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Harley MS 201

Record Id:

040-002046029

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046029

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x0001aa

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 201

Title:

Robert of Gloucester, Chronicle of English history

Scope & Content:

ff. 4r–161r: Robert of Gloucester, Chronicle of English history in rhyming couplets (metrical chronicle).

Harley MS 201 was used by Thomas Hearne for his edition of Robert of Gloucester's chronicle, since it supplies text missing in British Library, Cotton MS Caligula A XI.

Decoration:

Full bar border and puzzle initial in red and blue (f. 4r). Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing, some large, some small. Plain initials in blue. Line-fillers in red and blue (f. 95v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046029", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 201: Robert of Gloucester, Chronicle of English history" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046029

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 201 : Robert of Gloucester, Chronicle of English history

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0200]/040-002046029

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English, Middle

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1400

End Date:

1424

Date Range:

1st quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Dimensions: 190 × 135 mm (written area 150 × 95 mm).

Foliation: ff. i + 162 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning and 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end). 1 blank parchment leaf after f. 3; f. 31 has been misbound, which should precede f. 30.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum, rebound 1951.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Thomas Smythe: his name written in the 16th century (f. 3).

Wylliam Frybayke: his 16th-century ownership inscription (f. 19v).

Thomas Hache: his name written in the 16th century (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 (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:

Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle: Transcrib'd and now first Publish'd from a Manuscript in the Harleyan Library, edited by Thomas Hearne, 2 vols (Oxford: Printed at the Theater, 1724) [an edition of Harley MS 201].

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), no. 201.

The Metrical Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester ed. by William Aldis Wright, Rolls Series 86, 2 vols (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1887), I, p. xli.

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. 131, 158, 176, 308.

Edward Donald Kennedy, XII: Chronicles and Other Historical Writing, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, ed. by Albert E. Hartung, 8 (New Haven: Archon Books, 1989), p. 2798.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Robert of Gloucester, chronicler, fl 1260-1300