Add MS 37526

HERALDIC treatise [by John de Vado Aureo al. Bado Aureo], in Latin, beg. "Cum in armis et clipeis depiugendis," end. "portat tres coronas ad modum pali." There is another copy in Add. MS. 29901, ff. 60-79, and a French translation in Stowe MS. 668, ff. 52b-74 b. Between ff. 19, 20 a leaf is missing. Sir E. Bysshe printed the tract, with the De Studio Militari of Nicholas Upton and the Aspilogia of Sir H. Spelman (1654), from two MSS., one in his own library, and one belonging to Sir William Le Neve. The present MS. has the arms of Le Neve in the initial C, the space for which seems to have been originally left blank; but it differs considerably from the printed text, which agrees more nearly with Add. MS. 29901. Sir E. Bysshe identifies the author with Nicbolas Upton, but a note in Stowe MS. 668, f. 52 b, suggests that Vado Aureo is a translation of Guldeford. It does not, however, seem possible to identify him with any one of that name. The tract was composed (f. 9) at the instance of Anne, Queen of Richard II. (d. 1394). On p. l5 of the printed text, under "Aper," the writer says, "nisi amor Hibernie tacere me compellit," and the present MS. (f. 16 b) has "nisi esset suspicio." The annotator in Stowe MS. 668, f. 60 b, where the words are "mais pour lamour dirlande il me conuyent tayre," makes this an allusion to Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland, whose crest was a boar, and whose death in 1392 was caused by wounds in a boar-hunt. Preceding the above tract (ff. 1-8) is "The order in procedinge to the parlenient on tuesday xii of January, 1562[3], Anno quinto Regine Elizabeth," with notes of a further visit of the Queen, 15 Jan., and of the adjournment, 10 April, in the hand of Robert Glover, Somerset Herald (d. 1588), apparently unprinted; and (f. 8 b) in a 17th cent. hand "Actes of parlm^tt in March, 1621[2]." On f. i. are notes in the hand of John Anstis, the elder, Garter King of Arms (d. 1745), of the titles of the works included, etc. Vellum; ff. i. + 27. xv.-xvii. centt. 6¼ in. x 4¼ in. Parchment covers.