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Harley MS 114

Record Id:

040-002045942

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002045942

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x00012f

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 114

Title:

Pierre de Langtoft, Chronicle of England in French verse to the beginning of the reign of Edward I (1307)

Scope & Content:

ff. 1r–47v: Pierre de Langtoft, Chronicle: opening with a French translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth, De gestis Britonum, ‘Sermo de bruto fit sub dictamine tuto. Culpa datur petro deficiente metro. Deus le tut pussant ke cel et terre creayt …’

ff. 48r–121r: Continuation of Chronicle: Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings to Henry III.

ff. 121r–161r: Life of Edward II.

ff. 161r–162r: Additional laisses concerning Edward II.

Decoration:

Puzzle initials in red and blue with pen-flourishing in the same colours (ff. 1r; 48r: flourishing including a face). Smaller initials in blue with red pen-flourishing. Capitals marked in yellow.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002045942", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 114: Pierre de Langtoft, Chronicle of England in French verse to the beginning of the reign of Edward I (1307)" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002045942

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 114 : Pierre de Langtoft, Chronicle of England in French verse to the beginning of the reign of Edward I (1307)

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0113]/040-002045942

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Anglo-Norman
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1300

End Date:

1349

Date Range:

1st half of the 14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Format: parchment.

Dimensions: 255 × 135 mm (written area 190 × 105 mm).

Foliation: ff. 163, numbered 1–162 (1 unfoliated ruled unwritten leaf after f. 47 + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end).

Collation: i–vi⁸ (ff. 1–47b); vii^8–1 (ff. 48–54; 8th cancelled), viii–xx⁸ (ff. 55–158), xxi^8–4? (ff. 159–162; 5th–8th cancelled?). Catchwords.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. Brown partly mottled calf with blind fillets and floral motif.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

?Johannes Styrton, late 14th century: probably given by him to the Augustinian priory of Ferriby; inscribed, ‘Hic liber in fereby maneat memorando Iohannis Styrton. Et ymago mundy auratus omnibus annis’ (f. 1r).

The Augustinian priory of Ferriby, North (Yorkshire): inscription recording the gift from Johannes Styrton, 14th century (f. 1r; see above).

?Crystofer Aske (or Askew?), 16th century: inscribed with his name (f. 162v).Sir Simonds d'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Wright 1972).

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; in his catalogue (Watson 1966, no. A918).

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.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage: Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), no. 114.

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 87.

The Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft, in French verse from the earliest period to the death of King Edward, ed. by Thomas Wright, 2 vols.(London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1866-68), [an edition of the text].

M. Dominica Legge, Anglo-Norman in the Cloisters: The Influence of the Orders upon Anglo-Norman Literature, Edinburgh University Publications Language and Literature, 2 (Edinburgh: University Press, 1950), p. 115.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, pp. xix-xx.

Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D’Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), no. A918.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 54, 131, 150, 321.

Ruth Dean and Maureen Boulton, Anglo-Norman Literature: a Guide to Texts and Manuscripts (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999), no. 66.

Jean-Claude Thiolier, Edition Critique et Commentee de Pierre de Langtoft: Le Regne d'Edouard Ier (Paris: Univ de Paris XII, 1989), [edition of the text of Harley 114].

Thea Summerfield, The Matter of Kings' Lives: the design of the past and present in the early fourteenth-century verse chronicles by Pierre de Langtoft and Robert Mannyng, (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998), pp. 217-18.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Langtoft, Peter, Augustinian canon and chronicler, d 1305