Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Harley MS 435
- Record Id:
- 040-002046263
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046263
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x000394
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 435
- Title:
- William of Nassyngton, Speculum Vitae
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-102r: William of Nassyngton, Speculum Vitae, imperfect at the beginning; ending with the verse ‘Sit tibi laus cristi quod liber explicit Iste’.
The manuscript contains later additions:
ff. 6r-6v, 50r-50v, and 59r-59v: 16th-century copies of the Speculum Vitae replacing missing text.
f. 102v: Latin sayings, partially legible: ‘Dum sumus in mundo vivamus corde jocundo’, added in the (?) 15th century.
Decoration:
Medium red initials.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046263", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 435: William of Nassyngton, Speculum Vitae" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046263 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 435 : William of Nassyngton, Speculum Vitae - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0434]/040-002046263
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1445
- End Date:
- 1455
- Date Range:
- c 1450
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment and paper.
Dimensions: 270 x 205 mm.
Foliation: ff. 1* + 47* + 102 (+ 6 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); f. 1* originally was a paper flyleaf; f. 47* is a parchment leaf; ff. 6, 50 and 59 are paper leaves that have been substituted to replace lost parchment folios; a loose paper with a 19th- or 20th-century note about the foliation between f. 74 and f. 75.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. British Museum in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
An unknown 16th-century owner: added paper leaves to replace the loss of ff. 6, 50 and 59; made additions throughout the manuscript; perhaps also added the drawings (including human faces and a rose) on f. 102r.
‘Micheall [P]a[r]y[s]’, owned in the 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 102v.
An unknown 16th or 17th century owner: added a (?) bookplate (a heart surrounded by four six-pointed stars and with a crown above it, in red ink).
John Strype (b. 1643, d. 1737), historian and biographer: owned until 1711; purchased from him by Edward Harley (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:
-
Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: The British Library, 2005), no. 245/21.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), p. 311.
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. 379.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- William of Nassington [Nassyngton], d 1354