Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Arundel MS 66
- Record Id:
- 040-002039346
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002039280
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000395.0x000240
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Arundel MS 66
- Title:
- Astrological compilation and political prophecies
- Scope & Content:
-
The manuscript includes:
ff. 1v-2v: Canons to John Killingworth's tables, attributed to Thomas Pray.
ff. 3r-32v: John Killingworth (Chillingworth), Astronomical tables.
ff. 33r-47r: Catalogue of Stars extracted from Ptolemy's Almagest in the Latin translation of Gerard of Cremona.
ff. 48r-248v: Guido Bonatti, Decem tractatus astronomiae.
ff. 250r-266v: Astronomical tables known as the 'Alfonsine Tables', with canons (extract).
ff. 267r-268v: Geoffrey of Monmouth, Prophetiae Merlini (Prophecies of Merlin).
f. 268v: Table of cities with their longitudes and latitudes.
ff. 269r-277r: Alpharinus, Liber arenalis scientiae, translated by Plato Tiburtinus (Plato of Tivoli).
ff. 277v-287v: Geomantic tables.
ff. 288r-290v: 'Prophecy of Bridlington' with five political prophecies: 'Lilia terna dies libre','H. parte submercet', 'Mens cur cor','Ter tria lustra', and 'Anglia transmittet'.
ff. 291r-291v: Brigitta of Sweden, Revelationes, book 4 (extract), with six political prophecies: 'Arbor fertilis', 'Sicut rubeum draconem', 'Lilium in meliore parte', 'Bullescamp ecce dies', 'Cesaris imperium', and 'Brutus finitur'.
Decoration:
43 miniatures, in colours and gold (ff. 33r (x2), 33v, 34r (x2), 34v (x2), 35r (x2), 35v (x2), 36r, 36v, 37r (x2), 37v (x2), 38r (x2), 38v, 39r (x2), 39v (x2), 40r (x2), 41r (x2), 41v (x2), 42v (x2), 43v, 44r (x2), 44v (x2), 45r (x2), 46r (x2), 46v (x2)). 3 historiated initials in colours or in colours and gold (ff. 148r, 155v, 201r). 2 full foliate borders (ff. 53r, 201r). 22 large decorated initials in colours and gold (ff. 1v, 48r, 53r (2x), 65r, 73v, 80v, 86r, 89r, 137r, 159r, 163v, 165r, 166v, 167v, 170v, 173v, 174v, 176v, 179v, 180v, 243v). 2 large zoomorphic initials with dragons, in colours and gold (ff. 57r, 129r). 2 smaller foliate initials with partial foliate borders (ff. 149v, 152v). Smaller initials in gold with mostly red (or brown) pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing, some with zoomorphic and/or human figures. Small initials and paraph marks in red or blue. Marginal diagram of Venus and the sun in gold (f. 203r). Several diagrams in ink.
The decoration was executed in one campaign by two or three English artists (for the division of hands, see Scott 1996 pp. 366-67); with one historiated initial (f. 201r) by a follower of the Bruges Master of 1482, who was also responsible for one miniature in the Chroniques de France, Royal MS 20 E I, f. 47r.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Arundel Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002039280
040-002039346 - Is part of:
- Arundel MS 1-550 : Arundel Manuscripts
Arundel MS 66 : Astrological compilation and political prophecies - Contains:
- Arundel MS 66, ff 1v-32v : John Killingworth [Chillingworth], Astronomical tables, with canons attributed to Thomas Pray
Arundel MS 66, ff 33r-47r : Catalogue of Stars
Arundel MS 66, ff 48r-248v : Guido Bonatti, Decem tractatus astronomiae
Arundel MS 66, ff 250r-266v : Astronomical tables (the 'Alfonsine Tables')
Arundel MS 66, ff 267r-268v : Geoffrey of Monmouth, Prophetiae Merlini (Prophecies of Merlin)
Arundel MS 66, ff 269r-277r : Alpharinus, Liber arenalis scientiae, translated by Plato Tiburtinus (Plato of Tivoli)
Arundel MS 66, ff 277v-287v : Geomantic tables
Arundel MS 66, ff 288r-290v : Prophecy of Bridlington
Arundel MS 66, ff 291r-291v : Brigitta of Sweden, Revelationes, book 4 (extract), with a collection of political prophecies
Click here to View / search full list of parts of Arundel MS 66 - Hierarchy:
- 032-002039280[0066]/040-002039346
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Arundel MS 1-550
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Arundel_MS_66 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1490
- End Date:
- 1490
- Date Range:
- 1490
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment codex.
Dimensions: 440 x 300 mm (text space: 305 x 210 mm).
Foliation: ff. 291 (+ 4 unfoliated medieval blank ruled parchment leaves after ff. 52, 147, 186, and 249; + 5 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves: 2 at the beginning, and 3 at the end).
Collation: i-ii8 (ff. 1-16); iii10 (ff. 17-26: irregular quire formed of a binion (ff. 19-22) and a bifolium (ff. 23-24) inserted in a binion (ff. 17-18; 25-26)); iv6 (ff. 27-32); v8 (ff. 33-40); vi8-1 (ff. 41-47; 1 leaf excised); vii6 (ff. 48-52, including 1 unfoliated leaf); viii-xvi8 (ff. 53-124); xvii-xviii8 (ff. 125-140); xix-xx4 (ff. 141-147, including 1 unfoliated leaf); xxi-xxiv8 (ff. 148-179); xxxv6 (ff. 180-185); xxvi8 (ff. 186-192, including 1 unfoliated leaf); xxvii-xxi8 (ff. 193-240); xxxii10 (ff. 241-249, including 1 unfoliated leaf); xxxiv8 (ff. 250-257); xxxv8 (ff. 258-265); xxxvi4 (ff. 266-269); xxxvii6 (ff. 270-275); xxxviii-xxxix8 (ff. 275-291).
