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Harley MS 436
- Record Id:
- 040-002046264
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046264
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x000395
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165168727.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 436
- Title:
- Cartulary of Wilton Abbey
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1*r-v: a letter in the hand of George Hickes (b. 1642, d. 1715), bishop and antiquary, addressed to Humfrey Wanley (b. 1672, d. 1726), recording his gift of the manuscript to Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724).
f. 2*r: a note concerning the ownership of the manuscript by the Earl of Pembroke in 1658.
f. 3*r: a parchment fragment, inscribed with a note in a 16th-century hand, 'Diuers olde graunts made before The Conquest and some since written in the Saxon and latyne tonge'.
ff. 1r–91v: Cartulary of Wilton Abbey, with copies of approximately 36 royal and other charters granted to the Benedictine nunnery of Wilton, Wiltshire. The volume opens with a copy of a charter dated 948 concerning 10 hides of land in Knoyle, Wiltshire, granted by King Eadred (c. 923–955). Most of the charters date to the 10th century; the latest is dated the 10th year of King John, i.e. 1208/9 (ff. 28v–29v).
ff. 2*v and 3*v are blank.
Decoration:
Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing. Plain initials in red or blue, some large, some small. Rubrics in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Women - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046264", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 436: Cartulary of Wilton Abbey" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046264 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 436 : Cartulary of Wilton Abbey - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0435]/040-002046264
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165168727.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Old
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1230
- End Date:
- 1270
- Date Range:
- Middle of the 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 270 × 185 mm (written area 170 × 100 mm).
Foliation: ff. 3* + 91 (+ 4 unfoliated flyleaves at the beginning and 5 at the end); 1* is a modern paper letter mounted on a paper flyleaf; f. 2* is a paper note mounted on a paper flyleaf; f. 3* is a parchment fragment mounted on a paper flyleaf; ff. 81–83 are misbound (f. 81 should precede f. 83).
Script: Gothic, written below top line.
Binding: British Museum in-house (1876). Brown leather binding, with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Abbey of St Mary the Virgin and St Edith, of Benedictine nuns, Wilton, England.
Provenance:
The Herbert family, earls of Pembroke: most likely came into its posession at the dissolution of the monasteries; owned by Philip Herbert, 5th earl of Pembroke in 1658 (note, f. 2*r), and Thomas Herbert, the 8th earl in 1695.
George Hickes (b. 1642, d. 1715), bishop of the nonjuring Church of England and antiquary: inscribed, 'Liber Georgii Hickesii S.T.P.' (f. 1r); letter in his hand to Humfrey Wanley recording the gift of the manuscript to Robert Harley (f. 1*r).
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:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808–12), I (1808), no. 436.
William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. by John Caley, Henry Ellis, and Buckeley Bandinel, 6 in 8 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1817–30), ii (1819), p. 318.
Registrum Wiltunense, Saxonicum et Latinum, in Museo Britannico asservatum, ab anno Regis Alfredi 892, ad annum Regis Eadwardi 1045, ed. by Richard Colt Hoare (London: Nichols, 1827), pp. 1-50 [edition].
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. 187, 189, 355.
Margaret Laing, Catalogue of sources for a linguistic atlas of early medieval English (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 1993), p. 88.
G.R.C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. by Claire Breay, Julian Harrison, and David M. Smith, 2nd edn (London: British Library, 2010), no. 1035.
Rebecca Rushforth, The Charters of Wilton Abbey, Anglo-Saxon Charters (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)