Add MS 74947

HENRY ELSYNGE , AL. ELSING (d. 1636), CLERK OF THE PARLIAMENTS: The ancient method and manner of holding of parliaments in England; circa May 1625-Oct. 1628. Copy by Ralph Starkey. Imperfect. This treatise, which is sometimes known by the Latinized title Modus tenendi Parliamenti in Anglia and was first printed in 1660, is comprised in a single book of eight chapters. The present manuscript, imperfect by loss of leaves at various points, carries the text only as far as the seventh section of chapter VII (pp. 1-142, l. 14, of the 1660 edition), although the surviving portion of the contents-list (ff. 1-2v) runs as far as the original folio 67 (ibid., pp. 205-208). The heading (f. 1), as in some later copies (e.g. Add. 48052 and Eg. 3366), identifies two separate books, 'The First of the forme & all thinges incident theretoo' and 'The Second of matters handled in Parleament'. Elsyng's autograph draft of the first book, surviving in Harley MS 1342, was substantially complete by 3 May 1625 (f. 157), while the copy now Huntingdon MS Ellesmere 8392, corrected in his hand, bears the date June 1628. In Sept. of that year he noted (Harley 1342, f. 158) that a second was 'begun. But god knowes when I shall finishe this booke'; several sections of it appear to survive in B.L. Add. 26643 and elsewhere. The present manuscript was copied by the antiquary Ralph Starkey, who died in Oct. 1628, and may be identified with 'A booke intituled Modus tenendi Parliamentum written by Mr Elsinge' that was among the papers found in his study at his death (see Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes, Oxford, 1998, p.272, no. 75). Some notes in Harley MS 1342, f. 79 'Touchinge the difference betweene councyll and a parlament conceaued by m^r sterkey' show that Elsyng was in touch with him at this period, and a phrase added between the lines in Elsynge's autograph on f. 12 of the present copy is precisely matched on f. 29 of the Harley MS. Further indication of the close relationship between the text of the two manuscripts is provided by a passage on f. 12v of the present manuscript that largely preserves both the original readings of Elsyng's autograph draft and the subsequent revisions that appear on f. 23v of the Harley. Several later annotations (ff. 15, 24, 28v, 34, 41, 43v, 47v) were added in the hand of Sir Simonds D'Ewes who acquired the residue of Starkey's collections and whose library was sold to the elder Harley in 1705. A modern facsimile of Thomas Tyrwhitt's edition of the work (1768) and of an unidentified contemporary manuscript copy was published, with an introduction by Geoffrey Bing, Shannon, 1971. For details of the uncompleted second book see Judicature in Parliament: by Henry Elsyng Clerk of the Parliaments, ed. by Elizabeth Read Foster, 1991, pp. xi-xv. Purchased from J. L. M. and H. G. Gulley, Sept. 2000.

Paper: ff. ii+52. 322 mm x 205 mm. When purchased by the Library consisting of eight unbound whole or partial gatherings, viz:-i⁸ (lacking 1, 4, 5, 7, 8), ii⁸ (1-2 paste-down stubs conjugate with 7-8), iii-vii⁸, viii (singleton). Watermark similar to Heawood, no. 1722 (dated to 1628). Imperfect, owing largely to the loss of at least thirty leaves at the end. Pages ruled, as bifolia, before copying, with running-heads and most section-titles, in red ink. Catchwords on rectos and versos throughout. Contemporary foliation in black ink of surviving text-leaves (ff. 6-51) from 3 to 47, with numbering 48 lost by mutilation of f. 52. Contents-list (ff. 1-2v), also imperfect, refers to original folios 3 to 67. Owned, until Oct. 1628, by Ralph Starkey, and from 22 Oct. by Sir Symonds D'Ewes: see Beal, op. cit., and Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Symonds D'Ewes, 1966, pp. 24-6). Booksellers' catalogue-numbers 1434 and 152 (ff. i, ii, 1) [? Osborne:] pasted or written at head of first leaf.