Script: Gothic hybrid.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England (London?).
Provenance:
Johannes Wellys, perhaps to be identified with John Willis, doctor of medicine, noted in the Cambridge University Grace Book between 1456 and 1480 (see Charles Hugh Talbot and Eugene Ashby Hammond, The Medical Practitioners in Medieval England: A Biographical Register, Publications of the Wellcome Historical Medical Library, New Series 8 (London, 1965), p. 194): his note relating to the producing and bringing up to date of Guido Bonatti's text on 30 June 1490: 'Finitur hic liber Guydonis Bonacti de Forlivio anno Christi 1490 30 die Iunii hora 12 minuta 24a per me Iohannem Wellys composit' et renovat' et anno H. vii 4to pontificatus sanctissimi in Christo patris nostri Innocentii pape 4to 5to [4to is apparently an error for 8to] (f. 249r).
King Henry VII (b. 1457, d. 1509), King of England and Lord of Ireland, probably made for him: a bird with a scroll inscribed 'vyve le roy' (f. 53r); his badges: a red dragon against the Tudor livery colours of white and green (f. 33v), and a crowned tree (f. 129r); numerous white roses of York with red roses of Lancaster referring to Henry's marriage to Elisabeth of York (e.g., ff. 53r, 201r); and a miniature of the king enthroned under a canopy bearing the royal arms of England (f. 201r).
Inscribed 'Thomas Norll (Nortt?)', 16th century (f. 1r, effaced; f. 202v).
Thomas Howard (b. 1585, d. 1646), 2nd Earl of Arundel, 4th Earl of Surrey, and 1st Earl of Norfolk, art collector and politician: perhaps owned by him.
Henry Howard (b. 1628, d. 1684), 6th Duke of Norfolk, presented to the Royal Society in 1667.
The Royal Society, London (its ink stamp: 'Soc. Reg. Lond / ex dono HENR. HOWARD / Norfolciensis.', f. 1); stored in the Gresham College: inscribed 'Gresham' (f. 1r).
Purchased by the British Museum from the Royal Society of London together with 549 other Arundel manuscripts in 1831.
- Administrative Context:
- England (London?).
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Digitised Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Manuscripts in The British Museum, New Series, 1 vol. in 2 parts (London: British Museum, 1834-1840), I (1834), part I: The Arundel Manuscripts, p. 14.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 16.
H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I, pp. 301-02.
Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des lateinischen Mittelalters, ed. by Harry Bober, 4 vols (London: Warburg Institute, 1916-1966), III: Handschriften in englischen Bibliotheken (1953), pp. 89-93, XLI, fig. 14.
Paul Meyvaert, ‘John Erghome and the Vaticinium Roberti Bridlington’, Speculum, 41 (1966), 656-664 (pp. 659-60).
T.S. Pattie, Astrology as Illustrated in the Collections of the British Library and the British Museum (London: British Library, 1980), p. 25, pl. 12.
Thérèse Charmasson, Recherches sur une technique divinatoire: La géomancie dans l'occident médiéval, Hautes Etudes Médiévales et Modernes, 44 (Paris: Champion, 1980), p. 209.
Hilary M. Carey, Courting Disaster: Astrology at the English Court and University in the Later Middle Ages (New York: Macmillan, 1992), pp. 106, 202.
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), II: pp. 364-67, no. 140.
Lesley Coote, Prophecy in Public Affairs in Later Medieval England (York: York Medieval Press, 2000), pp. 235-36, 254.
Sophie Page, Astrology in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2002), pp. 23-24, 26-28, 31, pls 16-17, 18, and 22.
Kathleen L. Scott, Dated & Datable English Manuscript Borders c. 1395-1499 (London: Bibliographical Society, 2002), p. 93.
Andrew G. Watson, Medieval Manuscripts in Post-Medieval England (Aldershot: Ashgate/Variorum, 2004), pp. XIII, 216.
Kathleen L. Scott, 'The Decorated Letters of Two Cotton Manuscripts', in Tributes to Jonathan J. G. Alexander: The Making and Meaning of Illuminated Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts, Art & Architecture, ed. by Susan L'Engle and Gerald B. Guest (London: Harvey Miller, 2006), pp. 99-110 (p. 104 n. 38).
Carol M. Meale, 'London, British Library, Harley MS 2252, John Colyns' 'Boke': Structure and Content', in Tudor Manuscripts 1485-1603, ed. by A. S. G. Edwards, English Manuscript Studies, 15 (London: British Library, 2009), pp. 65-122 (p. 91).
Scot McKendrick, John Lowden, and Kathleen Doyle, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 99 [exhibition catalogue].
Patrizia Deery Kurtz and Linda Ehrsam Voigts, 'A Significance of Now-Dispersed Bute 13: A Mixed-Language Scientific Manuscript', in Communicating Early English Manuscripts, ed. by Päivi Pahta and Andreas H. Jucker (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 38-54 (p. 51, n. 47).
Hilary M. Carey, 'Henry VII's Book of Astrology and the Tudor Renaissance', Renaissance Quarterly, 65 (2012), 661-710.
Joanna Frońska, 'The Royal Image and Diplomacy: Henry VII’s Book of Astrology (British Library, Arundel 66)', Electronic British Library Journal (2013).
Katharina Glanz, Sternbilder des Mittelalters und der Renaissance (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter 2016).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)