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Harley MS 200

Record Id:

040-002046028

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046028

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x0001a9

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 200

Title:

Robert of Avesbury, Chronicles; Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita sancti Edwardi regis

Scope & Content:

Composite volume, with booklets consisting of f. 2 (late 15th century); ff. 4–147 (mid 15th century); and ff. 150–207 (first half of the 13th century), bound together with additions by Symonds D’Ewes.

f. 2r: Full page miniature, 185 × 110 mm, in colours and gold of a coronation, with the heir to the French throne receiving his crown, robe, helm, sword and shield, with mounted knights in the lower border. The miniature is attributable to the Master of the Chronique scandaleuse, an artist active in Paris between 1493 and 1510. It is now framed by two strips of parchment at top and bottom. An inscription added in the upper margin of its verso by Humphrey Wanley reads 'Belongs to 36 B 2' (f. 2v). The miniature was probably inserted in the early 18th century by Wanley. f. 1v bears the red ink offprint of the title page (f. 3r), written by Symonds D'Ewes on what was then its facing leaf in an original blank bifolium.

ff. 4r–79v: Robert of Avesbury, Brut chronicle to 1332 with the prologue known as 'Grantz Geauntz' (ff. 4r–6r), imperfect at the end.

f. 79v–139v: Robert de Avesbury, De gestis mirabilibus regis Edwardi III.

ff. 140r–147v: Added notes on the kings of France, including a genealogical diagram (f. 146v).

ff. 150r–207v: Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita sancti Edwardi regis et confessoris, imperfect, the final leaf supplied by D'Ewes (f. 208r).

Decoration:

ff. 4r–147v: Initials, rubrics and paraphs in red. Small initials highlighted in red. Added genealogical diagram in red and brown ink of the kings of France and England (f. 146v).

ff. 150r–207v: Initial in blue with pen-flourished decoration in red (f. 152r). Plain initials in red or blue, alternating. Rubrics in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046028", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 200: Robert of Avesbury, Chronicles; Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita sancti Edwardi regis" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046028

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 200 : Robert of Avesbury, Chronicles; Aelred of Rievaulx, Vita sancti Edwardi regis

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0199]/040-002046028

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French, Old
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1200

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

1st half of the 13th century-Late 15th century

Era:

Access:

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Physical Characteristics:

Dimensions: 200 × 130 mm.

Foliation: ff. 1* + 208 (ff. 1* and 3 are original flyleaves; ff. 148-149 are Simonds D'Ewes's additions; + 3 unfoliated modern paper and 2 parchment flyleaves at the beginning, one unfoliated parchment and 3 modern paper at the end, and 16 unfoliated parchment blanks after f. 139).

Collation: ff. 4-139: gatherings of 8, with horizontal catchwords in simple penwork frames in the lower right corner of the last verso of gatherings.

Script: Gothic cursive (ff. 4r–147v); Gothic, written above top line (ff. 150r–207v).

Binding: British Library in-house; rebound in 1975.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

John Tyson, 15th century: inscribed with his name (f. 141).

John Dee (b. 1527, d. 1609), mathematician, astrologer, and antiquary: a heading in his hand, 'Robertus de Avesbury' (f. 80); his 'Jupiter-sign' mark, signature and the date 1574 (f. 150); his notes passim; ff. 150-207 listed as MS. 69 in his 1583 catalogue (see James 1921; Roberts and Watson 1990).

Sir Simonds d'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton: acquired from Dee's estate in 1626 (see Watson 1966; Roberts and Watson 1990); inscribed, 'Simonds D'Ewes, Febru. 14, 1626' (ff. 1v, 148v, 208v); his inscriptions in Hebrew and Greek (ff. 1v, 148v); his title pages in colours (ff. 3, 149); his integration of missing text at the end of the Life of Edward the Confessor on an added leaf (f. 208).

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 (see Watson 1966).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 available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.

Publications:

Edward Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ in unum collecti, cum indice alphabetico, 3 vols (Oxford: Sheldonian, 1697), II, p. 388, no. 10035.

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), no. 200.

The Palaeographic Society: Facsimiles of Manuscripts and Inscriptions, Second series, ed. by Edward Augustus Bond, Edward Maunde Thompson, and George Frederic Warner (London: Cloves and Sons, 1884-1894), II, pl. 202 [bound as no. 50]

Adae Murimuth, Continuatio Chronicorum Robertus de Avesbury de Gestis mirabilis Regis Edwardi Tertii (London: Rolls Series, 1889), pp. xxiii-xxv.

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. 22.

Montague R. James, Lists of manuscripts formerly owned by Dr John Dee, with preface and identifications, Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, Supplement, no. 1 (London: Oxford University Press for the Bibliographical Society, 1921), p. 23 as Fr. 69 [ff. 149-207].

Des Grantz Geant: An Anglo-Norman Poem, ed. by Georgina E. Brereton, Medium Aevum Monographs, 2 (Oxford, Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature, 1937), p. vii.

Andrew G. Watson, 'An Identification of some Manuscripts owned by Dr. John Dee and Sir Simonds D'Ewes', The Library, 5th series, 13 (1958), 194-98 (p. 195 no. 1).

Anselm Hoste, Bibliotheca Aelrediana: A Survey of the Manuscripts, Old Catalogues, Editions and Studies concerning St. Aelred of Rievaulx, Instrumenta Patristica, 2 (Steenbrugis: Abbey of Saint Peter, 1962), p. 124.

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. xviii-xix.

Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), nos. E49 (ff. 149-208), E52 (ff. 4-79v), E53 (ff. 79v-147), B175, and p. 84 n. 127.

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. 126-27, 131, 334.

Sheila Strongman, 'John Parker's Manuscripts: An Edition of the Lists in Lambeth Palace Ms 737', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 7 (1977), 1-27 (p. 9).

John Dee's Library Catalogue, ed. by R. Julian Roberts and Andrew G. Watson (London: Bibliographical Society, 1990), pp. 118, 165, nos. M69 and DM46.

Diana B.Tyson, 'Handlist of Manuscripts Containing the French Prose Brut Chronicle', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 48 (1994), 333-44 (p. 338).

Lister M. Matheson, The Prose Brut: The Development of a Middle English Chronicle, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 180 (Tempe, Arizona: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1998), pp. xix, 34.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Aelred of Rievaulx, Saint, Abbot of Rievaulx, ?1110-1167,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000116245633,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/39386818
Robert of Avesbury, d 1360