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Cotton MS Vitellius F V
- Record Id:
- 040-001103114
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001101582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001273.0x00027d
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Cotton MS Vitellius F V
- Title:
- Chronicle of London, 1550-1563 ('The Chronicle of Henry Machyn')
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains the only surviving copy of the Chronicle of Henry Machyn (b. 1496/1498, d. 1563), an English clothier and diarist based in London. The Chronicle begins in August 1550 and ends in August 1563, the year of Machyn's death, and provides an eyewitness account to events in the city during the reigns of Edward VI (r. 1547-1553) and Mary I (r. 1553-1558), and the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603).
The volume was badly damaged during the Ashburnham House fire of 1731, and the top and upper margins of all its leaves were burned away. The remaining fragments were housed in a case at the British Museum until 1829, when they were carefully restored, mounted on paper guards and rebound in their correct order by Frederic Madden (b. 1801, d. 1873), then Assistant Keeper of Manuscripts. Madden marked the chronology at the top of each folio and also added references to the work of John Strype (b. 1643, d. 1737), English clergyman and historian, who borrowed the manuscript in 1697 and published extensive selections from it.
For an edition of the text, see Nichols, The Diary of Henry Machyn (1848).
Contents:
f. [v] recto: An added note by Frederic Madden, concerning the restoration of the manuscript at the British Museum, dated 1829.
ff. 1r-162v: The Chronicle of Henry Machyn, beginning August 1550 and ending August 1563, beginning and ending imperfectly.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Cotton Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001101582
040-001103114 - Is part of:
- Cotton MS : Cotton Manuscripts
Cotton MS Vitellius F V : Chronicle of London, 1550-1563 ('The Chronicle of Henry Machyn') - Hierarchy:
- 032-001101582[0885]/040-001103114
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Cotton MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Vitellius_F_V (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1550
- End Date:
- 1563
- Date Range:
- Aug 1550-Aug 1563
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Paper.
Condition: Leaves damaged by fire in 1731.
Dimensions: 370 x 255 mm (written space: approximately 270/280 × 150/170 mm).
Foliation: ff. 162 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end).
Script: 16th-century secretary hand.
Binding: British Museum in-house. Brown half-leather binding, with the Cottonian arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers. Rebound 1968.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
London, England.
Provenance:
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: listed in his catalogues (Add MS 36789, f. 60r; Add MS 36682). Cotton’s collection was augmented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton (b. 1594, d. 1662), 2nd baronet, and his grandson, Sir John Cotton.
The manuscript was loaned to John Strype (b. 1643, d. 1737), English clergyman and historian, for two months in 1697 together with Cotton MS Julius F VI, with a bond of £200 required as security (see Lansdowne MS 814, f. 25r).
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:
-
Blakiston, Herbert E. D., 'Thomas Warton and Machyn's Diary', The English Historical Review, 11 (1896), 282-300.
Britton, Derek, 'Henry Machyn, Axel Wijk and the Case of the Wrong Riding: The South-West Yorkshire Character of the Language of Machyn's Diary', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 101 (2000), 571-96.
Gordon, Andrew, Writing Early Modern London: Memory, Text and Community (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), pp. 11-59.
Mortimer, Ian, 'Tudor Chronicler of Sixteenth-Century Diarist? Henry Machyn and the Nature of His Manuscript', The Sixteenth Century Journal, 33 (2002), 981-998.
Nichols, J. G., ed., The Diary of Henry Machyn, Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London, from A.D. 1550 to A.D. 1563, Camden Society, O.S., XLII (London: Printed for The Camden Society by J. B. Nichols and son, 1848).
Planta, Joseph, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library, Deposited in the British Museum (London: Hansard, 1802), p. 431.
Smith, Thomas, Catalogus Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecæ Cottonianæ (Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1696), p. 103.
Tite, Colin G. C., The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton's Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), p. 171.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)