Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Add MS 89789
- Record Id:
- 032-004593026
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-004593026
- MDARK:
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/man_10000025.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 89789
- Title:
- The Red Book of Bath
- Scope & Content:
- The Red Book of Bath (Latin ‘Liber Rubeus Bathoniae’) is an administrative compilation made for the town’s officials. Its texts relate to the regulation of trade and commerce, to law and justice, and to the history of Bath. The manuscript is named after the colour of its medieval binding, which was originally dyed reddish-pink. The binding contains a highly unusual cavity which formerly contained scales and weights for measuring gold. Calendar for January–April, in Latin (ff. 1r–2v). A contemporary list of the contents of the manuscript, dated 1428, in Latin (f. 3r). ‘A medicyne and chastment for clerkes as commissaries officyals’, dated 31 Edward III (1357), in Middle English, French and Latin (f. 3v). Copy of a letter of King Henry V of England to King Charles VI of France, 13 August 1417, in Latin, with Charles’s reply in French, Paris, 31 August 1417 (ff. 4r–v). Notes on the Ten Commandments and on how to lead a good life, in Middle English (f. 5r). Gospel sequences, in Latin, demonstrating that the manuscript was probably used as an oath book for jurors (f. 5v). Calendar for January–December, in Latin (ff. 6r–10v). Prognostications, in Middle English (f. 11r). An astrological table and horoscope notes, in Latin (ff. 11v–12v). Drawing of a blood-letting man, annotated in Middle English (f. 13r). Notes on the blood-letting man and on various medicines, in Middle English (f. 13v). Notes on the Ten Commandments, in Latin (ff. 14r–16r). A note on bell-ringing in Bath, dated 1418, in Latin (ff. 16v–17v, with a drawing of a bell (f. 16v). Statute of Coroners, in French, Middle English and Latin (ff. 18r–22v). Magna Carta, Henry III, in Latin (ff. 23r–25r). Charter of the Forest, Henry III, in Latin (ff. 25r–27r). Lists of the terms of Common Pleas, in Latin (ff. 27v–28r). On making homage, in Latin (f. 28r). On weights and measures, in Latin (ff. 28v–29v). A list of events in world history, from Ptolemy of Egypt to the capture of Rouen in 1419 (ff. 29v–30r). The Battle Abbey Roll, listing the families who came to England with King William I, in Latin (ff. 30v–31r). List of the kings of England from William I (reigned 1066–1087) to Henry VI (reigned 1422–1461, 1470–1471), with their reign-lengths and places of burial, in Latin (f. 31r). Assize of Ale (f. 31v) and the Assize of Bread (ff. 32r–34r), both in Latin. A list relating to measures of land, in Latin (f. 34v). A genealogy of Mary and Jesus, in Latin (f. 35r). Brut chronicle, in Latin (ff. 35v–42r, 46v–53v), incorporating the unique copy of a Life of King Arthur in Middle English verse (ff. 42v–46r). Genealogy of King Henry VI, in Latin (f. 54r). The three prerequisites for the just cause of war (f. 54v). Life of St Katherine of Alexandria, in Middle English verse, the unique copy of this text (ff. 55r–65r). Katherine was the patron saint of Bath. Chronological notes recording when authors wrote specific texts, when religious Orders were founded, and when canon law texts were compiled, in Latin (f. 65v). Statute of labourers, 12 Richard II, confirmed 11 Henry IV, in French with notes in Latin and Middle English (f. 66r). Statute concerning mayors, bailiffs, seneschals and constables, 12 Richard II, in French (f. 66v). Statute on the prerogatives of the king, in Latin (f. 67r–v). Order for placing the town pillory of Bath, 1412, with a sketch of the pillory and the names of twenty-four jurors, in Latin (f. 68r). Vow of fidelity to the mayor of Bath by a burgess being admitted to the freedom of the town, in Middle English (f. 68v). Epitaphs of Alexander de Alneto and his family on the right-hand side of the ruined temple of Minerva in Bath, 7 December 1582, added in a later hand, in Latin (f. 68v). Two sketch maps of Italy, the Eastern Mediterranean and Greece (f. 70r and f. 70v). The maps are continued on the upper pastedown.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
Longleat House MSS - Hierarchy Tree:
- [ { "id" : "032-004593026", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 89789: The Red Book of Bath" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-004593026
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-004593026
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/man_10000025.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
French, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1412
- End Date:
- 1430
- Date Range:
- 1412-1430
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
- Material: Parchment. Foliation: ff. iii (modern paper endleaves) + 69. Dimensions: c. 320 x 210 mm. Script: Gothic cursive minuscule. Binding: Contemporary medieval binding, 15th century, oak boards, on 5 bands, with a leather chemise (dyed reddish-pink), with 5 metal bosses on the upper board and 4 on the lower board. Inside the upper board is a hinged cavity with a red-stained leather door, which formerly housed a pair of scales and weights for measuring gold, as described in the contemporary table of contents.
- Custodial History:
- Origin: Bath, Somerset (England). The manuscript was written in Bath, probably between 1412 and 1430, based on its contents. The dialect of its Middle English texts suggests a Somerset origin. Provenance: ‘Memorandum quod Johannes Wyke de Trowl jugge [i.e. judge]’ (f. 68r), and ‘Thomas burred yd wryte this the xiiijth of August Anno 1593’, in a 16th-century hand (f. 68v). John Parker, alderman, and Mayor of Bath in 1606: recorded in his possession in William Burton’s A Commentary on Antoninus His Itinerary or Journeys of the Romane Empire so far as it concerneth Britain (London, 1658), p. 262. Thomas Guidott (b. 1638, d. 1706), physician, of Bath: loaned by him in 1691 to Thomas Gale (b. 1635?, d. 1702), Dean of York and antiquary, as recorded on a slip of paper formerly enclosed in the binding cavity. Presented by Guidott to Thomas Thynne (b. 1640, d. 1714), Viscount of Weymouth of Longleat House, in 1703: inscribed, ‘Hunc librum Tho. Guidot M.D. Bathoniensis D. Tho. Vicecomiti Weymouth moriens legavit A.D. 1703’. Passed by descent within the family at Longleat House, with the shelfmark ‘Longleat House, MS 55’. Recorded in the collection of Longleat House in the Third Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, p. 182. Purchased by the British Library from The Trustees of the Longleat House and Chattels Settlement, April 2025.
- Publications:
- Third Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (London: Printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, printers to the Queen's most excellent Majesty for H.M.S.O, 1872), p. 182.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)