Add MS 8685

DIEGO ENRÍQUEZ DEL CASTILLO: Chronicle of Enrique IV, 1454-74; early 16th cent. Spanish. Copy. The text is a transcript of the chronicle of Enrique IV of Castile and León, compiled by Diego Enríquez de Castillo, royal chaplain and chronicler, between 1485-1502. Title (f.1) 'Comienza la Chronica del quarto Rey Don Enrique de gloriosa memoria hermano de la Catolica Reina Doña Isabel y hijo del Rey Don Juan el 2^o hecho por el Licenciado Diego Enriquez de Castilla su Chronista, Capellan de su Consejo'. In the present MS. the text is divided into 165 chapters and begins (f. 1) 'Tanto los Principes señalados y antiguos varones de las edades pasados quedaron famosos' and ends (f. 166) 'señal de alguna tristeza'. Other copies of the same text are in Egerton 296, 297, 299 and Add. 20810. The chronicle is published in Josef Miguel de Flóres, Crónica del Rey D. Enrique el Quarto de este nombre, por su capellan y cronista Diego Enriquez del Castillo (Madrid, 1787), pp. 1-347 and Aureliano Sánchez Martín, Crónica de Enrique IV de Diego Enríquez del Castillo (1994), p . 129-399. The MS. is described in Gayangos, I, p. 205 and Sánchez Martín, Crónica de Enrique IV, p. 93. The text is written in an early-16th-cent. hand. Chapter headings in red ink, those for chapters 80-165 have been completed in two later hands. Rubrics in red ink, some with crude penwork decorations. Many corrections and marginal additions appear in three later hands. The first three chapters and part of the final chapter of the original text are missing and have been replaced by an 18th-cent. hand. Owned by Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, but lacking his armorial bookplate. '254' in pencil in upper right corner of front pastedown. Purchased, together with Add. 8689, 8691, 8700, 8703, 8708, from R. H. Evans, 8 Dec. 1830, lot 254 (part).

Paper; ff. 166 + iv. Old foliation in ink 6-167 (beg. f. 5) partly lost due to cropping. 286 x 212mm. Watermark of a coat of arms (f. i), similar to Heawood 771 (Madrid, 1723). Full brown calf leather binding with gilt-tooled edging and spine.