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Harley MS 541

Record Id:

040-002046370

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046370

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x00002f

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 541

Title:

English miscellany of historical and devotional writings, containing Middle English poems

Scope & Content:

This composite manuscript contains English historical and religious writings, and Middle English poems, that were written in the late 15th century, late 16th century, and early 17th century.

Contents:

ff. 1r-44r: John Davies, Adagia Brittanica; sent to Sir Simonds D’Ewes from Mallwyd in 1641.

ff. 45v-49v: An English prayer, according to a note signed by Simonds D’Ewes it was ‘written by Paul D’Ewes Esquire during Queene Elizabeths reigne & framed as I gather by himselfe’; beginning ‘Let oure prayers o lord come before thy presence like the incense and the lifting up of owr hands’.

ff. 50r-61v: The Life of St Catherine of Vadstena; translated from Laurentius Surius’s De Probatis Sanctorum Historiis: Partim Ex Tomis Aloysii Lipomani; beginning ‘The life of the most blessed Virgine, and Widow, St Catherine daughter to St Brigett, a woeman mutch renowmed in the Church of Christe for her divine revelationes, written with all fidelity by an author not altogether certaynely knowen, and somewhat more compendiouselye for avoydinge of prolixity, itt is sett forth by the religious father Laurence Surius’.

ff. 61r*-118v: John More, Journal of the Transactions of the House of Commons; featuring the date 1640.

ff. 118r-131r: An English treatise entitled ‘Masses and Sacrifice of the Newe Testament Defended Againste a Booke of Erors upon the Petition of a man of Worchester, his verie good frende att thereire meetinge E by T [...] Anno Domini 1606 Louvaine’; preceded by the added note: 'Of Recusants & Some Divinitie Treatises’.

ff. 132r-134v: A letter of intelligence to the States of the United Provinces (in French) advertising them of the King of Spain's designs in Italy and Flanders, dated 20 April 1579; followed by another letter to the deputies of Cologne (in French), dated April 1579.

ff. 135r-137v: An English treatise on the Ten Commandments entitled ‘A heavenly and Spirituall Meditation of a Christian for the godly governing and reforming of our thoughts wordes and deedes respecting god ourselves or others’.

ff. 138r-145r: The Dialoge between the Squire, Proteus, Amphitrite, & Thamesis; written for the Gesta Grayorum, or Gray's Inn Masque, presented to Queen Elizabeth I in 1594.

ff. 146r-163r: Alexander King, Oratio demonstrans Jacobum Scotorum regem totius albionis legitimum futurum monarchum.

f. 164v: A note about Alexander King’s oration before James IV.

ff. 165r-173r: A collection of ‘Certayn Notes, made by me Michaell Lok, the .8. of May: Anno 1576 in London: towching the benefit that may growe to England by the traffique of English Marchants into Russia, through a firme amity betwene both the Princes'.

ff. 174r-182v: John Keymer, Letter to Queen Elizabeth I, ‘A Description of Hollande, with her usuall places of Trade & Traffique; & therin also the subtill practizes of that People, to their owne excedinge advantage, & our dangerous losse’.

ff. 183r-206v: An English poem on the history of the Stanley family, beginning ‘Amonge all delyghtes and most warldlic Comfort’.

f. 207v: An English poem, elsewhere ascribed to Reginal Pecock, beginning ‘Wytte hath wonder how reson telle can’.

f. 207v: A Latin poem, also found in The Vision of Piers Plowman: ‘fides non habet meritum ubi humana racio praebet experimentum’.

f. 208r: An English courtly love lyric, beginning ‘O desireabull dyamunt distinct with diversificacion’.

ff. 208v-209r: An English courtly love lyric, beginning ‘With wooful hert and gret mornyng’.

ff. 209v, 211r-211v: John Lydgate, Dietary, beginning ‘[F]or helth of body from cold kepe thyn hed’.

ff. 210r-210v, 207r-207v: The Lytylle Childrenes Lytil Boke, beginning ‘Lytyll childryn here ye may lere’.

