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Harley MS 486

Record Id:

040-002046314

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046314

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x0003c7

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 486

Title:

English miscellany of historical papers; an alchemical poem; copies from testaments; rentals; a tract on fasting; notes of a sermon

Scope & Content:

Contents:

f. 1v: Ex Fastis Idatianis ab exordio Neronis usque ad Aurelianum.

ff. 2r-10v: Descriptio consulum ex quo primum ordinati sunt; followed by another list of Roman consuls ‘Ex Fastis Idatij’.

ff. 11r-15r: Historical notes about England, partially in the hand of John Stow, beginning ‘Carthusian monkys in England houses .9. thre in the wood, thre in the fild (where of coventerey was one) and thre in the towns’.

f. 16r: Three stanzas of an alchemical poem, the first one reads: ‘The hed of þe crow þat token calle we / and some men calle it þe crowes bill / some calle it þe ashen of hermes tree / and thus they name it aftar ther will / our tode of þe erthe which etythe his p[er]yll / some namythe it by whiche is mortyfycat / þe sprit with venome intoxicate’; the remaining part is item 24 in Harley MS 367.

ff. 17r-19v, 21r-22v: Historical notes related to churches, beginning ‘Many defaced monuments’; includes the epitaph of Thomas Tusser (b. 1524, d. 1580), in St Mildred in the Poultry; names of those buried in other churches.

ff. 20r-20v: A copy of a chronicle concerning the years 1482-1484, beginning ‘This yere þe scotis began a sugre [sic], agaynst whome kynge Edward sent þe duke of Glocester, and dyvars othar, which retournyd agayne with out eny notable battayll’.

f. 23r: A printed notice concerning the rebuilding of Ludgate and the placing of statues of King Lud and Queen Elizabeth in 1586, ‘King Lud before Christ 66. and the Cityzens after Christ 1586 yeres, buylded this Gate. Regni Elizabeth 28. Sir Vlstan Dixie Maior, Anthony Radclif, Henry Pranell Shyriffes’.

f. 24r: A poem for Stephen Foster (fl. 1454), Lord Mayor of London, beginning ‘Devout sowles that pas this way / for steven fostar Late maior hartely ȝe praye / and dame angnis his spouses to god consecrate / that of ptie they have made for londoners in ludgate / so that for loginge and water pisoners here nought pay / as theyr [k]epers will aunswere at dredefull domes day’.

ff. 24r-34v: Copies from testaments dated between 1434 and 1513; e.g. Horys Barton (1434) who requests ‘to be buryed in þe Charnell ex parte australi in sidam capelle supra le Charnell gilt or fratarnitie corpus christi’.

ff. 35r-38v: Miscellaneous historical notes, including citations from Eusebius and Plutarch; notes about the foundations of schools, the coat of arms at Waltham Cross, Bletchingley Castle.

ff. 39r-46v: Copies from rentals, dated to the 14th and 15th century, but opening with ‘a dreme’ dated to 18 October 1592; and including other historical notes.

ff. 47r-53r: An early 16th-century account book, recording payments from various villages.

ff. 54r-65r: Sir Simonds D’Ewes, diary entries and payments for April to December 1621.

ff. 66r-79v: Notes related to the history of England, beginning ‘Honorius þe fyrst pope of þat name gave to þe universitie of Cambridge manye exemptions’.

ff. 80r-81v: Ralph Starkey, A tract on fasting (‘Off ffastynge’), beginning ‘In the Catholyck Chorche of England we allow .3. of fastinge, Morall, Civill, & Relligeous’.

ff. 82r-82v: The Ordre of Estates of the Bloud Royall, beginning on f. 82v: ‘A Dukes eldest Sonne and heire being of the bloud Royall shall got or besett before a Marquis / And if he be not of the bloud Royall he shalbe set above an Earle’.

ff. 83r-83v: Notes of a sermon by 'Mr Houlesworth' on 2 Tim. 2:11.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046314", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 486: English miscellany of historical papers; an alchemical poem; copies from testaments; rentals; a tract on fasting; notes of a sermon" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046314

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 486 : English miscellany of historical papers; an alchemical poem; copies from testaments; rentals; a tract on fasting; notes of a sermon

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0485]/040-002046314

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
English, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1500

End Date:

1699

Date Range:

first quarter of the 16th century-first quarter of the 17th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 140-150 x 100-110 mm.

Foliation: ff. 83 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + at the end); each leaf has been mounted onto a paper guard.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. British Museum in-house.

Custodial History:

Origin: England.

Provenance:

John Stow (b. 1524/1525, d. 1605), historian, wrote ff. 11r-46v: written in his hand (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 318).

Ralph Starkey (d. 1628) of Darley Hall in Oulton, wrote ff. 80r-81v: acquired from him in 1628 by Sir Simonds D’Ewes (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 314).

Sir Simonds D’Ewes (b. 1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 131): wrote ff. 54-65 and f. 82v; recorded in his catalogues A.450.iii.

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.

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), 3372.8/1.

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), p. 326.

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. 380.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)