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Stowe MS 556
- Record Id:
- 040-001953376
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-001952775
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000534.0x00005a
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165174299.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Stowe MS 556
- Title:
-
An inventory of jewels and other goods of Queen Elizabeth I, 1596
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-1v: An introduction to Queen Elizabeth I’s inventory of jewels and other goods. It explains that the inventory was made or begun on 20 February 1596 and lists ‘all suche percelles of the Queenes Majesties Jewelles and plate and other stuffe as did remayne [...] in the custodie and chardge of the Executours of John Astley, esquier, Master and Threasuror of her heighnes Jewelles and plate to her Majesties use’ [see Stowe MS 555]. Following Astley’s death, the parcels were delivered to Sir Edward Carye (b. 1540, d. 1618), Master of the Jewel House and Treasurer of Her Majesty's jewels and plate, by commissioners acting under a commission dated 5 August 1595. As the introduction explains, the inventory was copied into ‘two Bookes’. The first book (unidentified) was signed by ‘the handes of two [...] comyssioners’ who are named as Lord Burghley, High Treasurer, and Sir John Fortescue, Chancellor of the Exchequer. This book was owned by Sir Edward Carye. The second book (Stowe MS 556) was signed by Sir Edward Carye and ‘doth remayne with the Queenes Majestie’.
ff. 2r-160r: An inventory of the jewels and other goods of Queen Elizabeth I, mostly including dishes and tableware, beginning with her ‘Jewelles of Golde’, beginning: ‘Firste the kinges Crowne of golde, the border garnished with seaven Ballaces, eighte Sapheres, fire poynted Dyamondes, twentie Rubies twoe of them being crased nynetene pearles, And one of the crosses of the same Crowne garnished with a greate Sapher, an Emeralde crased, fower Ballaces and nyne pearles not all of one sorte’.
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
040-001953376 - Is part of:
- Stowe Ms 1-1085 : Stowe Manuscripts
Stowe MS 553-567 : CLASS XI.ROYAL HOUSEHOLD, WARDROBE ACCOMPTS, INVENTORIES,ETC.
Stowe MS 556 : An inventory of jewels and other goods of Queen Elizabeth I, 1596 - Hierarchy:
- 032-001952775[0011]/036-001953372[0004]/040-001953376
- 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_100165174299.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1596
- End Date:
- 1596
- Date Range:
- [20 Feb 1596]
- 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: To be confirmed.
Foliation: ff. 160 (+ 3 unfoliated blank paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 6 unfoliated blank paper flyleaves at the end); f. [iii] is the manuscript’s former vellum binding, folded, and with the upper cover as a fold-out. 1 unfoliated blank paper leaf between f. 59 and f. 60; f. 128 and f. 129; and f. 131 and f. 132.
Script: 16th-century script.
Binding: Post-1600. Gold-tooled brown half leather binding. Marbled endleaves. The previous binding (white vellum with gold-tooled borders with gold-stamped foliate motifs at their corners, and gold-stamped foliate motifs and an inscription on its spine: ‘Queen Elizabeth’s Iewels and Plate – Signed by S[ir]. Edw[ard]. Carye.) has been inserted into the manuscript and is now foliated as f. [iii].
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
Elizabeth I (b. 1533, d. 1603), Queen of England and Ireland (r. 1558-1603), owned the manuscript in 1596: according to the manuscript’s introduction (ff. 1r-1v).
An unknown (?) 17th-century English owner: added a white vellum binding (f. [iii]); perhaps their pressmark (‘74’) on the spine in brown ink.
An unknown 17th- or 18th-century English owner: their armorial bookplate (faded and unidentified: a quartered shield with a heart or arrowhead in its 1st and 4th quarters, crowned, and circumscribed by a motto, now illegible) stamped in black ink on the upper and lower covers of the former vellum binding (f. [iii]recto).
? Thomas Astle (b. 1735, d. 1803), archivist and collector of books and manuscripts: perhaps owned the manuscript together with Stowe MS 556; perhaps his pressmark (‘74’) on the spine 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:
-
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)