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Harley MS 431

Record Id:

040-002046259

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046259

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x000350

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 431

Title:

Collection of papers and letters from the circle of John Prophete

Scope & Content:

ff. 1r-124r: Collection of letters and historical documents from the circle of John Prophete [Prophet] (b. 1356, d. 1416), Secretary to King Henry VI, Keeper of the Privy Seal and Dean of Hereford and York.

The collection's materials are concerned largely with resolving the Schism, especially with English preparations for the Council of Pisa (1409) during the reign of Henry IV (r. 1399-1413). The collection contains copies of letters by Henry IV, and documents relating to Pope Gregory XII and antipope Benedict XII. It also contains various other items, including letters concerning the marriage of Henry, Prince of Wales, and Catherine of Valois; letters by John (b. 1340, d. 1416), Duke of Berry; John Prophete; Gilbert Stone (d. 1417); and Henry V (r. 1413-1422). It also contains documents such as a set of questions on the marriage between Richard II and Isabella of Valois, the Treaty of Troyes (1420), and a treaty between Henry IV and Rupert, King of the Romans, for the marriage of the former's daughter, Blanche, and the latter's son, Louis in 1402.

For a detailed list of 150 items, see A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts (1808), I, pp. 251-56.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046259", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 431: Collection of papers and letters from the circle of John Prophete" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046259

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 431 : Collection of papers and letters from the circle of John Prophete

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0430]/040-002046259

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1400

End Date:

1449

Date Range:

1st half of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper; parchment (f. 124 only).

Dimensions: 300 x 225 mm (text space: 230 x 155 mm).

Foliation: ff. 124 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + at the end); f. 124 is a parchment pastedown on a blank modern paper leaf; 1 unfoliated paper pastedowon on f. [iv]recto (bibliographical notes) and 1 on f. [125]verso (conservation notes).

Collation: Each quire has been bound separately onto a paper guard.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house; brown half leather with the Harleian arms gold stamped on the outside covers; re-bound in 1972.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

An unknown early modern owner: their crossed out ownership inscriptions in the upper margin of f. 1r, where the inscription 'Vol. VI' remains, indicating that it was part of a set of manuscripts.

John Strype (b. 1643, d. 1737), historian and biographer, owned until 1709: obtained the manuscript from John Foxe; purchased from him by Humfrey Wanley for the Harleian Library (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 321).

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.

Publications:

David Wilkins, Concilia magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae a Synodo Verolamensi anno 446 ad Londinensem 1717, 4 vols (1737), III, pp. 284-86 [ff. 8r-9r]; pp. 292-96 [ff. 27r-27v].

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), pp. 251-55.

Francis Charles Hingeston, Royal and Historical Letters During the Reign of Henry the Fourth, King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, 2 vols, Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores, 18 (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1860), I: AD. 1399-1404: pp. 21-22 [f. 10v]; 101-03 [f. 10r]; II: AD. 1405-1413, pp. 328-32 [f. 105v]

Deutsche Reichstagsakten, Ältere Reihe, 5: Unter König Ruprecht, Zweite Abtheilung: 1401-1405 (Gotha: Perthes, 1885), pp. 338-41 [f. 122v-123r].

Deutsche Reichstagsakten, Ältere Reihe, 6: Unter König Ruprecht, Dritte Abtheilung: 1406-1410 (Gotha: Perthes, 1888), pp. 276-77 [f. 16r]; pp. 277-79 [ff. 16v-18r].

Andrew George Little, The Grey Friars in Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press for the Oxford Historical Society, 1892) [f. 100v]

Edouard Perroy, L'Angleterre et le Grand Schisme d'Occident. Étude sur la politique religieuse de l'Angleterre sous Richard II (1378-1399) (Paris: Monnier, 1933) [f. 5r].

Herbert Edward Salter, William Abel Pantin, and Henry Gerald Richardson, Formularies Which Bear on the History of Oxford, c. 1204-1420, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1942), I, pp. 189-91 [f. 114v].

Edmond Martène and Ursin Durand, Veterum scriptorum et monumentorum historicorum, dogmaticorum, moralium, amplissima collectio, 9 vols, Essays in History, Economics & Social Science, 26; Burt Franklin Research & Source Works Series, 276 (New York, NY: Franklin, 1968), VII: Complectens varia concilia, episcoporum statuta synodalia, pp. 721-23 [ff. 9r-9v]

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. 321.

Charity Scott Stokes, 'Sir John Oldcastle, the Office of the Privy Seal, and Thomas Hoccleve's ‘Remonstrance Against Oldcastle’ of 1415', Anglia, 118:4 (2007), 556-70.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England