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Harley MS 326
- Record Id:
- 040-002046154
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046154
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x000297
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100162065774.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 326
- Title:
- Chronicle from Rollo to Edward IV; Romance of the Three Kings' Sons
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-7r: Chronicle from Rollo to Edward IV (Edward IV's descent from Rollo). For an edition of the text, see Radulescu 2003. Rubric (f. 1r): 'Here be gynnyt the petegreu of þe kyng þt now ys'. Incipit (f. 1r): 'This breff tretis is compyled for to bryng The peple oute of doute þt have nat herd of þe cronycles and of þe lyneall discence unto the crownes of Inglonde and of fraunce. off Castyle. And of legeons'. Imperfect: the text stops short with less than a sentence remaining, just before the bottom of the page. Explicit (f. 7r): 'And philypp þe sone of charles valois broþer unto philypp le bele / And uncle unto þe sayd kyng charles & cossyn unto hym In the therd degre usurped unlaufully for to regne and putt þe sayde Edward'. Some notes and corrections in an early 16th-century hand, perhaps the same who inscribed f. 1r with the date 1534.
ff. 8r-123v: Romance of the Three Kings' Sons, a Middle English translation of the French Les Trois Fils du Rois, itself copied in Burgundy in 1463 by David Aubert, who may have been the author (see Ward 1883, Scott 1996). For an edition of the text based on this unique manuscript, see The Three Kings' Sons 1895. Incipit (f. 8r): 'Aftre the crucifiyng of oure lord Ihesu crist and that the holy cristen feith was magnified and augmented in all the Reaumes that at this day be cristened and that were founde in oure holy feith by the Apostells and aftir by the holy doctoures'. Explicit (f. 123v): 'Thus endith this Boke whiche hath ben translated with peyne for the length of tyme sith all thise thinges felle. and undir the Boke was writen'. Colophon (in humanist script, f. 123v): 'Si fortuna tonat, caveto mergi. / Si fortuna iuvat, caveto tolli'. A corrector has made some cancellations in red. A few later notes in English, added on ff. 8r-10r, primarily concern names.
Decoration:
4 half-page miniatures in colours and gold (ff. 8r, 9r, 13v, 29v). 18 smaller miniatures in colours and gold (ff. 40r, 45v, 67v, 77r, 88v, 90r, 96v, 98v, 99v, 102r, 105v, 106v, 107v, 108v, 109v, 113r, 117v, 120v ). 1 large initial in colours and gold with acanthus motifs (f. 8r). Large champ initials. Paraphs in red or blue. This manuscript is the only fifteenth-century illuminated manuscript of a romance in English to survive, according to Sutton and Visser-Fuchs 1997. The same artist painted the miniatures in London, Lambeth Palace MS 265, dated by its scribe to 1477 (according to Scott 1996, no. 125). Folios 1-7 (the Chronicle from Rollo to Edward IV) are not illuminated, but have red in the rubric, small initial (f. 1r), and highlighting of some capitals.
The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:
f. 9r: The marriage of Alfour, King of Sicily, and Princess Sybil of Spain;
f. 13v: Prince Philip leaving Paris secretly to aid the King of Sicily;
f. 29v: A Christian fleet approaching the port of Graeta, which is defended by archers;
f. 40r: A storm destroys the Christian fleet, with an army on shore;
f. 67v: The Turkish army on horseback, withdraw from a siege of a walled city in Sicily;
f. 77r (three-part): Philip of France brought before Ferrant the Turk (left), led to the gallows (centre); the Sicilians rescue him (foreground);
f. 88v: Kings, bishops and noblemen assemble after the death of the Emperor (left); messengers bring a letter to the King of Sicily;
f. 90r: The Turkish army leave a Sicilian city, with their equipment in carts;
f. 96v: The three princes, Philip, Humphrey and David take leave of Duke Ferant;
f. 98v (two-part): The Emperor with his retinue on his way to Rome is received by kneeling nobles (left); the coronation of the Emperor at Milan, with the Pope and five cardinals present (right);
f. 99v: (three-part) ?Prince Philip rides to ?his uncle, Duke of Burgundy(right), kneels before him and is embraced (left);
f. 102r: Prince Humphrey learns of his father’s illness while out riding with noblemen through a city with half-timbered houses; his father is shown ill in bed through a window on the right;
f. 105v (two part): A king receives messengers from Prince David (right); Prince David arrives home with companions on horseback; in the background a man gives alms to beggars;
f. 106v: King David of Scotland is met by the Emperor of Sicily and shakes his hand;
f. 107v: The Emperor of Sicily and King David greet Sultan Orcays;
f. 108v: The Emperor of Sicily, the Sultan and King David greeting King Humprey of England;
f. 109v: King Philip is greeted by the Emperor, the Sultan and the two kings;
f. 113r: The tournament held for the hand of Iolante, daughter of the Emperor; she and her ladies watch from a pavilion, with the Emperor, Sultan and kings, and with musicians;
f. 117v (two-part): The marriage of Philip of France to Iolante and the ?coronation of Iolante;
f. 120v: Philip and Iolante process on horseback with the Emperor; churchmen kneel and bless them.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046154", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 326: Chronicle from Rollo to Edward IV; Romance of the Three Kings' Sons" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046154 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 326 : Chronicle from Rollo to Edward IV; Romance of the Three Kings' Sons - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0325]/040-002046154
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?index=0&ref=Harley_MS_326 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1470
- End Date:
- 1490
- Date Range:
- c 1475-c 1485
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper (ff. 1-7) and parchment (ff. 8-123).
