Harley MS 246

Contents:

f. 1*recto: A brief chronicle of the history of the world in Latin, beginning with an entry for Pope Gregory the Great, who first called himself the ‘servant of the servants of God’ (dated to 592); the source for this information is identified as a chronicle printed at Antwerp by Johannes Grapheus [‘In Historiarum et Chronicarum Epitome Antuerp: vendit. Typis Johannis Graphaei’] and ending with an entry for Johann Fust, who financed Johannes Gutenberg and is here identified as the inventor of printing (dated to 1452).

ff. 1r-4r: A collection of historical notes in Latin from ‘an old manuscript of Matthew Paris that is in the hands of Sir Robert Cotton, esquire’ (‘ex vetusti manuscripto mathei parisiensis existent in manibus domini Roberti Cotton militis’), beginning with the ‘Testamentum Fretherici’ with a coat of arms: Or, an inverted double-headed eagle sable and the Magna Carta, with a drawing of the sealed document. This manuscript, Cotton MS Nero D I, contains Matthew Paris’s Liber additamentorum.

f. 5r: Excerpts on the ‘Descente of Dignity’, followed by other notes in English on peerage.

ff. 6v-12v: Names and coats of arms (10 per page, tricked in pencil) of the captains, noblemen and knights, who accompanied Edward III at the Battle of Calais in 1350: ‘Herafter ensue the Names and Armes of the pryncipall Captaynes, as well Nobles, as knights, which were with kinge Edwarde the Thirde, at the Siege of Callys, the 20. yeare of his Raigne’; with a note (f. 6v) on the meaning of ‘Hobbeliers’ [Hobblers] who would ride (on ‘Hobbyes or nagges’) from town to town to warn their inhabitants of impending danger taken from William Lambard's Perambulation of Kent (1576).

ff. 12v-13v: ‘The Nombers of Shippes and maryners that served kinge Edward .3. in these wars’.

f. 14r: ‘Rates of wages by the daye in this voyage’.

f. 14v: ‘The Names of greate Prynces and Noblemen Strangers holden in the Kings retenue and paye, not beinge impressed in the the Nomber aforesayde, for this voyage’.

f. 14v: The sum of the expenses paid by King Edward III for his wars in France ‘As appeareth in the Accompte of William Norwell Keeper of the kings warderobe ffrom the .21. day of Aprill in the .18. yeare of his Raigne unto the .25. daye of November in the .21. yeare of the saide Kings Raigne’.

ff. 15r-21v: A collection of coats of arms (16 per page, tricked in brown ink in pre-printed grids and shields) with historical notes copied from Cotton MS Nero D I, entitled: ‘Ista insignia subsequentia desumpta fuerunt ex quodam pervetusto Manuscripto Mathei Paris, jam existente in manibus Domini Roberti Cotton de Conington Militis. Horum (Insigniorum) Antiquitas fuit a Tempore Henrici III’.

f. 22r: Coats of arms of the kingdoms of the Heptarchy, taken 'ffrom Mr Speede by a later note from Mr Ferrers'.

ff. 22v-43v: Coats of arms of earls, barons, and counties copied in 1607 from an old armorial roll owned by Sir Richard St George (b. c.1550, d. 1635): 'Transcriptum cujusdam vetusti Rotuli temporis Henrici III in manibus Ricardi St George Norroy Anno Domini 1607'.

f. 44r: Coats of arms of Prester John, the City of Jerusalem, Three Magi (Melchior [‘ffirst kinge of Collogne’], Balthazar, and Caspar), Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of Constantinople, King of England, King of France, King of the ‘Romaines’, and the King of Hungary.

ff. 45r-66r: Coats of arms (16 per page, tricked in brown ink in pre-printed grids and shields) copied from a book of the Visitation of regions to the North of the river Trent [‘Insignia generosorum Borealin.’] by Sir Marmaduke Constable: ‘The Coate Armour of the nobility and Contry from Trent Northwarde Coppied out of an Oulde Rowle of the visitation of that Province. By Sir Marmaduke Constable .1588.'.

ff. 67r-72v: Coats of arms (16 per page, tricked in brown ink in pre-printed grids and shields) of the nobility of the county of Derbyshire: ‘Armes of the Gentillmen of Darbyshiere’; beginning with the achievement of William Stanley (b. 1561, d. 1642), 6th Earl of Derby, dated to 1596.

ff. 73r-88v: Coats of arms (16 per page, tricked in brown ink in pre-printed grids and shields) of the county of Cheshire: 'Insignia Generosorum Comitatus Palatini Cestriae Alphabetico modo'.

ff. 89r-107r: Unused printed grids with 16 shields in brown ink on rectos; with the exception of the shield in the upper left corner on f. 106r to which four hands (one of which is a crest) have been added in pencil.

f. 108r: Collection of Latin sayings on virtue and true nobility.

f. 109r: ‘The Nobility of Englande ranked accordinge to their degrees and creations’.

f. 109v: ‘The order of Nobles and other estats as they were ranked in the tyme of Kinge Henry the .6.’.

f. 110r: ‘The Surnames of the Nobility of Englande’.

The manuscript contains a few additions:

f. 1*recto: A paper pastedown with the inscription: ‘Qui auget scientiam, auget et dolorem’.

f. 44v: A paper pastedown of a snippet from a letter in English: ‘that I am in good health, I thanke god and with’.

Decoration:

Coats of arms drawn in brown ink or pencil in pre-prepared grids with shields throughout the manuscript. The coat of arms of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, in colours (yellow) and a drawing of Magna Carta in colours on f. r. Rubrics in red.