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Kings MS 395

Record Id:

040-002017349

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002016915

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001250.0x000027

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100161509193.0x000001

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Kings MS 395

Title:

Biblical and Genealogical Chronicle from Creation to King Henry VII of England, continued to Edward VI

Scope & Content:

A genealogical chronicle in codex format, consisting of a series of roundels accompanied by brief biographical entries. The codex must be turned sideways to follow the succession

Contents:

ff. 1v-24r: Biblical genealogy: a translation into English of the Latin chronicle attributed to Peter of Poitiers, the Compendium historiae in genealogia Christi, beginning ‘Consyderyng the length and the hardness off holy scripture’ (f.1v). The central line of the genealogical diagram traces the descent from Adam through Shem (f. 3r), son of Noah, to the Nativity and Ascension of Christ (f. 23v) and the Assumption of the Virgin (f. 24r). Parallel lines of descent are traced from Japhet, Noah’s third son, through Woden and Brutus (f. 6v), including the emperors and kings of Rome, Macedonia, Persia and surrounding nations.

ff. 24r-34r: Royal Genealogy: the ancestors of English kings, including Vortigern and Utherpendragon are traced in the central line, which divides into 7 for the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy (ff. 26v-28v). The text of the chronicle ends with Richard III (f. 33r). The pictorial genealogy continues to Henry VIII in the same scribal and artistic hand, including Catherine of Aragon, Mary, and Henry (obit), the infant prince who died in 1511. Henry VIII’s subsequent wives and offspring were added to the genealogy later by a different artist and scribe, ending with Edward VI, presumably at his death in 1553. Parallel genealogical diagrams trace Welsh kings and the dukes of Normandy.

The genealogy is classified as the ‘Long English’ type. It was produced after the death of Prince Henry in 1511.

Decoration:

1 small miniature in colours and gold of the creation of Eve (f. 2r). Numerous small medallions containing portrait busts, some with biblical scenes, on every folio, in colours and gold. Diagrams, in colours and gold, as follows: a T-map of the world and two cross-sections of Noah’s Ark (f. 3r), the 42 mansiones of the Israelites in the desert (f. 5v), the 12 tribes of Israel around the Ark of the Covenant (f. 6r), and a circular plan of Jerusalem (f. 17r). 1 large foliate initial with a three-sided foliate border in colours and gold (f. 1v-2r). 2 large initials, in gold on coloured grounds, with brown pen-flourishing extending into the margins (f. 1v). Small initials in blue with red pen-flourishing or in red with brown pen-flourishing. Line-fillers in red and/or blue.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

King's Manuscripts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002016915
040-002017349

Is part of:

Kings MS 1-446 : King's Manuscripts

Kings MS 395 : Biblical and Genealogical Chronicle from Creation to King Henry VII of England, continued to Edward VI

Hierarchy:

032-002016915[0265]/040-002017349

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Kings MS 1-446

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100161509193.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

English

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1500

End Date:

1599

Date Range:

First half of the 16th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 435 x 310 mm.

Foliation: ff. 34 (+ 3 medieval parchment flyleaves at the beginning, and 5 ruled medieval parchment flyleaves at the end).

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: Pre-1600. Brown leather, with heraldic panel (arms, flower and motto), the same as that of HE. 9 in J. Basil Oldham, Blind Panels of English Binders (Cambridge: University Press, 1958), p. 23, pl. XVII; mounted on pasteboards and rebacked.

Custodial History:

Origin: London or Westminster, England.

Provenance:

King George III (b. 1738, d. 1820), in his collection of printed books and manuscripts. Given to the British Museum by King George IV in 1823 as part of the library of King George III.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.

Publications:

George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), III: Description of the King’s Manuscripts and Indexes to both Collections, p. 65.

Sydney Anglo, ‘The British History in Early Tudor Propaganda', Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 44 (1961), 17-48 (pp. 25, 26, n. 1).

Albinia de la Mare, Catalogue of the Collection of Medieval Manuscripts bequeathed to the Bodleian Library, Oxford, by James P. R. Lyell (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), p. 83.

C. M. Kaufmann, ‘An Early Sixteenth Century Genealogy of Anglo-Saxon Kings’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 47 (1984), 209-16 (p. 210).

Edward Donald Kennedy, Chronicles and Other Historical Writing, XXI, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, 12 vols, ed. by Albert E. Hartung (New Haven: Archon Books, 1989), VIII, p. 2889.

Maree Shirota, ‘Neither Roll nor Codex: Accordion Genealogies of the Kings of England from the Fifteenth Century’ in The Roll in England and France in the Late Middle Ages, ed. by Stefan Holz, Jorg Peltzer and Maree Shirota (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2020), pp. 263-88 (p. 273).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

London, England
Westminster, England

Related Material:

From George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), III: Description of the King’s Manuscripts and Indexes to both Collections, p. 65:

GENEALOGICAL CHRONICLE in English to Henry VII (?), continued to Edward VI. Begins with a translation of the Latin chronicle from Adam to Christ which begins ' Considerans historiae sacrae prolixitatem ' and is variously ascribed to Petrus Pictaviensis or Petrus Comestor (see Royal MSS. 4 B. vii, art. 4, 8 C. ix, art. 2, 14 B. ix, &c.). Afterwards, besides the genealogy of Christ from Adam, there is traced the descent of English kings from Japhet through Woden and Egbert and from Japhet through Brutus and the Welsh kings, and also from Rollo of Normandy. Of the Latin forms of the chronicle enumerated under Royal MS. 14 B. viii it seems most akin to Harley Roll C. 9, which ends with Edward IV. Another roll closely akin (but not including the 'Considerans' chronicle) is Stowe MS. 72 (also to Edward IV); and an English form of this is Stowe MS. 73. Beg. 'Consyderyng the lengh and the hardnes off holy scrypture and namely off the grownde off the letter historial The profane history (f. 3) begins ' Iaphet þ^t was sunne to Noe gatte Ianan, Ianan gatte Sethum, Sethus gatte Siprius and so forth. In thys lyne we wyll speke off Iaphet and off hys succescion, for off hym cum kynges off Brytan þ^t nowe ys callyd Englond'. The text ends with Richard III, 'was kyng after hys brother and raynyd ii yeres and lyth buryd at Lecitor', and the figures from Henry VIII onwards seem to be by another hand.

Vellum; ff. 34. 17¹/₄ in. x 12¹/₂ in. Temp. Hen. VII. Fully, but very coarsely, illuminated, with heads of all the.persons, also representations of the creation of Eve (f. 2), the Ark (f. 3), and the Temple (f. 17), shields of arms, real or imaginary, &c., and border to ff. 1 b, 2. The sides belong to the old binding (temp. Hen. VIII). A key-pattern forms the outer border. Of the large panel the central third has the Royal arms with supporters, and below, enclosed by the Garter with motto, the Tudor rose supported by angels. It appears to be identical with the binding of a 1516 book at Durham, of which there is a rubbing in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Bookbindings in the Nat. Art Library, 1894, p. 125, no. 121). The binder's initials in the small shields above the rose are apparently E. G. (a very similar, but different, stamp belonged to John Reynes, Henry VIII's bookbinder, and is reproduced from Stowe MS. 141 by W. Y. Fletcher, Engl. Bookb. in the Brit. Museum, pl. viii; cf. Holmes, Specimens of Bookb. from Windsor, pl. 4). The other two thirds of the panel are made up of roll-produced ornament: in the centre panel two lines of roses and two of foliage, divided and enclosed by fillets; outside the panel a diaper with roses.