ff. 212r-213r: An English poem on nurture and kind, beginning ‘Goddis gace is redy bothe erly and late’.

ff. 213r-213v, 228r: The ABC of Aristotle, beginning ‘Whoso will be wyse’.

ff. 214r-214v: An English carol for Epiphany, beginning ‘Now ys crystemas ycum / ffadyr and Son to gedyr in oon’.

f. 214v: An English convivial carol, beginning ‘Bryng us home good ale’.

ff. 215r-219v: A list of ‘the namys of the maires and the Sheriffes of londen Sence kynge Richardis dayes’.

ff. 220v-224v: A list of ‘the namys of alle pariche churchis withyn the fraunchise of London’; followed by lists of chapels and anchorholds in London.

f. 224v: A list of ‘the Gates of þe Cytee of London’.

f. 225r: A list with terms of venery (nouns of assembly), beginning ‘A heerde of hertis’.

ff. 225v-226r: A list of ‘þe hallis þat longe to þe Cytee of London’.

f. 227v: A list of ‘All þe Bysshoppis of England’; the dioceses of ‘walys’; and ‘The mayers of englond’.

f. 228v: A prayer to the Virgin to grant sleep, beginning ‘Upon my Ryght syde y me leye blesid lady to the y pray’.

f. 228v: A drawing of the mark of Sir Thomas Frowyk (‘Syr Thomas ffrowyk’), referred to as ‘þe swannes mark’.

f. 228v: A short list of indulgences that can be earned by reciting the rosaries from Syon Abbey, entitled ‘The Pardon of Syon Bedez’.

f. 228v: A Latin quotation of Proverbs 10:19 (‘In multiloquio non deest peccatum’), followed by an English translation attributed to a letter of St James.

ff. 229r-229v: A list of trades in London, beginning ‘Mercers - Grocers - Drapers’).

The manuscript contains a later addition:

f. 138r: Two lines of Middle English verse, ‘O mortall man and wormes meat / Remember Death most be the end’; repeated on f. 145v but crossed out; a complete version is extant in Cambridge, St John’s College, G.28; and on a wall-painting at Guildford, dated to 1570-1580.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046370", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 541: English miscellany of historical and devotional writings, containing Middle English poems" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046370

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 541 : English miscellany of historical and devotional writings, containing Middle English poems

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0541]/040-002046370

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
English, Middle
French
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1475

End Date:

1624

Date Range:

4th quarter of the 15th century-1st quarter of the 17th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 195-210 x 140-160 mm.

Foliation: ff. 61* + 118* + 137* + 229 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); ff. 61* and 118* are paper leaves; 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [iv]recto (bibliographical notes); most leaves have been mounted onto paper guards.

Script: Gothic.

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

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

? Sir Thomas Frowick [Frowyke] (b. 1423, d. 1485), wrote a large part of ff. 215r-229v: his name and merchant’s mark on f. 228v.

‘Julius Feris’, owned ff. 138r-145v in the 16th century: his name incribed on f. 145v: ‘Mr Julyus feris is booke’.

‘Robert Bartelme’, owned ff. 138r-145v in the 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 145v: ‘Robe[rt] Bartelme is my name and with my hend [I wrote] the same’.

John Stow (b. 1524/1525, d. 1605), historian: see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 318.

Ralph Starkey (d. 1628) of Darley Hall in Oulton: his note f. 164; 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 and antiquary (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 131): recorded in his catalogues as A.955c.

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.

John Moore (fl. c. 1640), owned ff. 62r-118v (Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 243):

John Davies (b. c. 1570, 1644), Church of England clergyman and Welsh scholar, wrote ff. 1-44 (Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 125):

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:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), p. 346.

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. 541.

Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: The British Library, 2005), nos 273.55/1, 549/2, 824/18, 995.4/1, 1920/4, 2333/1, 2412.5/1, 3844/1, 4155/3, 4181/6, 4209/1.

Daniel Huws, A Repertory of Welsh Manuscripts and Scribes, c.800-c.1800, 3 vols (Aberystwyth: The National Library of Wales and University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, 2022), I, p. 672.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)