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Harley MS 48
- Record Id:
- 040-002045876
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002045876
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x0000d9
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 48
- Title:
- Le Livre de l'Informacion des Princes, and other texts concerning the nobility
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
f. 1r: An illegible Latin inscription.
f. 1v: Two prayers to St George, beginning ‘Ave gemma anglie confors angelorum miles regis glorie spes que belatorum’; ‘Deus qui nos beati georgi martyris tui meritis et intercessione laetificas’; an unidentified Latin text (faded); with the name of ‘Chester le Herault’ inscribed.
ff. 2r-53v: Le Livre de l'Informacion des Princes.
ff. 53v-77v: A treatise on feats of arms, beginning ‘Ci coumance [sic] les chapistres de mesire Philippe de la Laing’; ends with the name of ‘Chestre le Herault’.
ff. 78r-81r: A treatise about 'La fourme et la Magniere de L'Anterrement du tres hault et puissant et tres excellent Prince Richard Duc de Jork, Pere du Roy nostre Souverain Seigneur Edouart le Quart. Et fut enleve de la dite ville de pomfret de lostel de freres meneurs le xxiiije Jour de Juillet en lan de grace .mile. cccc l le xvje annee du Regne du Roy edouart le quart’; ends with ‘Explicit Chestre le Herault’.
f. 81v: A French poem on Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York, signed by 'Chester le Herault'.
ff. 82r-84v: A letter in French to a prince of the House of Burgundy concerning a tournament, written at ‘Shene’ in the year 1465.
f. 85r: A set of instructions in Middle English, beginning ‘Thei that be of gentall blud and sett by there good name will sustayne labor and payne to gett renoune and ffame’.
Decoration:
Drawings of coats of arms in brown ink on f. 80v and f. 81v
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002045876", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 48: Le Livre de l'Informacion des Princes, and other texts concerning the nobility" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002045876 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 48 : Le Livre de l'Informacion des Princes, and other texts concerning the nobility - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0047]/040-002045876
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- English, Middle
French, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1475
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 280 x 200 mm.
Foliation: ff. 85 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); f. 1 is a parchment fragment mounted onto a paper stub; 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [ii]recto.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Dimensions: British Museum in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
Thomas Whiting [alias Utine] (alive in 1494/5), Chester Herald c. 1473: wrote and owned hte manuscript; signed several of his texts with 'Chestre le Herault' on ff. 1v, 77v, 81r, and 81v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 353).
An unknown 15th or 16th century owner: the owner’s (?) initials (?) ‘P.C’ inscribed in a monogram on f. 85v.
Sir Simonds D’Ewes (b. 1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 131); recorded in his catalogues as X.3.
Sir Simonds D’Ewes (d. 1722), 3rd baronet and grandson of the former: inherited and later sold the D’Ewes library to Robert Harley on 4 October 1705 for £450.
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), p. 13.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 371.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)