Dimensions: ff. 1-7: smaller (190 x 125 mm) paper leaves pasted onto larger (235 x 175 mm) paper leaves (ff. 1-6) and a parchment leaf (f. 7) to accommodate the larger binding (text space: 180 x 115 mm); ff. 8-123: 235 x 175 mm (text space: 220 x 145 mm).
Foliation: ff. 123 (+ 6 unfoliated parchment flyleaves: 3 at the beginning (ff. [i-iii]) and 3 at the end (ff. [124-126]).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600 brown leather binding with the gold-tooled arms of Sir Simonds D'Ewes in the centre of the upper and lower covers; gilt edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England (probably London).
Provenance:
Inscribed with the date, 1534: 'Anno domini 1534' (f. 1r).
Inscribed, 17th century?: 'by faith we pleas the lord / by faith we are set free. by faith we worke the will of god. faith will not idell bee'.
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: old British Museum press mark: '38. A. 6' (f. [ii recto]).
- Administrative Context:
- England (probably London).
- Information About Copies:
-
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-1812), I, p. 200 (no. 326).
H. L. D. Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I (1883), pp. 782-83.
The Three Kings' Sons, ed. by F. J. Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 67 (London: Early English Text Society, 1895).
The Buik of Alexander, ed. by Robert Lindsay Graeme Ritchie, Scottish Text Society, 4 vols (Edinburgh: Scottish Text Society, 1925), I, p. xliv n. 6.
Eric. G. Millar, English Illuminated Manuscripts of the XIVth and XVth Century (Paris: Van Oest, 1928), p. 93.
Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), p. 125.
A Manual of the Writings in Middle-English 1050-1500, ed. by J. Burke Severs, 4 vols (New Haven: The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1967-73), I, pp. 163, 321.
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. 131.
Henry Grinberg, 'The Three Kings' Sons and Les Trois Fils du Rois: Manuscript and Textual Filiation in an Anglo-Burgundian Romance,' Romance Philology, 28 (1975), 521-29.
Carol Meale, 'Patrons, Buyers and Owners: Book Production and Social Status', in Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375-1475, ed. by Jeremy Griffiths and Derek Pearsall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 201-38 (p. 212, pls 19, 20).
Kathleen L. Scott, ‘Design, Decoration and Illustration’, in Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375-1475 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 31-64 (p. 58 n. 37).
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), no. 124.
Anne F. Sutton and Livia Visser-Fuchs, Richard III’s Books: Ideals and Reality in the Life and Library of a Medieval Prince (Stroud, Gloucestershire, Sutton, 1997), p. 239, fig. 74.
Pamela Porter, Medieval Warfare in Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2000), p. 33.
Pamela Porter, Courtly Love in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2003), p. 16.
Raluca Radulescu, 'Yorkist Propaganda and "The Chronicle from Rollo to Edward IV"', Studies in Philology, 100 (2003), pp. 401-24.
Jane Roberts, Guide to Scripts used in English Writings up to 1500 (London: British Library, 2005), p. 247.
Joe Flatman, Ships and Shipping in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2009), pls 92, 93.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)