born at least as early as 1225, and therefore was an old man when his history was written, if the whole was written at the same time. The name occurs not unfrequently elsewhere : for instance, in the Worcester Annals, printed in the present volume, in 1301 it is said that John de Wyke, sub-prior of Worcester, was elected prior (p, 550) ; this may be the same John de Wykes men- tioned in p. 295 ; and in the " Prima fundatio fratrum " Minorum Londonire," printed in the Monumenta Fran- ciscana, p. 495, frater Gilbertus de Wyke is mentioned. Other instances may be found by consulting the index to Mr. Roberts's Calendarium Genealogicum.^ It will be convenient to designate the ' Titus ' MS. as " Wykes," and the ' Tiberius ' as " Osney." As before discussing the sources of the two chronicles. Connexion it is absolutely necessary to ascertain their mutual con- "f *^'^.*)^^ chvonicles nexion, I shall speak of this, before describing tliem Osney and separately. ^^'j'^^«- In the earlier portion the two chronicles have much in common with eacli other ; facts, as well those taken from otlier sources as those relating to the affairs of Osney, being frequently described in tlie same woi-ds ; ' Tauner mentions a MS. in the Bodleian Library, Digby 204, •which contains a work ascribed to Thomas Wykes. Fallacicmim lib. i. " De " sophistis, etc. Quaeritur an so- '• phistica sit scientia." -' A Thomas de Wicke Mas prior of Great Malvern in 1217.
