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Cotton MS Augustus III/1
- Record Id:
- 040-001102142
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001246.0x000219
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165156466.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Augustus III/1
- Title:
-
A collection of drawings, maps and diagrams from the reign of Henry VIII; prints belonging to or associated with the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains a miscellaneous collection of drawings of armies, men-at-arms and landscapes, maps, and what are thought to be the original designs for King Henry VIII’s tents for the Field of Cloth of Gold. The second volume is now bound as Cotton MS Augustus III/2.
Cotton MS Augustus III/1 also contains the first and smaller part of a collection of engravings and woodcuts of ancient Roman architecture and art as it was found in 16th-century Rome (the second part is found in Cotton MS Augustus III/2). The collection features prints by Dutch, French, German and Italian artists, predominantly those published by Antonio Salamanca and Antonio Lafreri, who worked together in Rome between 1553 and 1563. The prints were bought by tourists and collectors and bound into albums. In 1573, Lafreri published a title-page for this purpose, providing the title Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae (''The Mirror of Roman Magnificence'').
Contents:
ff. 1r-10r: Ten 16th-century full-page drawings of armies marching, military camps and military conflicts (some with grey and red colours), including: ‘Kinge Henry the Eights Army’ (f. 3r); a military conflict entitled ‘Danubeus Fl:’, possibly a depiction of a scene from the Ottoman-Habsburg wars (f. 9r); and a detail of a military camp by the same draughtsman who drew f. 9r, entitled ‘The facion of the camp’ (f. 10r).
f. 11r: Full-page drawing in colours of designs for blue tents for the Field of Cloth of Gold, 1520; with an inscription on f. 11v: ‘Plattes of ? tenttes by Brugges’.
ff. 12r-16r: Miscellaneous drawings and prints, including a couple on a horse sleigh (f. 12r); a fountain with the date ‘1540’ and the monogram ‘H. W.’ (f. 13r) and, on its reverse, the pressmark ‘No 32’ and instructions (? for a drawing) in German: ‘als ... biss oben am spitzen auss’ (f. 13v); an ornamented vessel with lid and a detail of its decorative motif in colours (f. 14r); a Flemish landscape with a windmill in the foreground, perhaps by Jacob Grimmer, inscribed: ‘Grimmer ... ‘86’. (f. 15r); a lady in a dress with the date ‘1539’ and the monogram ‘H.W.’ (f. 16r).
f. 17r: A map showing the Black Bulwark at Dover after Edmund Moody (b. 1495, d. 1552) had been appointed as its Captain (‘Edmond Modys Bulwercke’); predominantly in yellow with a few other colours.
f. 18r: Full-page drawing in colours of designs for red tents for the Field of Cloth of Gold, 1520, featuring heraldic supporters holding banners with the royal coat of arms; with the inscription ‘of tentes’ on its reverse (f. 18v).
f. 19r: Full-page drawing in colours of designs for green-and-white tents for the Field of Cloth of Gold, 1520.
ff. 20r-36r: Seventeen water-colours of Tudor men-at-arms, men in armour, mounted knights and decorated horse trappings, perhaps made when Henry VIII landed at Calais in 1513; by an unknown Flemish artist. Two other water-colours from the same series have been transferred to the British Museum’s Department of Prints and Drawings: see Nevinson, ‘Portraits of Gentlemen’ (1952-54), pp. 2, 11-12.
f. 37r: Profile drawing of the head of (?) Charles Brandon, 1st duke of Suffolk (d. 1545); with the added (modern) inscription: ‘supposed to be Brandon Duke of Suffolk – query’ (f. 37r, and repeated on f. 37v).
f. 38r: Full-page drawing of a man-at-arms, holding a lance, against a dark background.
f. 39r: A plan for the arrangement of the tents for the Field of Cloth of Gold, 1520, featuring a diagram of the tents in black ink, with a description below, beginning: ‘The meining meaning of the plat is / Fyrst that no manys tent shalbe sett within two hunderd Fote of the kinges tentes / that is to saye the uttermoste parte of there corddes shall not come nere the uttermost parte of the corddes of the kinges tenttes bothe for ayere and to have space about yt’.
f. 39v: A triangular diagram in black ink with an inscription at its centre, ‘The Market place ... and also a place for the k. m. to resort for sauftie of his owne person’; and below it, ‘The ordering of tents in the fyeld’.
f. 40r: Print of the Indian Triumph of Bacchus, with the handwritten inscription: ‘antiq. Romae, S. Johannj Latheranj’; Enea Vico; c. 1542.
f. 41r: Print of Niobe and her worshippers, with Apollo and Diana, from a series depicting the lost Niobid frieze from the Palazzo Milesi; Anonymous, after Polidoro da Caravaggio; c. 1543-1547.
f. 42r: Print of Trajan between City of Victory and Rome from the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae; Anonymous, after Marcantonio Raimondi; c. 1500-1534.
