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Add MS 48180
- Record Id:
- 040-001951200
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001951006
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000449.0x000064
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100162919851.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 48180
- Title:
- John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, 'Tranquilitatis animi praeservatio et munimentum ad serenissimam principem D. Mariam Scotorum Reginam'
- Scope & Content:
-
John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, 'Tranquilitatis animi praeservatio et munimentum ad serenissimam principem D. Mariam Scotorum Reginam', 1573 (title and date, f. iv). Latin. Autograph.
This was composed at Farnham Castle (f. 5v), in the summer or autumn of 1573 when Leslie was a prisoner under house arrest in the custody of the Bishop of Winchester for his part in the Ridolfi Plot. The date of 1573 appears on both the title page (f. iv recto) and, with the location, at the end of the dedicatory epistle (f. 5v.). It is a fair copy in Leslie's hand, the text written within double bounding lines (these lines were drawn for the whole volume, including many pages blank of text, ff. I-iii, 86-137). It is in a contemporary vellum binding, with the striped strings of gold and green still intact, and with gold tooling. That tooling includes on the front and back covers the thistle as a motif, and in the central panel four thistles emanate from a rose, above which is a crown between the initials "M" and "R".
"Tranquilitatis" forms one of two manuscript volumes of pious meditations that Leslie composed for Mary Queen of Scots. The other, dated from the Tower of London 7 May 1572, is now Lambeth Palace Library MS 566, 'Piae afflicti animi meditations, diuinaque remedia'. Both are written in Leslie's hand and have largely the same format, with identical vellum bindings and very similar gold tooling (Lambeth MS 566 has acorns and a different-shaped crown). Robinson, 'John Leslie's "Libri Duo"', makes a strong, if ultimately unproven and unproveable case, that both volumes are the fair copies of the meditations that Leslie sent to Queen Mary. Robinson also discusses whether the cypher of her initials and crown may have been added on Mary's instructions. Yelverton Manuscripts, I, 377-8, considers that the cypher was a later addition ('a standard English crown of the Stuart period'). Robinson argues the case for it being Mary's, her argument being partly circumstantial but also the that the form of the crown on Add MS 48180, whilst unusual so early, is not unknown in the late sixteenth century (Robinson, 'John Leslie's "Libri duo"', p. 71, fn. 36).
'Tranquilitatis' was published together with 'Piae', in Paris in 1574 as Libri Duo: quorum uno, piae afflicti animi consolationes, divinaque remedia: altero, anima tranquilli munimentum & conservatio, continentur ... Mariam Scotorum Reginam. There are numerous variations between the manuscript and published versions of 'Tranquillitatis', including the divisions into chapters.
A French translation was published in 1590 in Rouen (Les deuotes consolations et diuins remedes de l'esprit afflige. Lieur premier. Et le Rampart de l'esprit tranquille. Liu. 2) and in Paris in 1593.
Contents:
f. iv recto: Title-page.
ff. 1r-v: Verses.
f. 2r-5v: Dedicatory epistle from John Leslie, Bishop of Ross to Mary, Queen of Scots.
ff. 6r-84v: "Tranquilitatis Animi Preservatio Et Munimentum": text.
ff. 85r-86r: Hymn dedicated to Mary, Queen of Scots.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001951006
040-001951200 - Is part of:
- Add MS 48000-48196 : THE YELVERTON MSS
Add MS 48180 : John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, 'Tranquilitatis animi praeservatio et munimentum ad serenissimam principem D. Mariam Scotorum… - Hierarchy:
- 032-001951006[0162]/040-001951200
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Add MS 48000-48196
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume.
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100162919851.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1573
- End Date:
- 1573
- Date Range:
- 1573
- Era:
- CE
- Place of Origin:
- England.
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper
Dimensions: 175mm x135mm (written area 150mm x 90mm)
Foliation: ff. iv + 138; contemporary foliation ff. 1-84. Flyleaves ff. i, 138.
Script: 16th century hand.
Binding: Pre-1600. Alum-tawed. Gold tooling, either contemporary or 17th-century. This includes 'M R' with crown gilt-stamped within the centre-panel on both covers, and thistles on borders of covers and, with a rose, in the central panel. Limp vellum cover. Green and gold silk laces.
Written on f. 1: 1721.
Written on the spine, in 17th?-cent. hands '232'.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
(?) Mary Queen of Scots: very possibly this copy of 'Tranquilitatis animi preservatio' was presented to her, 1573. On the front and back covers a crown with initials "M" and "R" in the central panels, which is possibly contemporary with her.
Part of the Yelverton manuscripts: date of acquisition uncertain, and it is not certainly part of the collection until well into the 19th century, But it may have been part of the collection long before, possibly belonging to Robert Beale, Clerk of the Privy Council and originator of the collection. If so, it follows the standard custodial history of much of the Yelverton manuscripts.
From Beale it would have passed to his son-in-law Sir Henry Yelverton (b 1566, d 1630), judge and politician. The Yelverton papers descended to Henry Yelverton, 3rd Earl of Sussex, who in 1795 gave them to his cousin Sir Henry Gough-Calthorpe, 2nd Baronet and later first Baron Calthorpe (b 1749, d 1798). The papers remained in his family until Brigadier Richard Hamilton Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe sold the Yelverton papers to the British Museum in 1953.
- Former Internal References:
- Yelverton MS Appendix III
- Publications:
-
The British Library Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts: the Yelverton Manuscripts Additional Manuscripts 48000-48196, 2 vols (London, British Library: 1994), I, 115-17.
A.F. Allison and D.M. Rogers, The Contemporary Printed Literature of the English Counter-Reformation between 1558 and 1640, 2 vols (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1989-1994), i, 98.
John Leslie, Libri Duo: quorum uno, piae afflicti animi consolationes, divinaque remedia: altero, anima tranquilli munimentum & conservatio, continentur ... Mariam Scotorum Reginam (Paris: Petrus l'Huillier, 1574). Published with alterations from the original manuscript
Pamela Robinson, 'John Leslie's "Libri Duo": Manuscripts belonging to Mary Queen of Scots?' in Order and Connexion: Studies in Bibliography and Book History, ed. by R.C. Alston (Woodbridge: D.S. Brewer, 1997), pp. 63-76.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)