Editing Walter Bower (section)

==Life==
Some sources say that, at the age of eighteen, Bower assumed the religious habit; he was trained at the [[University of St Andrews]]. After finishing his philosophical and theological studies, he visited Paris to study law.{{sfn|Chambers|Thomson|1857|p=296}}{{sfn|Archer|1886|p=52}} Bower was unanimously the [[abbot]] of the [[Augustinians|Augustinian community]] on [[Inchcolm]] in 1417.{{sfn|Watt|1997|p=44}} He also acted as one of the commissioners for the collection of the [[ransom]] of King [[James I of Scotland]] in 1423 and 1424. Later, in 1433, he took part in a diplomatic mission to Paris to discuss the possibility of marriage of the king's daughter to the [[Dauphin of France]]. He played an important part at the Council of Perth of 1432 in the defence of Scottish rights.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=343}}

During Bower's closing years he was engaged on his work, the ''[[Scotichronicon]]'', on which his reputation now chiefly rests. This work, undertaken in 1440 by desire of a neighbour, Sir David Stewart of [[Rosyth Castle]], was a continuation of the ''[[Chronica Gentis Scotorum]]'' of [[John of Fordun]]. The completed work, in its original form, consisted of sixteen books, of which the first five and a portion of the sixth (to 1163) are Fordun's — or mainly his, for Bower added to them in places. In the later books, down to the reign of [[Robert I of Scotland|Robert I]] (1371), he was aided by Fordun's ''[[Gesta Annalia]]'', but from that point to the close the work is original and of contemporary importance, especially for James I, with whose death it ends. The task was finished in 1447.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=343}}

In the two remaining years of Bower's life he was engaged on a reduction or "abridgment" of this work, which is known as the ''Book of Cupar'', and is preserved in the [[Advocates Library]], Edinburgh (MS. 35. 1. 7). Other abridgments, not by Bower, were made about the same time, one about 1450 (perhaps by [[Patrick Russell (monk)|Patrick Russell]], a [[Carthusian]] [[monk]] of [[Perth, Scotland|Perth]]), also preserved in the Advocates' library (MS. 35. 6. 7) and another in 1461 by an unknown writer, preserved in the same collection (MS. 35. 5. 2). Copies of the full text of the ''Scotichronicon'', by different scribes, still exist. There are two in the [[British Library]], in ''[[The Black Book of Paisley]]'', and in [[Harleian Library|Harley MS]] 712; one in the Advocates Library, from which [[Walter Goodall]] printed his edition (Edin., 1759), and one in the library of [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=343}}

See also [[William Forbes Skene|W. F. Skene]]'s edition of Fordun in the series of ''Historians of Scotland'' (1871). Personal references are to be found in the ''[[Exchequer Rolls of Scotland]]'', iii. and iv.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=343}}

A revised and updated translation of Bower's work was produced under the leadership of Professor [[D. E. R. Watt]], in nine volumes, published between 1987 and 1997. The critical edition of Bower's Latin text in Watt et al. has been amended and corrected by Chris Nighman in light of the discovery that Bower made extensive use of Thomas of Ireland's collection of authoritative quotations, the ''[[Manipulus florum]]'' (1306).{{sfn|Nighman|2019|p=}}