f. 43r: Print of a lion hunt inspired by an antique sarcophagus then located in the atrium of Old St Peter’s Basilica in Rome with the inscription: ‘Que stabant vix hospitibus spectanda sepulchar. Quilibet arbitrio iam videt illa suo - Romae in impluvio S. Petri’; Marcantonio Raimondi, after Baldassare Peruzzi; c. 1510-1527.
f. 44r: Print of a Roman Legion on Trajan’s Column from the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae; Marco Dente; c. 1515-1527.
f. 45r: Print of Entellus and Dares with the inscription ‘Entelli Et Daret Cestvvm Cert’; Marco Dente, after Raphael; early 16th century.
f. 46r: Print of putti dancing in a circle; Heinrich Aldegraver (with a monogram of his initials ‘AG’); 1535.
f. 47r: Print of birds appearing at the foundation of Rome (with the inscription: ‘Aves Romule quaru auspicio Roma condita MD LIII .M . L.’); Michele Lucchese; 1553.
f. 48r: Print of the Arch of Septimius Severus (in reconstructed form) from the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae; Anonymous; 1547 published by Antonio Lafreri.
f. 49r: Print of the Pantheon in Rome from the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae; Anonymous; 16th century published by Antonio Lafreri.
f. 50r: Print of Castel Sant''Angelo (Mausoleum of Hadrian) with its bridge over the river Tiber from the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae; Anonymous; c. 1544-1577.
f. 51r: Print of the Pantheon in Rome (in reconstructed form) from the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, with the inscription: Pantheum Romanum nunc Mariae cognomento Rotundae notum ad antiquum suam effigiem et formam expressum’; Anonymous; 1549.
f. 52r: Print of a bird’s-eye view of Castel Sant''Angelo (Mausoleum of Hadrian), with the inscription: ‘Imp. Caes. Hadriani Aug. Mausoleum cum novorum aggerum summa principis impensa constructorum appendicibus et Leoninæ urb. diopitica (sic) descriptione miro cum artificio effigiatum nonis aprilib. M.D.LVII. Pauli IIII P.O.M. an II. Typis Bartolomeo Faleti’; Anonymous; 1557.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001102142 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Augustus III/1 : A collection of drawings, maps and diagrams from the reign of Henry VIII; prints belonging to or associated with… - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0426]/040-001102142
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100165156466.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
German
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1495
- End Date:
- 1582
- Date Range:
- c 1500-c 1577
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: paper; parchment (ff. 37-38).
Dimensions: drawings and prints of various sizes; approximately 685 x 985 mm.
Foliation: ff. 52 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 at the end); 2 unfoliated paper pastedowns on f. irecto (bibliographical notes); and 1 on f. 53r (notes of transfer); each leaf has been mounted onto a white paper guard or pasted onto a white paper leaf.
Script: 16th-century script.
Binding: British Museum 1962, brown half leather binding.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England, Germany and Italy.
Provenance:
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (d. 1598) (f. 39)
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: his bookplates gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers; his shelfmark inscribed in gold on the spine and imprinted on f. irecto.
Cotton’s collection was augmented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (b. 1594, d. 1662), 2nd baronet, and his grandson, Sir John Cotton.
Sir John Cotton (b. 1621, d. 1702), 3rd baronet: bequeathed the entire Cotton collection of books and manuscripts to trustees ‘for Publick Use and Advantage’, 12 and 13 William III, c. 7. Formed one of the foundation collections of the British Museum in 1753.
- Publications:
-
Henry VIII: Man and Monarch, ed. by Susan Doran (London: The British Library, 2009), no. 86, p. 94 exhibition catalogue
Richard Marks and Anne Payne, British Heraldry from its Origins to c. 1800 (London: British Museum, 1978), no. 67.
J. L. Nevinson, ‘Portraits of Gentlemen Pensioners before 1625’, The Volume of the Walpole Society, 34 (1952-54), 1-13 (pp. 2, 11-12).
Joseph Planta, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library Deposited in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1802), p. 30.
Glenn Richardson, The Field of Cloth of Gold (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013), pls 8 and 9.
A. L. Rowse and others, The Renaissance at Sutton Place: An Exhibition to Mark the 450th Anniversary of the Visit of King Henry VIII to Sutton Place (Sutton: Sutton Place Historic Trust, 1983), nos 11 and 25.
Joseph Strutt, Horda Angelcynnan; or a Compleat View of the Manners, Customs, Arms, Habits, Etc. of the Inhabitants of England (1775-1776), III, pls 2-9.
Colin G. C. Tite, The EarlyRecords of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), p. 103.
- Exhibitions:
- Gold and Glory: Henry VIII and the French King, Hampton Court Palace, London, 20 May 2021 - 5 September 2021
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- Red tents with with gold detail and crowned with heraldic beasts, c.1520 -- A drawing of a figure, possibly Henry VIII, with a broken jousting lance,16 century. Exhibited: Gold and Glory: Henry VIII and the French King, 20 May 2021 - 5 September 2021.