John of Wallingford (d. 1258)

Not to be confused with John of Wallingford (d. 1214), who was abbot of St Albans.

Drawing of John of Wallingford by Matthew Paris, ca. 1255. (British Library Cotton MS Julius D VII, f.42v)
John of Wallingford's "Description of the Elephant", apparently copied from Matthew Paris's drawing of the elephant given to Henry III. (British Library Cotton MS Julius D VII, f.114r)

John of Wallingford (died 1258) was a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of St Albans, who served as the abbey's infirmarer at some time between c.1246-7 and his death in 1258.[1] He is now mostly known through a manuscript containing a miscellaneous collection of material, mostly written up by Wallingford from various works by his contemporary at the abbey Matthew Paris, which survives as British Library Cotton MS Julius D VII. This manuscript includes the so-called Chronica Joannis Wallingford or Chronicle of John of Wallingford.[2]

Towards the end of the manuscript, accompanying three pages of obituaries of St. Albans monks taken from Paris, are statements indicating that he became a monk on 9 October 1231 (presumably at Wallingford Priory which was a cell of St Albans), and moved to St Albans itself between June 1246 and February 1247. It is also known that he was infirmarer, in charge of the infirmary at the abbey, until at least 1253, and that in about 1257 he moved again to Wymondham Abbey in Norfolk, another cell of St Albans. A final note, in another hand, records that he died there on 14 August 1258.

Amongst a miscellany of items, including an outline chronicle for a history of Britain,[3] and a tide table for predicting "flod at London brigge" (i.e. the time of high tide at London Bridge),[4] that is credited with being the earliest extant such tide table in Europe,[5] other items in the manuscript include a drawing of Wallingford by Paris, a draft for a map of Britain by Paris to which Wallingford has added some further place-names, and a copy by Wallingford of Matthew Paris's picture of King Henry III's elephant.

  1. ^ Edward Donald Kennedy and Lucia Sinisi (2010). "John of Wallingford". In Dunphy, Graeme (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle. Leiden: Brill. pp. 940–941. ISBN 90-04-18464-3. Repertorium Fontium Historiae Medii Aevi 6,428. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography sub "Paris, Matthew"
  2. ^ British Library Manuscripts Catalogue: Cotton MS Julius D VII
  3. ^ folios 61r–110r; Vaughan, Richard (1958). "The Chronicle of John of Wallingford". The English Historical Review. 73 (286): 66–77. doi:10.1093/ehr/lxxiii.286.66. ISSN 0013-8266. JSTOR 558970.
  4. ^ fol. 45v
  5. ^ David Edgar Cartwright, Tides: A Scientific History, p. 7
    (Note that, in common with 19th century references, e.g. J. W. Lubbock quoted in Phil Mag (1839) p. 466, the author confuses the collator of the manuscript with his earlier namesake the abbot.)