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Stowe MS 555
- Record Id:
- 040-001953375
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001952775
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000534.0x000059
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165174217.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Stowe MS 555
- Title:
-
An inventory of jewels and other goods of Queen Elizabeth I, 1574-1594
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
f. 1r: An introduction to Queen Elizabeth I’s inventory of jewels and other goods. It explains that the inventory was made or begun on 14 March 1574 and lists ‘all suche parcelles of the Quenis Majesties Juelles, plate and other Stuff as remaine [...] in the custodie and chardge of John Asteley, esquire, Master and Threasourour of her highnes juelles and plate, to her Majesties use’; delivered to John Astley (b. c. 1507, d. 1596), Master of the Jewel House and Treasurer of Her Majesty's jewels and plate, by commissioners acting under a commission dated to 29 March 1570. As the introduction explains, the inventory was copied into ‘two Bookes’. The first book (Stowe MS 555) was signed by ‘thandes of thre [...] Comissioners’ who are named as Lord Burghley, High Treasurer, Sir Ralph Sadleir, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Stowe MS 555, according to the introduction, was owned by John Astley. The second book (unidentified) was signed by John Astley and ‘doth remaine with the Quenis Majestie’.
ff. 2r-140r: An inventory of the jewels and other goods of Queen Elizabeth I, mostly including dishes and tableware, beginning with her ‘Juelles of Golde’, beginning: ‘First the kinges Crowne of golde the border garnisshed with seven Ballaces, Eight Saphers, fyve pointed Diamondes twentie Rubies two of them being crased, nintene pearles / And oone of the Crosses of the same Crowne garnisshed with a greate Sapher, an Emerald crased, some Ballaces and nine pearles not all of oone sorte’.
ff. 141r-154r: Additions by purchase, New Year's gifts, and other items, down to 12 August 36 Elizabeth (1594), beginning: ‘Sundry parcelles Recevid into thoffice since the finisshing of the said Accoumpte in manner and fourme folowing’; the additions are signed by another commissioner.
Decoration:
Large and small initials with cadels throughout the manuscript.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Stowe Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-001952775
036-001953372
040-001953375 - Is part of:
- Stowe Ms 1-1085 : Stowe Manuscripts
Stowe MS 553-567 : CLASS XI.ROYAL HOUSEHOLD, WARDROBE ACCOMPTS, INVENTORIES,ETC.
Stowe MS 555 : An inventory of jewels and other goods of Queen Elizabeth I, 1574-1594 - Hierarchy:
- 032-001952775[0011]/036-001953372[0003]/040-001953375
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Stowe Ms 1-1085
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100165174217.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1574
- End Date:
- 1594
- Date Range:
- [13 Mar 1574-12 Aug 1594]
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: Information to be provided.
Foliation: ff. 154 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf and 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); ff. [iii] and [158] are the upper and lower covers of a former white vellum binding; 1 unfoliated paper pastedown (bibliographical notes) on f. [ii]recto; and 1 on f. [156]recto (notes of repair).
Script: 16th-century script.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown half leather binding. Marbled endpapers. The previous binding (white vellum with gold-tooled borders with blind-stamped acorn motifs at their corners, and gold-stamped foliate motifs and an inscription on its spine: ‘Queen Elizab[eth]’s Iewels and Plate. Signed by L[or]d. Treasurer Burghley, S[ir]. Ra[lph] Sadler Chans[ellor] of th[e] Dutchy of Lancaster, and Sir Wa[lter] Mildmay Chanc[ellor] of [the] Exchequer.’) has been inserted into the manuscript and is now foliated as ff. [iii] and [157].
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
John Astley (b. c. 1507, d. 1596), Master of the Jewel House and Treasurer of Her Majesty's jewels and plate, was the eldest son of Thomas Astley (d. in or after 1514), landowner, of Hill Morton and Melton Constable, Norfolk, owned the manuscript: according to the introduction on f. 1r.
An unknown (?) 17th-century English owner: added a white vellum binding (ff. [iii] and [157]); perhaps their pressmark (‘73’) on the former binding’s spine (f. [iii]recto) in brown ink.
Thomas Astle (b. 1735, d. 1803), archivist and collector of books and manuscripts: possibly a descendant of John Astley (?) who inherited the manuscript; his armorial bookplate (A cinquefoil pierced within a bordure engrailed ermine, crest on a chapeau turned up, with the motto: ‘Fide Sed Cui Vide’ on a banderolle below) stamped in black ink on the lower cover of the former vellum binding (f. [157v]); perhaps his pressmark (‘73’) on the former binding’s spine (f. [iii]recto) in brown ink.
Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (b. 1776, d. 1839), 1st duke of Buckingham and Chandos, of Stowe House, near Buckingham.
Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (b. 1797, d. 1861), 2nd duke of Buckingham and Chandos: sold in 1849 to Lord Ashburnham.
Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1797, d. 1878), 4th earl of Ashburnham, of Ashburnham Place, Sussex: purchased from Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville.
Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1840, d. 1913), 5th earl of Ashburnham: purchased by the British Museum from him together with 1084 other Stowe manuscripts in 1883.
- Publications:
-
A. Jefferies Collins, Jewels and Plate of Queen Elizabeth I: The Inventory of 1574, Edited from Harley MS. 1650 and Stowe MS. 555 (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1955).
John Nichols’s The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth, ed. by Elizabeth Goldring and others, 5 vols (Oxford: Oxford Uniersity Press, 2014), II: 1572 to 1578, pp. 479-80, 509.
Edward J. L. Scott, Catalogue of the Stowe Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1895), I, p. 448.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)