Contents: A poem without rhyme, perhaps a very literal translation ? from Italian or Spanish of a poem on 'Curiosity' or 'The Curious Man', incipit: 'Perchaunce hit might bee best to shun at all that home'. This manuscript is bound together with Royal MS 17 A xlii (82 folios) and Royal MS 17...
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, imperfect, including The Cook’s Tale of Gamelyn; Anonymous, Somnium Vigilantis; John Fortescue, The Declaration Made by John Fortescue; The Balet of the King; attributed to John Russell, The Book of Nurture. Contents: ff. 1r-12v: Geoffrey Chaucer, Genera...
Basilikon Doron, or Book of the Institution of a Prince
Scope & Content:
This manuscript contains the autograph copy of the Basilikon Doron (The Royal Gift), a treatise on kingship and government written in the form of a private letter by James VI, King of Scotland (r. 1567–1625) and England (r. 1603–1625) for the instruction of his son Prince Henry (b. 1594, d. 1612...
ff. 1*r–104r: Volume of holograph transcripts of letters and poems by Gabriel Harvey, of Saffron Walden, Fellow of Pembroke and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 1573–1578. It includes his poems upon the death of the poet George Gascoigne (1534–1577), an account (either fictional or truthful) of the sedu...
Roger Marbeck, An account of the taking of Cadiz, 1596
Scope & Content:
Roger Marbeck, "A breefe and a true discourse of the late honorable voyage unto Spayne and the wynning, sacking and burning of the famous Towne of Cadiz there, and of the miraculous overthrowe of the Spanishe Navie at that tyme, with a reporte of all other Accidents thereunto appertayning, by Do...
Geoffrey Chaucer, 'Treatise on the Astrolabe', revised by Walter Stevins
Scope & Content:
This manuscript contains a revised version of Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Treatise on the Astrolabe', undertaken by an otherwise unknown editor called Walter Stevins, and dedicated by him to Edward Courtenay (b. c. 1527, d. 1556), 1st Earl of Devon. The volume can be dated between 1553, the year Courten...
Collection of chemical recipes, in the hand of Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618), courtier, military and naval commander and author. Including accounts of experiments, and details of Raleigh’s ‘great Cordiall’. f. 1v: Table of contents. f. 2r-2v: Chemical notes, with a table of symbols. ff. 3a, ...
John Clapham, 'Observations concerning the life and reign of Elizabeth Queen of England'
Scope & Content:
Digest of Elizabethan history, compiled by John Clapham (1566-1619), poet and historian. Containing an account of the life and death of Sir William Cecil (1520/21-1598), first Baron Burghley, Clapham’s former master. With corrections and deletions. f. 1r Title page: ‘Certain Observations concer...
Contents: Walter of Bibbesworth ('Biblesworth'), Tretiz de langage, a poem in Anglo-Norman French verse with an English glossary, composed in the mid 13th century as a tool for teaching useful French vocabulary to English landowners. It exists in a long and a short version. This text resembles...
Accounts of jewels presented to Queen Elizabeth I, 1572-1587
Scope & Content:
Account of jewels presented to Queen Elizabeth I between 1572-1587. f. 1r Title page: ‘In this booke are contained all siche Juells as are delyvered to Maistres Ktherine Howarde one of the gentlewomen of her Majesty’s privye chamber, from time to time to her highnes use as hereafter foloweth’....